“Lock her up!” is again the mantra of devotees at Trump rallies — but this time it’s not about Hillary Clinton. Mitt Romney distances himself from his denunciations of Trump as a “fraud” and “phony." 2018 is Utah’s driest year on record.
Happy Wednesday. Chants of “Lock her up!” are once again reverberating through President Donald Trump’s rallies — but this time they’re aimed at Sen. Dianne Feinstein rather than Hillary Clinton. The chants echoed though the hall of a Trump rally in Iowa as the president accused the senator of leaking the sexual assault accusations of Christine Blasey Ford against now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Feinstein has strongly denied she was the source of the leak, and Ford’s attorneys have backed her up. [AP]
Topping the news: The only televised debate between U.S. Senate candidates Jenny Wilson and Mitt Romney produced some sharp policy contrasts between the two. It also showed Romney distancing himself from his 2016 denunciations of Donald Trump as a “phony” and “fraud.” [Trib][ABC4][DNews]
-> In a last legal attempt, the Utah Republican Party on Tuesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a 2014 state election law that allows candidates to get on the primary ballot by gathering signatures. [Trib][DNews]
-> Utah has never experienced a drier year than 2018 since records began to be kept in 1895. [Trib]
-> Rep. Mia Love and challenger Ben McAdams have released another round of attack ads, again bashing each other for a lack of honesty. [Trib]
-> The first TV commercial from an outside organization about the Love-McAdams race is set to air. The 30-second spot is from a conservative activist group spending millions to promote a Republican majority in the House. [DNews]
Tweets of the Day: From @PalmerReport: “Remember kids: your focus this month is on the midterm elections – not on whatever weird game of footsie Donald Trump and Nikki Haley are playing right now.”
-> From @ConanObrien: “It’s weird that both the Earth and I have about 30 years left.”
-> From @CesarGrajales4: “What an extraordinary way of starting a #debate #utdebates . 2 candidates with 2 different political views but very respectful of each other. In a very noisy political world that we're living now, this is refreshing. #Utah #US #Senate”
Happy Birthday: To Rich McKeown, chief of staff to former Gov. Mike Leavitt in Utah’s Capitol and at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He now helps lead the Count My Vote organization.
In other news: Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, confirmed that he will push legislation to make Brigham Young University’s police force subject to Utah’s open-records laws, possibly settling a lawsuit filed by The Salt Lake Tribune last year. BYU maintains its police department should be exempt from the transparency law because the school is a private institution owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. [Trib]
-> Neurosurgeon John Macfarlane has embraced activism to promote healthy air quality in Salt Lake and Utah Valley, motivated by his personal and professional experience with the damaging consequences of air pollution. [Trib]
-> Polygamists are happy to embrace the nickname Mormons even as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints shuns the name under the leadership of President Russell M. Nelson. [Trib]
-> A new UtahPolicy.com poll revealed that most Utahns don’t want President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall between the United States and Mexico, and they definitely don’t want taxpayer money to be used to pay for it. [KUTV]
-> A new Deseret News poll shows that support for the medical marijuana initiative remains strong heading into the last leg of the election. [DNews]
-> Tuesday was the last day for voters to register to vote by mail. It is still possible to register online or in person. [ABC4][DNews][KUTV]
-> Gehrke takes on the hard-line speech of Latter-day Saint leader Dallin H. Oaks, essentially declaring gender transitioning and same-sex marriage the work of Satan. [Trib]
Nationally: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley resigned from her post suddenly on Tuesday morning, with President Donald Trump accepting her resignation with “surprise,” according to administration officials. [BBC][CNN][WSJ][Fox][WaPost]
-> Just three days after the bitter fight for his confirmation concluded with his elevation to the Supreme Court, Judge Brett Kavanaugh took his seat on Tuesday. The court heard two hours of arguments from three cases regarding an ambiguous federal law that has vexed the judges for a long time. [NYTimes][WSJ]
-> A disagreement over the way the United States is handling Iran has led to an increasing rift between the United States and Europe, as both have a vested interest in the way Iran is able to conduct business. [NYTimes]
-> The United Nations released its most urgent call to arms against climate change yet, declaring that catastrophic environmental events could occur as soon as 2040. President Donald Trump has declined to comment, saying, “I want to look at who drew it.” [NYTimes][CNN]
-> The International Monetary Fund warned that a trade war between the United States and China would make the rest of the world a poorer and more dangerous place. [BBC][CNN]
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— Dan Harrie and Cara MacDonald
https://twitter.com/danattrib and Twitter.com/carammacdonald