There are two noteworthy articles out tonight, one from the Times and another from the Post. They are both of the ‘President is enraged about X and turning on Y’ genre which has become a staple of over the last six months. On that front, the kicker for me is a point noted in both articles but with more detail from the Post: with the White House figuratively burning to the ground around them, Ivanka, Jared and Melania Trump are pushing the President to solve the problem by firing Reince. Clearly, Reince Priebus is the problem. But the three specific, factual points I want to reference come from the article in the Times. Read More
A favor. I’m neck deep in trying report on Trump Jr. If you’re considering joining Prime, please do so today so I don’t have to write posts about out membership drive and be distracted. Click here. Thank you.
President Trump’s lawyer in the Russia probe may face significant challenges defending the President because he does not have a security clearance and does not plan on seeking one. What’s more, he might have a hard time if he did because he has struggled over the years with alcoholism and was in rehab as recently as 2014-15.
One issue I’ve touched on here and there in my posts on the Russia probe is my abiding sense that especially the younger generation of Trumpers: Kushner, Don Jr., et al. just don’t seem to grasp the magnitude of the trouble they’re in, or at least the magnitude of their legal exposure. I can’t point to any one piece of evidence. It’s more like every piece of evidence. The signs I’m going on are a mix of public evidence, things we see unfolding in the newspapers, and my own reporting. They just don’t act like people who get what they’re dealing with and are acting accordingly. Read More
There is something I was thinking about yesterday that went beyond the specific confines and parameters of the Don Jr story and his meeting with that “Russian government lawyer.” It is a point illustrated quite nicely in today’s column by Ross Douthat. Don Jr’s actions, as significant as they are in themselves, have a significance far beyond them in perceptions and conclusions about the Russia probe. Read More
In an interview today with Reuters, the President said his son’s meeting to seek assistance from the Russian government was actually awesome. “I think many people would have held that meeting,” said the President.
Great reporting from Alice Ollstein and Tierney Sneed on the GOP clusterf*** in the Senate over Obamacare repeal. The new repeal bill fashioned by Mitch McConnell is expected to be unveiled late morning today. Here’s what will make or break their last ditch effort to pull this off.
I wanted to flag a quick thing about coverage of the Russia story. This paragraph is from an overnight Times story.
The Trump family, friends said, always draws closer under intense pressure. But Mr. Trump bridles at the idea that his children, who have not spent years in the public spotlight like him, are now facing unrelenting scrutiny over what he believes to be a manufactured scandal by the news media.
In that overnight article from the Times, it noted that Jared Kushner may not have shared the full story of that June 9th, 2016 meeting with the President when they discussed it last month. That is a problem on a number of levels, not least of which is that I’m pretty sure it is – big picture – not true. Read More