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From The Reporter’s Notebook
Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) said Wednesday that he has no plans to resign after a week full of high-profile embarrassments, but does intend to seek “spiritual guidance,” TPM’s Esme Cribb reported. He vowed to “no longer speak to the press ever again after today,” saying that he was tired of being caught in controversial statements by the media. “I’m serious. Everything will be put into writing,” LePage said. “I’m tired of being caught in the gotcha moments.”
Agree or Disagree?
Josh Marshall: “If this is [Trump’s] final statement, we’re basically where we started, just with a few garnishes about our love for the Mexican people and the wonders of immigration that happened in the past. The flurry of bogus specifics is meant to obscure the big picture: everyone has to go. The debate about immigration has become so polarized that it can be difficult to remember that there are reasonable policy questions to be debated and wrestled with over the terms, scope and numbers of immigrants the country should absorb at any one time. But what we saw tonight isn’t a tense version of that debate. It really has nothing to do with that debate at all. This is a blood-soaked white nationalist politics that has caught fire with a significant minority of the electorate.”
Say What?!
“At the end of the day God raised up, I believe, Donald Trump who was going to be the nominee in this election.”
– Michelle Bachmann, who has been advising Trump on foreign policy, said that God played an active role in his nomination.
BUZZING: Today in the Hive
From a TPM Prime member: “In 2012 the Republican party was mostly concerned about tone/messaging, rather than policy as what they needed to change. They did see immigration reform as necessary, but that was about it from a policy perspective, and that wasn’t a change, because Republican donors have always wanted immigration reform, it’s good for their businesses, etc. In 2016, if they even bother trying to self-reflect, it will be on the ‘optics’ and ‘messaging’ of Trump, as repulsive to voters, missing all the other structural problems they have.”
Related: Sean Hannity deepened his growing rift with elected Republicans and members of the conservative media with a diatribe naming exactly who he would hold accountable if Trump loses.
Have something to add? Become a Prime member and join the discussion here.
What We’re Reading
The man who introduced Donald to Melania. (The New York Times)
Six astronauts spend a simulated year on Mars. (TIME)
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