Washington Nationals' Stephen Strasburg denies snubbing Trump at White House

World Series MVP pitcher Stephen Strasburg is not going to put up with the Internet’s “fake news.”
That was the hashtag he used showing a video of him and the Washington Nationals celebrating their victory at the White House with President Trump.
Strasburg had been accused of snubbing Trump in a deceptively trimmed viral video, as USA TODAY reported, so the 31-year-old right-hander tweeted the full video showing him shaking hands with the president.
Strasburg went 5-0 in the MLB postseason as the Nationals won their first world championship in franchise history.

President Trump with Washington Nationals starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg at Monday's ceremony, with first lady Melania Trump nearby. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Strasburg has opted out of the final four years of his contract, making him a free agent. The decision meant he was leaving $100 million on the table – with the prospect of earning more, either from the Nationals or another team.
The Nationals defeated the Houston Astros in seven games to win the World Series this past Wednesday, coming back from a 3-2 series deficit.
They were the first World Series winner with all four victories coming on the road.

Washington Nationals starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg throwing against the Houston Astros during the first inning of Game 6 on Oct. 29 in Houston. (AP Photo/Mike Ehrmann, Pool)

The Nationals have been celebrating across D.C. on their whirlwind victory tour.
The team paraded down Constitution Avenue on Saturday and celebrated at the Washington Capitals hockey game Sunday night.

Iranian president announces another break from nuclear deal

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s president announced on Tuesday that Tehran will begin injecting uranium gas into 1,044 centrifuges, the latest step away from its nuclear deal with world powers since President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord over a year ago.

The development is significant as the centrifuges previously spun empty, without gas injection, under the landmark 2015 nuclear accord. It also increases pressure on European nations that remain in the accord, which at this point has all but collapsed.

In his announcement, President Hassan Rouhani did not say whether the centrifuges, which are at its nuclear facility in Fordo, would be used to produce enriched uranium. The centrifuges would be injected with the uranium gas as of Wednesday, Rouhani said.

His remarks, carried live on Iranian state television, came a day after Tehran’s nuclear program chief said the country had doubled the number of advanced IR-6 centrifuges in operation.

There was no immediate reaction from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog now monitoring Iran’s compliance with the deal. The European Union on Monday called on Iran to return to the deal, while the White House sanctioned members of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s inner circle as part of its maximalist campaign against Tehran.

Rouhani stressed the steps taken so far, including going beyond the deal’s enrichment and stockpile limitations, could be reversed if Europe offers a way for it to avoid U.S. sanctions choking off its crude oil sales abroad.

“We should be able to sell our oil,” Rouhani said. “We should be able to bring our money” into the country.

The centrifuges at Fordo are IR-1s, Iran’s first-generation centrifuge. The nuclear deal allowed those at Fordo to spin without uranium gas, while allowing up to 5,060 at its Natanz facility to enrich uranium.

A centrifuge enriches uranium by rapidly spinning uranium hexafluoride gas. An IR-6 centrifuge can produce enriched uranium 10 times faster than an IR-1, Iranian officials say.

Iranian scientists also are working on a prototype called the IR-9, which works 50-times faster than the IR-1, Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akhbar Salehi said Monday.

As of now, Iran is enriching uranium up to 4.5%, in violation of the accord’s limit of 3.67%. Enriched uranium at the 3.67% level is enough for peaceful pursuits but is far below weapons-grade levels of 90%. At the 4.5% level, it is enough to help power Iran’s Bushehr reactor, the country’s only nuclear power plant. Prior to the atomic deal, Iran only reached up to 20%.

Tehran has gone from producing some 450 grams (1 pound) of low-enriched uranium a day to 5 kilograms (11 pounds), Salehi said. Iran now holds over 500 kilograms (1,102 pounds) of low-enriched uranium, Salehi said. The deal had limited Iran to 300 kilograms (661 pounds).

The collapse of the nuclear deal coincided with a tense summer of mysterious attacks on oil tankers and Saudi oil facilities that the U.S. blamed on Iran. Tehran denied the allegation, though it did seize oil tankers and shoot down a U.S. military surveillance drone.

Dem aims for governorship in largely Republican Mississippi

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood is trying to become the second Democratic governor in the Deep South as he faces Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves in the state’s most competitive governor’s race in years.

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence both traveled to Mississippi to campaign for Reeves in the closing days before Tuesday’s election.

Hood, Reeves and two lesser-known candidates are on the ballot. The winner will succeed Republican Gov. Phil Bryant, who is limited by law to two terms.

Democrats see Hood as their strongest nominee in nearly a generation in a conservative state where Republicans have been governor for 24 of the past 28 years.

The lone Democratic governor in the Deep South, Louisiana’s John Bel Edwards, is in a Nov. 16 runoff as he seeks a second term. Kentucky is the only other state choosing a governor this year, and its election is also Tuesday.

Hood, 57, is finishing his fourth term as attorney general and for more than a decade has been the only Democrat holding statewide office in Mississippi.

Hood, who eschews connections to national Democratic figures , has campaigned for governor on improving schools and highways and on expanding Medicaid to the working poor.

Expansion is an option under the federal health overhaul signed into law in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama. Mississippi is among the 14 states that have not expanded Medicaid, a decision that Hood said has cost the state $1 billion a year in federal money.

“I grew up in a small Baptist church in northeast Mississippi, and I believe in fighting for the least among us,” Hood said Saturday after speaking to potential voters at a barbershop near Jackson State University.

“I’ve fought for working people in Mississippi, particularly for children — to protect our children, widows, orphans and elderly. I mean, that’s what Jesus talked more about than anything else, and that’s my core beliefs,” Hood said. “And that’s what I’m going to do as governor.”

Reeves, 45, is finishing his second term as lieutenant governor and previously served two terms as the elected state treasurer. He frequently says that voting for Hood is akin to voting for “liberal” national Democrats, including U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Reeves has campaigned on limiting government regulation of businesses, and he has said a large tax-cut package Republicans pushed into law in the past four years is boosting the state economy.

“If Mississippi chooses to go in a different direction ... and elect a liberal Democrat to lead our state, they’ve already promised they’re going to repeal those tax cuts,” Reeves told hundreds of business people at a state chamber of commerce event last week. “Everyone in here that pays income taxes — your taxes are going to go up.”

Hood is the best-funded Democrat to run for Mississippi governor since 2003. Four years ago, the party’s nominee was Robert Gray, a long-haul truck driver who didn’t vote for himself in the primary, raised little money and lost the general election by a wide margin.

In addition to Reeves and Hood, the candidates on Tuesday’s ballot for governor are independent David Singletary and the Constitution Party’s Bob Hickingbottom, who have both run low-budget campaigns.

Mississippi has a Jim Crow-era election process that could make a tight election difficult to decide on Election Day. The state’s 1890 constitution requires a statewide candidate to win a majority of the popular vote and the electoral vote. If nobody wins both, the election is decided by the state House, now controlled by Republicans.

One electoral vote is awarded to the top vote-getter in each of the 122 state House districts. But, if representatives decide the race in January, they are not obligated to vote as their districts did.

Mississippi’s election process was written when white politicians across the South were enacting laws to erase black political power gained during Reconstruction, and the separate House vote was promoted as a way for the white ruling class to have the final say in who holds office.

Some African American residents sued the state this year , arguing that the system unconstitutionally diminishes the value of some votes. U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III ruled Friday that he would not immediately block the system days before the election, but he wrote that he has “grave concern” that the electoral vote could violate the one person, one vote principle.

Elections in 4 states Tuesday will offer test runs for 2020

Gubernatorial and legislative elections in four states Tuesday will test voter enthusiasm and party organization amid impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump and a fevered Democratic presidential primary scramble.

Results in Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey and Virginia won’t necessarily predict whether Trump will be reelected or which party will control Congress after the general election next fall. But partisans of all stripes invariably will use these odd-year elections for clues about how voters are reacting to the impeachment saga and whether the president is losing ground among suburban voters who rewarded Democrats in the 2018 midterms and will prove critical again next November.

Trump is eager to nationalize whatever happens, campaigning Monday evening in Kentucky for embattled Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, a first-term Trump ally, as he tries to withstand Democrat Andy Beshear, the attorney general whose father was the state’s last Democratic governor. The president campaigned in Mississippi on Friday, trying to boost Republican Tate Reeves in a tight governor’s race against Democrat Jim Hood. Reeves is lieutenant governor; Hood is attorney general.

Legislative seats are on the ballots in New Jersey and Virginia, with the latter presidential battleground state offering perhaps the best 2020 bellwether. Democrats had a big 2017 in the state, sweeping statewide offices by wide margins and gaining seats in the legislature largely on the strength of a strong suburban vote that previewed how Democrats would go on to flip the U.S. House a year later. This time, Virginia Democrats are looking to add to their momentum by flipping enough Republican seats to gain trifecta control of the statehouse: meaning the governor’s office and both legislative chambers.

In New Jersey, Democrats are looking to maintain their legislative supermajorities and ward off any concerns that Trump and Republicans could widen their reach into Democratic-controlled areas.

Both parties see reasons for confidence.

“With a Democratic Party engaged in a race to the left and promoting an increasingly radical impeachment agenda, the choice for voters is extremely clear,” said Amelia Chase of the Republican Governors Association, predicting victories for Kentucky’s Bevin and Mississippi’s Reeves.

Yet Democrats point to their expanded party infrastructure in states like Virginia and believe it positions them to capitalize on the GOP’s embrace of a president with job approval ratings below 40%.

“Republicans are sweating elections in traditionally conservative areas,” said Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez. “Democrats are making historic, early investments to lay the groundwork for our eventual nominee to win the White House in 2020 and for Democrats to win at every level.”

Indeed, Kentucky and Mississippi are expected to be closer than the states’ usual partisan leanings would suggest, though that has as much to do with local dynamics as with any national trends.

Bevin’s first term as Kentucky governor has been marked by pitched battles against state lawmakers — including Republicans — and teachers. Beshear, meanwhile, is well known as state attorney general and the son of Steve Beshear, who won two terms as governor even as the state trended more solidly Republican in federal elections.

Given Bevin’s weakness, Trump would claim a big victory if the governor manages a second term. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who easily defeated Bevin in a 2014 Senate primary, also has a vested interest in the outcome. McConnell is favored to win reelection next year in Kentucky, even as national Democrats harbor hopes of defeating him. And the powerful senator would quell some of those hopes with a Bevin victory.

As with the 2018 midterms nationally, Beshear is looking for wide margins in cities and an improved Democratic performance in the suburbs, particularly in formerly GOP territory south of Cincinnati.

In Mississippi, Republicans have controlled the governor’s office for two decades. But Phil Bryant is term-limited, leaving two other statewide officials to battle for a promotion. Reeves and Republicans have sought to capitalize on the state’s GOP leanings with the Democrat Hood acknowledging that he voted for Hillary Clinton over Trump in 2016. Hood would need a high turnout of the state’s African American voters and a better-than-usual share of the white vote to pull off the upset.

Virginia is where national Democrats are putting much of their attention.

For this cycle, the DNC has steered $200,000 to the state party for its statewide coordinated campaign effort that now has 108 field organizers and 16 other field staffers in what the party describes as its largest-ever legislative campaign effort. At the DNC, Perez and his aides bill it as a preview of what they’re trying to build to combat the fundraising and organizing juggernaut that the Republican National Committee and Trump’s reelection campaign are building in battleground states.

___

AP National Political Writer Steve Peoples in New York contributed to this report.

Ilhan Omar 2019 Cartoons

Trump wants Republicans to release their own accounts from impeachment probe

President Trump on Sunday urged Republicans privy to last week's House Intelligence Committee hearings to come forward with their own transcripts from the closed-door meetings that Democrats claim bolstered their claim for impeachment.
Trump also appeared to suggest that he has information that a recent witness, Lt. Col.  Alexander Vindman, is a “Never-Trumper.” He was asked about any evidence he may have about Vindman and he responded,  “We’ll be showing that to you real soon.”
The president is under an impeachment investigation over allegedly withholding millions in defense funding from Ukraine in order for Kiev to investigate the Bidens’ business relationships in the country.
"If Shifty Adam Schiff, who is a corrupt politician who fraudulently made up what I said on the “call,” is allowed to release transcripts of the Never Trumpers & others that are & were interviewed, he will change the words that were said to suit the Dems purposes: Republicans should give their own transcripts of the interviews to contrast with Schiff’s manipulated propaganda," he tweeted.
Trump's tweet alluded to the July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky that the whistleblower referred to as “frightening.” Trump also attacked Schiff over his inaccurate, exaggerated version of a transcript of the call. Trump has said in the past that Schiff may have had a "mental breakdown" and may have committed a crime. Schiff himself later apologetically acknowledged it was a "parody."
Trump has suggested that the impeachment investigation is simply another attempt by Democrats to damage his presidency after the Mueller report fell short.
Democrats point to recent closed-door testimony as evidence of unscrupulous dealings between the Trump administration and Ukraine.
Vindman, in prepared remarks, wrote: “I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine.”
He added, “Following the call, I... reported my concerns to NSC’s lead counsel,” a reference to top NSC lawyer John A. Eisenberg.
Both Trump and Zelensky deny any wrongdoing.
Vindman testified in a closed-door hearing about his concerns about the president’s phone call and a prior meeting with Ambassador Gordon Sondland about investigating Joe Biden and his son.
Gen. Joe Dunford, the recently retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave a full-throated endorsement of Vindman citing his honesty, patriotism and integrity. “He’s just a guy doing his job,” Dunford told Fox News.
He went on to say that Vindman was “professional, competent, patriotic and a loyal officer. He’s made an extraordinary contribution in peacetime and in combat.”
Fox News' Gregg Re and Adam Shaw contributed to this report

Ilhan Omar, at Bernie Sanders rally, calls for 'mass movement of the working class' amid 'Lock him up' chants

Amid repeated chants of "Lock him up!" and "Green New Deal," Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., issued a full-throated endorsement of Bernie Sanders at a spirited rally in Minneapolis' Williams Arena on Sunday night, saying a "mass movement of the working class" is needed to take down President Trump and end "Western imperialism," as she put it.
"I am excited for President Bernie Sanders!" Omar thundered at the conclusion of her remarks, as rock music blared throughout the University of Minnesota venue.
At no point did either Omar or Sanders attempt to stop attendees from shouting "Lock him up" whenever Trump was invoked. Last year, CNBC's John Harwood had predicted that "any serious Democratic candidate will make a point of shutting down" such chants directed at the president.
Omar's endorsement was a break from the rest of the state’s delegation of Democrats, which endorsed Sen. Amy Klobuchar's more moderate campaign. It also constituted a youthful shot in the arm for Sanders' left-wing presidential bid, which has remained competitive with Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren's campaigns.
"Here in Minnesota, we don't just welcome refugees -- we sent them to Congress," Omar said to applause. "Right now, achieving that universal dream feels more out of reach than it ever has in my lifetime."
Then, pointedly refusing to mention President Trump's name, Omar continued: "The current occupant of the White House likes to talk about making America great. But, every action, and virtually every word out of his mouth, is an attack on the very values and ideals that make this country a beacon of hope for me and the people around the world."
Later on, still without mentioning the president's name, Omar incorrectly claimed that Trump called neo-Nazis "very fine people" -- a suggestion that White House officials repeatedly stressed was taken out of context. And, in a nod to the "send her back" chant that erupted at a Trump rally earlier this year, Omar remarked, "None of us are going back. We're here to stay."
Even as she accused Trump of "coddling" white supremacy, Omar insisted that Sanders' proposals -- such as free college and government-sponsored health care for everyone, including illegal immigrants -- were not "radical."
"These are values that have been enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for decades," Omar claimed, referring to the United Nations document. "But, here is the cold truth: We can't achieve any of these goals if we don't build a movement that is representative of all of our aspirations, all of our pain, and all of our shared trauma."
Omar also appeared to defend her decision to vote "present" on a congressional resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide, saying it was an effort to combat using genocides selectively as a "political" football.
And Omar, who has been criticized by members of her own party for her past anti-Semitic statements, emphasized Sanders' Jewish faith in announcing her support.
"I am proud to stand with the son of a Jewish refugee who survived genocide," Omar said, referring to Sanders. "The acknowledgment of pain and suffering is personal for both of us. The fight for human rights is undeniable. And when we recognize injustices of the past and present, whether it is genocide against Jewish people, Armenians or Rwandans or Bosnians or Native Americans or more."
Sanders has been endorsed by other members of the so-called progressive "squad" of Democrats, including New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib. (The only member of the "squad" not to endorse Sanders is Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley.)

"I am proud to stand with the son of a Jewish refugee who survived genocide."
— Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar

Days before the endorsements were announced, the longtime Vermont senator suffered a heart attack on Oct. 1, prompting fears that his health issues could derail his presidential ambitions.
Sanders was introduced at the arena by a spirited University of Minnesota college student who complained that fellow students "are being put" into debt. The student acknowledged that he personally was not in much debt, but very much felt the pain of those who were.
Taking the microphone, Sanders praised Omar as an "extraordinary woman who 30 years ago was in a refugee camp in Kenya."
"Thank you, Ilhan Omar," Sanders said, his voice cracking.
Then, he unloaded a series of superlatives, punctuated by audible boos. "It gives me no pleasure to tell all of you what you already know: that today, tragically, we have a president of the United States who is a pathological liar -- who is running the most corrupt administration in history, who has obstructed justice, who has used his office for personal gain, who has threatened to withhold national security funds from an ally in order to improve his political chances."
Before calling Trump a racist, sexist, bigoted homophobe, Sanders remarked, "This is a president who deserves to be impeached, and will be impeached."
As the crowd erupted in a "Lock him up" chant -- in a reference to the "Lock her up" chants at Trump rallies, typically directed at Hillary Clinton -- Sanders stood by the microphone and didn't try to interrupt.
But, minutes later, Sanders appeared to call for an end to divisiveness while reading from his prepared remarks.
"We are going to do exactly the opposite of what Trump is doing," he said. "He is trying to divide us up. We are going to bring our people together... around an agenda that works for all of us, not just the one percent."
"People say that Ilhan and I make an odd political couple. But in fact, there is really nothing odd about it at all," Sanders continued. "Ilhan and I share a common link as the descendants of families who fled violence and poverty, and who came to this country as immigrants. But that is not just my story, or Ilhan's story -- that is the story of America."
He also said he and Omar both were working to eliminate "all student debt in America," and make all public colleges "tuition-free."
Fox News' Andrew Craft contributed to this report.

Castro lays into Buttigieg on ‘bad track record’ with African Americans

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Julián Castro, the former Obama administration official running for president, told reporters on Saturday that the idea the Democratic primary is now a two-person race is premature.
Castro, the former San Antonio mayor who served as President Obama’s Housing and Urban Development secretary, attended the Warren County Democratic Party’s fall dinner and pointed out what he sees as clear liabilities with Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s campaign, The Hill reported Sunday.
“Anyone who thinks this is a two-person race doesn’t know anything about the Black and Latino communities,” he said. Castro reportedly told a gaggle of reporters that the South Bend, Ind., mayor has a "bad track record with African Americans on the issues."
Buttigieg, in an interview with CNN, called Castro’s claim false. He even offered to walk Castro around his city to see the progress there.
Castro's reaction was in response to an interview where Buttigieg told journalist John Heilemann that he believed the primary is winnowing down to two people.
"It's early to say, I'm not saying that it is a two-way. A world where we're getting somewhere is where it's coming down to the two of us," he said.
Buttigieg was envisioning his survival along with Sen. Elizabeth Warren's. He has since walked back the comment.
Buttigieg’s appeal to African-Americans has been a topic of conversation throughout the campaign. Buttigieg said in May that he was continuing outreach to the voters.
Buttigieg also has offered a broad policy agenda for African Americans and has been outspoken on the issue of race. He has also met in New York with the Rev. Al Sharpton and said Sharpton encouraged him "to engage with people who may not find their way to me, who I need to go out and find my way in front of."
Buttigieg told CNN, "Look, our city has had a lot of challenges, but the black voters that know me best have returned me to office and supported me more the second time than the first."
An after-hours email from Fox News to Buttigieg's campaign was not immediately returned.