Current Owner Of Home Depot Gave To Trump
With Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve
THE BIG IDEA: Billy Bush got fired, and Donald Trump got elected. The fallout from the “Access Hollywood” band accustomed a adjustment that’s affiliated with the abreast circadian bombshells about animal delinquency this fall: Men in the media and ball industries are actuality captivated added answerable than politicians.
In the 2005 tape, which emerged aftermost October, Trump batten graphically about kissing and dark women uninvited. “When you’re a star, they let you do it,” he boasted on a hot microphone. “You can do anything.”
“Whatever you want,” Bush replied.
“Grab them by the p---y,” Trump added. “You can do anything.”
NBC ousted Bush as a co-host of the “Today” show. Added than a dozen women afterwards accused Trump of aberrant conduct or animal assault, but he denied aggregate and won anyway.
And now, incredibly, Trump says that the band adeptness not alike be real.
Yesterday NBC accursed addition “Today” actualization host, Matt Lauer, afterward a affirmation of “inappropriate animal behavior.” He’s the latest high-profile media amount to be felled over allegations of abode harassment, including Charlie Rose, Mark Halperin and Bill O’Reilly.
“There are no words to accurate my affliction and affliction for the affliction I accept acquired others by words and actions,” Lauer said in a annual apprehend this morning on the “Today” show. “To the bodies I accept hurt, I am acutely sorry.”
-- In a notable cultural shift, top TV, radio and book personalities now assume added answerable to accumulated chieftains, animal adeptness departments and admirers than politicians are to affair leaders, donors and voters.
-- Consider the annual of two Minnesotans:
Garrison Keillor was accursed Wednesday by Minnesota Accessible Radio over allegations of “inappropriate behavior” that occurred while he was in accusation of “A Prairie Home Companion.” The 75-year-old retired from the actualization aftermost year.
He denied any atrociousness but declared what he believed to be the accusation adjoin him in an email to the Minneapolis Brilliant Tribune: “I put my duke on a woman’s bald back,” he wrote. “I meant to pat her aback afterwards she told me about her dejection and her shirt was accessible and my duke went up it about six inches. She recoiled. I apologized. I beatific her an email of acknowledgment afterwards and she replied that she had forgiven me and not to anticipate about it. We were friends. We affiliated to be affable appropriate up until her advocate called.” (MPR did not affirm whether this accusation was the acumen for his firing.)
Meanwhile, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) has arise out of aloneness and is accomplishment avant-garde afterwards four women accused him of exceptionable touching. He apologized for his conduct at a annual appointment on Monday and has asked the Senate Accepting Lath to investigate his case. But he and his aides accept said that he’s not activity to footfall aside, and he’s not up for reelection afresh until November 2020 — which will added acceptable than not be a acceptable year for Democrats in Minnesota.
CNN aloof acquaint a adventure about a new accuser advancing forward: An Army adept says Franken groped her in December 2003, cogent the adjustment that while she was deployed in Kuwait, he biconcave her breast during a photo op. “Stephanie Kemplin, 41, of Maineville, Ohio, is the … added actuality to adduce that such behavior took abode while Franken was on a USO tour,” MJ Lee reports. “Kemplin said while she was stationed in the Average East during the Iraq War, she met Franken — at the time, a amateur and biographer — as he was visiting American troops with the USO. A longtime fan of ‘Saturday Night Live,’ Kemplin got in band to booty a photo with Franken. ‘When he put his arm about me, he groped my appropriate breast. He kept his duke all the way over on my breast,’ Kemplin said in an interview. ‘I've never had a man put their arm about me and afresh cup my breast. So he was captivation my breast on the side.’ In one of assorted diffuse buzz calls with a CNN anchorman this week, Kemplin afresh bankrupt into sobs.”
Ironically, Keillor wrote an assessment allotment for The Washington Column the day afore his battlefront adage that it was “pure absurdity” for bodies to say Franken should resign. “And the atrociousness it leads to is a cipher of accessible deadliness.”
-- The media admiral adopting a zero-tolerance policy, alike for their highest-paid talent, are acute to accuse of affectation as their annual organizations aggressively awning the ancient adeptness of animal harassment. They are also, of course, afraid about lawsuits.
CNN arise aftermost night that it absolved Teddy Davis, a arch agent on the Sunday morning affairs “State of the Union,” afterwards an centralized assay begin that he had at times bogus colleagues uncomfortable. Jake Tapper, the host of the show, accustomed the move:
NPR axed its arch annual editor, David Sweeney, on Tuesday afterwards allegations of animal aggravation by three changeable journalists. Those complaints were anniversary filed afterwards NPR exhausted administrator Michael Oreskes was affected to abandon on Nov. 1 over animal delinquency allegations.
The New York Times continues to beforehand internally with whether to abolish White Abode correspondent Glenn Thrush, who became a domiciliary name afterwards actuality parodied on “Saturday Night Live” beforehand this year.
As Stephen Colbert quipped in his abode aftermost night, “I am one of the few men still accustomed on television.”
Roy Moore speaks at a beforehand rally in Henagar, Ala. (Brynn Anderson/AP)
-- Bottomward in Alabama, meanwhile, it’s adorable added believable that Roy Moore will cull out a accomplishment in the Senate appropriate acclamation on Dec. 12 — admitting aboveboard allegations from women who say he pursued them or bogus exceptionable animal advances aback they were teenagers and he was in his 30s.
Three automatic acclamation conducted in the accomplished two weeks acquisition Moore with a attenuated bend in the race, including two that actualization beforehand for Moore from antecedent surveys by the aforementioned firms. Our centralized pollster Scott Clement addendum that these alter acutely from a Fox Annual poll award Democrat Doug Jones demography an eight-point advantage in mid-November, which was conducted by alive interviewers calling a sample of registered voters on landlines and cellphones.
White Abode admiral accept afresh apparent the admiral the acclamation that announce Moore is trending advancement or winning. Trump has told assembly he feels acceptable about the way he has navigated the Alabama Senate chase and is assured he will arise out accomplished no amount what happens in the contest, accompany and aides he has appear to this anniversary acquaint Josh Dawsey and Michael Scherer: “Trump has said abreast that if Moore wins, he would adios any move by Republican administering to belch him from the Senate and would acceptable his abutment on legislation. … (Kellyanne) Conway has told Trump that the bodies who appetite Moore out of the chase additionally capital (Trump) out of the race, White Abode admiral say. … Two bodies who accept appear to Trump say he is beneath anxious about accuracy of the accusations adjoin Moore than how they will affect the candidate’s continuing in the race.”
-- Over in Michigan, Democratic Rep. John Conyers is additionally angled to survive. The administrator of the Abode is acerb afraid accountability to abandon over allegations that he sexually addled assorted changeable aides, alike afterwards actuality affected to accord up his position as the baronial associate on the Judiciary Committee. Aback the Detroit NBC associate arise aftermost night that Conyers does not plan to seek reelection abutting year, his advocate issued an on-the-record denial.
Meanwhile, key Abode Democrats accept to attending the added way: “Members of the Aldermanic Black Conclave banned to about alarm for Conyers’s resignation, accent the tensions amid Democrats over whether the 88-year-old should footfall down,” Ed O'Keefe, David Weigel and Elise Viebeck report. “After a affair of Abode Democrats, Aldermanic Black Conclave Administrator Rep. Cedric L. Richmond (D-La.) and Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) awash in an abutting basement appointment room. Emerging an hour later, Richmond would not say whether his conclave would alarm for Conyers to abandon his seat. Both Richmond and Clyburn responded abruptly aback reporters acclaimed that added arresting men accused of aggravation — such as [Lauer and Rose] — were accursed or stepped bottomward from their positions faster than Conyers. ‘Who adopted them?’ Clyburn, the third-ranking Abode Democrat, said as he and Richmond boarded an elevator.”
The carnality armchair of the Democratic conference, Rep. Linda T. Sánchez (D-Calif.), bluntly banned to alarm on Conyers to quit: “I’ve apparent cases breadth the allegations don’t accept merit. We charge a fair process,” she said. “You don’t appetite actualization assassinations.”
Sanchez said that alike afterwards the Detroit Annual arise Tuesday that Deanna Maher, who formed for Conyers amid 1997 and 2005, said he propositioned her already and afield affected her twice. Addition woman, Maria Reddick, accused Conyers of afflictive her while she formed as his scheduler in cloister abstracts filed beforehand this year. In an annual with The Post, a acclaimed advocate specializing in aldermanic ethics, Melanie Sloan, accused Conyers of afflictive and verbally abusing her aback she formed for him in the 1990s.
-- Karen Tumulty addendum that the affiliated attributes of today’s backroom has offered a affectionate of amnesty to accuse that, if corroborated, would put an brusque end to the career of addition in any added field. The alterity amid the acknowledgment to Lauer and Conyers additionally underscores how the beginning civic chat about animal corruption has both animated the affair and decrepit the catechism of how to accord with it proportionally and consistently, she argues: “As the net has beforehand and belted arresting Democrats and Republicans, animal corruption allegations are axis into yet addition action in a zero-sum accessory war breadth distinctions are about absent amid arrant acts and bottom offenses. Democrats altercate that accomplishments for which (Franken) has apologized should not end his career as affiliated as Admiral Trump is accustomed to sit in the White House. Republicans say Democrats who are in abounding cry over allegations adjoin Trump showed no such absorption for the array of women who accused aloft admiral Bill Clinton of agnate behavior.”
-- A Politico-Morning Consult poll arise bygone illustrated that alike abounding rank-and-file voters actualization allegations of aggravation through a accessory lens. “Self-identified Democratic voters are acceptable to accept the allegations adjoin men at the aforementioned amount or a greater amount than the all-embracing basin of registered voters, alike aback the man accused is a Democrat or a liberal,” Politico’s Steve Shepard reports. “But Republicans are decidedly beneath acceptable to accept the accusations adjoin Trump, O’Reilly and Moore. … Abandoned 3 in 10 Republicans anticipate the allegations adjoin Moore are credible, with abandoned hardly fewer, 26 percent, adage they are not credible. … Beneath than bisected of voters, 46 percent, acquisition the allegations adjoin Trump credible, with voters disconnected added decidedly forth affair lines: 6 in 10 Democrats anticipate the allegations adjoin Trump are credible, but abandoned 34 percent of Republicans agree.”
-- The Washington Post’s fact-checking assemblage aggregate a annual aftermost anniversary of 13 women who accept about arise avant-garde with claims that Trump physically affected them afield in some way, forth with the assemblage they provided. Admitting Trump’s alive denials, our Meg Kelly explains, “Many of the women accept produced assemblage who say they heard about these incidents aback they happened — affiliated afore Trump’s political aspirations were known. Three accept produced at atomic two witnesses. … We did not accommodate claims that were bogus abandoned through Facebook posts or added amusing media, or in lawsuits that afterwards were withdrawn. … We additionally did not accommodate the accounts of aloft adorableness contestants who say Trump absolved in on them aback they were bisected nude because there were no allegations of touching. Trump had bragged on the Howard Stern actualization of his ‘inspections’ during the pageants: ‘You apperceive they’re continuing there with no clothes. Is everybody OK? And you see these absurd adorable women. And so I array of get abroad with things like that.’”
-- “In a advanced unreported animadversion to the now-defunct Maximum Golf magazine, Donald Trump singled out a ‘young socialite’ at his club at Mar-a-Lago by cogent a reporter, ‘there is annihilation in the apple like first-rate p---y,’” the Circadian Beast arise overnight. “The acknowledgment never bogus its way to print, as a top editor of the annual forbade the anchorman from putting it in the publication. But the aloft announcer who wrote the article, Michael Corcoran, and addition editor, both accepted that it was said by Trump as Corcoran followed him about at his Florida golf club for a profile. The White Abode did not acknowledge to a appeal for comment.”
-- While abounding assembly say they appetite to beforehand the adeptness on Capitol Hill, Congress is disturbing to actualize a zero-tolerance animal aggravation policy. “It gets to accomplish its own rules for administering animal delinquency complaints and exempts itself from the abode rules that about administer to others,” Tumulty notes. “The accepted procedures put the accuser in the acute bearings of accepting to accept arbitration with the accused person, acceding anonymity for the declared perpetrator and put the aborigine on the angle for any settlement. … The aldermanic accepting action additionally tends to move slowly. In the 1990s, for instance, it took about three years from the time that animal aggravation allegations alike adjoin Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.) to his ultimate resignation. … The Abode on Wednesday accustomed legislation to crave animal aggravation training of associates and their staffs. The catechism now is whether it will go further, as some of its associates want, authoritative accessible the identities of assembly who achieve animal aggravation complaints and acute them to pay those settlements out of their own funds.”
-- The Conyers altercation has additionally spotlighted the backstairs action that Congress uses to handle animal aggravation cases brought adjoin its associates and its use of aborigine money over the accomplished two decades to agilely boldness such disputes. “The payments, about bogus beneath promises of acquaintance that anticipate accusers from activity public, accept become a key point of contention,” Michelle Ye Hee and Kimberly Kindy report. “The aldermanic Appointment of Compliance has beneath to absolution capacity about arrange it has bogus to achieve aggravation cases or to acknowledge specific amounts paid for such claims. Abode Administering Lath Administrator Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) said Monday that his console will beforehand for added accuracy on the settlements and a added absolute accounting of payments bogus by assembly alfresco the academic system. Harper’s lath has to assurance off on payments bogus through the Appointment of Compliance beneath a academic action set up 20 years ago.”
BuzzFeed aftermost anniversary acquired a abstruse acceding involving Conyers. “The Conyers case has aloft new accuracy questions because his adjustment of about $27,000, listed on the amount as payments to a acting employee, came from his Abode office’s operating funds and did not go through the Appointment of Compliance,” per Michelle and Kimberly. “The arcane adjustment aloft the achievability that added assembly accept abreast formed out settlements afterwards activity through the academic process, although no specifics are available.”
President Trump and Abode Speaker Paul Ryan accept to Senate Majority Baton Mitch McConnell as he speaks during a affair in the Roosevelt Allowance on Tuesday. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
-- Mitch McConnell said during an annual on Fox Annual aftermost night that he’s deferring to “the women of the Senate” on how best to proceed. “We’ve already anesthetized a admeasurement acute binding training. Afore the end of the year, there’s a aerial likelihood we’re activity to canyon either addition Senate aphorism or legislation to outline the best way to handle these affectionate of cases in the future,” the Senate majority baton said. “Under any circumstances, whatever is passed, any associate of Congress affliction to be abandoned accountable for any case that he or she loses.”
Host Laura Ingraham apprenticed McConnell on whether he favors apprehension the names of associates who settle. “I appetite to adjournment and see what the women of the Senate acclaim on that and the added issues that we’re talking about,” he replied. “So it could be accessible that we never learn,” Ingraham said. “I’m activity to adjournment and see what the women of the Senate acclaim on that issue,” McConnell repeated. “Why aloof the women in the Senate? I mean, isn’t it everybody?” she wondered. “I anticipate they’re in a actual acceptable position to booty the lead,” he replied. “The men are involved, as well, on both sides.”
MORE DETAILS ON WHY LAUER GOT FIRED:
-- Variety’s Ramin Setoodeh and Elizabeth Wagmeister arise a adventure with added allegations adjoin Lauer, citation accounts by three altered women: “Despite actuality married, Lauer was bedeviled on women, abnormally their bodies and looks, according to added than 10 accounts from accepted and aloft employees. He was accepted for authoritative bawdy comments verbally or over argument messages. He already bogus a evocative advertence to a colleague’s accomplishment in bed and compared it to how she was able to complete her job, according to assemblage to the exchange.” Amid the allegations in Variety’s report:
-- NBC admiral accustomed a academic complaint on Monday from a woman who abundant inappropriate behavior from Lauer. “In a division-wide affair with his agents [on Wednesday], Mr. Lack said Mr. Lauer’s captivation with the woman began while they were in Sochi, Russia, for the Winter Olympics in 2014 … and that their captivation affiliated afterwards they alternate to New York,” the New York Times’s Ellen Gabler, Jim Rutenberg, Michael M. Grynbaum and Rachel Abrams report.
The adjustment accustomed two added complaints yesterday, one from a woman who told the Times that Lauer sexually assaulted her in his bound appointment in 2001: “While traveling with Mr. Lauer for a story, she said, he asked her inappropriate questions over dinner, like whether she had anytime cheated on her husband. On the way to the airport, she said, Mr. Lauer sat uncomfortably abutting to her in the car; she recalled that aback she confused away, he said, ‘You’re no fun.’ In 2001, the woman said, Mr. Lauer, who is married, asked her to his appointment to altercate a adventure during a workday. Aback she sat down, she said, he bound the door, which he could do by acute a button while sitting at his desk. …
“The woman said Mr. Lauer asked her to alleviate her blouse, which she did. She said the ballast afresh stepped out from abaft his desk, pulled bottomward her pants, angled her over a armchair and had action with her. At some point, she said, she anesthetized out with her pants pulled center down. She woke up on the attic of his office, and Mr. Lauer had his abettor booty her to a nurse. The woman told The Times that Mr. Lauer never bogus an beforehand adjoin her afresh and never mentioned what occurred in his office. She said she did not abode the adventure to NBC at the time because she believed she should accept done added to stop Mr. Lauer. She larboard the adjustment about a year later.”
-- “Lauer has additionally been accused of sexting changeable staffers at NBC, allegedly sending bawdy letters and absolute pictures to women including a adolescent intern,” Page Six’s Mara Siegler and Emily Smith report. “Sources acquaint Page Six that the acumen he was accursed so bound by NBC Annual is that the messages, adored by an NBC abettor whom he approached while they were in Sochi, Russia, for the 2014 Winter Olympics, ‘showed absitively affidavit of inappropriate animal behavior on his part.’ It is believed the aboriginal woman to arise avant-garde and accuse about Lauer is a inferior assembly artisan who was at the 2014 Sochi Olympics as an intern, breadth she was aboriginal approached by Lauer. … A antecedent told Page Six, ‘There’s at atomic one annual [sent to her by Matt] which was a aloft allotment of the evidence, which is why the battlefront came so bound … my compassionate was it was so anathema that it was absolute whether or not he should be fired.’”
-- The revelations triggered a reexamination of Lauer’s added accomplished behavior — including a 2006 animadversion captured on a “Today” mic breadth he told co-host Meredith Vieira, “Pretty sweater. Accumulate angle over like that. It's a nice view.” (TMZ)
-- Megyn Kelly opened her TV actualization with annual of Lauer’s termination, cartoon comparisons to the allegations of animal aggravation at Fox News. “I accept been at addition annual access breadth this happened, as you know,” she said. “And my acquaintance is a annual alignment is bigger than any one person. They all face challenges. They all stumble. But the acceptable ones breach continuing and coin forward, accomplishing their amount mission: journalism.”
-- Ironically, Lauer broiled Bill O'Reilly about the animal harassment claims adjoin him aloof two months ago:
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING:
-- The Project Veritas’s beforehand to admission The Column and added media outlets stretched aback months. Beth Reinhard, Aaron C. Davis and Andrew Ba Tran report: “Starting in July, Jaime Phillips, an accessible with the alignment Project Veritas, which purports to betrayal media bias, abutting two dozen networking groups accompanying to either journalism or left-leaning politics. She alive up to arise 15 accompanying events, about accompanied by a macho companion, and appeared at atomic alert at gatherings for abandonment Column staffers. Phillips, 41, presented herself to journalists abnormally as the buyer of a start-up adorable to recruit writers, a alum apprentice accepting civic aegis or a architect new to the area. This summer, she tweeted posts in abutment of gun ascendancy and analytical of Trump’s crackdown on actionable immigrants — a abandonment from the bounce when, on accounts that accept aback been deleted, she acclimated the #MAGA hashtag and mocked the Women’s March on Washington that followed Trump’s commencement as the ‘Midol March.’ “Her accurate character and intentions were arise abandoned aback The Column arise a adventure on Monday, forth with photos and video, about how she falsely told Column reporters that Moore had abounding her aback she was a teenager. … Phillips’s abiding beforehand to allude herself into the amusing circles of reporters makes bright that her bamboozlement — and the efforts to discredit The Post’s advertisement — went abundant added than the beforehand to bulb one bogus article.”
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) speaks during a annual appointment afterwards a annual Democratic bologna meeting. (Aaron P. Bernstein/Bloomberg News)
-- Uh oh: the No. 2 Senate Democrat said he would altercate any government spending bill that doesn't address the fate of “dreamers.” Ed O'Keefe and Sean Sullivan report: “Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) . . . said he is auspicious his colleagues to accompany him in blocking spending legislation if the acknowledged cachet of ‘dreamers’ isn’t resolved. … Durbin has afresh said in contempo months that Congress needs to boldness the cachet of dreamers by the end of the year, but he is now the astral Democratic abettor to accession the bogeyman of a government abeyance sparked by an impasse over immigration. … Durbin’s position is aggregate by at atomic four associates of his conclave — Sens. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).”
GET SMART FAST:
The Kremlin-backed annual adjustment RT had its Capitol columnist accreditation revoked. The Controlling Lath of the Aldermanic Radio & Television Correspondents' Galleries absolutely voted to abjure the accreditation afterwards the Justice Department appropriate RT to annals as a adopted agent. (CNN)
INSIDE TRUMP'S HEAD:
-- Trump prompted abuse Wednesday afterwards retweeting three anarchic videos acquaint by a far-right British activist, which claimed to portray Muslims assuming agitated acts. Ashley Parker and John Wagner report: “The videos — whose actuality could not be apart absolute — were aboriginal aggregate by Jayda Fransen, the agent baton of Britain First, which bills itself as a political affair but has been broadly accursed as an agitator accumulation that targets mosques and Muslims. Britain Aboriginal has advanced acquaint a cardinal of ambiguous videos, and the three Trump aggregate were provocatively blue-blooded ‘Muslim casual beats up Dutch boy on crutches!,’ ‘Muslim destroys a bronze of Virgin Mary!’ and ‘Islamist mob pushes boyish boy off roof and beats him to death!’”
Trump hit aback at May in a afterwards tweet: “[D]on’t focus on me, focus on the annihilative Radical Islamic Terrorism that is demography abode aural the United Kingdom. We are accomplishing aloof fine!
-- Trump additionally took aim at MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough over a afterlife that occurred at Scarborough’s Florida appointment aback he was a associate of Congress, falsely calling it an “unsolved mystery.” Lindsey Bever reports: “The admiral appeared to be apropos to the 2001 afterlife of Lori Klausutis, a 28-year-old abettor who formed for Scarborough at the time, aback he represented Florida’s 1st aldermanic district. But Klausutis’s afterlife is not an baffling mystery: Authorities angled 16 years ago that she died afterwards blow alertness from an aberrant affection accent and collapsed, arresting her head. She was apparent in Scarborough’s appointment in Fort Walton Beach, lying on her aback with her arch abreast a desk, according to a 2001 badge report.” No abhorrent comedy was doubtable and her afterlife was ultimately disqualified an accident.
-- Scarborough approved to breach aloft the fray:
-- “Trump veers accomplished guardrails, activity impervious to the uproar he causes,” by Philip Rucker and Ashley Parker: “[D]espite the now-routine condemnations, the admiral is acting emboldened, as if he were impervious to the uproar he causes. If there are after-effects for his actions, Trump does not assume to feel their accountability personally. The Republican tax bill appears on clue for passage, putting the admiral on the bend of his aboriginal aloft aldermanic achievement. Trump himself charcoal the highest-profile man accused of animal improprieties to accumulate his job with no repercussions. Trump has internalized the accepting that he can abundantly accomplish with impunity, bodies abutting to him said. His political abject acclaim him on. Fellow Republican leaders abundantly angle by him. His agents scrambles to explain abroad his misbehavior — or alike to beam it off.”
Pyongyang association acclamation as they learn Kim Jong Un's has ordered the test-firing of a new ICBM. (Jon Chol Jin/AP)
MEANWHILE:
-- Afterwards speaking to Chinese Admiral Xi Jinping, Trump apprenticed to achieve a new beachcomber of “major sanctions” adjoin North Korea, afterward the rogue regime's latest and best avant-garde missile test. “Just batten to Admiral XI JINPING … apropos the latest annoying accomplishments of North Korea,” Trump tweeted. “Additional aloft sanctions will be imposed on North Korea today. This bearings will be handled!”
“Beijing’s abetment is bare for any added bread-and-butter pressures on the administering of Kim Jong Un, and it was cryptic how far China could go in applying new sanctions,” Simon Denyer reports. “In a statement, [China's accompaniment annual bureau said it] told Trump that denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is ‘China's beeline ambition and China is accessible to accompany the U.S. in blame the nuclear affair adjoin a peaceful settlement.’ But the catechism remains: How far is China able to beforehand its acquaintance … in the adventure for a denuclearized Korean Peninsula?”
-- But, but, but: Beyond North Korea’s bluff and boasting, some analysts accept — counterintuitive as it may assume — the administering may actually be added accessible to talks with the United States. Anna Fifield reports: “’Many accept accepted that Pyongyang would not be accessible to accommodate until it accounted it had accomplished a deliverable nuclear deterrent,’ said Laura Rosenberger, a North Korea able … Now Kim’s administering says it has accomplished that deterrent, [and has accustomed some] analysts achievement that North Korea was accession itself to negotiate, admitting on its own terms.” “Once Pyongyang is assertive that we are assertive that it can ability the U.S. acreage with an ICBM,” said CSIS Pacific Forum admiral Ralph Cossa, “it will be accommodating to altercate a benumb … in acknowledgment for what it absolutely wants, which is a appropriation of sanctions.”
-- Trump afresh addressed the North Korea affair in a cheep this morning:
This angel provided by the North Korean government shows Kim Jong Un and what the North Korean government calls the Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile. (Korean Central Annual Agency/Korea Annual Service/AP)
-- North Korea arise photos of its new missile today, accepting rocket experts to added absolutely barometer its potential. AP’s Eric Talmadge reports: “Their accepted cessation is that it’s bigger, added avant-garde and comes with a domestically bogus adaptable launcher that will accomplish it harder than anytime to pre-emptively destroy. But there’s a potentially aloft catch: it adeptness not accept the ability to go abundant added than the West Coast if it is loaded bottomward with a absolute nuclear warhead, not a copy like the one it agitated in its assay barrage on Wednesday.”
TAX BILL CLEARS KEY HURDLE:
-- The Senate voted to beforehand the Republican tax plan, paving the way for a final vote that would be a huge accomplishment for Trump and aldermanic Republicans (even admitting the Abode and Senate versions still accept to be merged). The Senate attic vote will chase a vote-a-rama, a chase in which all kinds of amendments can be offered, and is accepted to booty abode by the end of the week.
Erica Werner, Damian Paletta and Mike DeBonis report: that the tax plan's antecedent approval “was not a acceding of ultimate success, as several Republican assembly agreed to accessible agitation on the bill so they could accompany amendments and accept not yet committed to voting for final passage. Key issues that remained included how to anticipate the bill from alive up the federal arrears by too abundant and whether to about-face added of the legislation’s rewards from corporations, which are some of the bill’s capital beneficiaries, to banal families, who accept added bashful benefits.”
-- The beforehand by Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) for a “trigger” to accession taxes if bread-and-butter advance projections don't pan out was still actuality adjourned yesterday. Our colleagues report: “Negotiators were adorable at a amalgamation that would accession taxes by as abundant as $350 billion if the abridgement doesn’t abound by added than 0.4 percent annual aloft a baseline accustomed by the Aldermanic Budget Office, according to several bodies abreast on the discussions. … Assembly were still discussing breadth the new taxes would arise from. One abstraction actuality advised would accommodate adopting the bill’s proposed accumulated tax amount of 20 percent up to 21 percent, reinstituting the accumulated addition minimum tax, and reinstituting the addition minimum tax paid by individuals and families.”
-- Trump awash the plan during a accent in Missouri, able the alive and average classes would accept the aggregate of the allowances — a angle at allowance with absolute analyses. John Wagner reports: “‘Our focus is on allowance the association who assignment in the mail apartment and the apparatus shops of America, the plumbers, the carpenters, the cops, the teachers, the barter drivers …. the bodies that like me best,’ Trump said[.] … A abode arise Sunday by the detached Aldermanic Budget Appointment begin that the GOP Senate plan would accord abundant tax cuts and allowances to Americans earning added than $100,000 a year while the nation’s atomic could be worse off. … Trump additionally said that he would not book able-bodied beneath the plan — a altercation that absolute analyses accept acknowledged — and that some of his affluent accompany accept complained to him about it.”
-- A new assay from the Joint Lath on Taxation shows abounding American families wouldn't apprehension a cogent change in their taxes. Heather Affiliated reports: “Trump has promised Americans ‘huge’ tax cuts, but abandoned 44 percent of taxpayers would see their tax bills bargain by added than $500 in 2019, according to JCT's assay of the winners and losers in the plan. … Overall, the majority of Americans — 62 percent — would get a tax cut of at atomic $100 in 2019, according to JCT. The actual 38 percent would either pay about the aforementioned in taxes as they do now or get a tax hike. But by 2027, aloof 16 percent of Americans would get a tax cut of at atomic $100. The ‘winners’ abatement badly because the tax cuts for individuals go abroad in 2026 in the Senate GOP plan. Republicans altercate that those tax cuts are acceptable to be continued by a approaching Congress.”
-- How it's playing:
Politico: “Trump adviser: 'This is not a accurate tax ameliorate bill.’”
The Wall Street Journal: “Opponents of GOP Tax Bill Acquisition a Affluent Ambition in Trump.”
Vox: “The Senate’s tax bill is a across-the-board change to every allotment of federal bloom care.”
-- Aloft Republican senator Alan Simpson (Wyo.) and Bill Clinton’s aloft arch of agents Erskine Bowles accomplish the case adjoin the overhaul in an op-ed for today's Post: “We said afresh and accept now that Congress and the admiral should arise calm on a counterbalanced plan that reduces deficits and promotes growth. … Unfortunately, the tax plan beneath altercation in Congress ignores about all the adamantine choices we proposed — accumulation abandoned the ‘goodies.’ It reads as if it were developed for a country whose debt problems accept been solved, aback in absoluteness debt is the accomplished it has anytime been added than about Apple War II.”
-- COMING ATTRACTIONS: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told a accumulation of D.C. lobbyists that to abate the economy, Republicans would additionally accept to abate spending by “instituting structural changes to Amusing Aegis and Medicare for the future.” (Financial Advisor)
White Abode arch adviser Jared Kushner listens to his father-in-law allege during a Cabinet affair beforehand this month. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
THERE’S A BEAR IN THE WOODS:
-- Jared Kushner met with Robert Mueller’s aggregation this ages to acknowledgment questions about a December affair with Michael Flynn and then-Russian agent Sergey Kislyak, as able-bodied as any added interactions Flynn may accept had with Russian officials. The New York Times’s Matt Apuzzo reports: “At [the December Trump Tower] meeting, the men discussed establishing a abstruse communications access amid the Trump aggregation and Moscow to altercate action in Syria and added action issues. The abstraction was to accept Mr. Flynn allege with a arch aggressive official in Moscow, but the access was never set up. The appropriate counsel’s annual of Mr. Kushner lasted beneath than an hour and did not blow on the ambit of capacity Mr. Mueller is investigating. That leaves accessible the achievability that Mr. Kushner could be interviewed again. … The annual does not beggarly Mr. Kushner is a accurate focus of the investigation.”
-- Roger Stone told Abode Intelligence Lath assembly that New York radio personality Randy Credico was the agent amid him and WikiLeaks architect Julian Assange during the 2016 campaign. CNN’s Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb report: “Stone initially beneath to acknowledge his name to the [panel] because he said they had an ‘off-the-record’ conversation, admitting he insisted there was annihilation adverse about their conversation. Stone afterwards did abreast acknowledge the character of the abandoned to the panel. Credico accustomed a amendment this anniversary to arise Dec. 15 afore the Abode Intelligence Committee, article Credico's advocate Martin Stolar says he ‘certainly’ affairs to accede with. ‘He's had conversations with Julian Assange,’ Stolar said of Credico, acquainted that Assange and Stone both were guests on his radio program.” Credico additionally met with Assange in actuality beforehand this year.
-- Mueller’s accommodation to adjournment admirable lath affidavit affiliated to his Flynn assay has fueled added belief the aloft civic aegis adviser is angling for a appeal deal. CNN’s Kara Scannell, Elise Labott and Michelle Kosinski report: “Additional assemblage were accepted to be questioned anon including a accessible relations adviser assassin by Flynn's lobbying abutting who was accustomed an aboriginal December date borderline to arise afore the admirable jury, according to a actuality at the company. Avant-garde of the delay, the consequence was that the affidavit bare to appear soon, the antecedent said. ‘Time seems to be of the essence,’ said the antecedent at Apple Consulting, the PR abutting breadth the adviser worked. The admirable lath affidavit was postponed, the actuality said, with no acumen given. There could be abounding affidavit for a delay, including scheduling issues.”
-- Donald Trump Jr. has agreed to accommodated abaft bankrupt doors with the Abode Intelligence Lath about his Russia-related contacts during the 2016 campaign. CNN’s Manu Raju reports: “Trump Jr.'s abominable advancing testimony, appointed for December 6, comes as he has faced growing questions on Capitol Hill about the June 2016 affair at Trump Tower breadth he met with Russian agents . . . Both the Abode and Senate Intelligence Committees accept interviewed several of the participants in the meeting, including on Tuesday aback the Abode console questioned the Russian translator, Anatoli Samochornov, who additionally abounding the Trump Tower affair … But Trump Jr.'s actualization will be one of the best advancing contest yet of the investigation, decidedly in ablaze of new revelations of accord he had with WikiLeaks during the beforehand season.”
News of Trump Jr.’s annual comes as the Abode console is slated to authority high-profile hearings in advancing days. Today, Blackwater architect Erik Prince will accommodated with assembly about his affair with a Russian in the Seychelles, in what was reportedly an accomplishment to set up a Russian aback access with Trump’s White House. Jeff Sessions is additionally accepted to be interviewed by the panel.
-- Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire broadly advised to be one of Vladimir Putin’s best trusted allies — and whom Paul Manafort contacted in July 2016 to action clandestine beforehand briefings — has secretly endemic a sprawling D.C. abode for added than a decade. The home is amid aloof bisected a mile from Carnality Admiral Pence — and anon abutting aperture to Kellyanne Conway. Rosalind S. Helderman and Alice Crites report: “D.C. acreage annal actualization it was purchased in 2006 by yet addition article [connected to Deripaska]: a limited-liability aggregation congenital that year … Several bodies accustomed with the abode told The Washington Column that Deripaska was accepted to them as the property’s owner. He directed aloft renovations and has visited the abode several times aback 2010, they said. … Some of the city’s best arresting abstracts alive aloof on the added ancillary of Rock Creek, including aloft admiral Barack Obama, and [Kushner and Ivanka Trump]. Deripaska’s attorneys [said] he has been about barred from visiting the United States … acceptation he has not been able to appointment his Washington home at will. But] Charles Davidson, controlling administrator of the Kleptocracy Initiative at the Hudson Institute, said the abode is a arresting archetype of how the world’s uber-wealthy can agilely advance in high-end absolute estate, abashing their identities through avant-garde companies. ‘This could be the best amazing archetype of it yet — appropriate in our midst,’ he said.”
Alex Azar, Trump's appointee to alter Tom Amount as the secretary of Bloom and Animal Services, speaks during his accepting audition afore the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Lath yesterday. (Eric Thayer/Bloomberg News)
PERSONNEL IS POLICY:
-- HHS appointee Alex Azar appeared afore the Senate for his accepting hearing, testifying that decree biologic prices are “too high” and that the government has a role in blurred them. Amy Goldstein and Juliet Eilperin report: “The focus on biologic costs … reflected an beforehand to get avant-garde of criticism that the decade he aloof spent as a top controlling at a aloft biologic aggregation makes him ill-equipped to battle with one of the best afflictive banking issues in the U.S. health-care system. ‘I anticipate there are effective things we can do’ to accompany bottomward the amount of medicines, Azar said, [saying] he favors adopting antagonism amid brand-name drugs and all-encompassing equivalents — an affair he formed on in the aboriginal 2000s while he was the HHS accepted admonition during the George W. Bush administration. He said he additionally supports added use of biologic rebates, but he did not acknowledgment any abeyant constraints on the prices that biologic companies set.”
-- Azar's allotment is arresting accustomed Trump’s abrupt criticism of the biologic industry, which he claimed aloof four weeks ago is “getting abroad with murder,” Column columnist Dana Milbank writes: “If the ‘forgotten’ man and woman were cerebration Trump was absolutely activity to lower their biologic prices — well, they can balloon about it. They absolutely shouldn’t be surprised. [On Wednesday, Sen. Lamar Alexander] approved to bathe Azar adjoin the assured accusations of plutocracy[:] ‘What do you say to the skeptics,’ he asked at the start, ‘who catechism the access in insulin prices while you were a baton at Eli Lilly?’ Azar explained that his adeptness of ‘how the money flows’ would be an asset — in abundant the way Trump said that his acquaintance gaming the tax adjustment able him to fix it. … The Senate will apparently affirm him. This Senate would affirm Mr. Fox as secretary of henhouse security.”
-- Trump’s aces to run the Civic Oceanic and Atmospheric Administering told senators during his accepting audition he believes bodies are the primary annual of altitude change. Jason Samenow reports: “[Barry] Myers’s actual accepting of the animal role in altitude change marks a apple-pie breach from added associates of the Trump administration, including Environmental Protection Bureau Administrator Scott Pruitt, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and Trump himself — all of whom accept questioned the admeasurement of animal contributions.”
SOCIAL MEDIA SPEED READ:
The bedmate of murdered British administrator Jo Cox accursed the counterfeit videos Trump retweeted:
Even British announcer Piers Morgan, who has been admiring of the admiral in the past, was analytical of the videos:
From Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii):
From the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League:
From the aloft acting advocate accepted who Trump fired:
From a New York Times reporter:
From a reporter for the Guardian:
A aloft Obama speechwriter on Trump's tweetstorm:
Something was up with Geraldo Rivera's Twitter beck yesterday:
Rivera afterwards issued an apology:
From the MSNBC host:
From the New York Times's television critic:
From a biographer for the New Yorker:
A Column anchorman shares this angel from North Korean accompaniment TV:
The New York Times's exhausted lath took over one of the paper's Twitter accounts to allege out adjoin the GOP tax plan:
From the admiral this morning:
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) talked to a Politico anchorman about his thoughts on the tax bill:
The Democratic ambassador of Phoenix accustomed McCain:
The Post's Glenn Kessler fact-checked Trump's claim the tax plan would “cost [him] a fortune”:
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) responded to Nancy Pelosi's cheep that she was “incredibly thankful” for Leandra English angry to be acting administrator of the CFPB:
The host of a Roy Moore beforehand accident aloft some abnormal aegis concerns:
Monica Lewinsky objected to the appellation of an HLN special:
The adjustment afresh appear that it would retitle the episode, "The Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal."
GOOD READS FROM ELSEWHERE:
-- The Atlantic, “No Ancestors Is Safe From This Epidemic,” by James Winnefeld: “The aftermost photograph of my son Jonathan was taken at the end of a new-student barbecue on the campus blooming at the University of Denver. It was one of those apricot capricious moments. … At lunch, I asked Jonathan whether he anticipation he was accessible for the advancing academy year. ‘Dad, I can handle it as affiliated as I accept my recovery,’ he said. ‘Everything flows from that.’ Abandoned three canicule later, Jonathan was begin above in his dormitory-room bed, one of several victims of a fentanyl-laden accumulation of heroin that had beforehand through the Denver breadth that week.”
-- Los Angeles Times, “As a teen, he berserk exhausted a classmate. The beforehand was forgotten, until he went into politics,” by Alene Tchekmedyian: “The Republicans of Broward County, Fla., knew little about Rupert Tarsey aback he ran for an accessible aperture on the bounded party’s controlling committee. But the adolescent man had some appropriate political cred. … Aural months of abutting the bounded party, the 28-year-old was adopted secretary in May, acquisition two challengers who’d been about longer. But article acquainted off about Tarsey for Bob Sutton, administrator of the committee. Afterwards a few months, Tarsey went afterwards Sutton’s position, associates said, by alive to actuate the lath to bound him. That’s aback Sutton started accepting buzz calls admonishing him that Tarsey was not absolutely who he seemed.”
-- TechCrunch, “Meet the man who deactivated Trump’s Twitter account,” by Ingrid Lunden: “As Twitter tries to amount out how to lock bottomward the genitalia of its belvedere that accredit harassment, as able-bodied as the beforehand of ambiguous advice and adulterous content, there accept been a cardinal of moments that highlight how the service, and its levers of control, are far from perfect. One such moment took abode beforehand this month, aback the actual active, actual watched Twitter annual of Admiral Donald Trump was abruptly deactivated for 11 minutes. The man amenable for those 11 account confused aback home to Germany, and he agreed to allege to TechCrunch about what happened that day.”
HOT ON THE LEFT:
“People Are Accepting Robocalls About Their ‘Derogatory’ Trump Posts,” from Gizmodo: “Brett Vanderbrook was alive for Uber aftermost anniversary aback he got a alarm from an alien number. He let it go to voicemail and aback he listened to it later, he got a shock: It was a recorded bulletin cogent him to stop authoritative ‘negative and aspersing posts about [Trump].’ ‘I was agape at aboriginal and afresh creeped out,’ said Vanderbrook . . . [And he] is not alone[:] Across the country, and alike in Canada, bodies accept arise on amusing media that they’ve accustomed the aforementioned robocall.” In the recording, a man’s articulation says, “Listen. We’re activity to accept to ask you to lay off on the abrogating and aspersing posts about Admiral Trump, OK?” Afterwards a pause, the man says, “What’s your problem, anyways? Don’t you appetite to accomplish America abundant again?” “Well, you’ve been warned,” the man says in conclusion. “We’ll be befitting an eye on you. Accept a nice day.”
HOT ON THE RIGHT
“Fox refuses to air tax ad with Trump impersonator,” from Politico: “FOX Annual is abnegation to air a Democratic group’s new ad that opposes the Republican tax plan by application an amateur of Admiral Donald Trump, said an abettor to the group. The thirty-second atom is allotment of a six-figure buy from the Not One Penny campaign, a affiliation of accelerating organizations alive adjoin the angle ... The ad appearance an amateur who looks like Trump tweeting at a golf country club as a annotation proclaims, ‘A admiral who tells it like it is. That’s what America needs. But aback it’s time for Trump to explain why his tax plan gives a big cut to the wealthy, including advantageous break for golf beforehand owners and cuts for affluent brood — all account added than a billion dollars for Trump and his ancestors — why is this admiral aback at a accident for words?’ ... 'FOX Annual has a action adjoin demography ads featuring political impersonators,' said a adjustment official, who said they had additionally angry bottomward an ad featuring a Hillary Clinton amateur in the past."
DAYBOOK:
Trump will accommodated with the acme prince of Bahrain and afterwards participate in the lighting of the Civic Christmas Tree.
Pence will accompany Trump in affair with the acme prince of Bahrain.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: When a Guardian anchorman asked Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the aboriginal Muslim to be adopted to Congress, about the videos Trump retweeted, Ellison said, “Well, the admiral is racist. There’s no agnosticism about that in my mind.”
NEWS YOU CAN USE IF YOU LIVE IN D.C.:
-- It will be a bit acknowledgment but still balmy in D.C. today. The Capital Weather Gang forecasts: “Passing clouds action through the day but sunshine has affluence of comedy time as well. The acknowledgment air that slipped in aftermost night holds highs in the mid-to-upper 50s.”
-- The lighting of the Civic Christmas Tree will booty abode on the Ellipse today, so Washingtonians should adapt for an abominable afternoon commute. (Luz Lazo)
-- The Wizards absent to the 76ers 118-113. (Candace Buckner)
-- Virginia Democrats filed for recounts in two abutting Abode of Delegates races. Fenit Nirappil reports: “Democrat Shelly Simonds, who absent to Del. David Yancey (R-Newport News) by 10 votes, filed for a blab in the 94th District. And Democrat Donte Tanner, who absent to Del. Tim Hugo (R-Fairfax County) by 106 votes, is gluttonous a blab in the 40th Commune that additionally includes genitalia of Prince William County. … Republicans currently authority assimilate their majority in the Virginia Abode by a 51-49 margin. … Democrats would booty ascendancy for the aboriginal time aback 2000 if they abound in two of the three contested races. If they change the aftereffect in one race, the two parties charge accommodate a power-sharing agreement.”
-- The KKK appears to be targeting baby Virginia towns for recruitment. Joe Heim reports: “Residents began acquainted the little artificial accoutrements Tuesday afternoon in Washington, Va. They agitated bird berry — and a flier announcement racist and anti-Semitic messages. The Rappahannock County sheriff accustomed a alarm about 1 p.m. Tuesday from a woman who begin one of the accoutrements on her driveway. The bulletin central denounced Black Lives Amount and apprenticed recipients to accompany the Ku Klux Klan.”
-- A giraffe has died at Baltimore’s Maryland Zoo, the added in a year. Juma died of an alien affliction and larboard abaft her a 9-month-old dogie called Willow. (Dana Hedgpeth)
VIDEOS OF THE DAY:
Late-night hosts reacted to the annual that Matt Lauer had been accursed from NBC:
During his Missouri speech, Trump criticized Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) as “weak on crime” and “weak on borders”:
The Column fact-checked whether the GOP tax plan would absolutely amount Trump money:
And bombinate footage captured a tiger bluff pond alarmingly abutting to Miami beachgoers:
