The gubernatorial standoff between Democrat Ralph Northam and Republican Ed Gillespie may be taking national headlines today, but another race worth paying attention to down-ballot pits incumbent Democrat Attorney General Mark Herring against Republican federal prosecutor and military veteran John Adams to be Virginia's attorney general.
Why we're paying attention: Attorneys general across the country, including Herring himself, have been playing a big role in countering Trump's policies this year, in particular the various iterations of the travel ban. And in the last several years, Virginia has been at the center of some national debates, including same sex marriage — his refusal to back Virginia's ban on same sex marriage elevated the issue to the Supreme Court and effectively legalized same sex marriage nationwide.
The Trump administration is moving forward with an Obama-era law, championed by former First Lady Michelle Obama, that would require calorie counts to appear on labels or with food in restaurants, stores, and pizza delivery chains throughout the U.S., per the AP. This comes as a contrast to Trump's administration's recent tact of rolling back Obama-era initiatives.
Why it matters: "When you arm consumers with reliable information, they are going to make better decisions, smarter and more informed decisions about their diet," FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told the AP. "Providing this information is more important now than ever because more people are eating their meals away from the home."
Devin Kelley, the gunman who killed 26 people Sunday at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas escaped from a mental health hospital while serving in the Air Force, per the New York Times.
A 2012 police report revealed that Kelley was placed in the psychiatric facility after being charged in a military court for repeatedly assaulting his wife and baby stepson, including one attack that left the boy with a fractured skull. Kelley later pleaded guilty to the charges, and was sentenced to a year in a Navy prison.
House members Jason Lewis (R-MN) and Bobby Scott (D-VA) announced a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill this morning with the goal to decrease "the size and associated costs" of the federal justice system. The bill will: focus on violent and repeat-offenders; decrease the three-strike penalty to 25 years instead of life for drug trafficking offenses; and make it easier for drug offenders to qualify for less than the mandatory minimum.
Why it matters: The Senate unveiled a couple bipartisan criminal justice reform bills last month, but they have yet to be brought to the floor despite Sen. Mike Lee hoping for a vote by the end of the year. Now, House members are re-upping their legislation, which is almost identical to bills proposed last year. Reform efforts in the House and Senate died last year because of the election and President Trump's tough-on-crime rhetoric.
Carter Page's 6.5 hours of testimony before the House Intelligence Committee last week revealed that senior members of Donald Trump's campaign knew about Trump's former foreign policy advisor 2016 trip to Moscow, and were updated on the details of the trip upon his return, according to a transcript of the interview released Monday night. Page also admitted to meeting with high-level Russian officials, and said he relayed that information to his campaign supervisors.
Why it matters: It's long been known that Page, who has become a key figure in the Russia investigation, traveled to Moscow in 2016. But prior to his testimony he maintained that it was in a private capacity, and unrelated to his role with the Trump campaign. However, the transcript reveals that top members of the Trump camp knew more than they have let on.
"An early December government shutdown is a real possibility, since a divided Congress can't agree on military spending, Democrats insist on help for young immigrants and President Donald Trump's position can change with each lawmaker he talks to," AP's Andy Taylor writes:
"Most of Washington is focused on overhauling the nation's tax code, but lawmakers face a combustible mix of must-do and could-do items, with the current government spending bill set to expire Dec. 8."
President Trump arrived in South Korea today on the next leg of his Asia trip. He'll first visit Camp Humphreys, one of the largest U.S. military installations in Asia, to meet with American and South Korean troops. He'll then head to Seoul's presidential complex, the Blue House, to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in for a variety of welcome ceremonies and working meetings, including a joint press conference, before settling in for a state dinner this evening.
Minutes before polls opened in Virginia for today's gubernatorial election, President Trump chimed in with a series of tweets (from South Korea) in support of GOP nominee Ed Gillespie:
"Ralph Northam will allow crime to be rampant in Virginia. He's weak on crime, weak on our GREAT VETS, Anti-Second Amendment and has been horrible on Virginia economy. Vote @EdWGillespie today! .@EdWGillespie will totally turn around the high crime and poor economic performance of VA. MS-13 and crime will be gone. Vote today, ASAP!"
Graduate students and their professors say their careers and programs are threatened by a provision of the House Republican tax bill that proposes tens of thousands of dollars in higher income taxes on American doctoral students.
Why it matters: The legislation, following a series of threats by the Trump administration that could reduce the number of foreign Ph.D students and their ability to stay in the country after graduation, could be another strike at U.S. dominance of global research and invention. Claus Wilke, chairman of Integrative Biology at University of Texas at Austin, said that should the proposal become law, he "could not in good conscience recommend a Ph.D. to anybody unless they were so rich they didn't care."
Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met with senior members of the Trump campaign in March 2016, said Donald Trump Jr. suggested during the meeting that if his father were to win the election, the administration would be willing to review a 2012 law sanctioning Moscow. In an interview published Monday by Bloomberg, Veselnitskaya also said Trump Jr. had asked for written evidence that illegal funds went to Hillary Clinton's campaign.
Why it matters: Veselnitskaya said she is willing to tell these and other things to the Senate Judiciary Committee if her testimony is made public, and said she'd also be willing to testify before Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Her interview adds another layer to the already controversial Trump Tower meeting, which has played a key role in the Russia investigation.
59% of Americans believe that the United States is currently undergoing the lowest point in its history, according to the American Psychological Association's annual Stress in America poll.
American Psychological Association's annual Stress in America survey; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon / Axios
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), 40 — who "plays successfully to the warring constituencies of the Republican Party" — gets a seven-page spread in The New Yorker, with a piece by Jeffrey Toobin, who traveled to the cow-calf farm in Yell County, Arkansas, where the senator grew up:
Why he matters: "Cotton appears to be a hybrid of insurgent and old guard ... As Bannon put it, 'How many guys in town can give a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations and also get kudos in the pages of Breitbart? The answer is, one guy.'"
This week is one year since Trump's shock victory, and Esquire has a delicious oral history, "The Untold Stories of Election Day 2016."
Deputy Editor John Hendrickson tells Axios: "15 people ... did the interviews, a mix of staffers and freelancers, then another 5 ... helped with supplemental editing and art as we hit the home stretch. Our last transcription came in as late as 5:30 p.m. this past Friday night."
A few gems:
Steve Bannon: "Jared [Kushner] and I were out on this balcony in Trump Tower. We looked at it on Jared's iPhone. And the numbers were so bad that we regrouped inside. We look at each other and we go, 'This can't be right. It just can't.'" And Jared goes, 'I got an idea, let's call Drudge.' And Drudge says, 'The corporate media—they've always been wrong the entire time — these numbers are wrong.'"
Ashley Parker of WashPost, then of N.Y. Times: "The RNC thought they were going to lose. The Trump campaign supporters thought they were going to lose. They were rushing to get their side out of the blame game. I spent part of my day lining up interviews for later that night or the next morning to get their version of events."
Maggie Haberman of N.Y. Times: "One Trump supporter sent me a message saying, 'You're [screwed].' [Laughs] If you use that, please recall me laughing about it. It was really something."
Michael Barbaro of N.Y. Times: "I went home and woke up my husband, I think it was 4 or 5 in the morning, and asked him what the next steps should be journalistically. Should I move to Washington? Should I change jobs? It was pretty disorienting."
President Trump said that yesterday's mass shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas was not "a guns situation," instead calling "mental health" the problem during a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo.
Worth considering: Trump's reaction is similar to his relatively muted response to last month's Las Vegas shooting — when he offered prayers and condolences after an incident perpetrated by a white male. In comparison, last week's ISIS-linked New York truck attack spurred Trump to weigh in on a wide range of controversial policy issues like immigration, federal prosecution of terror suspects, and the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.
