The parents of Harry Dunn said that President Trump had pressed them multiple times to meet the woman who killed their son in a car crash.

Their spokesman said that the attempted photo-opportunity at the White House was “hastily arranged by nincompoops”.

Mr Trump said that he had been asked to arrange a meeting by Boris Johnson.

Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn said that they refused repeated requests from the president to meet Anne Sacoolas, after being told that she had been brought to the White House.





https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/harry-dunn-crash-trump-pressed-bereaved-parents-to-see-killer-driver-anne-sacoolas-8l7mhphfs?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1571268181

https://twitter.com/ArmsControlWonk/status/1184611377802932224?s=20

https://twitter.com/marklgoldberg/status/1184570163942658048?s=21

It was the first thing mentioned after they cut the small talk.

"I'm trying to win in 2020," Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen told conservative activist Michael Quinn Sullivan in a secret recording of their infamous June meeting made public Tuesday.

Over the next hour, the discussion veered from topic to topic, most notably revealing that Bonnen offered media access to Sullivan's group, Empower Texans, while suggesting it target certain GOP members. But never too far from their conversation was the stark acknowledgment that Texas Republicans are in trouble in 2020, particularly in the state House — and President Donald Trump is not helping.

"With all due respect to Trump — who I love, by the way — he's killing us in urban-suburban districts," Bonnen said at one point, suggesting he has seen polling that shows Trump down 15 percentage points in one battleground state House district, while the GOP incumbent is "even."

Speaking later in the recording with just state Rep. Dustin Burrows, then the House Republican Caucus chairman, Sullivan predicted Texas Republicans "are all going to live to regret" eliminating straight-ticket voting, which the Legislature voted to do in 2017 but did not make effective until 2020. Sullivan expressed confidence that Trump will win Texas next year at "back-to-normal levels" but voiced concern that the voters "he pulls out are going to be people who really don't know — or care — what a state representative is."



https://www.texastribune.org/2019/10/15/bonnen-sullivan-tape-lays-bare-gop-anxiety-about-2020/

BRUSSELS — Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union and a central figure in the House impeachment inquiry of President Trump, is overseeing a nearly $1 million renovation of his government-provided residence, paid for with taxpayer money, that current and former officials have criticized as extravagant and unnecessary.

The work on the ambassador’s home on the outskirts of Brussels includes more than $400,000 in kitchen renovations, nearly $30,000 for a new sound system and $95,000 for an outdoor “living pod” with a pergola and electric heating, LED lighting strips and a remote-control system, government procurement records show.

The State Department also has allocated more than $100,000 for an “alternate” residence for Sondland for September and October, while work is performed.

Sondland, a hotel developer and major Trump fundraiser who had no diplomacy background before he was confirmed by the Senate in June 2018, was pivotal to the administration’s efforts to pressure the government of Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political rivals, according to text messages and testimony from current and former officials.





https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/amid-impeachment-probe-gordon-sondland-is-overseeing-a-renovation-of-his-residence-that-has-cost-1-million-in-taxpayer-money/2019/10/16/d0eece92-ef86-11e9-bb7e-d2026ee0c199_story.html

The three Democratic congresswomen who unseated Republicans in Virginia last year each have more than $1 million in their campaign accounts as they try to win reelection in battleground districts in 2020.

Reps. Elaine Luria, Abigail Spanberger and Jennifer Wexton each raised more than $500,000 in the three-month period from July to the end of September, according to finance reports filed by Tuesday’s deadline.

The women were part of a blue wave that helped deliver Democrats control of the House and gave their party a majority in the Virginia congressional delegation for the first time.

The campaign finance report is the first since the Virginia congresswomen teamed up with five other Democrats with national security backgrounds last month to announce their support for an impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

Republicans are already lining up to compete for the nomination to challenge Spanberger in a red district in central Virginia as well as Wexton in Northern Virginia. Luria has at least one challenger in her swing district of Hampton Roads, although that number may increase after next month’s state legislative election, when every seat in the Virginia General Assembly is on the ballot.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/virginia-congresswoman-each-raise-more-than-1-million-going-into-2020/2019/10/16/536a637c-eeb5-11e9-89eb-ec56cd414732_story.html

Texas voters are about to weigh in on 10 proposed amendments to the state constitution, which deal with everything from retiring law enforcement animals to the state's tax code. Voters in three state House districts will also participate in special elections to fill empty seats.

Early voting begins Monday and runs through Nov. 1. Election Day is Nov. 5.

During this year's legislative session, lawmakers passed several bills that require amendments to the Texas Constitution. A majority of Texas voters must vote to support any change to the state constitution in a statewide referendum. In 2017, all seven constitutional amendments on the ballot passed.



https://www.texastribune.org/2019/10/15/texas-2019-constitutional-amendments-what-voters-need-know/

https://twitter.com/sfpelosi/status/1184610805469200384?s=20

WASHINGTON, D. C. - Cincinnati Republican Rep. Steve Chabot’s re-election campaign paid companies run by Chabot’s former campaign manager, Jamie Schwartz, more than $57,000 during the year’s third quarter before Schwartz split from Chabot amid an investigation of missing campaign money.

Chabot’s campaign disbursed $57,004.50 to Schwartz’s companies - Fountain Square Group and Prime Media - in July and August, before Schwartz shut them down. A campaign finance report that Chabot filed at the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday lists the purpose of the expenses as “unknown.”

“Due to an internal audit after the discovery of misappropriated funds, the beginning cash on hand is an estimate based upon the information the committee has at the time of this filing,” said an explanatory memo filed with the report. “The cash adjustments may change in the future depending on additional information that may present itself. Additionally, a number of disbursements list the purpose as unknown. The purpose of those can not be determined until the completion of the investigation of the former Treasurer.”

An attorney for Chabot’s campaign last month told cleveland.com that authorities were investigating missing money from Chabot’s campaign.




https://www.cleveland.com/open/2019/10/rep-steve-chabots-campaign-spent-57k-for-unknown-purposes.html

RICHMOND — Virginia Democrats have raised historic amounts of money in the weeks leading to the Nov. 5 election that will determine control of the General Assembly, using infusions from national groups to far outstrip Republican totals.

A surge of cash in September brought Democrats to a total of $31.8 million raised so far this year, more than double the $13.7 million Democratic candidates raised in 2015, the last time all 140 seats in the legislature were on the ballot, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project.

Republican totals are up modestly, to $21 million from $17.7 million in 2015.

The September surge added to a lead that Democrats built up over the summer. Seven of the top 10 fundraisers are Democrats in both House of Delegates and state Senate races, according to a VPAP tabulation of campaign finance reports filed by midnight Tuesday. Those reports, covering the month of September, are the final full disclosures before Election Day.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/virginia-democrats-in-fundraising-overdrive-ahead-of-crucial-elections-gop-up-slightly/2019/10/16/b2085768-f022-11e9-b648-76bcf86eb67e_story.html