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Capital Journal
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Good morning from the WSJ Washington Bureau.
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Trump's Day: President Trump is hosting Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison for a White House state visit, with the goal of reinforcing a longtime alliance that has faced some recent challenges.
Campaign 2020: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was ending his campaign seeking the 2020 Democratic nomination for president.
Big Tech: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with President Trump but faced a chillier reception on Capitol Hill Thursday as he sought to placate lawmakers scrutinizing big tech.
Washington Wire: Kamala Harris faults Elizabeth Warren’s fundraising, Republican advisers appear to lose to Democratic advisers in Israel’s election, and more in this week's column.
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A complaint concerning President Trump’s communications with a foreign leader has led to an unusual legal battle. PHOTO: STEFANI REYNOLDS/ZUMA PRESS
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A U.S. intelligence whistleblower complaint involves Mr. Trump’s communications with a foreign leader. The complaint has sparked a standoff between the intelligence community and Democrats in Congress, who are seeking more details, Dustin Volz and Siobhan Hughes report. Mr. Trump disputed that he had said anything inappropriate in a call with a foreign leader.
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Michael Atkinson, the intelligence-community's inspector general, told the House Intelligence Committee Thursday the complaint involves more than one episode and is based on a series of events.
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From reporter Dustin Volz:
The feud between the House Intelligence Committee and the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, is shaping up to be prolonged. He is scheduled to appear next Thursday before the panel, but there is little indication he will be willing to divulge details then, either. As Democrats threaten litigation to sort out complex legal questions, the Trump administration shows no sign of backing down on its view that the complaint shouldn’t be shared with lawmakers.
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The Department of Homeland Security will consider requests from unauthorized immigrants to temporarily stay in the U.S., typically to receive medical treatment, after facing criticism for announcing that it would no longer accept such requests, Michelle Hackman reports.
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Darrell Issa’s effort to take a top trade post in the Trump administration hit another snag yesterday when the former GOP congressman’s hearing was delayed because lawmakers objected to not being able to see his FBI background file, Natalie Andrews reports.
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The administration took a step toward loosening vehicle-emissions rules, moving to strip California’s ability to set its own tougher standards. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao called the standards set by the Obama administration unattainable, reports Katy Stech Ferek.
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Amazon, meanwhile, plans to buy 100,000 electric delivery vehicles as it seeks to reduce its carbon emissions in the face of criticism, and plans to meet goals of the Paris climate agreement 10 years early.
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The House passed a short-term spending bill, in an effort to avoid another government shutdown. The stopgap funding, called a continuing resolution, will keep the government open until Nov. 21, several weeks beyond the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30, Andrew Duehren reports.
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling for the federal government to negotiate prices for many of the costliest drugs on the market. The effort is part of a broad proposal to take on an industry already under siege from Republicans who have vowed to rein in pharmaceutical costs, Stephanie Armour and Andrew Duehren report.
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Senate Republicans said they would press to quickly confirm Eugene Scalia, President Trump ’s nominee to head the Labor Department, deflecting complaints from Democrats that they hadn’t had a chance to properly vet the longtime corporate lawyer, Andrew Ackerman and Sarah Chaney report.
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A bipartisan bill in the Senate that aimed to speed up employment-based green cards for some Indian and Chinese immigrants caught in a yearslong backlog failed to pass, Michelle Hackman and Lindsay Wise report.
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The Pentagon is considering sending additional antimissile batteries, jet fighters and surveillance equipment to the Middle East. The effort to shore up the military’s regional presence comes in the wake of the attack last weekend on Saudi Arabia’s petroleum industry, Gordon Lubold and Nancy A. Youssef report.
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Iran’s top diplomat said a military strike by the U.S. or Saudi Arabia against his country would result in “an all-out war,” a day after Riyadh accused Tehran of orchestrating debilitating attacks on its oil infrastructure and raised the prospect of retaliation, Sune Engel Rasmussen reports.
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The Trump administration moved to expel a pair of Cuban diplomats from posts at the country’s mission to the U.N., alleging they attempted to conduct “influence operations” against the U.S. ahead of next week’s gathering of world leaders in New York, reports Courtney McBride.
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Democrats and Republicans Live in Different Worlds
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By Aaron Zitner and Dante Chinni
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The nation’s urban-rural divide has become a defining feature of politics. Today, the Wall Street Journal presents new evidence showing why it has become such a powerful force dividing the two political parties.
A central reason: Republicans and Democrats not only represent different kinds of places. They represent two very different slices of the American economy.
In Democratic House districts, college degrees and professional jobs are plentiful—and the economy is thriving. Median household income is up in these Democratic districts, compared with the districts the party represented a decade ago. Economic output, or GDP, has risen, too.
Republican House districts hold a growing share of jobs in low-skill manufacturing, agriculture and mining—sectors that often do not require college degrees and which offer lower pay. Median household income and GDP have fallen in these districts, compared to the House districts Republicans represented a decade ago.
"The two parties are on different journeys. They now speak for dramatically different segments of the economy, and it’s been astonishing to track the rapidity of the change," said Mark Muro, policy director at the Brookings Institution’s metropolitan studies program who developed much of the data we present. You can read more of his analysis here.
The data add an economic underpinning to much of what we’ve seen lately in politics. President Trump, with his focus on manufacturing, mining and “the forgotten men and women,’’ has boosted his party’s support in working-class and rural districts. Democrats, by contrast, last year carried enough upper-income suburbs to regain control of the House.
But voters started pushing the two parties into separate geographic spheres before Mr. Trump’s arrival. In the 2010 “tea party’’ wave election, Republicans picked up 63 House seats, largely in rural states and working-class communities.
A few numbers in the project stand out. More than 70% of the nation’s digital and professional jobs are in Democratic House districts, while about 60% of agriculture and mining jobs are in Republican districts.
When House districts are ranked by share of residents with bachelor’s degrees, 17 Democratic districts are on the list before the first Republican district turns up. The picture was different a decade ago, when Republicans held more high-education suburbs and Democrats represented North Dakota, South Dakota and working-class communities across the Midwest and Southeast.
Write to Aaron Zitner at aaron.zitner@wsj.com and Dante Chinni at dante.chinni@wsj.com.
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DAVID ZALUBOWSKI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Bernie Sanders’s record as mayor of Burlington, Vt., shows that at times he worked with Republicans, police and business on key issues facing the community, sometimes to the frustration of liberals, Eliza Collins reports. “Bernie was not just the rabble rouser,” said Peter Clavelle, who succeeded Mr. Sanders as mayor.
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The Sanders campaign reaches one-million donor milestone. (Full story)
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Kamala Harris plans to spend about half of October in Iowa. (Full story)
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Iowa Democrats plan to offer "satellite caucuses" to reach more voters. (Full story)
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In its attempt to overhaul gun laws, the Senate "is essentially outsourcing its legislative duties to a divided White House and the whims of President Donald Trump." (Politico)
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Rudy Giuliani, part of President Trump's legal team, discusses what he asked Ukraine to investigate. (CNN)
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Internal NASA emails reveal holes in its surveillance network to scan for incoming space rocks. (BuzzFeed News)
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This newsletter is a production of the WSJ Washington bureau. Our newsletter editors are Tim Hanrahan, Kate Milani, Troy McCullough and Daniel Nasaw. Send feedback to capitaljournal@wsj.com. You can follow politics coverage on our Politics page and at @wsjpolitics on Twitter.
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