Omarosa airs tapes on ‘Meet the Press,’ says Trump has ‘mentally declined’ Presented by Amazon

DRIVING THE DAY

CHUCK TODD played a tape on NBC’S “MEET THE PRESS” that appears to have CHIEF OF STAFF JOHN KELLY firing Omarosa Manigault Newman. This is allegedly from the situation room in the White House. Again, let that sink in. An adviser to the president brought a recording device into the situation room to record the chief of staff. 20-second video

-- OMAROSA first spoke to Kelly when he was firing her, according to a tape of their conversation aired on “Meet the Press.” Watch this video, which has Kelly saying that he wanted the departure to be friendly, so there would be no damage to her reputation. Video

-- QUOTE OF THE MORNING … OMAROSA to Chuck: “Being used by Donald Trump for so long, I was like the frog in the hot water. You don’t know that you’re in that situation until it just keeps bubbling and bubbling. … I will say this to you: I was complicit with this White House deceiving this nation. They continue to deceive this nation by how mentally declined he is, how difficult it is for him to process complex information, how he is not engaged in some of the most important decisions that impact our country.” 1:41 video

KELLYANNE CONWAY responds to OMAROSA’s book, speaking to JON KARL on ABC’S “THIS WEEK”: “The first time I ever heard Omarosa suggest those awful things about this president are in this book. And I think that Omarosa unfortunately has undercut her own credibility. Whether it’s in the NPR interview confuting a very central fact in the book that she had never heard those alleged tapes and then she said the tapes really changed it for me.

“And this is somebody who gave a glowing him glowing appraisal of Donald Trump the businessman, the star of the ‘The Apprentice,’ the candidate and indeed, the president of the United States. She told your network, Jon, ABC News the day after she was fired from the White House she resigned, now she’s saying she was fired, she -- that Donald Trump is not a racist, she said she never heard him use the N-word.”

KELLYANNE to MARTHA MCCALLUM on “FOX NEWS SUNDAY”: “Whether it’s 30 pieces of silver, or a seven-figure book advance for you, your publicist, your ghost writers and others, all that’s changed is this book deal and her being fired so I think he probably feels very betrayed.”

JAKE TAPPER spoke with RUDY GIULIANI on CNN’S “STATE OF THE UNION” … GIULIANI on MICHAEL AVENATTI running for president: “Look, he has every right to do what he wants. I mean, I think he -- I would settle his bank -- the bankruptcy situation, where he owes 10 million bucks, first, but, hey, it’s up to him.”

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HEADS UP! The Senate Judiciary Committee just posted nearly 88,000 pages of Brett Kavanaugh material. The index

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S WEEK … Monday: THE PRESIDENT will go to Fort Drum, New York, to sign the defense authorization act. He will then hold a roundtable for supporters and a fundraiser. Tuesday: TRUMP will have lunch with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Thursday: TRUMP will hold a Cabinet meeting and have lunch with VP Mike Pence.

PROTESTS IN D.C. TODAY … WaPo’s Joe Helm: “Downtown Washington was calm Sunday morning, but the relative quiet was not likely to last. As many as 400 people are expected to make their way to Lafayette Park across the street from the White House later to take part in an event planned by the organizer of last year’s deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.

“The gathering, billed as a ‘white civil rights’ rally, is taking place on the anniversary of the Charlottesville violence, which killed a counterprotester, Heather Heyer, and took the lives of two Virginia State troopers whose helicopter crashed as they returned from monitoring the day’s events. …

“In Washington, thousands protesting the white supremacist rally also are expected at numerous locations, and many plan to converge on Lafayette Park, before the organizer of the rally, Jason Kessler, and his followers arrive. Both Kessler and opposition groups have permits from the National Park Service to demonstrate at the park, a leafy seven-acre enclave just across Pennsylvania Avenue from the president’s residence. …

“Those planning to attend Kessler’s rally, according to documents obtained by Washington City Paper from the National Park Service, include David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard who also attended the event in Charlottesville last year, as well as neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers.” WaPo

KNOW BEFORE YOU GO … Street closures

WHAT AMERICA IS READING … DES MOINES REGISTER: “CLIMATE CHANGE COMES TO IOWA: State is warming, bringing more frequent, intense storms” … WICHITA EAGLE: “County officials wield power as Colyer vs. Kobach race undecided” … AUSTIN-AMERICAN STATESMAN: “TECH TAKEOVER: As industry giants arrive, downtown Austin is remade” …

… JANESVILLE GAZETTE: “Will ‘blue wave’ commence Tuesday? … Crowded primary will pick Democrat to face Walker” … ARIZONA REPUBLIC: “after three months of torture, a mother and her son are together again."

SPOTTED: House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer walking through Albuquerque International Sunport on Saturday morning.



NYT’S MONICA DAVEY in MAZOMANIE, WISCONSIN: “Wisconsin Faces a Political Crossroads Tuesday. Which Way Will It Go?”: “[Gov. Scott] Walker is still Wisconsin’s governor, still harboring national ambitions, and Wisconsin Democrats and Republicans have only grown more divided over Mr. Trump and the state’s place in national politics.

“Those dynamics are now on display as Wisconsin prepares for a major primary election on Tuesday: Mr. Walker’s bid for a third term is at stake; Wisconsin Democrats’ desire to deal blows to Trump Republicanism is intense; Republicans are deeply concerned about their future hold on state government; and the very identity of the state, which swings between progressivism and conservatism, feels up for grabs.” NYT

SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS FRONT PAGE: “Swalwell may have sights set on top job: Lawmaker’s trips to Iowa raise question: Is a 2020 run planned?”: “In an interview, Swalwell — who was born in Iowa — said he was focused on helping Democrats retake the House in 2018, including by winning competitive races there. ‘If people are interested in changing the direction of the country, Iowa is the battleground,’ he said.

“But he also said he isn’t ruling out a presidential run in 2020. ‘Right now my focus is to win at home, earn my way back to Washington to represent my constituents, help other candidates win so we can change the country, and then I’ll make decisions after November about my future,’ Swalwell said.” Mercury News … Sunday A1

TWO GOOD BOSTON GLOBE STORIES …

-- LIZ GOODWIN: “A heads-up for Elizabeth Warren and others: Front-runner label is risky”: “The midterms are still three months away, but Democrats — who lack a clear leader after their rout in 2016 — are desperate to rally around someone who can defeat the president the next time around. Warren sates that appetite with her nationally known profile, devout liberal following, and strong presence near the top of some key polls — even though she claims not to be running.

“But anointing a front-runner for the party nomination, more than 18 months before the Iowa caucuses and 834 days before the election? ‘That’s a killer,’ former Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis groaned when told about the magazine cover. ‘Speaking from experience, the one thing you don’t want to be is a front-runner or a potential front-runner.’

"No fewer than four Bay State figures are quietly appraising their presidential prospects. And besides, Dukakis contends, the concept is mythical at this stage. ‘This search for a front-runner is crazy,’ he said. ‘There is no front-runner at this point and there won’t be for months and months.’ While the early buzz will certainly help Warren with fund-raising, getting her message out, and recruiting top-tier staff, it could hurt her as well, by raising expectations, drawing extra scrutiny, and putting a target on her back, according to several former candidates for the Democratic nomination.” With cameos by Howard Dean, Bill Bradley and Gary Hart. Globe

-- SCOT LEHIGH: “Potomac Fever infects the Bay State — again”: “By the old rules, a 38-year-old representative [Seth Moulton] with fewer than three years in Congress under his belt wouldn’t be caught traipsing around Iowa. Under the old rules, Young + Inexperienced = Overly Ambitious. But under the new rules, who knows? On the other end of the age spectrum, John Kerry, the Democratic Party’s 2004 nominee, is planning a December trip to Iowa. His ostensible purpose: to speak at a pair of fund-raisers for his friend Tom Miller, Iowa’s long-serving attorney general.

“Still, Kerry campers acknowledge something more is afoot. He’s never completely given up on his White House dreams. ... Former governor Deval Patrick is also casting an interested eye over the political landscape. Although a mesmerising speaker, Patrick proved an indifferent manager and only an average governor. Add his out-of-office status and, under the old political norms, he would be a long shot as a presidential candidate. But compared to Trump, Patrick isn’t just a rhetorical Cicero, he’s an Augustus of accomplishment. Then, of course, there’s Senator Elizabeth Warren.” Globe

FOR STEPHEN MILLER … “In the Trump era, the rare act of denaturalizing U.S. citizens gets a new focus,” by L.A. Times’ Brittny Mejia: “Working a Saturday shift in the stuffy Immigration and Naturalization Service office in downtown Los Angeles in the 1970s, Carl Shusterman came across a rap sheet.

“A man recently sworn in as a United States citizen had failed to disclose on his naturalization application that he had been arrested, but not convicted, in California on rape and theft charges. Shusterman, then a naturalization attorney, embarked on a months-long effort to do something that rarely happened: strip someone of their American citizenship. ‘We had to look it up to find out how to do this,’ he said. ‘We’d never even heard of it.’

“Forty years later, denaturalization — a complex process once primarily reserved for Nazi war criminals and human rights violators — is on the rise under the Trump administration. A United States Citizenship and Immigration Services team in Los Angeles has been reviewing more than 2,500 naturalization files for possible denaturalization, focusing on identity fraud and willful misrepresentation. More than 100 cases have been referred to the Department of Justice for possible action.” LAT

THE NEXT FRONTIER … “The Flourishing Business of Fake YouTube Views: Plays can be bought for pennies and delivered in bulk, inflating videos’ popularity and making the social media giant vulnerable to manipulation,” by NYT’s Michael H. Keller: “Martin Vassilev makes a good living selling fake views on YouTube videos.

“Working from home in Ottawa, he has sold about 15 million views so far this year, putting him on track to bring in more than $200,000, records show. Mr. Vassilev, 32, does not provide the views himself. His website, 500Views.com, connects customers with services that offer views, likes and dislikes generated by computers, not humans.

“When a supplier cannot fulfill an order, Mr. Vassilev — like a modern switchboard operator — quickly connects with another. ‘I can deliver an unlimited amount of views to a video,’ Mr. Vassilev said in an interview. ‘They’ve tried to stop it for so many years, but they can’t stop it. There’s always a way around.’” NYT

WAPO’S SARAH ELLISON and PHIL RUCKER: “‘Working for one guy’: Bill Shine’s journey from Ailes enforcer to Trump producer”.

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK – BUSH ALUMNI: PETER WEHNER is working on a new book with the preliminary title “In Defense of Politics.” He said it is “an effort to make the case that politics is a noble if imperfect profession.” The book will come out next spring and will be published by HarperCollins.

PLAYBOOK READS

PHOTO DU JOUR: Hawaii Gov. David Ige greets supporters at his campaign headquarters on Aug. 11 in Honolulu. After a tough primary challenge, Ige is projected to have held on to the Democratic Party's nomination. | Marco Garcia/AP Photo

2018 … “Campaigns and candidates still easy prey for hackers,” by Martin Matishak with Tim Starks and Daniel Lippman: “Some bathrooms have signs urging people to wash their hands. But at the [DNC], reminders hanging in the men’s and women’s restrooms address a different kind of hygiene. ‘Remember: Email is NOT a secure method of communication,’ the signs read, ‘and if you see something odd, say something.’ ...

“But the painful lessons of 2016 have yet to take hold across the campaign world — which remains the soft underbelly for cyberattacks aimed at disrupting the American political process. Despite making some strides in cybersecurity protections since 2016, cyber experts and researchers say, many candidates and campaigns have yet to implement standard safeguards to prevent breaches of their computer networks, websites and emails.” POLITICO … Pic of one of the signs … Another pic



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BONUS GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman, filing from Fairfield, Connecticut:

-- “The Man Who Sued His Trolls,” by Washingtonian’s Luke Mullins: “After sharing video of the deadly neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Brennan Gilmore had his life upended by online tormentors. Now he’s testing whether you can bring them to justice.” Washingtonian

-- “Inside the Very Big, Very Controversial Business of Dog Cloning,” by David Ewing Duncan in Vanity Fair – per Longform.org’s description: “At a South Korean laboratory, a once-disgraced doctor is replicating hundreds of deceased pets for the rich and famous.” VF

-- “Steve Bannon on How 2008 Planted the Seed for the Trump Presidency,” by Noah Kulwin in NYMag, as part of the magazine’s retrospective on the 10-year anniversary of the financial crisis: Q: “Would you say the financial crisis and the recession had a greater impact on the country than 9/11?” A: “Yes, absolutely. I don’t think there’s any comparison. ... People don’t know today there’s no criminal referrals, that nobody went to jail about that. Nobody’s been held accountable for that.” NYMag

-- “White threat in a browning America,” by Vox’s Ezra Klein – per TheBrowser.com’s description: “White Americans feel they are losing their hold on power, and they are correct. By the middle of this century non-Hispanic whites will be in a minority. In 2013, for the first time ever, most US infants under the age of 1 were non-white. The modal age of American whites is 58, against 29 for Asians, 27 for African Americans, and 11 for Hispanics. If Donald Trump hadn’t capitalised on white fear, somebody else would have done so soon.” Vox

-- “How two young reporters shook Myanmar,” by Tom Lasseter in Reuters: “Two Reuters reporters uncovered a mass killing in Myanmar. Their journey has put them at odds with their own people. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo embraced the heady freedoms of post-junta Myanmar. Then they exposed a massacre of Muslims by soldiers and civilians. The government’s prosecution of them over their reporting is seen by many as a test of the country’s nascent democracy.” Reuters ... Wa Lone and his wife welcomed a baby girl this week

-- “America’s ‘Most Beautiful Small Town’ Is Murder, U.S.A.,” by Kate Briquelet in the Daily Beast: “Crystal Rogers disappeared after a quick run to Walmart. Her father was shot dead as he searched for her. Their murders are just the latest to haunt this picturesque small town.” Daily Beast

-- “The World as It Wasn’t,” by James Rosen in National Review, reviewing “The World As It Is,” by Ben Rhodes: “Rhodes’s recollection is smart and funny, poignant and biting, anxious and depressed: the richest firsthand account of Obama the man yet in print, an early landmark in the historical literature of his presidency. Having previously earned an MFA from New York University, Rhodes sketches the men and women who surrounded Obama, at home and on the world stage, with a novelist’s eye for physical description and comic detail.” NR ... $18 on Amazon

-- “Brimming with X,” by Galen Strawson in the Times Literary Supplement, reviewing “How To Change Your Mind: The new science of psychedelics,” by Michael Pollan: “What is it like to take a psychedelic drug? There is an extra­ordinary degree of agreement, on the part of those who have successful ‘trips’, that the fundamental principle of reality is love … There seems to be a deeper psychological formation underneath the experience of love. The best name for it, perhaps, is Acceptance: Profound, anxiety-dissolving acquiescence in how things are, acceptance of life, acceptance of death. Acceptance, when attained, involves experience of great joy.” TLS ... $16.80 on Amazon

-- “How Ainsley Earhardt Became America’s (President’s) Sweetheart,” by Molly Langmuir in Elle: “She never sought to have political influence, but as a cohost of Donald Trump’s favorite morning show, Fox & Friends, that’s exactly what she’s acquired.” Elle

-- “Who owns the space under cities? The attempt to map the earth beneath us,” by Bradley L. Garrett in The Guardian – per TheBrowser.com’s description: “Dig now. Private property rights that used to extend to the centre of the Earth are getting drastically curtailed. The ground deep beneath major cities is getting so congested with tunnels, cables, fallout shelters and mega-basements that it will need to be mapped as closely as the surface.” Guardian

-- “‘Princeton’s complicated legacy: Reconsidering Woodrow Wilson, and recalling a slave named Jimmy Johnson,” by Susan Snyder in the Philadelphia Inquirer: “Every year, freshmen at Princeton University attend opening exercises at the campus chapel, then exit through an iconic archway ... East Pyne Hall [which] will for the first time carry a name: Jimmy Johnson, who worked as a Princeton janitor in the mid-19th century until a student reported him as a runaway slave. A local woman paid $500 for Johnson’s freedom, and for more than 60 years he sold snacks to students on Princeton’s campus.” Philly.com

-- “Monsieur Bébé: The Brief, Strange Life of Raymond Radiguet,” by Emma Garman in The Paris Review – per TheBrowser.com’s description: “At 16 he became Jean Cocteau’s lover. At 19 he published his scandalous first novel, ‘Le Diable Au Corps’, which was an immediate best-seller. He moved into a grand hotel, spent extravagantly on clothes, drank heavily, and smoked opium. He had affairs with Picasso’s mistress, Irène Lagut, and Modigliani’s muse, Beatrice Hastings, while continuing to wear Cocteau’s ring, made by Cartier. At 20 he was killed by typhus contracted from an oyster.” Paris Review

PLAYBOOKERS

WEEKEND WEDDING -- “Pamela Sud, Joshua Harder” – N.Y. Times: “The bride and groom, both 32, met at Stanford, from which they each graduated with honors. Each also received both an M.B.A. and a master in public policy from Harvard. Mrs. Harder was until May the head of business operations and strategy for Clever, an educational technology company in San Francisco. ... Mr. Harder is the Democratic nominee for the House in California’s 10th Congressional District in the Central Valley. The bride is working full time on his campaign. The groom was previously an adjunct instructor of business at Modesto Junior College in Modesto, Calif.” With a pic. NYT

BIRTHDAYS: Kelley McCormick, SVP of corporate communications at Under Armour (hat tips: Tammy Haddad, Tim Burger and Hilary Rosen) ... Joe Moore … Hayley Conklin … Lauren Kirshner ... Ed Feulner, founder and past president of the Heritage Foundation, is 77 ... HuffPost labor reporter Dave Jamieson … Mike Kelleher of the World Bank (h/t Burger) … Brian Devine ... Trudi Boyd, EVP at Story Partners ... Brianna Puccini, comms director for Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), celebrating with friends on 14th Street ... Matt Sparks, communications director for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy ... Google’s Nick Meads and Amber Jesse ... BuzzFeed’s Nidhi Prakash ... Justin Folsom ... Julia Ziegler ... Molly French ... Kyle Blaine, senior campaign editor at CNN Politics ... Jason Livingood ... Brandi Travis ... Jarad Geldner, director of Hill+Knowlton Strategies (h/t Richard Keil) …

... former Rep. Connie Mack IV (R-Fla.) is 51 ... Nicole Nason, assistant secretary of State for administration (h/t Heather Nauert) … Tess Glancey ... Deborah Colitti ... Brandi Travis ... Stephen Claeys ... Rochelle Behrens … Dana Berardi ... Mary Trupo … Sophie Miller ... Thurgood Marshall Jr. is 62 ... Jenn Burr-Linn … Mike Holtzman, president of BLJ Worldwide, is 49 (h/t Steve Clemons) ... Christina Hartman ... Michael Lame ... Kristin Sheehy ... Matt Krupnick ... Doris Truong, director of training and diversity at Poynter and a WaPo alum ... Christopher Dorobek ... Lauren Collins Cline … Toby Burke ... Raytheon’s Michael Dorff ... Laura Lawlor ... Ben Gulans … former SEC enforcement chief Bill McLucas, now a partner at WilmerHale … Ben Gulans ... Audrey Jones ... Matt Wahl … Don Rockwell (h/t Jon Karl) ... Maris Segal ... Laura Hahn ... Lynn Trautmann ... Patrice Hauptman (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)



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