Subject: POLITICO Huddle: RYAN’S TRUMP MANTRA: SILENCE – Becerra: For Latinos, last debate is ‘personal’ – REID ACCUSES TRUMP OF HAVING A ‘SICKNESS’ – Ron Johnson dodges baby pee – SCHUMER'S AGENDA: INFRASTRUCTURE AND IMMIGRATION
From: "POLITICO Huddle" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2016 06:03:31 -0600
List-Id: <1376319_5956375.xt.local>

10/19/2016 07:54 AM EDT

By Heather Caygle ([email-masked] or @heatherscope) 

With assistance from Burgess Everett 

SEE NO TRUMP, HEAR NO TRUMP, SPEAK NO TRUMP- For more than a week, Donald Trump has maintained a near daily barrage of attacks against House Speaker Paul Ryan, accusing the highest-ranking elected Republican of colluding with Democrats to defeat Trump with an eye toward his own 2020 presidential ambitions. Ryan's response? Silence. Rachael and Bres report: "Ryan is plainly not keen on spending the final weeks of the campaign in a public food fight with a guy who loves nothing more than dishing out insults. It's unclear, however, how long Ryan can remain silent."

Save the drama for your mama: Ryan has always been pretty no-drama and it's no different now. "Ryan is focusing on what he can control - raising funds and bringing attention and enthusiasm to our congressional races," a source familiar with his approach told Rachael and Bres. But not everyone is happy with how he's handling the attacks. "'I'm hearing from a lot of grass-roots people out there they are mad at Paul because they think he did "dump Trump,"' one Republican said. 'I don't know why Paul is not out there telling his side of the story. I think it's hurting him.'" 

FOR LATINOS, THIS DEBATE IS 'PERSONAL'- Trump and Hillary Clinton meet for the third and final debate tonight in Las Vegas, which kicks off at 9 p.m. House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra said this debate is important because it's the last opportunity for people to see the two candidates "mano y mano" and for Latinos, this election is particularly personal. "I know that there will be a lot of Latino eyes on this presidential debate," he told reporters Tuesday. "For Latinos ...it is personal because so much of the conversation has been about us." 

CASH GRAB ROUND UP- House Democrats' campaign arm raised a record-breaking $21 million in September, nearly double what the committee brought in the previous two months combined, according to numbers obtained by your Huddle host. With the huge September haul, DCCC closes out the third quarter with $44 million raised and $45.5 million cash on hand. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6436db79efe3067cdf82b7e2d98ec92e9e33a28a6bb15da2712c2b404c66fa34 

-Democrats are also using a legal loophole to pump millions of dollars into House races, reports Scott Bland. "To date, more than a dozen Democratic challengers are benefiting from such 'hybrid' advertising, getting extra hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The technique has been a small but consistent part of Democratic strategy in recent years, but new legal guidance has also allowed Democrats to share costs on ads linking their opponents to Trump on policy." More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6436db79efe3067c578bdb4d5c48ad27d36e56847508e25b8553e9092221b661 

Senate Republicans' campaign committee is also getting a desperately needed boost-raising $15 million in September and taking out a $15.5 million line-of-credit, Burgess reports. "That late $30 million infusion could go a long way: the Senate GOP's campaign arm ended September with $12.3 million on-hand. Without the loan, the party would be out of cash." 

Outspent almost everywhere: "An internal GOP document obtained by POLITICO casts the spending disparity in stark terms. Florida is the only ultra-competitive Senate race where Republicans are outspending Democrats over the next three weeks. According to spending reservations listed on the documents, Democrats are set to outspend Republicans in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Indiana, Nevada and Missouri over the final stretch." More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6436db79efe3067c4d08d32492f67dba5e34a3832d81565b127708df0ce12c46 

WE'RE LESS THAN 3 WEEKS FROM ELECTION DAY. Welcome to Oct. 19. You're reading POLITICO's Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill. 

TUESDAY'S MOST CLICKED- Burgess' deep dive into Sen. Kelly Ayotte's fight to survive her New Hampshire Senate race was the clear winner. 

TODAY IN CONGRESS- Both the House and Senate are out. 

AROUND THE HILL- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi holds a press conference in HVC Studio A at 11:30 a.m. 

REID: TRUMP HAS A 'SICKNESS'- Retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said he believes all of the sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump, first describing the actions as a "crime" before backing off that term. CNN's Theodore Schleifer with more: "'I don't know about a crime. But it is a kind of sickness,' he said Tuesday, dismissing Trump's denials. 'How could you buy it?'" More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6436db79efe3067c5ddb9ac4dfc4e5f81863aa4de48d6c34a7d48d64e8c52148 

COURT MOVES- John McCain dropped a shocker on Monday when he declared that the Senate GOP will be "united against any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary Clinton, if she were president, would put up." Though McCain's spokeswoman walked it back while also lambasting "clear record of supporting liberal judicial nominees," it's also clear that other Senate Republicans aren't all running on a message of SCOTUS obstruction.

Open to persuasion: In two of the tightest states, Sens. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire are keeping an open mind about filling the vacancy. Toomey said on Tuesday that "advise and consent would occur quickly no matter who the president is," while Ayotte said in an interview last week that she's ready to dig into the matter come January. "My position has been that the people should weigh in and that has not changed. We will see who they elect and the next president will make the choice and we will go forward with the confirmation process," Ayotte said.

CANDIDATES, THEY'RE JUST LIKE US- Sen. Ron Johnson may be in the race of his life, but he still has time to change diapers and dodge baby pee. Watch: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6436db79efe3067c8b92c4a31b673203774a4874f22e8be25719afd4d9edf4cf (Side note: Does anyone know if this is the first political ad featuring a baby tinkle?)

KEEP CLINTON AWAY FROM 'AGGRESSIVE HILL MEMBERS'- A deep dive into the Clinton campaign emails released by WikiLeaks shows that long-time aide Huma Abedin is much more than just a body woman-she's indispensable as Clinton's "external hard drive." Case in point: "On June 4, Abedin raised alarm bells when political director Amanda Renteria appeared to change a plan and add to Clinton's schedule a reception with Nancy Pelosi and other members of the House."

"'Going to caucus is generally a better structure for her,' Abedin replied, putting her foot down for the boss. 'She goes, she does her thing, hangs out and then has to leave. Remember we only had 30 min on schedule as you recommended and she loved that plan....A reception will get her trapped with aggressive members.'" Annie Karni with the story: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6436db79efe3067c13233142395954643874e68f229d978bf097da37de28aa2b 

TRUMP WANTS CONGRESSIONAL TERM LIMITS- The idea is part of his "drain the swamp" campaign pledge. Madeline Conway: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6436db79efe3067c627f17369c8e263ba9f5fa31dab6bb9878705173d3fb240d 

BAYH, YOUNG DEBATE EACH OTHER, NOT TRUMP- Rep. Todd Young and Evan Bayh faced off Tuesday night in a debate that was decidedly about the issues (and who's the real Washington insider) and not about Trump, who didn't come up once. Maureen Groppe and James Briggs report for the Indianapolis Star: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6436db79efe3067cad37f8ce23ed0a907a48779b32a86529251b9f1f359de996 

WARREN BETTER COVER HER BASES- Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling is likely throwing his bat into the ring (how many sports metaphors can I combine?), planning to take on progressive favorite Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the 2018 Senate race. Take it away Burgess: "The conservative former baseball player, beloved in New England for pitching through a bloody ankle injury in the 2004 playoffs, said that while he still needs to speak to his family, in his mind he's already decided to challenge Warren." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6436db79efe3067c6888279f39b6983ecae750a9919c084f609998ffe82fa21b 

TWEET DU JOUR- Bruce Mehlman (@bpmehlman): @jimmyfallon has 2x as many Twitter followers as ALL 100 Senators... maybe we're less important here than we think? See the graphic: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6436db79efe3067cafe04119d1fa0712b6f18ee5ff432ebc0d668c17bf25e8a2 

MURPHY'S ON HIS OWN- "Senate Democrats pulled their last chunk of remaining ad reservations in Florida on Monday night, leaving Rep. Patrick Murphy on his own in his race against Sen. Marco Rubio." The latest Quinnipiac University poll, released Tuesday, only has Rubio up two points (49-47) over Murphy. The decision was made before Monday's debate between Murphy and Rubio, Burgess and Kevin report: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6436db79efe3067cf65fc866a593261dca04ad9bc3e7190c9da39585cc05197f 

SCHUMER'S AGENDA: IMMIGRATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE- If Democrats take control of the Senate, future Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer says he has two big agenda items on his radar: "The two things that come, that pop to mind - because Schumer, Clinton, and Ryan have all said they support these - are immigration and some kind of international tax reform tied to a large infrastructure program," he told CNBC's John Hardwood. 

On the realities of immigration reform: "The mainstream conservatives in the Senate and House, who are a majority - and I don't mean to be cliche but some of my best friends in the Senate are in this group - they will say to the hard right, to the 50 congressmen who seem to tie things in a knot and Paul Ryan, you know, go take a hike," Schumer said. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6436db79efe3067c1ff2a36d672a0b7d13af865cd6704b38e6d6adc331ebcb25 

TUESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER- Jonathan Orr was the first to guess that Sen. Harris Wofford graduated from Scarsdale High School. 

TODAY'S TRIVIA- Jonathan, sticking with the alumni theme: "Former Rep. John Spratt and current Sec. of Transportation Anthony Foxx are both alumni of what college or university?" The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in tomorrow's Huddle. Get at me: [email-masked] 

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