White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of one of the most powerful clubs in America.

Tech Companies Plot Midterm Election Coverage In Secret Meeting

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Representatives from numerous social media and tech companies including Twitter, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Snapchat are convening in San Francisco on Friday, August 24th to discuss their strategy for the upcoming midterm elections. Invited by Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity for Facebook, the representatives will assemble at Twitter headquarters for the talks.

According to emails obtained by Buzzfeed, “The meeting, the Facebook official wrote, will have a three-part agenda: each company will present the work they’ve been doing to counter information operations; there will be a discussion period for problems each company faces, and a talk about whether such a meeting should become a regular occurrence.”

These tech companies have come under intense scrutiny for their role in enabling misinformation to play a part in the 2016 election. The meeting comes days after Microsoft discovered and shut down six phishing sites registered by Russian military intelligence.

You can read more about the meeting here.

CNN Report: Trump’s Instagram Mostly Echos Fox News Account

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Omarosa Manigault’s new book Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House says that Fox News managers send talking points to President Trump every day. Now a new report, by Hunter Schwartz from CNN’s Coverline, reveals from May 22nd to August 22nd President Donald Trump’s Instagram account has reposted 85 photos or videos from either Fox News, Fox Business, or “Fox & Friends,”. That’s about 24% of Trump’s 358-total posts in that time frame.

The pattern appears to be: Trump tweets, then Fox News turns the tweet into a graphic, sometime later the graphic ends up back on President Trump’s accounts, creating a type of social media feedback loop.

You can read more here.

Obama and Biden Surprise Visit to Dog Tag Bakery

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On August 2, 2018, former President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Dog Tag Bakery in Georgetown. The two grabbed lunch and delighted customers. This video captures some of the highlights and media coverage of their visit.

Dog Tag Bakery is an extension of the Dog Tag Inc. Fellowship Program, which combines education with hands-on experience to create a living business school, building a bridge to employment and helping veterans and military families find fulfillment in their professional and personal lives.

Top Trump Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow Hosted White Nationalist Website Publisher at His Birthday Party

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Photo Courtesy of Getty Images

Last week, Trump speechwriter Darren Beattie was fired from his post at the White House after revelations surfaced that he had participated in a panel at the H.L. Mencken Club, an alt-right summit of sorts which previously hosted fellow-white nationalist Richard Spencer, with Peter Brimelow, a white nationalist and publisher of anti-immigrant website Vdare.com, in 2016.

It now seems that another Trump administration official has been spotted with the controversial figure, this time National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow. The Washington Post reports that Brimelow was among the attendees at Kudlow’s birthday party at Kudlow’s home in Connecticut on Saturday, August 18th.

Kudlow is a former CNBC host and former Reagan administration official. He was named director of the National Economic Council by President Donald Trump in March.

Brimelow founded the anti-immigrant website Vdare.com in 1999 and is seen as a leading figure in the white identity politics movement. Vdare is named after Virginia Dare, the first English-born child in what is now the United States, a symbol that has been adopted by white nationalists and anti-immigrant activists.

Other guests at the party include more dubious names including Trump allies Roger Stone and Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy, and pundits CNBC’s Michelle Caruso-Cabrera and Fox News anchor Brian Kilmeade.

Kudlow claims to have no knowledge of Brimelow’s history with white supremacy although he also stated he has known Brimelow “forever” and that he has been “coming to my dinner parties for years”. Kudlow also says, “If I had known this, we would never have invited him. I’m disappointed and saddened to hear about it.”

Zignal Labs’ Josh Ginsberg on How Companies Can Fight Back Against Bot Attacks

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Zignal Labs CEO and co-founder Josh Ginsberg went on Bloomberg TV’s “What’d You Miss?” on Friday, August 17th to discuss his company’s latest software, the first-ever bot intelligence platform, which protects brands against malicious bot attacks which can cause harm to a company’s reputation, affect stock price, and also spread disinformation about a brand or its executives. This software can spot bot attacks in real-time and alert company executives before problems arise.

“Companies usually have no idea that these attacks are occurring…as long as you have technology that enables you to see how a story is spreading,” says Ginsberg, you can see “who’s taking hold of that story” and take proactive steps to combat the narrative.

You can watch the full segment here.

Haddad Media CEO and White House Correspondents Insider Editor-in-Chief Tammy Haddad is an unpaid advisor to Zignal Labs.

POLITICO: Here’s How Journos Kill Time Awaiting Manafort Verdict

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Nothing grabs headlines quite like white-collar crime. On what is now Day 4 of the high stakes tax fraud case of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, with no end of deliberation in sight, journalists, lawyers, and lookiloos awaiting a verdict are less fraught with anticipation than captivated by the body language of jurors out for a smoke break or boredly playing solitaire or crosswords in the courtroom.

Journalists, write Ben Schreckinger, Josh Gerstein and Darren Samuelsohn for POLITICO, are content with watching for the lights to go on and off in the jury room while the hours pass with little or no news. “About 50 members of the media camped out in the small plaza in front of the courthouse with dozens more in the lobby of the Westin across the street and in the hotel’s restaurant, where a cheeseburger ordered “rare” came back brown in the middle, just the way the president likes it.”

These intrepid writers are relegated to questioning the timing and the substance of certain lunch orders. Terrible diets abound for reporters and lawyers alike.

Manafort is facing 18 counts of tax and bank fraud in the first trail brought about by special counsel Robert Mueller. If convicted on all counts, Manafort would be sentenced to 305 years in prison. No easy task for the twelve jurors who will ultimately decide his fate.

Read the full story here.

Kevin Sheekey’s Daily Read Turns One!

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Bloomberg’s Kevin Sheekey has been gathering the most important stories in business and the wider world of Bloomberg. Today, the newsletter turns one just as it tops over 20,000 subscribers.

To celebrate the occasion, he has put out a list of the newsletter’s most popular headlines. You can check them out below.

Top 5 Most Popular Sheekey Daily Read Headlines:

1. Bloomberg Eyes 2020 Presidential Run as a Democrat – The Guardian

2. Mike Bloomberg sums up thoughts on environment: “We’re in deep s—.”

3. Social Justice Lawyer: The Nightmare of Working in de Blasio’s Government

4. The Mike Bloomberg Effect: Bad News for Trump – Rising Chance of Republicans Losing U.S. House of Representatives

5. Michael Bloomberg: Google Walks Away From America’s Security

You can sign up for the Sheekey Daily newsletter at SheekeyDaily.com!

Blumhouse Television Announces New Podcast, “The Oval Office Tapes,” Set to Air in September

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Blumhouse Television has announced a new podcast, “The Oval Office Tapes,” on Wednesday, August 15th, featuring fictionalized monologues depicting the Trump White House activities as told by key figures in the administration. Emmy Award-winning filmmaker RJ Cutler is the podcast’s creator. His work includes the documentary films The War Room, A Perfect Candidate, The September Issue and The World According to Dick Cheney. The podcast is slated to air in September for a weekly, 10-episode run. Writer and political reporter Scott Conroy will serve as showrunner for the podcast.

Each episode of the series will dramatize the current week’s political headlines from the perspective of prominent figures within the Trump Administration. No castings have been announced yet, but Wednesday’s announcement claimed, “The Oval Office Tapes would feature all of your favorite Trump administration figures, family members, best friends, and enemies.”

“The Oval Office Tapes” will be presented as a partnership between Blumhouse Television and Cadence 13, the company that distributes the hit “Pod Save America,” “Up and Vanished,” and “The RFK Tapes.”

You can learn more here.

White House Historical Association To Host “Back to the White House”-themed Presidential Sites Summit

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Photo Courtesy, WhiteHouse.gov

The White House Historical Association will convene the Presidential Sites and Libraries as well as participants from around the world for it’s latest Presidential Sites Summit. Held every two years, this edition will focus on the history of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave and all things White House. The “Back to the White House” summit lasts from August 27-30 and will gather people who maintain and operate historic presidential sites and libraries as well as fans of American history and politics.

Among the featured speakers are former assistant to President George W. Bush and chief of staff to First Lady Laura Bush,  Anita McBride, Presidential historian and author Jon Meacham, journalist Soledad O’Brien, USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page, David Rubenstein, and Haddad Media CEO Tammy Haddad.

According to the White House Historical Association, the theme expands upon the commonalities between America’s leaders. “In addition to executive leadership, all presidents have in common the place associated with their legacies: the White House. From George Washington’s role in selecting the site of the President’s House and its architect to the modern day, the symbolic force of the White House resonates through time. All chief executives are shaped by their experiences at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. In 2018, the White House Historical Association will convene the Presidential Sites and Libraries to reconnect with the domain that defined those presidencies — the White House.”

Participants will take exclusive tours of historic sites, attend sessions on fundraising, philanthropy, and digital engagement. Others can join in the fun by following @WhiteHouseHstry on Twitter and by using the #PresidentialSites hashtag.

You can learn more about the Presidential Sites Summit here.

The White House Historical Association has also recently partnered with American University to offer a class called Living History, which examines the history of the White House. Anita McBride, the executive-in-residence for AU’s Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at the School of Public Affairs, says that the White House is “a symbol of our democracy. And here at AU, we study public affairs, we study policy, we study the impact of these decisions on people’s lives. The White House is the place where decisions are made that are far-reaching and impactful.”

American University says the class will “cover the White House as a national landmark and living museum, its architectural transformations, the history of its occupants and staff, as well as the presidency itself. They’ll delve into various themes and feature guest speakers. McBride, former chief of staff to Laura Bush, will participate in several sessions and will be responsible for the section on first ladies.”

You can learn more about the partnership and the course here.

Omarosa Debuts Secretly-Taped Conversations with President and CoS

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Omarosa Manigault Newman, the former “Apprentice” contestant, White House staffer, and now author of gossip-y Trumpworld book Unhinged, was secretly taping her colleagues in the Trump administration including President Trump and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.

She debuted a conversation she had with President Trump the day after she was unceremoniously fired from her White House role, parts of which she also recorded secretly. In the tape, Donald Trump expresses disbelief that she has been fired though many claim he was being disingenuous.

Omarosa also claims to have heard the long-rumored “Apprentice” tapes showing then-host Donald Trump repeatedly using the N-word while referring to the show’s African-American contestants. Additionally, she claims to have 3 sources which have to corroborate her story. Her book is out Tuesday, August 14th.