Pool Reports of September 26, 2020

Pool Report 1

Greetings from the Rose Garden, where President Donald Trump will soon announce his nominee for the Supreme Court.

Festive atmosphere. American flags hang along the colonnade and the PA system plays patriotic music.

It's about 72 degrees, with somewhat high humidity; cloudy, but it looks the rain will hold off.

Looks like about 150-200 people filling up chairs set up in the newly remodeled Rose Garden. Pool is the back at the TV riser, and has not seen any political celebrities as of yet.

Televised remarks are scheduled to start at 5 p.m.

Pool Report 2

President Trump began speaking at 5:04 p.m. and praised nominee Amy Coney Barrett for 10 minutes.

Barrett then spoke from 5:14 p.m. to 5:22 p.m.

Trump ended the program at 5:23 p.m. with "congratulations, Amy."

Afterward, Trump and Barrett walked down the colonnade toward the residence, followed by the nominee's children.

Barrett's comments included a discussion of the personal friendship between Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her mentor, Justice Antonin Scalia. Members of Scalia's family attended the ceremony.

The crowd of about 150 people stood and cheered when Trump announced Barrett's name.

A military band entertained the crowd shortly before the event, including "Hail To The Chief" when Trump and Barrett entered the Rose Garden.

Many Republican senators came in right before the program, including Tillis, Hawley, Fischer, and Sasse. Trump asked the senators for quick and respectful hearings, and joked with Barrett about the disputes surrounding her nomination.

"It's going to be extremely non-controversial," Trump joked.

Note: The White House arrayed a line of state flags along the southern edge of the Rose Garden

Also spotted in the crowd: Bill Barr, Laura Ingraham, Kellyanne Conway, Corey Lewandowski, David Bossie, and Matt and Mercedes Schlapp.

Pool Report 3/Short Meadows gaggle

Some of our colleagues caught up with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows after the Barrett nomination event. (Many thanks to Seung Min Kim of the The Washington Post.)

Asked about confirmation, Meadows said: "That'll be up to the senators."

Someone noted that Trump talked a lot about Barrett's family.

Meadows: "I think that's a good thing, don't you? ... it speaks volumes as a working mom to be able to, uh, be a good role model."

Are you confident she will be confirmed before Election Day?

Meadows initially said "I'm not confident," but then backed up and said: "That would be a discussion for the senators. I would believe that they're going to try to move through the process and review her credentials in an expeditious manner. And if they do that, based on the resume that I've seen, hopefully she would get confirmed before the first of November."

Do you have the votes?

Meadows: "I'm not counting the votes."

Pool Report 4

President Trump exited the residence at 6:24 pm

Spoke for about 5 minutes about Barrett, mail-in voting complaints, and the Biden debate.

Extra loud chopper noise - gonna have to look at video.

Snatches:

He predicted confirmation of Barrett; "I think it's going to go quick - I hope."

Complained about mail voting: "This whole ballot scam is going to cause a lot of problems."

"We're watching very closely."

Said he didn't know if he would go on the attack against Biden - will have to see what happes,

"I have no idea," Trump said.

Marine One took off at 6:35 p.m.

Pool Report 5

More from the departure gaggle (and many thanks to Steve Holland of Reuters):

Regarding election problems, Trump said:v"This whole ballot scam is going to cause a lot of problems for our country. I want to see a peaceful transition, but it's got to be a legal process."

More: "When you get thousands of ballots sent to people, and they are double ballots where you get two votes, and that's just one of many problems. Go back and look at the Iowa primary, Democrat primary, they still don't know who won. I mean you look at it, it was a disaster using this system."

Also:

Praised Barrett's academic credentials: "First in her class, all of that."

Asked if he expects fireworks the Barrett's confirmation, Trump said it would be "very, very hard" for Democrats to give her a tough time because of her qualifications.

He predicted quick confirmation and it "will be done before the election."

Asked if he still has confidence in Chris Wray, Trump said: "Well, he disagreed with us on a couple of things - we'll see what's going on."

He then launched into his complaints about mail-in voting.

As for the debate, Trump said he had "no idea" what to expect from Biden because he's always different when debates - he then took another unfounded drug crack at Biden, saying he may be on "different medication."

Said he has looking forward to the rally in Penn: "There's going to be a lot of people there."

Trump said he did not discuss the abortion issue with Barrett during their interview: "I never discussed that with Amy," and the court itself is "going to have to make that decision."

Pool Report 6

A weather call forced President Trump to motorcade from JBA to the White House.

The motorcade departed from the JBA tarmac at 9:49 p.m.

We arrived back at the White House at 10:12 p.m.

No Trump sightings.

We are lidded

Out of town pool report 1, Sept. 26, 2020

Marine One touched down at JBA about 6:43 pm and POTUS emerged at 6:47, carrying his own umbrella.

Traveling with the president are Scavino, McEnany, and Stephen Miller.

It's an overcast sky with with drizzle and temps still around 70.

Potus paused at the stairs, but didn't come over after a shouted question on judge Barrett's views on investigations.

Next stop: Harrisburg / Middletown PA for campaign rally.

Out of town pool report 2, landed

AF1 (the big plane) touched down in Pennsylvania at 7:24 pm.

No interactions with staff or potus in air.

The plane taxied to the hanger for the airport rally. They've set up a bank of big spotlights.

There's a large "fill that seat" digital sign. Entered to Elton John "Saturday Night."

Press is about 8 feet away from the crowd where most attendees near us are unmasked. White tee shirt "police for trump" section is stage left.

There's a few thousand here. Crowd packed in close. Pool understands there were 2,000 chairs and are more people than that here.

Out of town Pool report No. 3, Sept. 26

POTUS praised his SCOTUS pick early in his rally, where he quickly moved on to complaints about Congress, Mike Flynn prosecution, AOC, Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and mail-in ballots.

Remarks started about 7:51 pm. He was still going almost 50 minutes later, going on and off prompter and riffing.

"I've just come from the Rose Garden of the White House, where I proudly nominated judge Amy Coney Barrett," Trump said at the top. He cited Barrett's "brilliant legal mind" and said it was "a little better than Biden."

"She should be running for president," he said. He said Barrett 'will defend your god given rights and freedoms."

He said Biden's list would be "handpicked by socialists" like AOC.

There was a steady drizzle. POTUS tried to make the best of it saying:

"Stand together in the rain. Supposed to bring luck we'll take it," he said at the top.

Please check quotes: there is aircraft engine noise and steady rain.

On the day he nominated his third SCOTUS pick, Trump said: "Given power the far left with pack the Supreme Court with radicals."

There were crowd cheers for "Lock of up" when POTUS mentioned Hillary Clinton and her emails. When he accused Obama of "spying" there were chants of "lock him up." Also chants of "fill that seat!"

There were several slams on Hunter Biden.

"This guy got $3.5 million from the wife of the mayor of Moscow. What the hell was that for?"

AT 7:58 pm, a protester was escorted out by security. POTUS indicated that it was a crowd attendee who grabbed him first.

"He just opened his mouth and we had that gentleman,' Trump said, asking him to stand up for the crowd.

"Are you in law enforcement, because you are on him!" he said. "That's the kind of guy I want working for me."

He brought up impeachment defended his 2016 comments about 30,000 emails.

Other topics: Ventilators, Democrats will destroy your suburbs, trade and the "NAFTA nightmare," Biden's use of the "lid," the "fake news, "Nobel nomination, and more. He said he "got killed" for his prior "housewives" comment but talked up his position in PA.

POTUS once again riffed on discarded ballots, etc., and spoke in more detail than he has about an election thrown into the House.

"I don't want to end up in the Supreme Court and I don't want to go. Back to Congress either – even though we have an advantage in Congress," he said.

"Keep your eyes open if you see any shenanigans," he asked supporters.

Out of town pool report 4 - leaving

Speech wrapped at 8:55 pm after an hour-plus with POTUS' maga windup.

The rain mercifully stopped about halfway through the speech.

Pool exited to YMCA.

POTUS gave a thumbs up to pool, climbed the stairs of AF1 and waved to the crowd.

Boarding for a clockwork 9pm departure flight.

Out of town pool report 5 - JBA

AF1 touched down at 9:40 pm after the short flight from PA.

POTUS came back and spoke to the pool for a bit less than 10 minutes off the record during the flight.

POTUS exited the plane, waved to the pool and got on the Beast. Motorcade rolling 9:49 pm.

Thanks to Michael Shear for the assist.

Handing off to in-town pool. Gnite all.