We have a small landslide of new news this morning tied to the growing tangle of Trump administration scandals. Let me try to piece them together and sort the important from the less important. (Everything is relative when we’re moving at this velocity.)

Let’s go through the headlines. I’m choosing just three – there are a handful of others that on any other day would be siren-blaring news. Read More

The creator and deposed chief executive of Fox News, Roger Ailes, has died at age 77.

Let me share a few quick thoughts on the appointment of Robert Mueller as Special Counsel to oversee the Russia probe.  Read More

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) deletes week-old tweet that really nailed the political moment.

Yesterday afternoon I was going to write this post about expanding our muckraking team here at TPM. Then we had the second afternoon in a row when a shattering blockbuster news story broke right at the end of the day turning everything upside down and scrambling my plans. Which is to say that President Trump is managing to be corrupt faster than I can hire people to cover his corruption, which is both impressive and daunting. So here goes. We are hiring reporters in both our DC and New York offices. These are investigative reporting positions. But I prefer to think of them as muckraking jobs. Because digging into big scandals and stories about corruption and abuses of the public trust, sometimes unseen and unexplored is what our history is as a site and what I love to be a part of. If you’re interested, please see the job listing after the jump. Read More

The very latest reports out this morning have it that Jared Kushner was a major voice pushing to fire James Comey. And the President is “angry” over the backlash to his decision. A shadow of uncertainty must hang over every report like this. We’re hearing these details through interested parties, a yacht basin Lord of the Flies, with different faction leaders gouging each others’ eyes out as the executive branch descends into chaos.  Read More

At a press conference a short time ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to provide Congress with notes of the Trump/Lavrov Oval Office meeting to prove that no classified information had been disclosed.

We’re getting more clarity on where Republicans are ending up after a bruising, punishing 36 hours. Republicans are now reportedly debating whether to push for an independent prosecutor or commission, two demands Democrats have made for weeks or months but which almost all Republicans have heretofore refused. They seem almost universally to be calling to see the Comey memos and hear from Comey himself as soon as possible. Wanting to hear more from Comey – either from his memos or his testimony is an obvious position for Republicans since it covers all the possible bases and leaves freedom to maneuver as the situation becomes more clear. They’re not condemning or defending. They just want to hear more. They can interpret that as condemnation or defense later, as more facts reveal themselves. The upshot of tonight, I think, is that Republicans collectively decided to get out of the way. They’re not attacking Trump. But they’re also no longer standing in the way or blocking more investigations. For now at least they seem to saying: you’re going to need to handle this on your own.

We are, to put it mildly, in a weird, liminal moment. The Times Comey blockbuster is less than three hours old, now confirmed in its essentials by a handful of other publications. The White House released a statement which amounted to a flat denial. But so far, with the exception of that first response contained in the written statement, there’s been radio silence from the White House. Read More

With the latest revelation – that President Trump straight up asked James Comey to end the Flynn investigation – this is starting to feel like a prize fight where one boxer just took three straight punches to the head. It’s hard to know how much longer this can go on. But I suspect the answer is this: a lot longer.

We talk a lot about smoke and fire. But this isn’t smoke. This is the fire. It’s not clear to me what more we need to know. The only question is whether we decide to put it out or just let it keep burning. As I said above, I bet we’re going to let it burn for quite a while longer. Read More