BY PRIYANKA ARIBINDI, BRIAN BEUTLER

& CROOKED MEDIA

Friday, November 2, 2018

—Ben Shapiro, owning the...libs?

OUR MOST AWFUL PERSON

At a rally in Missouri on Thursday, President Trump made clear what really bothers him about the antisemite who murdered 11 worshipping Jews, and the pipe bomber who tried to murder several of the most high-profile targets of Trump’s smears: They were bad for him politically. “We did have two maniacs stop a momentum that was incredible, because for seven days nobody talked about the elections," Trump said. "It stopped a tremendous momentum."

This is high in the running for the most despicable thing Trump has ever said. The real victim of racist, right-wing political terrorism is him.

Recall that Trump parachuted into Pittsburgh earlier this week, against the express wishes of the victims of last weekend’s synagogue massacre. All the while his mind was fixated on his annoyance that the hate crime had “stopped” his “momentum.” Whether he bears any responsibility for it or not, his comment indicates that the loss of innocent American life means little to him.

This is nauseating, but it’s also reflective of Trump’s blinding narcissism, which makes him incapable of the basic human decency the presidency requires. And it’s been on full display in the closing days of the election.

• In an interview with Axios this week, Trump admitted that he calls journalists the “enemy of the people” to rile up voters, without concern for the dangers it creates for reporters, because it helped him win the election.
• In an interview with ABC News, he said he doesn’t always try to tell the truth, but tells the truth “when I can”—i.e. when telling the truth isn’t politically inconvenient.
• In a recent statement, he said he doesn’t regret implicating Ted Cruz’s father in the JFK assassination, or mocking Dr. Christine Blasey Ford—who accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her—because his lies and smears helped him get what he wanted.

From Brian: It says a lot about how dangerously desensitized the political system has become to Trump’s conduct that this horrifying comment passed with little notice. Democratic leaders said nothing. The political media, which spent the Obama years pouncing for days on minor gaffes, only covered it in passing. But it’s a value system that’s very much on the ballot on Tuesday, and treating it as unimportant in the scheme of things is a failure → votesaveamerica.com

Trump tried to clarify his suggestion that troops on the border would treat any migrants throwing rocks as though they were shooting firearms, saying, “I didn’t say ‘shoot.’” But the comment was widely interpreted as Trump giving the military the go ahead to murder migrants. In fact, the Nigerian government, which recently opened fire on protesters, cited Trump’s words to shut down criticism of its own conduct.

A federal judge has denied Trump’s request to halt a lawsuit that alleges he’s violating the Constitution by engaging in business with foreign governments through his D.C. hotel. That means plaintiffs will be granted access to Trump’s books and we’ll get a much clearer sense of the extent of his unprecedented corruption.

The Supreme Court will allow a trial on whether a citizenship question can be included on the 2020 census to proceed. It’s scheduled to start in New York on Monday. The Supreme Court also rejected an effort by the Trump administration to shut down teenage activists who are suing the government to take action against climate change.

A federal judge has ruled that Georgia Secretary of State/GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp has to establish procedures to allow people his office flags as potential noncitizens to vote, if they can prove they're citizens. This is expected to impact 3,141 voters whose registrations Kemp has frozen. Kemp’s office has prevented 53,000 voters from completing their registrations successfully, for issues ranging from signature discrepancies to alleged citizenship verification issues.

Twitter deleted over 10,000 accounts which sought to discourage voting. So uh… is Brian Kemp still on Twitter? Before you go congratulate Jack, Twitter also had to issue an apology today for allowing “Kill All Jews” to trend on its platform.

Jacob Wohl’s fake firm, Surefire Intelligence, took $1,200 from a woman hoping to recover her stolen Hummer before Wohl, pretending to be managing partner “Matthew Cohen,” bailed on her without returning the money or the vehicle.

Newark, NJ officials warned residents that the city’s drinking water is contaminated with lead.

Pete Davidson made a joke about his failed engagement on Saturday Night Live, and Ariana Grande was NOT having it. From Priyanka: What A Day is a tabloid now, deal with it.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s wedding photos are out and they are GOOD—probably because she hired a Pulitzer Prize-winning war photographer to shoot the event. From Brian: She wasn’t kidding RE the tabloid thing, sorry.

It’s the last weekend before the midterm elections. We’ll keep this short and sweet:

• Check if you’re a registered voter → votesaveamerica.com/verify
• Fill out and print your ballot (bring it with you to the polls!)
• Find your polling location and make a plan → votesaveamerica.com/makeaplan
• Shoot a few reminder texts to your friends/family/landlord/exes (truly, voting is that important) → votesaveamerica.com/votewithme
• Volunteer to help candidates in your area. This is the last weekend before the election—if there was ever a time, it’s now → votesaveamerica.com/dosomething
• VOTE! On November 6th, or before. (If you’re voting by mail, your ballot either has to be postmarked or received by November 6th, which means you should mail it in right now.)

And once you do all of that, treat yourself to this very funny video from our last Pod Save America special on HBO, featuring Friends of the Pod Steph Curry and Chance the Rapper →

“Black people are too stupid to vote for me… Name one country run by a black person that’s not a shithole. Name one city.” — one of four incredibly racist things Donald Trump said, according to his former lawyer-turned-one-man Democratic GOTV operation Michael Cohen.

Donald Trump is and always has been a raging racist—this is new news to absolutely no one—but it’s always jarring to be reminded that the president of the United States hates his country’s people.

JFC.

People in Pakistan are protesting their Supreme Court’s decision to acquit Asia Bibi and overturn her death sentence. Bibi is a Pakistani Christian woman who was convicted of  blasphemy after drinking water from a cup and passing it to a group of Muslims, who refused to drink from it because of her religion, and later accused her of insulting the Prophet Muhammad.  

This year, Ethiopia’s parliament appointed its first woman president, and the first woman to preside over the country’s Supreme Court. Half of the people serving on the prime minister’s Cabinet are women. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has pushed for gender parity since being elected in April, and it’s happening. Our turn next, please.

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