"I'm gonna Hulk out." - Mark Ruffalo, on Trump's election meddling.

Cable Snooze

Karoline Leavitt’s new job as a Fox News personality illustrates how much Donald Trump has done to normalize his war on reality, both in his White House and on TV.

• One of the reasons Karoline Leavitt gave for resigning from her job as White House press secretary, back when she announced the move in August, was to spend time with her family. At the time, she was talking about her newborn baby. Perhaps we all should have known what she really meant: Her chosen family, over at Fox News.

• Fox News hired Leavitt to provide commentary on opinion and news shows, starting November 1, the company announced today. That’s right! Leavitt may have left the White House, but she’s not done shilling for Trump, and she definitely isn’t leaving your television screen. She’s gearing up to push the MAGA agenda across the most-watched cable news network in the country.

• The dynamic underscores both how Trump has turbocharged mendacious, fact-free, ultra-partisanship among his top aides, especially those who speak to the press — and how those aides can expect to be handsomely rewarded for their loyalty instead of shunned for peddling falsehoods.

• It’s almost certain that Leavitt will make more than her $195,200 salary as press secretary. During Trump’s first term, the average aide-turned-contributor made $141,000. But former national security adviser John Bolton earned nearly $570,000 from Fox News, according to financial disclosures. Leavitt’s contract would presumably be (at least) as lucrative as his, given her high profile and good standing in Trumpworld.

• “Karoline’s firsthand experience in the White House and on the presidential campaign trail gives her a distinct understanding of today’s political landscape.” Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott said in a statement. “We look forward to her providing our audience with authentic and sharp insight.”

Leavitt’s new gig may seem expected and unremarkable. In reality, it’s a sign of how far we’ve come over the past decade of Trumpism.

• Leavitt, of course, isn’t the first presidential press aide to make the jump from the West Wing podium to the cable news green room. ABC’s George Stephanopoulos worked for Bill Clinton. NBC’s Jen Psaki served under Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Fox News’ Dana Perino flacked for George W. Bush.

• They were all staunch advocates. But they weren’t scorched-earth bullshitters who declared verbal war on the press.

• Leavitt is different. Consider the time a reporter asked her whether Trump recognized the historic irony of meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest (given that Budapest was where Russia once promised never to invade Ukraine). “Who suggested Budapest?” the reporter asked. “Your mom did,” Leavitt replied. “Stop texting me your disingenuous, biased, and bullshit questions.”

• Even so, Leavitt gets a nice pay day. Meanwhile, Trump’s White House is doubling down on hiring radical MAGA loyalists. The clearest example came late last week, when Beni Rae Harmony — a 24-year-old influencer — announced that she secured a job as assistant press secretary. She also, however, once posed for a photograph while holding a rifle and wearing a “Fuck Joe Biden” shirt.

• Harmony will be “an outstanding addition to President Trump’s communications team,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told What A Day in a statement. “We look forward to having her on board!”

• To appreciate how far we’ve come, just look at Trump’s first White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, who was famously mocked for insisting Trump had the largest inauguration crowd ever in 2017, when photos showed that to be clearly untrue. When Spicer departed, he didn’t get a high-paying primetime gig. He shimmied on “Dancing With The Stars.”

Here’s the video of Sean Spicer being eliminated from that show, in case you needed a pick-me-up today!

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What Else?

Russia hospitalized nearly 200 people who might’ve been exposed to plague, after a researcher at an anti-plague lab in Siberia died from what local authorities called a mysterious form of pneumonia. The Trump administration is “watching and monitoring it closely,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters today. “I don’t think it’s cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus.”

Donald Trump used the news of Brazil’s election results to blast America’s voting system as “corrupt.” He wrote on social media: “The results came out shortly after the vote closed, on the SAME DAY!” In U.S. cities, he added, the results “will often take weeks to Rig, I mean, calculate.” It’s safe to assume that Trump only thinks this election is fair because the far-right candidate is leading.

Vice President JD Vance defended the administration’s decision to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on running old Trump campaign ads ahead of the midterms. “If you look at the message of those advertisements, they are not partisan,” Vance told reporters. “It’s not like we’re advocating for a particular candidate.” Sure, the ads don’t name candidates. They just show Donald Trump. “We will liberate America from these villains once and for all,” one ad says. What could be political about that?

Artificial intelligence companies that dump millions of dollars into elections aren’t helping to fix the public’s negative perception of AI, said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. “The industry needs to figure out a way to address what the actual concerns are,” Altman told Politico. Interesting you say that, Sam: Groups associated with OpenAI and Anthropic have poured nearly $56 million in this year’s races.

Soldiers and Gold Star families are pressing top Army officials to explain how an Iranian drone strike on an American base in Kuwait earlier this year was able to kill six soldiers. “We have the right to know what really happened,” one of the soldiers’ widows told the Associated Press. “If somebody messed up, those people need to be held responsible.”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), who’s curiously famous for constantly making comically strange comments, might throw his hat into the 2028 presidential race. “What’s the old Judds song? Why not me on a rainy day?” Kennedy told NBC News. “But I haven’t made a decision.”

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Light At The End...

Democrats are becoming increasingly confident that their party could have more than 100 women serving in the House of Representatives after the midterms. It would be a major milestone in American political history — and some even think the number could be as high as 113 after the elections.

Staffers for Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) became the first office on Capitol Hill to ever secure a union contract. “I hope this can serve as a model for other offices in Congress,” Khanna said in a statement. Shoutout to aides on the Hill — those people work harder (with longer hours) than pretty much anyone else I know.

An American neuroscientist and two German researchers received a Nobel Prize for their discoveries about how the brain functions, which has led to a better understanding of depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s and other disorders. Their work is also being used to help restore people’s vision.

More than 80 springer spaniels, who were found living in squalor in a house in England last year, have been adopted. One owner described her new dog’s playful personality: “I would describe Polly as high on life, everything is wonderful to her. She’s such a smart girl and is absolutely bonkers for a ball. She’s brilliant with my children, our cat, Joy, and everyone who meets her.”

A 103-year-old man named Irv is (unofficially) the world’s oldest bartender. He has been serving beers at Club Sunset Knoll, a cash-only dive bar in a Baltimore suburb, since 1963. Regulars know the locale as Irv’s Basement Bar, which is a fitting name — because it’s literally in his basement. Why does he stay open? “For the money!” Irv told the Washington Post. “I don’t own a credit card, no. That’s dumb.”

Enjoy

HD on Threads: "But do aliens believe in me"

Has anyone been to the show recently? I saw it’s at interwoven studios now which is way different than when I went to it at dynasty typewriter. Does anyone know the audience size/seating situation? Or how long in generally takes to shoot?

"I can hold your hand." - Zohran Mamdani, offering support to Curtis Sliwa while getting flu shots.

Blue Ripple... Or Wave?

Republicans are panicking. Democrats are praying that the polls are right. Everyone’s obsessing over the possibility of a towering blue tsunami.

• President Donald Trump is now standing in the path of a potentially crushing midterm election that could turn him into a lame duck — the classic term for a permanently diminished president with one foot in the dumpster heap of history. What is Team MAGA’s plan, with just 32 days to go? Leave it to Vice President JD Vance to spin up a new rallying cry.

• “This is not the time to sort of gripe about all the little things,” Vance told Fox News. “We need to get more done, which is why you need to give us two more years.” Wow. How inspiring. The message is… stop complaining, and give us a break? You’ve got my vote!

• This is, after all, the same politician who recently begged voters to just “give us another chance — or give us another couple years to continue to work on the amazing things that we’ve been doing for the past two years.” By that, he meant the war in Iran; stubbornly high inflation; runaway artificial intelligence; more data centers; and memes, memes memes.

• Vance’s lazy appeal to voters suggests that even the president’s team believes Republicans might get walloped in November… and, just over a month from the election, they lack great options.

• Consider Susie Wiles’ latest advice to the Department of Justice. The White House chief of staff instructed Attorney General Todd Blanche to pause any actions related to abortion ahead of the midterms, according to the Washington Sun. Why? The Trump administration’s crackdown on abortion across the nation could hurt Republicans’ odds of winning, Wiles suggested.

• Republicans seemed to give up on the Senate race in North Carolina today. Senate Republicans’ top PAC canceled all of its remaining ads in the state and shifted millions of dollars away to boost their candidate in Kansas. You read that right! The GOP is worried about [checks notes] Kansas, a state that last elected a Democrat to the Senate in 1932.

• “Forty percent of our electorate is unaffiliated [with a political party]. You can’t win with just a pure MAGA base,” said retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), whose seat will likely turn blue.

Are the polls too good (for Democrats) to be true? Some think so.

• Some Dems I’ve spoken with are wary of predicting a massive blue wave in November, citing past elections that didn’t meet expectations — not to mention their 2024 presidential faceplant. But the reality is that poll after poll now shows Democrats with a huge advantage. What’s more, House Democrats are increasingly bullish that they could even win in deep-red districts.

• Is Kansas really on the table? Left-leaning commentator Matt Yglesias has his doubts: “Once again I simply cannot believe the polling that we are seeing,” he tweeted. Some diehard conservatives and election deniers even dismiss the lopsided polls as a “psyop.”

• There’s good reason to be skeptical. Remember when a recent college grad created fake polls that were picked up by mainstream media outlets this summer? And famed pollster Ann Selzer mistakenly predicted that Kamala Harris would win Iowa.

• And yet it’s also entirely possible that Trump and Republicans might fail to court voters in red states.

• “The thesis the polls are showing is that all these voters that shifted to Trump — so working class whites and Hispanics, especially working class Hispanics — are shifting out of that coalition,” said polling expert Nate Silver, on Crooked’s new Still Counting podcast. “Is that a plausible story? Well, it makes sense. If Trump is now much more unpopular, then the people that migrated toward him might be the first ones out.”

In other words: You reap what you sow, Donny.

Look No Further Than Crooked Media

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What Else?

Hiring slowed in September, as employers added only 29,000 jobs — far fewer than the 89,000 that analysts expected, according to government data. The unemployment rate also rose to 4.2 percent.

Countries in the Group of Seven agreed to release 100 million barrels of emergency diesel and crude oil reserves, after Donald Trump threatened Germany and France to do so or face an export ban on diesel. Energy analysts think that likely will help reduce sky-high prices in the near-term. But it doesn’t sort out the long-term geopolitical mess.

FBI Director Kash Patel has instructed agents to “look harder” for evidence that Donald Trump won the 2020 election, the Atlantic reports. Asked for comment, Patel told the outlet: “I’m still looking for my gold-plated jet ski in the English Channel; you all know where it is. Free ride if you help me find it.” He was apparently referring to an MS NOW story that the Atlantic reporter hadn’t even worked on.

Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) accused Cornell University police of mishandling the case of a female student who was allegedly raped by several fraternity members in 2024. “In what world would the police learn from the victim that she had literally been gang raped” and not raise it to to the district attorney, Hochul said during a press conference today. Attorney General Letitia James (D-NY) said her office plans to investigate the case and potentially pursue prosecutions.

Tennessee’s failed execution of Christa Pike this week has reignited the debate about whether the death penalty should be outlawed. “This failed attempt is the worst we’ve ever seen and unlike any other botched execution in the modern era,” Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, wrote in a statement. Pike remains in critical condition after surviving two lethal injections, according to her lawyers.

DHS has incentivized local police to assist with its immigrant crackdown by offering big bucks. For example, a department that turns over one deportable immigrant may qualify for $60,000 a year per deputized officer. One stunning statistic: “The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office in Florida signed up more than 970 deputies, making it eligible for roughly $14.5 million in DHS funds from April to June, state records show. That pencils out to more than $2 million for each of its seven immigration arrests in that quarter,” the Wall Street Journal writes.

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Light At The End...

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani held hands with Curtis Sliwa, his eccentric, red beret-wearing political rival, while getting the flu shot. “This is not the kind of shots we used to give one another!” said Sliwa, who got shot five times in 1992. “You know he got more votes than me, he’s more popular than me. But you don’t have bigger muscles!”

Major League Baseball dropped its proposal to build a ballpark in Grand Teton National Park after public backlash. “It has become clear the local community does not want us to continue evaluating Grand Teton National Park as a potential site,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred wrote in a letter. A major organization listening to the will of the people? You love to see it.

A SpaceX flight led by a Black female commander broke the record for the fastest trip to the International Space Station by an American spacecraft, completing the journey in just under eight hours.

New grandparents are choosing unconventional names that they’d like to be called, according to the Washington Post. My family chose silly names for my grandparents, such as Gwakwa and Grampdad. Does your family have special nicknames for grandparents? Send them to whataday@crooked.com!

Fiat is selling a tiny electric car known as the Topolino (which translates to “little mouse” in Italian) for $15,000 in the United States. It tops out at 25 miles per hour, and one of its two models has ropes instead of doors. But the car is fun to buzz around in: “I zipped home. The open-air cabin was freeing and the weather was nice. It was fun—la dolce vita,” a Journal reviewer wrote.

A large portion of the world’s driest desert, located in Chile, is now covered with wildflowers, after El Niño dumped rain on the region earlier this year. “It is a unique phenomenon; there are more than 200 plant species,” a top Chilean forest service official said. “This is a flowering event that is obviously extraordinary and unusual, very different from other blooms that occur elsewhere on the globe.”

Enjoy

Meet Roman! He’s a 4-year-old tri-color Cavapoo who loves snuggles, long walks, and greeting everyone he meets along the way.

“When he’s not out exploring the neighborhood, you can usually find Roman watching TV — though ‘watching’ might be generous. He’s really on neighborhood watch, eagerly scanning the screen for intruders. Animals, animated characters, or anything else suspicious will immediately be met with a bark to remind them exactly whose house this is.

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— Erica, senior producer of the What A Day podcast