memeorandum: Trump Says He's Visited Gaza, but No Record of Such a Trip Exists (Maggie Haberman/New York Times)

9:30 AM ET, October 8, 2024

Top Items:

Hurricane Milton is a Category 5. Florida orders evacuations and scrambles to clear Helene's debris — Florida's storm-battered Gulf Coast raced against a Category 5 hurricane Monday as workers sprinted to pick up heaps of appliances and other street debris left over from Helene two weeks ago …

Matt Dixon / NBC News:

Ron DeSantis is refusing to take Harris' call on Hurricane Helene — An aide to the Florida governor said that Harris' call “seemed political” and that she “was trying to reach out, and we didn't answer.” — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is not taking calls from Vice President Kamala Harris …

Kierra Frazier / Politico:
Harris and DeSantis fight over hurricane relief calls

Discussion: Breitbart, Florida Politics, Washington Times and Washington Examiner

Tara Suter / The Hill:
DeSantis ‘not aware’ of Harris calls after reports he dodged them

Discussion: Mediaite, RedState and Florida Politics

ABC News:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis refused call from VP Kamala Harris about hurricane aid: Source

Discussion: The Hill, Fox News, BizPac Review, The White House, Crooks and Liars, PinkNews, RedState, Washington Times, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, Raw Story, The Post Millennial, Lawyers, Guns & Money, New Republic, Tomorrow USA and CNN

CNN:

‘That son of a bitch’: New Woodward book reveals candid behind-the-scenes conversations of Biden, Trump, Harris and Putin — Editor's Note: The story below contains explicit language — In his new book, legendary journalist Bob Woodward offers a remarkable look behind the scenes …

Isaac Stanley-Becker / Washington Post:

Trump secretly sent covid tests to Putin during 2020 shortage, new book says — “War,” by Bob Woodward, traces how Trump and Biden responded to international crisis and concludes that Trump is worse than Nixon, the president exiled by the Watergate scandal.

Discussion: Political Wire

Mike Allen / Axios:

Scoop: Woodward's “War” reveals new Biden backstory … Blinken made it clear that getting out was a decision only Biden could make — wanting the president to feel he was making it on his terms, rather than being forced. — Biden stayed in the race three more weeks, then bowed out as party support collapsed.

Discussion: New Book Releases …

Bill Whitaker / CBS News:

Kamala Harris makes the case in 60 Minutes interview for why she should be president — Kamala Harris has been a candidate for president for just two-and-a-half months and the post convention “honeymoon” is over. With the election just 29 days away, Harris and her running mate Minnesota …

Discussion: Washington Post, ComingSoon.net, Washington Examiner, Breitbart, NPR, Mediaite, Raw Story, The Bulwark, Euromaidan Press, RedState, Power Line, Fox News, The Gateway Pundit, USA Today, BizPac Review and New York Times, more at Mediagazer »

Natasha Korecki / NBC News:
Harris undergoes a ‘60 Minutes’ grilling as Trump sits it out

Rebecca Crosby / Popular Information:
Every problem Trump wrongfully blames on undocumented immigrants

Discussion: ABC News, New Yorker and RUMBLE

Brett Samuels / The Hill:
Harris reveals owning a Glock: ‘Of course’ I've fired it

Discussion: Business Insider, New York Times, Breitbart, Washington Examiner, Politico, Forbes, USA Today, Fox News and CBS News

New York Times:

Poll Finds Harris Rising as She Challenges Trump on Change — A national Times/Siena poll found Kamala Harris with a slim lead over Donald J. Trump. Voters were more likely to see her, not Mr. Trump, as a break from the status quo. — Voters are now more likely to credit Vice President Kamala Harris …

Discussion: New York Magazine, The Hill, Fox News, National Review, New Jersey Online, Issues & Insights, HotAir and NBC News

Nate Silver / Silver Bulletin:

55/45 is a really close race — After a drought, we finally have enough interesting polling to do a Model Talk on where the race stands: perhaps we'll take another tour through the swing states, for instance. But we've been leaning heavily on the paywalled side lately …

Discussion: The Hill

Craig Mauger / The Detroit News:
Kamala Harris gains slight lead over Donald Trump in Michigan, poll shows

Discussion: HotAir and NPR

Andrew Romano / Yahoo News:
New Yahoo News/YouGov poll: Trump-Harris race tightens after Vance debate ‘win’

Discussion: Reuters, New York Post, RedState, freebeacon.com, New Jersey Online and The Hill

Mark Joseph Stern / Slate:

Ron DeSantis' Administration Is Threatening to Prosecute the Media for Airing Pro-Choice Ads — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration is threatening TV stations that air ads in support of an abortion rights ballot initiative with criminal penalties, including jail time.

Discussion: The Independent and Raw Story

Beth Reinhard / Washington Post:

FBI probe of Kavanaugh constrained by Trump White House, report finds — A Democratic senator's report finds new evidence of the White House controlling an FBI investigation into sexual assault claims against the Supreme Court nominee. — In September 2018, as allegations of sexual misconduct …

Discussion: The Daily Beast and Raw Story

Maggie Haberman / New York Times:

Trump Says He's Visited Gaza, but No Record of Such a Trip Exists — An aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity, pointed to the former president's trip to Israel. But Gaza is not in Israel. — Donald J. Trump suggested in a radio interview on Monday that he had visited war-torn Gaza in the past …

Discussion: HuffPost, Mediaite, Axios, Politico, New Republic and Associated Press

Lauren Egan / Politico:

What Kamala Harris' ‘Call Her Daddy’ media strategy is really about — Hint: it's not about mainstream media's egos. — On Sunday, a 40-minute interview with Vice President Kamala Harris aired on a platform with an audience of 5 million engaged and loyal listeners. No, it wasn't “Meet the Press” or “Face the Nation.”

Discussion: ComingSoon.net, The Message Box, Raw Story, abc7NY and The Daily Beast, more at Mediagazer »

Helen Lewis / The Atlantic:
What Going on Call Her Daddy Did for Kamala Harris

Megan Messerly / Politico:

Harris to propose new Medicare home care benefit for seniors — The vice president is expected to announce the proposal on “The View.” — Kamala Harris during a Tuesday appearance on “The View” is expected to announce a new policy aimed at helping families care for aging seniors.

Discussion: The Hill, Wall Street Journal, NPR and Forbes

Jonathan Cohn / HuffPost: Kamala Harris Will Propose Adding Home Care Benefit To Medicare

Brett Samuels / The Hill:

‘60 Minutes’ details Trump canceling prime-time interview — “60 Minutes” offered a lengthy on-air explanation to viewers Monday for why former President Trump declined to participate in the program's traditional interviews it has with presidential candidates ahead of the election.

Discussion: BizPac Review, Raw Story, USA Today, HuffPost, Mediaite and CBS News

Christopher Flavelle / New York Times:

As Major Hurricane Approaches Florida, FEMA Faces Severe Staffing Shortage — Fewer than 10 percent of the agency's disaster workers are available to respond to Hurricane Milton and other calamities. — The Federal Emergency Management Agency is running out of staff to deal …

Discussion: Politico, The Hill, Black America Web, Townhall, The Daily Caller, American Greatness and Washington Times

Scott Macfarlane / CBS News:
Disaster relief hurricane loan program precariously low on funds

Discussion: The Daily Beast, HuffPost, IJR and Politico

emptywheel:

Disaster Disinformation Is This Year's John Podesta Emails — I've already focused on these three paragraphs, but want to return to them. They're from NYT's article anticipating how the apparently tied race will roll out in the next 30 (now 28) days.

Sophia Cai / Axios:

“The Apprentice”: the film Trump doesn't want you to see … - The scenes are based on Ivana Trump's divorce deposition in 1990, in which she detailed a 1989 assault. — She later walked back her claim that she was raped, and said instead that she “felt violated.” — Trump has denied the allegations.

Discussion: Variety, Deadline, 77 WABC and Salon

Public Notice:

Trump's climate denial is appalling and getting worse — It's a perfect storm of ignorance and malevolence. … 🥂 — In the wake of Hurricane Helene, Trump's blatant lies about FEMA using emergency funds for migrants have gotten a lot of attention, and deservedly so …

NBC News:

Montana GOP Senate candidate says women have been ‘indoctrinated’ on abortion — In newly unearthed audio from last year, Tim Sheehy said abortion is “all” young women “want to talk about.” — Montana Senate candidate Tim Sheehy, who is locked in a highly consequential race …

Discussion: The Hill, Mediaite and HuffPost

Michael Holden / Reuters:

Russia's GRU seeking to cause ‘mayhem’ in Britain and Europe, UK's MI5 spy chief says — Russian military intelligence is seeking to cause “mayhem” across Britain and Europe, the UK's domestic spy chief said on Tuesday, while a growing threat from al Qaeda and Islamic State was his greatest terrorism concern.

Discussion: Politico, Bloomberg and The Sun

Hans Nichols / Axios:

Scoop: Massive Harris ad buy launches wild spending month … - The Harris campaign and its super PACs are swimming in cash. … - For Harris super PAC Future Forward this week, that involves directly appealing to the kind of voter Harris has struggled to attract: white working-class males.

Discussion: The Hill