“The Justice Department said on Monday that President Trump should not be sued personally for having denied a rape allegation because he made the statement while acting in his official capacity as president. Lawyers for the government made the argument as they defended Attorney General William P. Barr’s decision to intervene in a defamation lawsuit filed in a New York court against President Trump by E. Jean Carroll, the writer” the New York Times reports.

“Ms. Carroll has said that Mr. Trump raped her in a department store two decades ago and then falsely denied the attack, branding her a liar and harming her reputation. But Justice Department lawyers say that even though the allegation concerns an incident that occurred decades before Mr. Trump became president, his denial was still an official act because he ‘addressed matters relating to his fitness for office as part of an official White House response to press inquiries.’ ‘Given the president’s position in our constitutional structure, his role in communicating with the public is especially significant,’ the Justice Department wrote, adding, ‘The president’s statements fall within the scope of his employment for multiple reasons.'”

Anchorage Daily News: “A magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck in the North Pacific Ocean Monday afternoon, triggering a tsunami warning along the Alaska Peninsula Coast. The earthquake struck about 62 miles southeast of Sand Point at 12:54 p.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The area is about 575 miles southwest of Anchorage. The earthquake triggered a tsunami warning for areas along the Alaska Peninsula coastline, according to the U.S. Tsunami Warning Center. The warning extended from Kennedy Entrance, 40 miles southwest of Homer, to Unimak Pass, 80 miles northeast of Unalaska. There were no immediate reports of damage.”

Fox News: “Cancer-stricken talk radio legend Rush Limbaugh provided listeners a somber update on his condition Monday after recent scans showed ‘some progression of cancer,’ which he said is ‘not dramatic’ but still a step in the wrong direction. Limbaugh announced in February that he was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and had missed several shows this month to undergo treatment. ‘From the moment you get the diagnosis, there’s a part of you every day, OK, that’s it, life’s over, you just don’t know when,’ Limbaugh said.”

“‘So, during the period of time after the diagnosis, you do what you can to prolong life, do what you can to prolong a happy life. You measure a happy life against whatever medication it takes.’ Limbaugh, who recently hosted President Trump for a two-hour interview, continued the devastating update on his diagnosis. ‘It’s tough to realize that the days where I do not think I’m under a death sentence are over,’ Limbaugh continued. ‘Now, we all are, is the point. We all know that we’re going to die at some point, but when you have a terminal disease diagnosis that has a time frame to it, then that puts a different psychological and even physical awareness to it.'”

“The Commission’s pro-Biden antics have turned the entire debate season into a fiasco and it is little wonder why the public has lost faith in its objectivity. The moderator for the first debate styled himself as a third combatant on stage, with almost all of his venom directed at President Trump. The moderator of the second debate, which was cancelled, revealed his anti-Trump bias by accidentally tweeting what was intended to be a direct message to a well-known Trump critic, and then lying that his Twitter account had been ‘hacked.’ Incredibly, the Commission has yet to retract its public statement of support for the moderator’s bogus hacking cover story, which resulted in the moderator’s indefinite suspension from his place of employment. Finally, the moderator of the third debate now has decided to pursue topics almost wholly unrelated to the purpose of the event, which was to be focused on foreign policy.”

“It is our understanding from media reports that you will soon be holding an internal meeting to discuss other possible rule changes, such as granting an unnamed person the ability to shut off a candidate’s microphone. It is completely unacceptable for anyone to wield such power, and a decision to proceed with that change amounts to turning further editorial control of the debate over to the Commission which has already demonstrated its partiality to Biden. This is reminiscent of the first debate in 2016, when the President’s microphone was oscillated, and it is not acceptable. For the good of campaign integrity, and for the benefit of the American people, we urge you to rethink and reissue a set of topics for the October 22 debate, with an emphasis on foreign policy. This is what the campaigns had agreed to and it has been the tradition in past campaigns. We await your immediate reply to these concerns. We further advise you that there is no reason to consult with the Biden campaign before replying because we all know what they think” – excerpt from Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien’s Monday letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Poll aggregator and analysts FiveThirtyEight have set the likelihood of a Biden victory at its highest margin of the campaign, with Democratic Presidential candidate Biden an 88 to 12 favorite to take the Electoral College.

The website gives republican incumbent nominee Donald Trump just a four percent chance of winning the popular vote, with an eight percent chance of losing the popular vote but winning the electoral college.

In an indication of the strength of Biden’s campaign, FiveThirtyEight gives the Democratic nominee a 93% chance of winning more than 50% of the vote.

Yahoo News: “With only two weeks left until Election Day, Joe Biden’s lead over President Trump has widened to 11 percentage points — Biden’s biggest margin among likely voters in any Yahoo News/YouGov poll to date. The survey, which was conducted from Oct. 16 to 18, shows that a majority of likely voters (51 percent) now say they are voting for the Democratic nominee, while just 40 percent say they are voting for Trump. Biden’s lead, which is identical among registered voters, has grown by 3 points since last week’s Yahoo News/YouGov poll.”

The first is a copy of Don, Jr.’s self-published book.  The second is a gallon bottle of Trump’s eau de toilete, “Desperation by Donald” that were taken off the shelves of The Dollar Store.

“NC GOP chair now hitting the nuclear button on Cunningham ‘It’s time for Cunningham to either start providing North Carolinians with straight answers on his extramarital affairs or suspend his campaign.’ (He’s not going to suspend his campaign. In fact, he very well might win)” – Politico reporter Burgess Everett via Twitter.

…P.S. Tony should stop wearing the Washington Nationals’ Mask for two reasons. Number one, it is not up to the high standards that he should be exposing. Number two, it keeps reminding me that Tony threw out perhaps the worst first pitch in the history of Baseball!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 19, 2020

CNN: “Six Russian military officers were charged on Monday for hacking into software using destructive malware to black out thousands of computers and cause nearly $1 billion in losses, actions that the Justice Department says were intended to support Russian government efforts to undermine, retaliate against, or otherwise destabilize worldwide computer networks. The alleged hackers are officers of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), a military intelligence agency of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the Justice Department said.”

“Prosecutors said they attacked Ukraine; the country of Georgia; elections in France; efforts to hold Russia accountable for its use of a weapons-grade nerve agent, Novichok, on foreign soil; and the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games after Russian athletes were banned from participating under their nation’s flag, as a consequence of Russian government-sponsored doping effort. The United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania issued a federal arrest warrant for each of these defendants upon the grand jury’s return of the indictment.”

Hi Stu! We are in no relation to David Perdue here at Perdue Chicken. Hope this helps! ~Alexa

— Perdue Chicken (@PerdueChicken) October 18, 2020

Hi there, Peter. David Perdue has no affiliation with the Perdue brand. ~Eliza

— Perdue Chicken (@PerdueChicken) October 17, 2020

See more @PerdueChicken

Vice: “The New Yorker has suspended reporter Jeffrey Toobin. Sources tell VICE it’s because he exposed himself during a Zoom call last week between members of the New Yorker and WNYC radio. Toobin said in a statement to Motherboard: ‘I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera. I apologize to my wife, family, friends and co-workers.’ New Yorker spokesperson Natalie Raabe said: ‘Jeffrey Toobin has been suspended while we investigate the matter.’ Toobin’s Conde Nast email has been disabled and he has not tweeted since October 13. He did, however, appear on CNN, where he is the network’s chief legal analyst, on Saturday. CNN did not respond to a request for comment.”

In an attempt to maintain a heartbeat on the debunked and widely dismissed “Hunter’s laptop” conspiracy, Trump’s personal attorney and Nosferatu cosplayer Rudy Giuliani writes on RealClearPolitics that unverified and suspicious emails from a recovered laptop prove… something is afoot at the Circle K.

Giuliani continues to claim, without any verification of the authenticity of the laptop or the emails, that Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden was heavily influenced by the business dealings of his son, although even a Senate investigation failed to show any such influence.  In fact, Biden was following US national policy–endorsed by republicans and our European allies–to oust a Ukrainian prosecutor who was so corrupt, his team was known as the “Diamond Prosecutors” because they literally took diamonds as bribes. 

Third First Lady Melania Trump is scheduled to join her ersatz husband during his campaign appearance in Erie, Pennsylvania Tuesday night, her first appearance on the campaign trail in months, NBC News reports.

Usually during a presidential campaign, the candidate’s spouse travels around the couple to boost the exposure of the campaign through personal appearances.  Dr. Jill Biden has been making appearances in Maine, Wisconsin and New Hampshire in the last couple weeks on her own, while her husband has been hitting other locations.

Even given Melania Trump’s diagnosis of Covid-19, which kept her off the campaign trail for three weeks, the third First Lady hasn’t made a campaign appearance in a year, and has yet to travel on her own to a campaign event. 

Fox News: “Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller said on Monday that in this week’s debate the president will bring up allegations that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden met with a Ukrainian business associate of his son, Hunter, as reported by the New York Post last week based on emails allegedly coming from the hard drive of a laptop that once purportedly belonged to Hunter Biden. The Biden campaign has said that it reviewed Biden’s ‘official schedules from the time and no meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place.'”

“Democrats, including House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who said on CNN the emails are part of a smear campaign coming ‘from the Kremlin,’ have slammed the report. But Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said on FOX Business on Monday that there is no intelligence to support Schiff’s assertion. ‘I think Joe Biden is compromised … Joe Biden has now dodged this multiple times. Are you the ‘big guy?’ Are you the ‘chairman?’ Is Hunter Biden handling family expenses and setting aside money for you?’ Miller said on FOX Business’ ‘Mornings with Maria.’ ‘If Kristen Welker, the moderator, doesn’t bring it up, I think you’re pretty safe to assume that the president will. Again, these are real simple questions.'”

“Mediaite has learned that Fox News was first approached by Rudy Giuliani to report on a tranche of files alleged to have come from Hunter Biden’s unclaimed laptop left at a Delaware computer repair shop, but that the news division chose not to run the story unless or until the sourcing and veracity of the emails could be properly vetted. With the general election just three weeks away, Giuliani ultimately brought the story to the New York Post, which shares the same owner, Rupert Murdoch. The tabloid has been exhaustively covering the contents of the laptop — which include everything from emails regarding Hunter Biden’s work for a Ukrainian company to personal photos of the recovering addict — with each morsel being amplified in the conservative media world, including on Fox News’ top-rated opinion programs. Thus far, the Fox’s News division has only been able to verify one email from the tranche leaked” – Mediaite.

“Trump disparages Dr. Fauci on campaign call, says people are tired of hearing from him and ‘all these idiots.’ ‘He’s been here for 500 years,’ Trump says and muses about firing him if it weren’t for negative press If he did. ‘Fauci’s a disaster'” – Reuters White House reporter Jeff Mason via Twitter.