Reuters Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh speaks in the East Room of the White House in July.
The White House’s plan to defend Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh will rely heavily on women who will attest to the judge’s good character, officials told CNN, including from his teenage years, during which he is alleged to have sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford.
CNN reported the White House has been contacting many of the 65 women who signed a letter in support of Kavanaugh that was released after an anonymous allegation of sexual assault surfaced — and before Ford emerged to put a name and a face to her accusation — to see if they would be willing to publicly back him. Many of those women, one official said, are prepared to publicly defend Kavanaugh. Ford and Kavanaugh will both testify on Monday to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Cohn on Dimon: JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM, +0.30% Chief Executive Jamie Dimon would make a “phenomenal” president, says former White House adviser Gary Cohn. “I think Jamie would make a phenomenal president, I think Jamie would be a spectacular president,” Cohn, who stepped down as President Trump’s director of the National Economic Council earlier this year, said Monday at an event hosted by Reuters. It’s “very similar to running a complex, multinational, global firm.” Still, reports Bloomberg, Cohn didn’t say whether he thought Dimon could defeat Trump in an election. Last week, Dimon said he could beat Trump in a presidential contest, and later moderated his remarks, emphasizing that he wasn’t officially throwing his hat in the ring, as MarketWatch wrote.
Beijing likely to cancel trade talks: The South China Morning Post reports China is likely to cancel tentative plans to send President Xi Jinping’s top economic adviser to Washington after Trump announced new tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese products, a government source in Beijing said on Tuesday. A source told the Post that one precondition for the talks was that the U.S. would show goodwill, but Trump’s decision on Monday to escalate the trade war by slapping 10% tariffs on almost half of all Chinese exports might have derailed the talks.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told CNBC on Tuesday morning it’s up to Beijing to take the next step on trade talks.
Super PAC’s digital House campaign: Politico reports Priorities USA and House Majority PAC are rolling out an eight-figure digital ad program in more than 40 House districts in a major online push to flip the chamber in the midterms. The $10 million-plus effort from the Democratic super PACs revolves around health care, taxes and money in politics, the report says. The ads hammer Republican incumbents and candidates for supporting repeal of the Affordable Care Act and passage of the GOP tax plan, while accusing them of passing rising health care costs on to voters and taking special interest money.
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