Good morning! Here’s your Daily News for Thursday, October 18.

1. There’s audio.

• There is reportedly an audio recording of journalist Jamal Khashoggi being tortured, murdered, and dismembered.
• Turkish intelligence officials described the audio to the New York Times, and it is absolutely gruesome.
• President Donald Trump has asked the Turkish government for this audio, while being careful not to admit that it exists for sure and continuing to walk a line of cooperation with the Saudis.
• He talked about all this at length during an extensive sit-down interview with The Associated Press in the Oval Office.
• CNN’s Jamie Gangel reports this morning that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talked a tougher game with the Saudis than it first appeared, basically giving them an ultimatum to get their story straight.
• This doesn’t end with the Crown Prince going to the Hague or anything, but it has the potential to realign the world’s relationship with Saudi Arabia.
• How Trump handles this is an important statement to the world about the United States’ human rights priorities.
• Read more HERE.

2. Saban’s for Manchin, aight?

• University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban is getting political. Not in the state of Alabama, but in his home state of West Virginia.
• Saban appears in the latest television commercial for U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, who is facing a heated reelection contest this fall.
• “Joe and I grew up together in West Virginia, and he never forgets where he came from,” Saban says into the camera to the beat of a marching band drum line reminiscent of college football Saturdays.
• “I don’t have a better friend or know a better person than Joe Manchin,” he says.
• Watch the full ad HERE.
• Big tip of the hat to NYT’s Jonathan Martin and the eleventy people who texted or emailed this to me last night.
• JMart reports that he has talked to Manchin about Saban’s politics. He describes him as a moderate democrat reluctant to engage in Alabama’s heated partisan battles, i.e. Roy Moore/Doug Jones.
• In other words, he’s not going to endorse your campaign, so quit askin!!
• My question is what will Tammy or Charles from Reeltown think about this??

3. New ads: Maddox, Aderholt, Ainsworth.

• Democratic nominee for Governor Walt Maddox is out with a new television ad today. It begins airing statewide this evening.
• The ad hits on Maddox’s common policy goals: expanding Medicaid on “day one” and instituting an education lottery.
• He doesn’t name Gov. Kay Ivey, but includes subtle punches about her not debating and the state being on the hook for former Gov. Robert Bentley’s legal defense in the Spencer Collier lawsuit.
• Watch the ad HERE.

• Congressman Robert Aderholt is up on tv with an ad touting his work on rural broadband and other programs that “create jobs that help rural America.”
• “He works directly with President Trump” is a line Team Aderholt wouldn’t mind reverberating around the district and state for a while.
• Watch the ad for yourself HERE.

• Republican nominee for Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth released a new television ad Thursday.
• The ad pokes fun at Ainsworth’s bald head and tendency to shout, while lacing in his support for pro-growth policies and education reforms.
• “He’s a bald guy who kind of shouts when he talks,” a female narrator says.
• “I’m Will Ainsworth!” the candidate says, channelling Will Ferrell’s Jacob Silj character on Saturday Night Live.
• This one has now become one of my favorites of the cycle.
• Watch the full ad HERE.

4. Skip Tucker: A Modest Proposal.

• Skip Tucker has had about enough of hearing that he’s a bad person just for being an “Old White Man.”
• Turning anyone’s race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. into a pejorative meant to diminish their status is wrong, Skip writes, even if it’s the ones who have been running things for most of human history.
• An excerpt:
• “Old White Men run the world. Almost 65 percent of our GNP is produced by OWM, and 80 percent of the U.S. Legislature is white. There are but six female governors. Five of the six major media conglomerate are owned by old white men.
• “All that, too, is wrong. Much of this is being challenged and changed, and rightly so. But you don’t build up equality by tearing into and tearing down. That leads to bitterness and more hate.
• “It’s an unhealthy risk to inflame prejudice against one type of people because it leads entire segments of society to prejudge guilt without evidence. Class hatred is dangerous because your class might be next.”
• Read Skip’s full column HERE.

5. News Briefs.

• Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight.com released its election forecast models for governors races late yesterday.
• It gives Gov. Kay Ivey a 99 percent chance of winning and forecasts a vote share of 58.5 percent to Walt Maddox’s 41.5 percent.
• Sliver and his number crunchers use a variety of factors and their own secret sauce to determine these .
• Take a look for yourself and click around to the other forecast models HERE.

• Tabitha Isner, Democratic nominee for Congress in AL-2, is getting the New York Times treatment. Or New York Times Magazine, as it were, which might be better in terms of article length.
• Ruth Graham, who normally writes for Slate, travelled around with Isner and wrote all about her uphill battle in challenging Rep. Martha Roby.
• It’s less about the political fundamentals of the race and hardly mentions Roby. It’s more a tale of Isner’s personal journey and a liberal lament that the state and district aren’t more progressive.
• Read it in full HERE.

• The Montgomery Advertiser did some work profiling the Lt. Governor race.
• But they got a big assist from Phil Rawls’ Advanced Reporting Students at Auburn University’s School of Journalism.
• Read Lily Jackson’s profile on Republican Will Ainswoth HERE, and Will Saheil’s profile of Democrat Will Boyd HERE.
• Also read the Advertiser’s Q&A with the candidates HERE.

Headlines.

Front Pages (images link to newspaper websites, which you should visit and patronize).