White House Reporter Eli Stokols on What It Was Like to Cover Another Trump Year
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Community Community Nawalparasi Founder of Welfare Campus P6Society P16 and Student organises first general Life in Qatar talks about assembly to elect establishing the idea and new members of bringing students together managing committee. under one platform. Tuesday, December 31, 2019 Jumada I 5, 1441 AH Doha today: 170 - 280 COVER Breathless STORY White House reporter Eli Stokols on what it was like to cover another Trump year. P4-5 BOLLYWOOD HOLLYWOOD Amitabh Bachchan receives Efron escapes deadly bacterial Dadasaheb Phalke Award. attack whilst fi lming in PNG. Page 14 Page 15 2 GULF TIMES Tuesday, December 31, 2019 COMMUNITY ROUND & ABOUT PRAYER TIME Fajr 4.57am Shorooq (sunrise) 6.21am Zuhr (noon) 11.38am Asr (afternoon) 2.36pm Maghreb (sunset) 4.56pm Isha (night) 6.26pm USEFUL NUMBERS Good Newwz in-vitro fertilisation and wait for their upcoming babies. 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Once the 5k is over, Mamangam has also come up with chess and the fun continues at the Finish Festival, a robotics in regular batches in an attempt to larger-than-life party equipped with music, give a better learning experience, as they dancing, photo ops, activity booths, vendors, sharpen their minds and brains too. and more massive colour throws, which For those who wish to register for more create millions of vivid colour combinations. details, visit www.mamangamqatar.in Gems and Jewels Exhibition NYE – Countdown in the desert WHERE: Museum of Islamic Art WHERE: Al Bahar Camp, Inland Sea WHEN: Ongoing till January 18 WHEN: Today TIME: 9am onwards An exclusive getaway this New Year’s Eve to The exhibition comes in celebration of avoid the crowd. Join us in the Qatari Desert the Qatar-India 2019 Year of Culture and and camp under the starry sky by the beach at presents a look at magnifi cent gems and the most beautiful waterfront camp. Wake up jewellery from India. 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E-mail: [email protected], Events and timings subject to change 4 GULF TIMES Tuesday, December 31, 2019 COMMUNITY COVER STORY In The Donald’s den With so much being packed into 12 months — a Mueller report, trade talks, tweet storms, rally tirades, terrorist raids and impeachment testimony, as a White House reporter, I often can’t recall what the story was two days ago, admits Eli Stokols year of President Donald Trump is better measured in dog years, with so much being packed into 12 months A— a Mueller report, trade talks, tweet storms, rally tirades, terrorist raids, impeachment testimony. As a White House reporter, I often can’t recall what the story was two days ago. Thinking back to January is overwhelming. For the fi rst 25 days of 2019, the federal government remained shut down as the president tried and failed to pressure Democrats into approving money for a border wall. At year’s end, we interrupted our nonstop coverage of impeachment hearings to bring you the president’s decision to overrule the Secretary of the Navy in order to halt disciplinary action against a Navy SEAL who was convicted of posing with the corpse of a prisoner in Iraq. And then we interrupted that to inform you that the Supreme Court might or might not weigh in to settle the matter of whether Congress has a right to the president’s closely held fi nancial disclosures. The fi re hose of news, or what seems in the moment to qualify as “news,” is relentless. The constant, of course, is Trump. That I can remember. I also remember being in the West Wing in February the day after Attorney General William Barr held a news conference to prebut the report by Robert S Mueller III, informing the public that the special counsel, after a 22-month investigation, had found “no collusion” between FLUSTERED: US President Donald Trump speaks to the media about the impeachment hearings on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington before the president’s campaign and the his departure to Austin, Texas in November 2019. Russians who meddled in the 2016 election. When the report actually became public, the reality proved diff erent — Mueller had opted not to make a decision about whether the president had obstructed justice. But on the day Barr released his advance spin, the mood inside The fire hose of news, or the White House was something akin to a winning team’s locker what seems in the moment room minus the celebratory to qualify as “news,” is spray. Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley had cut out and relentless. The constant, was annotating a newspaper cartoon depicting the president’s of course, is Trump. That most ardent critics in a “Mueller I can remember Madness” NCAA-style bracket. Kellyanne Conway crowed in the White House driveway, telling reporters that all who’d suggested —Eli Stokols, wrongdoing by the president owed him an apology. White House The president, relieved to be off reporter the hook politically, immediately ‘ ’ Tuesday, December 31, 2019 GULF TIMES 5 COVER STORY COMMUNITY found another fi ght, telling a surprised group of Republicans that he wanted to try again to repeal Obamacare.