President Trump anticipates signing ‘phase one’ trade deal with China

The American flag is seen flying alongside the flag of China. (Andy Wong/AP Photo)

Progress is being made in trade negotiations between the U.S. and China. While speaking to reporters Monday, President Trump said the deal is moving far ahead of schedule. He said the two nations could come to an agreement soon, but noted it’s not the entire trade deal — only a section of it.
“We are looking, probably, to be ahead of schedule to sign a very big portion of the China deal,” he stated. “And, we’ll call it ‘phase one,’ but it’s a very big portion.”
China sung a similar tune over the weekend with officials noting ‘phase one’ of the deal is “basically complete.” While few details surrounding the agreement have been released, President Trump said ‘phase one’ will address several concerns.
“That (phase one deal) would take care of the farmers, it would take care of some of the other things, it’ll also take care of a lot of the banking needs,” he explained.
Meanwhile, this portion of the deal is expected to be signed during the president’s visit to Chile in November. It will take place on the sidelines of the annual APEC CEO summit, where leaders of the world’s top economies will gather for two days of discussions. That event is set to take place November 14th through the 16th.

President Donald Trump departs O’Hare International Airport after speaking at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Annual Conference and Exposition, Monday, Oct. 28, 2019, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Democratic front-runner Joe Biden was reportedly denied communion by a priest at a South Carolina Catholic church over the weekend.
Biden, a lifelong Catholic, stopped by Saint Anthony Catholic Church in Florence on Sunday, but was denied Holy Communion by Father Robert E. Morey, local newspaper the South Carolina Morning News reported.
“Sadly, this past Sunday, I had to refuse Holy Communion to former Vice President Joe Biden,” Father Morey told the newspaper in a statement.
“Holy Communion signifies we are one with God, each other and the Church. Our actions should reflect that. Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching.”
“I will keep Mr. Biden in my prayers,” Morey said in the statement.
The Biden campaign did not return a request for comment on Monday night.
Biden’s stance on abortion has for decades been aligned with the more conservative wing of the Democratic party — but earlier this year he announced his opposition of the Hyde Amendment, a ban on federal funding for abortions.

Piers Morgan blasts Trump critics after al-Baghdadi raid: They 'shamed themselves and shamed their country'

Many of President Trump's critics shamed both themselves and the United States when they refused to acknowledge a White House victory after ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died in a U.S. military raid, according to Piers Morgan.
There was a nationwide celebration when Usama bin Laden was killed under then-President Barack Obama's watch, but not so over the weekend after the ISIS leader died, Morgan told "Tucker Carlson Tonight."
"My mind went back to when Usama bin Laden was killed," he said.
"I was in New York City that night. There was widespread jubilation throughout New York, throughout Washington, throughout America. This was a unified response from a country jubilant at seeing the end of the grisly demise of the leader of Al Qaeda. Compare and contrast the reaction yesterday -- to the demise of Baghdadi."
Morgan blasted baseball fans at Nationals Park in Washington who booed Trump during his appearance there, saying people should respect the office even if they didn't like the president.
"The office of the presidency deserves more respect than I saw last night, particularly in light of what had happened a few hours earlier," he said.
"I thought the thousands of Americans who thought that was the right way to respond shamed themselves and they shamed their country," he said, adding he also read many similar responses on Twitter.
Prior to Morgan's interview, host Tucker Carlson played clips of several media personalities largely refusing to compliment Trump after the raid, including former CIA analyst Philip Mudd, who said on CNN it was wrong for the president to celebrate a death, no matter the individual.
"You do not celebrate death -- I don't care if it's a terrorist, I don't care if it's someone you hate -- a human being has died, we do not celebrate that," Mudd said.
During his interview, Morgan said he instead appreciated Trump's detailed account of al-Baghdadi's demise.
"I quite enjoyed the gory details the president gave us about that sniveling coward's last few seconds on this Earth," he remarked.
"Yesterday should've been a great day for America, a great day for the world.
"Instead, the narrative is, 'let's try to find where Trump went wrong in the way he spoke about it.'"
Morgan said many people appeared furious that Trump "may have done something right" and that they "just believe in screaming at anyone who doesn't fit their narrow worldview."

Democratic Squad Cartoons

Liz Cheney knocks Rand Paul for Syria tweet amid al-Baghdadi raid

House GOP Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., engaged in a new Twitter war Sunday with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., over U.S. military policy overseas amid the death of Islamic State terror leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Paul had tweeted Saturday night: “If you want to stop the endless wars, you actually have to leave. The U.S. guarding oil in Syria will only prolong the war & bring Kurds into conflict with [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad]. Mr. President: don't listen to Lindsey Graham and Chuck Schumer and others who’ve been wrong for so long,” referring to the longtime senators.
That same evening, a largescale U.S. Special Operations forces raid on a compound in northern Syria’s Idlib Province occurred where the terrorist leader was thought to be hiding.
Cheney tweeted Sunday evening in response to Paul’s tweet: “Last night, while @randpaul was advocating withdrawal of our troops, those troops were engaged in a daring raid to kill the ISIS leader. His policy would have left the terrorist al-Baghdadi alive to behead more Americans. We should be proud of our troops and never surrender.”
Paul, a noninterventionist who has fiercely criticized the role of her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, in going to war in Iraq, did not immediately respond.
Last month, Cheney and Paul engaged in a Twitter war after former National Security Adviser John Bolton's resignation resurfaced tensions between perceived isolationists and war hawks in the Republican Party.

In an address to the nation on Sunday, President Trump said planning for the raid on al-Baghdadi’s compound began two weeks ago when the U.S. gained unspecified intelligence on al-Baghdadi's whereabouts.
The raid on al-Baghdadi’s compound was a relatively large assault by U.S. forces with a reported eight military helicopters landing in the Barisha area north of Idlib city — near the Turkish border.
Fox News' Ben Florance contributed to this report.

Rashida Tlaib backs Sanders for president at Detroit rally

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., became the latest of her fellow “Squad” members  to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for president, joining him at a Detroit rally.
"We deserve someone who writes the damn bills," she said, noting Sanders is a man of the people, as Detroit Free Press reported. "We deserve Bernie Sanders."
Tlaib noted that Sanders is a transformative leader who offers solutions not beholden to corporations or the mediocre ideologies of the status quo.
"We need a new vision for American and that's what our campaign is about," Sanders said. "The most important and significant opposition we face … is the limitation to our imaginations.”

Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Rashida Tlaib address the audience during a Sanders campaign rally in Detroit, Michigan. (REUTERS/Rebecca Cook)

Sanders also took the time to praise Tlaib for her role in representing the party’s progressive wing.
"What Rashida has been doing in less than one year is become a national figure, not just in standing up against the vulgarity and ugliness of Donald Trump, but she has taken on in a very forceful way, the greed and corruption of the economic establishment and stood up to the political establishment as well," he said.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Ilhan Omar., D-Minn., expressed their support for Sanders last week. Ocasio-Cortez recently appeared alongside Sanders at a major rally in Queens, N.Y., that reportedly drew more than 20,000 people. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., is the only "Squad" member who has yet to make an endorsement.

US Representative Rashida Tlaib attends a campaign rally for Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders in Detroit, Michigan. (REUTERS/Rebecca Cook) 

Winning the OK of the “Squad” members has been viewed as crucial in attracting young voters, as the top three Democrats in the polls are all senior citizens — Sanders is 78, former Vice President Joe Biden is 76 and Warren is 70 years old.

Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders holds a campaign rally in Detroit, Michigan. (REUTERS/Rebecca Cook) 

Rep. Katie Hill resigns amid ethics probe into reported affair with staffer

Rep. Katie Hill, D-Calif., announced her resignation Sunday after a string of reports shining a negative light on her personal life, including a reported affair with her legislative director that sparked a House Ethics Committee investigation.
Hill tweeted on Sunday evening, “It is with a broken heart that today I announce my resignation from Congress. This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do, but I believe it is the best thing for my constituents, my community, and our country.” She is expected to step down by the end of this week.
The congresswoman last week had fought back against reports of an affair with the congressional staffer, as well as reports she was in a so-called “throuple” relationship with husband Kenny Heslep and a campaign staffer.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., issued a statement saying, “Congresswoman Katie Hill came to Congress with a powerful commitment to her community and a bright vision for the future, and has made a great contribution as a leader of the Freshman class.”
“She has acknowledged errors in judgment that made her continued service as a member untenable,” Pelosi wrote. “We must ensure a climate of integrity and dignity in Congress, and in all workplaces.”
This past Thursday, the political fallout for Hill escalated as more compromising photos of the freshman lawmaker surfaced. The Daily Mail published one photo of what appeared to be Hill undressed and holding a bong, and another of her kissing the campaign staffer.
The photos emerged shortly after the conservative website RedState.org posted screenshots of several text messages between Hill and the staffer detailing the reported end of their three-person relationship earlier this year and reported on intimate pictures including a nude photo of Hill brushing the staffer’s hair.
According to the texts that were shown, Hill wanted to focus on her work and suggested that “political risk” was a factor.
Fox News has not verified the authenticity of the photos.
Hill, in the letter announcing her resignation, wrote: “This is what needs to happen so that the good people who supported me will no longer be subjected to the pain inflicted by my abusive husband and the brutality of hateful political operatives who seem to happily provide a platform to a monster who is driving a smear campaign built around cyber exploitation.”
She continued, “Having private photos of personal moments weaponized against me has been an appalling invasion of my privacy. It’s also illegal, and we are currently pursuing all of our available legal options.”
Hill, an openly bisexual congresswoman and the vice chairwoman of the powerful House Oversight Committee, admitted Wednesday she had an “inappropriate” relationship with the female campaign staffer.
In a letter sent to constituents on Wednesday and obtained by Fox News, Hill acknowledged that in the final years of what she called an “abusive marriage,” she began a relationship with the unnamed campaign staffer.
Heslep filed for divorce from Hill earlier this year.
“I am going through a divorce from an abusive husband who seems determined to try to humiliate me,” Hill said in her statement last week. “I am disgusted that my opponents would seek to exploit such a private matter for political gain. This coordinated effort to try to destroy me and the people close to me is despicable and will not succeed. I, like many women who have faced attacks like this before, am stronger than those who want me to be afraid.”
RedState also reported earlier this month that Hill had an extramarital affair with Graham Kelly, her legislative director and former campaign finance director, for at least a year. Heslep was said to have shared his own screenshot of a text exchange he had with a friend who had heard about the affair; it was later deleted from his Facebook account.
The reported affair with a congressional staffer prompted the House Ethics Committee investigation.
According to RedState, the alleged affair was why Heslep filed for divorce. Hill has denied the affair with Kelly.
RedState also published a series of purported late-night texts in which Heslep called into question Hill’s drinking. Other texts showed the female staffer involved in the “throuple” expressing concerns about Hill's drinking.
“I know that as long as I am in Congress, we’ll live fearful of what might come next and how much it might hurt,” Hill wrote in Sunday’s statement. “That’s a feeling I know all too well. It’s the feeling I decided to leave when I left my marriage, and one I will not tolerate being forced upon others. I can no longer allow my community, family, friends, staff, supporters, and especially the children who look up to me as a role model, to suffer this unprecedented brand of cruelty.”
She went on to apologize.
“For the mistakes made along the way and the people who have been hurt, I am so sorry, and I am learning – I am not a perfect person and never pretended to be. It’s one of the things that made my race so special,” Hill wrote. “I hope it showed others that they do belong, that their voice does matter, and that they do have a place in this country.”
The Republican challengers for Hill's congressional seat have pounced on the controversy as they sought to win back one of the many districts the Democrats took in the 2018 midterm elections.
“Katie Hill did the right thing by resigning from Congress,” challenger Mike Garcia said in a statement Sunday. “The past week has been a complete distraction from the important work that needs to be done, and it’s time for our district to move forward and unite around a leader.”
In a statement reacting to Hill’s resignation, Angela Underwood-Jacobs, a Republican council member in Lancaster, Calif., said Hill “blatantly violated the trust of voters of the 25th District which is why I was the first of her opponents to call on her to resign.”
Another GOP candidate, Mark Cripe, said in a statement that the news of Hill’s resignation “affords California’s 25th district an opportunity to move forward in a positive direction, with new representation that better hears and supports all the families of Antelope, Santa Clarita, and Simi valleys.”
George Papadopoulos, the former foreign policy adviser for President Trump who served 12 days in federal prison for lying to federal investigators, also weighed in on Hill's controversy. Papadopoulos, who recently moved to California with his wife, has stirred speculation that he might challenge Hill for her seat in 2020.
“I’m smelling blood in the water now that Katie Hill has resigned,” Papadopoulos tweeted Sunday. “California’s 25th congressional district is wide open for the taking. Someone has to step up. I love my state too much to see it run down by candidates like Hill. All talk, no action, and a bunch of sell outs.”
Fox News’ Mike Arroyo, Ben Florance, Kevin Kirby, Chad Pergram and Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this report.

Al-Baghdadi takedown catches Dems flat-footed, blunts criticism of Trump's Syria pullback

President Trump's successful operation to take out Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi sent Democrats scrambling on Sunday, as several top party leaders had complained publicly in recent days that the White House had no "real plan" to combat the terror group following the U.S. pullout in Syria.
In a dramatic sign of how Democrats' messaging apparently backfired, NBC's "Saturday Night Live" ran an ill-timed sketch suggesting that Trump had created "jobs" for ISIS -- just hours before the president held a news conference announcing al-Baghdadi's demise. The sketch aired around the time the two-hour late-night raid in northwest Syria was underway.
"It's genuinely fascinating watching Democrats in real-time struggle to figure out what to say about this," journalist Glenn Greenwald wrote on Sunday. "They want to be patriotic and anti-ISIS, but also need a way to malign Trump without contradicting their gushing Obama praise over [Usama bin Laden]: not an easy balancing act. Good luck!"
Through the day, the Democrats -- including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Bob Menendez and former Vice President Joe Biden -- seemingly settled on a new strategy. They praised the troops who executed the historic raid, while pointedly avoiding complimenting the president in any way.
Congressional Democrats also lamented that they were not informed in advance of the operation, while the Russian military was told so that their airspace could be used. The president suggested Sunday that Democrats in Congress, who have been conducting an impeachment inquiry against him that has been fraught with leaked information to the media, were not notified before the raid because of concerns they might compromise the operation with leaks.
"I congratulate our special forces, our intelligence community, and all our brave military professionals on delivering justice to the terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi," Biden, one of the many Democrats seeking to unseat Trump in 2020, said. He went on to call on Trump to "keep up the pressure to prevent ISIS from ever regrouping or again threatening the United States."
Pelosi, meanwhile, praised the "heroism, dedication and skill of our military and our intelligence professionals and acknowledge the work of our partners in the region," then condemned Trump's "green-lighting of Turkish aggression into Syria against our Kurdish partners."
However, in May 2011, when President Obama announced Usama bin Laden's death, Pelosi, D-Calif., was much less reluctant to praise the commander-in-chief.
"I salute President Obama, his national security team, Director Panetta, our men and women in the intelligence community and military, and other nations who supported this effort for their leadership in achieving this major accomplishment," Pelosi said at the time.
Some commentators also noted that The Washington Post also had applied a different standard on Sunday than it did when bin Laden was killed. "Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State, dies at 48," read a head-turning, since-changed headline in the Post.
The sympathetic obituary described the terror leader as “a shy, nearsighted youth who liked soccer but preferred to spend his free time at the local mosque” and noted that "despite the group’s extremist views and vicious tactics, Mr. Baghdadi maintained a canny pragmatism as leader."
But in 2011, the Post's headline announcing bin Laden's death flatly called him the leader of a "terrorist group."
In her statement Sunday, Pelosi further demanded that the "House must be briefed on this raid, which the Russians but not top congressional leadership were notified of in advance, and on the administration’s overall strategy in the region."
That was a line of attack that had already resonated among progressive commentators and journalists on Twitter. CNBC reporter John Harwood remarked: "Trump didn’t give Pelosi advance word, indicating he didn’t trust her to keep intel secrets Pelosi was ranking Dem on Intel Committee. ... Trump gave top Russian officials classified info in Oval Office."
For his part, Menendez, D-N.J., on Sunday also steered clear of praising or saluting Trump, and instead exalted "our men and women in uniform who successfully executed the attack on a brutal murderer who mercilessly killed Americans, terrorized populations across the Middle East, and threatened regional peace and security."
The operation, Menendez said, "is a testament to the courage of our military who put their lives at risk every day to protect our nation, and a sobering reminder of the importance of sustained American leadership with reliable and capable partners on the ground, including the Syrian Democratic Forces and Iraqi military."
Republicans, on the other hand, called the ISIS leader's death the culmination of the Trump administration's campaign against the terror group. The so-called ISIS caliphate that dominated Iraq has largely crumbled under a withering barrage of airpower from U.S. and allied forces in the region.
GOP Tennessee Rep. Mark Green, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, praised the soldiers who carried out the raid, then added: "Of course, I commend the president. I mean, we got one bada-- president to make this kind of decision, and his statement this morning was awesome. It was awesome."

"We got one bada-- president to make this kind of decision, and his statement this morning was awesome. It was awesome."
— GOP Tennessee Rep. Mark Green

Other Republicans echoed that sentiment, although with somewhat less colorful language.
"President Trump and the Trump administration had already largely decimated and destroyed ISIS -- the body of the snake," GOP Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures." "But, yesterday they cut off the head of the snake in killing Baghdadi. "
Georgia GOP Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, suggested Trump's decision not to inform congressional Democrats in advance of the raid was sound.
"Anybody who looks to ISIS right now ought to look to their leader who went pretty, cowered in a corner and blew himself up," Collins said. He added that the "bigger story" was that Trump "can't get information from his own intel committee about Syria. It goes to show you that this president who has been attacked and who has been harassed by an impeachment probe for the last 10 months, while all of this is going on in the House... this president... kept his eye on the ball."
The spin commenced immediately after Trump's speech to the nation Sunday morning, when he announced that the ISIS leader -- a notorious murderer and rapist whom Trump called a "gutless animal" -- had died "in a vicious and violent way, as a coward, running and crying.”
al-Baghdadi detonated an explosive vest as U.S. Special Operations Forces stormed his compound in the Idlib Province, Trump said, killing him and three of his children.
"No personnel were lost in the operation, while a large number of Baghdadi’s fighters and companions were killed with him," Trump announced, adding that the U.S. recovered "highly sensitive" materials related to ISIS. "You are the very best anywhere in the world," Trump later said of the U.S. forces.
Trump said al-Baghdadi died while being chased down by U.S. forces in a tunnel, and that the ISIS leader was "whimpering and crying and screaming all the way."