The Morning Briefing: Beto on Impeachment, Jimmy Carter on Kavanaugh, And Much, Much More

Thank God it’s Friday!

Liz is out this morning, but I’ve got quite a few stories to get you up to speed.

Trump has a new slogan, “#JobsNotMobs.” I like it…

#JobsNotMobs!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 19, 2018

First, some Khashoggi news.

So, Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian journalist who worked for The Washington Post after leaving his home country, walked into the Saudi Arabian embassy in Istanbul and has not been seen since. It remains unknown what happened to him, but Turkish officials claim to have a recording of his gruesome death at the hands of Saudis.

It is possible the Turkish recording is real and that Khashoggi was murdered brutally by the Saudis. It is also quite possible the Turks are lying. Some have rushed to conclusions, accusing President Donald Trump of colluding with the Saudis to cover up Khashoggi’s murder. Trump has urged people to avoid rushing to judgment.

On Thursday, President Trump admitted that it seems Khashoggi is dead. “It certainly looks that way to me,” Trump said. “It’s very sad. Certainly looks that way.” He added that the consequences for Saudi Arabia would “have to be very severe,” if indeed the Saudis murdered him.

An unnamed source claimed that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has listened to the Turks’ recording, but the State Department denied it.

Beto wants impeachment, but won’t say what “high crime” Trump committed.

Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas, held a town hall with CNN on Thursday night. CNN and O’Rourke pulled a fast one on Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) campaign. Originally, both campaigns had scheduled a debate, but O’Rourke and CNN agreed that it would be a town hall, with O’Rourke and Cruz speaking at different times.

For that reason, Cruz decided not to attend.

Really tired of this nonsense that @tedcruz didn’t want to debate Beto O’Rourke on @CNN. #TexasTownHall Read the letters for yourself: pic.twitter.com/6iOYIfyh7T

— Emily Miller (@emilymiller) October 18, 2018

It worked out, however, because O’Rourke hoisted himself on his own petard. The Democrat said he would support impeaching President Donald Trump, but when asked what “high crimes and misdemeanors” he thought Trump had committed, he dodged the question.

When asked by CNN's Dana Bash if he's changed his mind after saying he'd vote to impeach President Trump this summer, O'Rourke replied: "I haven't" #TexasTownHall https://t.co/29rQpKYtsa pic.twitter.com/ULowpM65KX

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 18, 2018

Most people who support impeachment also can’t name a “high crime” or “misdemeanor” Trump has committed, according to a poll last May. Former Vice President Joe Biden admitted there is no basis for impeachment “right now.”

Jimmy Carter thinks Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford.

On Wednesday, former president Jimmy Carter said he believed Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault allegations against now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, despite the many holes and contradictions in her testimony.

Carter called Kavanaugh’s confirmation “a very serious mistake.”

“Judging by his previous legal career, he was very qualified. But … I think he did attack her sexually and I know that I saw him lose his cool,” the former president said, as first reported by The Emory Wheel.

I had the privilege of hearing President Carter speak today by virtue of my continued research for Hank Klibanoff’s Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases podcast “Buried Truths.” While a wonderful experience all around and a great contextualization of Georgia in 1962, where our case takes place, two moments in particular stood out to me. First, when President Carter informed us that he had read the transcript of the coroner’s inquest surrounding A.C. Hall’s death—A.C. Hall being a seventeen year old black boy shot in the back by two white officers in Macon in 1962 and the subject of season two of “Buried Truths”—and then recounted the details of it. After having visited the site of A.C. Hall’s death in Macon this weekend, in honor of the 56th anniversary of his shooting, where there exists no marker of what happened, and his home, which is now torn down, and his grave, which was untended and covered with vines, it was pretty phenomenal to realize that, in spite of all attempts to forget it, a former president in 2018 is thinking about his story. The other moment, captured in this video below, came when President Carter said that Supreme Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh should not have been confirmed and that he believed Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. And it was really nice to hear that from any president of the United States right now.

Posted by Katherine Rose Dautrich on Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Photo of the day.

On October 19, 1781, British Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis surrendered to General George Washington — or rather, Cornwallis’ subordinate surrendered to Washington. This surrender effectively ended the Revolutionary War, securing the independence declared on July 4, 1776.