1/ The U.S., Mexico, and Canada reached a deal to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement, which will be known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Trump called the agreement “historic news,” “an extraordinary agreement,” and “a new dawn,” claiming that it “solves the many deficiencies and mistakes in NAFTA” and that it’s “the most important” trade deal ever agreed to by the U.S. The new trade deal leaves much of the old NAFTA deal intact. Congressional approval, however, is uncertain if Democrats retake control of the House since Congress won’t vote to ratify the agreement until 2019. The deal was reached with Canada shortly before a midnight Sunday deadline imposed by the Trump administration. (New York Times / Washington Post / CNBC / Politico / BBC)

2/ Trump said he supports a “very comprehensive” but “quick” FBI investigation into the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh as long as it’s “within reason,” because “we don’t want to go on a witch hunt, do we?” Trump, the White House, and Senate Republicans initially asked the bureau to limit interviews to four people: Mark Judge and P.J. Smyth, high school friends of Kavanaugh’s; Leland Keyser, a high school friend of Christine Blasey Ford; and Deborah Ramirez, another of the accusers. The White House, however, has reportedly authorized the FBI to expand its investigation, which Trump wants completed by the end of the week. In a letter to the White House and FBI, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee listed more than two dozen people they wanted interviewed as part of the investigation. (New York Times / Washington Post / NBC News / The Guardian)

3/ Sens. Jeff Flake and Chris Coons said that if the FBI investigation finds Kavanaugh lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee then his nomination would likely not move forward. During an interview, Flake and Coons were asked, “If Kavanaugh is shown to have lied to the committee, nomination’s over?” Flake responded, “Oh yes.” Coons added: “I would think so.” (CNN / Washington Post)

  • One of Kavanaugh’s Yale classmates issued a statement saying the Supreme Court nominee was not truthful about his drinking during his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Chad Ludington claimed Kavanaugh made a “blatant mischaracterization” about his drinking while in college. (CNN / New York Times)

4/ Trump called the FBI investigation a “blessing in disguise,” because “the FBI has a chance reveal a lot of different things,” including who leaked the papers. Trump suggested it was Sen. Dianne Feinstein “because certainly her body language was not exactly very good when they asked her that question.” The reporter at The Intercept who first broke the story about Ford’s allegations tweeted: “Feinstein’s staff did not leak the letter to The Intercept.” (NBC News / Axios)

poll/ 48% of American voters say Kavanaugh should not be confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court, while 42% say he should be confirmed. 48% of voters believe Ford while 41% believe Kavanaugh. (Quinnipiac)


Notables.

  1. Hundreds of migrant children were moved from shelters in various states into a tent city in West Texas. The children were loaded onto buses in the middle of the night and moved from private shelters or foster homes to a camp in Tornillo, Texas. (New York Times)

  2. Devin Nunes’ family dairy farm in California was actually secretly relocated to Iowa more than a decade ago and relies heavily on the work of undocumented immigrants. Nunes is the head of the House Intelligence Committee. (Esquire)

  3. Secretary of Defense James Mattis canceled his trip to China for an annual security meeting after China refused a request by an American warship to make a port visit to Hong Kong in October. (CNBC / New York Times)

  4. Trump to a female reporter: “You’re not thinking. You never do.” He then refused to let Cecilia Vega, ABC News, ask a question about the FBI investigation into Kavanaugh. During the press conference, Trump claimed the news media has treated him “unbelievably unfairly,” saying “they’re worse now than ever. They’re loco.” (Washington Post / Politico)