Greetings, OnPolitics readers! It’s Amy here with today’s top stories out of Washington.
After the military raid that killed Osama bin Laden, President Barack Obama sought to briskly release information as soon as the Al Qaeda leader was confirmed dead May 2, 2011, reporter Bart Jansen writes.
Obama’s consultation with intelligence agencies to determine what intelligence to release publicly contrasts sharply with Donald Trump’s assertion that as president he could declassify documents merely by thinking about it – a claim he made after FBI agents seized about 100 classified documents from his Mar-a-Lago estate in August.
Trump both single-handedly declassified documents and also deferred to the intelligence community to keep documents secret during his team. In 2019, he tweeted a previously classified satellite photo of an Iranian rocket mishap, which he said he had the “absolute right to do.”
But in 2017 Trump postponed the release of some documents associated with President John F. Kennedy’s assassination because of intelligence concerns.
The slow release of information in both Trump and Obama administrations illustrates that despite their broad powers, it’s rare for presidents to unilaterally declassify documents without input from intelligence agencies to determine what can be revealed and when.
Declassifying documents can be long and deliberate, experts say, a far more intensive process than what Trump describes.
How does the process work? It’s not as simple as Trump makes it seems. Here’s the full explanation on how Trump’s rhetoric breaks with presidential tradition.
Catch up on last night’s debates:
Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Senate candidates John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz squared off Tuesday night in their race’s first and only debate. The hourlong debate, which took place in Harrisburg, covered topics including crime, the economy and abortion, and gave voters the opportunity to evaluate Fetterman’s recovery from the life-threatening stroke he suffered this year.
Michigan: When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Republican challenger Tudor Dixon met for their second and final debate Tuesday, the rhetorical temperature was noticeably higher than at their first debate, held Oct. 13.
That was likely the result of shrinking poll margins and the rapidly approaching Election Day, now less than two weeks away. Here are four big takeaways from the debate in Grand Rapids.
New York: Gov. Kathy Hochul and Rep. Lee Zeldin squared off Tuesday night in their first and only debate of the governor’s race, clashing over crime, abortion rights, economic development and more.
Hochul, a Democrat seeking her first full term on Nov. 8, fended off rapid-fire jabs from Zeldin and promoted her 14-month record as governor. Meanwhile, Zeldin, buoyed by recent polls showing him trailing by only modest margins, seized the televised platform to pummel his opponent, particularly on crime.
Real quick: stories you’ll want to read
- What a Netanyahu comeback means for the U.S.: Benjamin Netanyahu describes his relationship with President Joe Biden as open and friendly. But if the 73-year-old leader of the right-wing Likud party becomes prime minister after next month’s elections, tensions between the U.S. and Israel could increase.
- Meadows ordered to testify: Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows was ordered to testify before an Atlanta-area grand jury in a wide-ranging investigation of election interference. Meadows, who was a central figure in Donald Trump’s unsuccessful effort to flip the 2020 Georgia vote in the former president’s favor, had been resisting a subpoena issued by Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis.
- 💰 Which candidates are billionaires backing? Billionaires plunked down more than $82 million to support dozens of GOP Senate candidates, including sizable investments in some of the closest races in the country, a USA TODAY analysis of data provided by OpenSecrets found. Who is funding your state’s candidates?
What’s next: President Joe Biden and Israeli President Isaac Herzog announced a new agreement between Israel and Lebanon that will be signed Thursday. Biden said the agreement will establish a permanent maritime boundary between the two countries and allow the development of energy fields for both countries.