Conservatives mount a whisper campaign smearing Khashoggi in defense of Trump  —  Hard-line Republicans and conservative commentators are mounting a dark whisper campaign against Jamal Khashoggi that is designed to protect President Trump from criticism of his handling of the dissident …

Kelly, Bolton Get in Profane Shouting Match Outside the Oval Office  —  President Donald Trump's chief of staff and his national security adviser engaged in a profanity-laced argument outside the Oval Office on Thursday, according to three people familiar with the episode.

A President Who Believes He Is Entitled to His Own Facts  —  WASHINGTON — He accepts less-than-credible denials from autocratic heads of state about nefarious acts.  He disputes the existence of man-made climate change and insists that photographic evidence of the crowd at his inauguration is fake, part of a media plot to harm him.

Trump administration does about-face on announcement that top HUD aide would lead Interior watchdog  —  Interior Department officials said Thursday that they did not approve the hiring of a political appointee as the agency's acting watchdog, calling the announcement of her move by Housing …

Fake intern who recorded McCaskill campaign had access to voter info, campaign says  —  A conservative activist with Project Veritas posed as an intern with U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill's campaign and had access to voter information, according to a stack of documents McCaskill's lawyer delivered …

How Trump frames the 2018 election choice: “Democrats create mobs.  Republicans create jobs”  —  From CNN's Betsy Klein and Kevin Liptak  —  President Trump, at his rally in Missoula, Montana, framed the midterms as “an election of Kavanaugh, the caravan, law and order, and common sense.

Vladimir Putin uses speech to herald end of US hegemony  —  Russian president Vladimir Putin shrugged off worsening relations with the west and talked up Moscow's burgeoning diplomatic friendships in Asia and the Middle East, as he hailed the end of a US-dominated unipolar world.

HBO's ‘Veep’ gag and new Joe Donnelly political ad are basically the same  —  Dwight Adams, dwight.adams@indystar.com  —  Many Hoosiers who saw the latest Joe Donnelly ad entitled “Axe” may have viewed it and thought, “well, there's a fella who likes to chop his own wood!”

Paul Manafort is spending A LOT of time with Robert Mueller these days  —  (CNN)Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and special counsel Robert Mueller have been spending a whole lot of time together of late, according to CNN's Katelyn Polantz and Evan Perez.  The duo write:

Texas Dems ask noncitizens to register to vote, send applications with citizenship box pre-checked  —  The Texas Democratic Party asked non-citizens to register to vote, sending out applications to immigrants with the box citizenship already checked “Yes,” according to new complaints filed …

How Republicans could (barely) hang on to the House  —  Unlikely?  Definitely.  Impossible?  No.  —  Just about every poll predicts it won't happen: Suburban voters are too fed up with Donald Trump, and Democrats too awash in cash, for Nancy Pelosi's party not to seize the House on Nov. 6.

Rihanna Declined Super Bowl LIII Halftime Show Offer in Support of Colin Kaepernick … Rihanna stands with Kap.  The “Work” singer declined an offer to headline the Super Bowl LIII Halftime Show because she “supports Colin Kaepernick,” a source tells Us Weekly exclusively.

A Defector From Conservatism With a Clear Vision of Trump's Rise  —  When Max Boot was a young conservative apparatchik on the make, the key moment in his career occurred when he got a meeting with Robert Bartley, editor of The Wall Street Journal editorial page, one of the movement's most prestigious and influential organs.

Burlington police chief reacts to Madelyn Ellen Linsenmeir obituary: ‘I have a problem’  —  Burlington police Chief Brandon del Pozo posted this to his Facebook account on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018.  —  I have a problem with this obituary.  —  Born here in Burlington, Madelyn was the 30-year old mother of a toddler.

Your Real Biological Clock Is You're Going to Die  —  In April, in a small town on a small island in a small string of islands trailing down from the main part of Japan, the world's then-oldest person died.  Nabi Tajima was 117 years old—the last surviving human being born in the 19th century.

Beto O'Rourke takes questions at CNN town hall … Transfer your debt and pay no interest until 2020  —  Getting approved for 1 of these cards means you have excellent credit  —  7 cards that generate serious amounts of cash back  —  5 cards charging 0% interest until 2020

Ex-Trump Adviser Jason Miller Sues Will Menaker of ‘Chapo Trap House’ Over Tweet  —  First, he sued Gizmodo Media and a reporter over a claim he gave an abortion pill to a stripper.  Now he is suing the reporter's boyfriend over a tweet.  —  Jason Miller, a former senior campaign aide to Donald Trump …

Trump Closely Involved In Killing FBI's Move Out Of Washington, Emails Show  —  Opening up the FBI's Pennsylvania Avenue location for redevelopment would have created competition for Trump International Hotel.  —  WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump personally intervened to stop the FBI …

A day in the life of an HSBC exec who wakes up at 5:30 a.m. to work out, always eats green, and studies at Stanford in her free time  —  Melania Edwards is always on the move.  —  The HSBC exec, who's part of the bank's Global Venture Capital Coverage Group, works from two Northern California offices an hour apart.

Court in Finland finds pro-Kremlin trolls guilty of harassing journalist  —  In a major ruling that exceeded prosecutors' requests, a court in Finland sentenced a man to prison for harassing journalist Jessikka Aro.  She had been targeted for years by pro-Russian trolls over her reporting.

PolitiFact is forced to retract a story claiming Claire McCaskill didn't say what she definitely said  —  At some point, we may have to consider the possibility that certain media fact-checkers are not so dispassionate and free from partisan biases as they'd like us to believe.

NYPD Arrests First Proud Boy for Manhattan Fight With Antifa  —  Geoffrey Young was charged with riot and attempted assault for his role in the brawl between the right-wing group led by Gavin McInnes and protesters.  —  The New York Police Department announced the first arrest of a member …

FBI agents raid San Juan government offices as part of investigation into fraud, corruption  —  FBI agents this week raided the municipal offices in San Juan, Puerto Rico - rooting through documents and seizing digital records as part of a widespread investigation into fraud and obstruction …