https://twitter.com/jdistaso/status/1179154350448500741

https://twitter.com/i/status/1131962850828857344

"America" it's not.....



The new ad is targeted at voters he doesn't already have, but it comes across as "ordinary". Not with the oomph of a lot of campaign ads this year.

Source: Politico

The Trump White House upgraded the security of the National Security Council’s top-secret codeword system in the spring of 2018, according to two former Trump White House officials familiar with the matter, as part of an effort to ferret out and deter leaks.

The changes included a new log of who accessed specific documents in the NSC’s system — known as NICE or “NSC Intelligence Collaboration Environment” — and was designed in part to prevent leaks of records of the president’s phone calls with foreign leaders and to find out the suspected leaker if transcripts did get disclosed, one of the former officials said. Prior to the upgrade, officials could only see who had uploaded or downloaded material to the system but usually not who accessed which documents.

...snip...

CNN and the New York Times reported that transcripts of Trump’s calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi leader Mohammed Bin Salman were also placed into that highly classified system to prevent them from being leaked.

The Russian calls “were pretty much what you would expect, you can take the first part of the Zelensky call with all of the over the top effusive praise and basically copy and paste onto pretty much any head of state call with Trump, whether it was Emmanuel Macron or Vladimir Putin,” said the former NSC official. “Every one of them knew to start the call by praising him for the thing that he had just done that week.”

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/01/white-house-trump-leaks-code-015194

https://twitter.com/ShaneGoldmacher/status/1179128367091736576

https://twitter.com/spettypi/status/1179048003220447233

Source: WilmerHale

WilmerHale is pleased to announce that Robert S. Mueller III is rejoining the firm as a partner after serving as special counsel for the US Department of Justice.

Mr. Mueller’s practice will focus on high-profile investigations and crisis management, similar to his work at the firm before his service as special counsel.

“We couldn’t be happier to have Bob, our extraordinary friend and colleague, return to WilmerHale,” said Robert Novick, the firm’s co-managing partner. “Few lawyers have been entrusted with as many matters of national significance as Bob, in both his public service and in private practice. Bob embodies the highest values of our firm and profession. We’re privileged to work alongside him once again.”

“I’m glad to be at WilmerHale once again, a firm with a tradition of honoring public service,” Mr. Mueller said. “It was an honor to serve as special counsel. Now, I look forward to resuming my private practice alongside the talented lawyers at the firm.”

Read more: https://www.wilmerhale.com/en/insights/news/20191001-robert-s-mueller-iii-and-other-special-counsels-office-members-rejoin-wilmerhale

Bloomberg

Axios

The retirement of six House Republicans from Texas at the end of this term shows their pessimism about winning back the House majority in 2020, GOP strategists tell Axios — and foreshadows bigger Republican fears in the nation's second most populous state.

The big picture: The GOP recognizes they can no longer ignore their Democratic opponents and count on coasting to re-election in this previously-reliable red state.
- Mac Thornberry, who announced Monday he's not running for re-election, is different from the others because his retirement was expected, per the Texas Tribune.
- Still, the six-pack of GOP retirements in one cycle is hard to ignore.
- "We need a new Republican Party because the one we have is getting our asses kicked in House races," one Texas GOP strategist, who works with various campaigns and asked to speak anonymously to be candid, told Axios.
-President Trump will rally in Dallas on Oct. 17 to celebrate "the good news of the Trump economy" and "vast" accomplishments, his campaign announced Monday night.

The backstory: The 2018 midterms spooked Texas Republicans after they lost two congressional seats, saw closer-than-expected margins in a number of other races, and watched Beto O'Rourke surf a blue wave built in part on the state's shifting demographics.

Democrats are giddy at the fact that a GOP super PAC is trying to raise $10 million to register 1 million Republican voters in the state. "Republicans' answer so often is just to throw money at it," said Rep. Cheri Bustos of Illinois, who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

ABC News

Beto O'Rourke was asked on Saturday at an event in Austin, Texas, if he'd stay in the race if he didn't meet the elevated qualifications to appear on the debate stage alongside fellow Democrats in November.

He said that he would, joking, while at the Texas Tribune Festival, that hitting his fundraising goal could require a Facebook livestream and a kitten.

O'Rourke, the former representative, joked with the moderator Garrett Haake, an NBC correspondent, about theatrically snagging a few new donors.

"You know, it's kind of raising the ante or the bar for how we compete for those dollars," O'Rourke said. "I mean, I could maybe do a Facebook livestream with a kitten and, say, you know, 'Now, we don't want anything to happen to the kitten ... and so, you know, send your $5 or $10 or $15 in now. And, you know, Miss Whiskers is going to be fine.'"