1:57 PM 5/15/2017
12:12 PM 5/15/2017
M.N.: Approximately: 1/3 - "No opinion", 1/3 - "Disapprove", 1/3 - "Approve".
American institutions are ‘under assault’ by Trump. But do people care? - The Washington Post
Former director of national intelligence James Clapper issued a blunt warning on Sunday: President Trump is waging war on major U.S. institutions.
“I think, in many ways, our institutions are under assault, both externally — and that's the big news here, is the Russian interference in our election system — and I think as well our institutions are under assault internally,” Clapper said on CNN. Asked if he was referring to Trump, Clapper responded: “Exactly.”
It was a pretty striking allegation from the former top intelligence official — a man whose job, after all, was about identifying threats to the American government and homeland. (Dan Rather and GOP Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska made similar comments this weekend.)
It also happens to be true. Objectively so. And I'm not even sure Trump and the White House would quibble too much with Clapper's characterization.
Whether by frustration or design, the president has lashed out at a series of institutions and norms, from the press to the electoral system to the intelligence community to the judiciary to the longstanding rules of Congress to now, arguably, law enforcement. Some of these institutions are supposed to be insulated from politics — intelligence, the judiciary and law enforcement, specifically — but Trump has shown no qualms about attacking any thing or norm that runs afoul of him or stands in his way.
Washington Post reporter Adam Entous explains what President Trump's firing of former FBI director James B. Comey means for the investigation into Russia's alleged attempts to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Post reporter Adam Entous explains what President Trump firing James Comey means for the investigation into Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 election. (Jason Aldag, Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)
Some see this as a completely calculated effort by Trump to consolidate power. The more he damages the credibility of and faith in these institutions, the more they may be reluctant to challenge him, and the more his base will look to him as the only one who can save them. The press and intelligence community, in particular, are tasked with seeking the truth and providing objective facts on which policy decisions are made; Trump is arguing that they are too compromised and the only real truth is coming from his lips.
You don't have to look far to see op-eds and tweets noting that this is a strategy often employed by authoritarian leaders — leaders for whom Trump has done little to suppress his admiration. And it's valid to ask whether Trump has authoritarian goals or is just thin-skinned and willing to attack pretty much anything.
But if it is part of some broader strategy, Trump is exploiting an opening. Faith in American institutions has been declining for years, almost universally according to Gallup polling, as I wrote a couple of years ago.
Below are the percentages of Americans who have a "great deal" of confidence in each, since 1973:
At the time, a number of institutions had his 40-year lows — depths which have persisted through today:
Confidence is also at a historic low when it comes to organized religion (45 percent), the Supreme Court (30 percent), public schools (26 percent), newspapers (22 percent) and TV news (18 percent). And it's within a few points of an all-time low when it comes to banks (26 percent), organized labor (22 percent), the presidency (29 percent), the police (53 percent), the medical system (34 percent) and big business (21 percent).
In other words, people are running out of things to trust. And forward steps a big-talking presidential candidate — and now president — running against the political establishment, claiming to know everything about everything, and promising to Make America Great Again almost by sheer force of will. That's no coincidence.
And in his clashes with institutions, the GOP base has certainly been willing to take Trump's side. Republicans have by and large believed what Trump says more than the intelligence community when it comes to Russia's hacking and even when it comes to Trump's accusation that President Barack Obama wiretapped his campaign.
But there do seem to be limits to that. A Quinnipiac poll showed 4 in 10 Republicans doubted Trump's claim of Obama's wiretapping. And a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows 58 percent of Republicans think he did the right thing in firing FBI Director James Comey, with another 4 in 10 either disapproving (8 percent) or having no opinion (33 percent).
Trust in Trump also seems to be declining, even among Republicans. The latest Quinnipiac poll shows about 1 in 5 Republicans don't believe Trump is honest (21 percent) and believe the media more than him (17 percent). That's a small slice of the GOP, but there seem to be limits to the party's willingness to go along with whatever institution-busting crusade Trump embarks upon.
Keep watching those numbers; they'll tell the tale in the battle between Trump and the American institution.
Aar
Lawmakers from both sides of the political divide cautioned President Trump on Sunday not to name a political figure to head the FBI, and a growing chorus declared that if the president has tapes of White House conversations with fired Director James B. Comey, they must be handed over.
With Trump promising to move swiftly to name a new FBI chief, bipartisan support swelled for finding a respected, nonpolitical leader for the bureau as a means of turning down the temperature on what has become a highly fraught investigation of Russian election-meddling.
At the same time, the president faced calls from Democrats and Republicans to clarify what he meant when he hinted, via Twitter, that he might have taped conversations with the dismissed director. The president claimed separately that Comey had reassured him he was not under investigation — a version of events contested by associates of the fired FBI chief.
Trump spent a cool, sunny Sunday at one of his golf clubs in Virginia — his 24th visit to one of his golf properties in the 16 weeks since he took the oath of office, according to Mark Knoller of CBS, the press corps’ unofficial keeper of such records. The White House said the president was making calls and "may hit a few balls.”
But a gathering tempest awaited him back in Washington. Democrats said they may try to block Trump's FBI nominee, whoever it might be, in order to force the appointment of a special counsel to oversee the Russia inquiry.
Some observers pointed to widening and corrosive implications of the Comey firing and the events leading up to it. Former Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper, speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” said the Kremlin’s interference with the presidential election was intended to sow “doubt, discord and dissension” in the U.S.
“The Russians have to be celebrating, with a minimal expenditure of resources, what they have accomplished,” Clapper said. In a second interview, on CNN’s “State of the Union,” he said American institutions were under assault internally as well.
“Internally, by the president?” interviewer Jake Tapper asked.
“Exactly,” Clapper replied, citing an “eroding” system of checks and balances among the three branches of the U.S. government.
At least eight candidates have been interviewed for the FBI post that was vacated when Trump abruptly fired Comey last week. The president, who is scheduled to leave the U.S. on Friday for his first international trip as president, said it was possible he might make a “fast decision” and unveil a choice before he departs.
One leading contender has been Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), but a senior GOP colleague, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C), warned against picking any elected official because the issues surrounding the appointment are so highly charged.
“John Cornyn, under normal circumstances, would be a superb choice to be FBI director, but these are not normal circumstances,” Graham said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
In the interview, Graham was critical of the bewildering succession of White House explanations for the firing, which first centered on Comey’s handling last year of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of State.
After offering versions of that explanation on Tuesday and Wednesday, the White House abruptly shifted stories on Thursday when Trump, in an interview with Lester Holt of NBC, said that “this Russia thing” had been on his mind when he decided to fire Comey and that he had made up his mind on the issue before hearing any recommendation from Justice Department officials.
“The president has a chance to clean up the mess that he mostly created,” Graham said Sunday.
Senate confirmations of FBI directors, who serve a 10-year term and are supposed to remain above the political fray, are normally a matter of bipartisan consensus. Comey, who was four years into his term when he was fired, had been confirmed 93-1.
This time around, though, the contest could be much more tightly fought. The Republicans, with 52 seats, control the 100-member Senate. But if even three of them defect and refuse to support Trump’s choice for a Comey replacement, the nomination would fail. As a result, Graham’s opposition to naming any elected official would make the choice of Cornyn risky.
Democrats have raised a sustained outcry over the dismissal of the FBI chief, who was in charge of a far-ranging counterintelligence investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. election and possible collusion by associates of Trump. Critics characterize Comey’s ouster as a likely effort to impede that inquiry.
Interviewed on CNN’s “State of the Nation,” the Senate’s top Democrat, Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York, said his party might seek to block approval of Trump’s nominee unless a special counsel was appointed to investigate Russian interference.
“I think there are a lot of Democrats who feel that way," Schumer said. “We have to discuss it as a caucus, but I would support that move.”
Seizing on a confounding spinoff from the Comey firing, Schumer and other senior Democrats continued to demand clarity from the White House on whether Trump recorded conversations he had with the FBI director this year.
“If there are tapes, the president should turn them over immediately” to congressional investigators, Schumer said, adding, “To destroy them would be a violation of law.”
Graham and other senators made similar remarks.
The president tweeted on Friday that Comey “better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations.” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Friday repeatedly declined to clarify whether such tapes exist.
In his dismissal letter to Comey, Trump claimed Comey informed him on three occasions that he was not under investigation — once at a private dinner and twice in phone conversations, he later said in the interview with Holt.
Comey associates have cast strong doubt on that account, saying the president had sought to extract pledges of loyalty from the FBI chief.
The senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), said the question of the tapes “sure seems to have reverberations of past history” — apparently referring to Richard Nixon, who was forced to resign as president over the Watergate scandal.
“When we’ve seen presidents who secretly tape, that usually does not end up being a good outcome” for them, Warner said on “Fox News Sunday.”
If Trump-Comey tapes do exist, he said, “I want to make sure, one, they’re preserved and not mysteriously destroyed in the coming days, and then two … Congress will have to get a look at those tapes.”
In a departure from previous practice when there are major political events in Washington, the White House did not send senior aides to make appearances on the political talk shows to explain the rationale behind the Comey firing.
The exception was Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was asked in an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” whether he felt his own independence was threatened by a scenario like the removal of the FBI chief.
“I have a great relationship with the president,” he said. “I understand what his objectives are. When I’m not clear on what his objectives are, we talk about it.”
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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is decidedly premature in claiming everyone’s convinced his presidential campaign and Russia did not collude before the election. Investigations into contacts between Russians and people with the Trump campaign are still going on, so there’s no exoneration to be found.
Over the past week, Trump stretched a variety of facts on trade, taxes and economic theory. But his firing of FBI Director James Comey was far and away the source of the most tumult. Contradictions cascaded from the White House.
Here are some statements by the president and his spokespeople on the FBI, Russia, economics and more:
JUMPING TO CONCLUSION
TRUMP, on whether people in his campaign and Russian officials were in any way in cahoots: “Clapper is convinced, other people are convinced ... Everybody’s convinced. ... They’re all saying, there’s no collusion. There is no collusion.” — Fox interview broadcast Friday
(Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post; Video by Reuters)
White House press secretary Sean Spicer accused former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. of “changing” his story on possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, after Clapper said on May 12 he wouldn't know if evidence of such collusion exists. Spicer accuses Clapper of 'changing' his story on Trump-Russia collusion (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post; Video by Reuters)
THE FACTS: That’s untrue both generally and with respect to James Clapper, the director of national intelligence until Trump took office Jan. 20. Clapper has not said he’s satisfied there was no wrongdoing. In a report published at the end of the Obama administration, Clapper said no coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia had been established from a review of evidence available to him by that point. But his report focused on what was known by then about Russia’s cyber actions and propaganda against Hillary Clinton, not about contacts between Trump associates and Russia.
Clapper expanded on that point Sunday, saying he did not know at the time that the FBI was digging deeply into “potential political collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians,” and he was unaware of what the bureau might have found.
“There was no evidence of any collusion included in that report,” he told ABC’s “This Week,” meaning his report. “That’s not to say there wasn’t evidence.”
More broadly, it’s obvious on its face that not everyone is convinced that Trump and his people are vindicated in the matter. Senate and House investigations continue, as does the FBI’s, which Comey wanted to intensify before his dismissal last week. Acting FBI chief Andrew McCabe said the probe remains a high priority for the agency.
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is not convinced of anything in his panel’s inquiry, except that “boy, oh, boy, there’s an awful lot of smoke. I’m not saying there’s fire at this point, but we’re going to follow the facts wherever they lead.”
___
WHY FIRE COMEY?
KELLYANNE CONWAY, White House counselor, on the reason for firing Comey: “This has nothing to do with Russia.” — Tuesday on CNN
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, White House spokeswoman, on the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government: “We want this to come to its conclusion, we want it to come to its conclusion with integrity ... and we think that we’ve actually, by removing Director Comey, taken steps to make that happen.” — Thursday White House briefing
THE FACTS: The initial White House explanation for the firing, that Comey had bungled the FBI’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email practices, persuaded no one. Trump was delighted with Comey’s disclosures about the Clinton investigation during the campaign and praised him.
Sanders, though, acknowledged in general terms what was obvious — that by firing Comey, the White House hoped to hasten the conclusion of an aggressive FBI investigation.
___
WHO INITIATED THE DISMISSAL?
TRUMP, in letter firing the FBI chief Tuesday: “I ... concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.”
WHITE HOUSE statement Tuesday: “President Trump acted based on the clear recommendations of both Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.”
SEAN SPICER, White House spokesman, laying the impetus for the firing on Rosenstein and his memo building the case against Comey: “It was all him. No one from the White House. That was a DOJ decision.” — Tuesday
SANDERS, Wednesday: “People in the Justice Department made a very strong recommendation, the president followed it and he made a quick and decisive action to fire James Comey.” — MSNBC interview
TRUMP, Thursday: “Oh, I was going fire regardless of recommendation.” — NBC interview
THE FACTS: The early attempts to deflect responsibility on to others were a diversion; Rosenstein had been asked by the White House to put the memo together. Trump’s unvarnished assertion that he wanted Comey gone has the ring of truth, even without the whole story known.
He appeared to consider himself his own best spokesman in a tweet Friday that raised the prospect of discontinuing the long White House tradition of daily press briefings.
“As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!” Trump tweeted. “Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future ‘press briefings’ and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???”
___
TRUMP UNDER FBI INVESTIGATION?
TRUMP: “First of all, when you’re under investigation you’re giving all sorts of documents and everything. I knew I wasn’t under and I heard it was stated at the committee, at some committee level, that I wasn’t.” — NBC interview
THE FACTS: An absence of document requests can’t be read as an indication that he isn’t under investigation, as Trump suggests. Investigations begin with interviews and document searches that are steps removed from the subject of the probe. Direct contact with the subject wouldn’t become known to that person until late in the process.
___
TRUMP’s letter to Comey: “I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation.” In an NBC interview Thursday the president elaborated, saying Comey had told him this at a dinner and in two separate phone calls. “I said, if it’s possible would you let me know, ‘Am I under investigation?’ He said, ‘You are not under investigation’.”
THE FACTS: Comey hasn’t responded publicly to Trump’s claims. But even if he did make such assurances, those answers months or weeks ago would be ephemeral because the investigation into Russia’s meddling in U.S. presidential election continues and hasn’t reached conclusions.
That’s why investigators make it a practice not to circumscribe a probe in that fashion. It would also breach protocol for an FBI chief and president to discuss an investigation bearing on the president. Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe told senators Thursday it’s not standard practice for the FBI to tell people they’re excluded from an investigation.
In congressional testimony March 20, Comey refused to say whether Trump himself was under investigation when asked directly. “I’m not gonna answer that,” he told the House Intelligence Committee. “I’m not gonna answer about anybody, in this forum.” He added that he had privately briefed the top Republican and Democrat on the committee “in great detail on the subjects of the investigation and what we’re doing.”
Publicly, he said, he would not identify those being investigated “so we don’t end up smearing people” who may end up not being prosecuted. But he described casting a wide net, “investigating the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.”
___
COLLEGE DAZE
TRUMP: “The Electoral College is almost impossible for a Republican to win. Very hard.” — NBC interview
THE FACTS: History disagrees. Over the past century, the party victory split is dead even: 13 for Democrats, 13 for Republicans. If you add the total electoral votes amassed by the candidates of each party over that time, Republicans actually come out ahead — 7,159 to 6,607.
___
TAX TALK
TRUMP: “We’re the highest-taxed nation in the world.” — interview with The Economist magazine
THE FACTS: Trump has repeatedly made variations on this false claim. The overall U.S. tax burden is actually one of the lowest among the 32 developed and large emerging-market economies tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Taxes made up 26.4 percent of the total U.S. economy in 2015, according to the OECD. That’s far below Denmark’s tax burden of 46.6 percent, Britain’s 32.5 percent or Germany’s 36.9 percent. Just four OECD countries had a lower tax bite than the U.S.: South Korea, Ireland, Chile and Mexico.
Trump qualified his claim later in the interview by saying the top marginal corporate tax rate, specifically, is higher than in similar industrialized countries. That’s more or less true, although the higher rate is moderated by tax breaks not available in some of those other countries.
___
TRADING PLACES
TRUMP: “Right now the United States has ... about a $15 billion trade deficit with Canada.” — Economist interiew
THE FACTS: His numbers are upside down. The United States actually ran an $8.1 billion trade surplus with Canada last year, according to the latest numbers available from the Census Bureau. A $24.6 billion U.S. surplus with Canada in the trade of services, including tourism and software, outweighed a $16.5 billion deficit in the trade of goods, including autos and oil.
Trump, who regularly decries the loss of American manufacturing jobs, tends to emphasize trade in goods and ignore trade in services. His comment about Canada came as his administration seeks a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.
The U.S. last year ran a deficit of $750 billion in goods with the rest of the world but recorded a $249 billion surplus in services.
___
ECON LINGO
TRUMP: “You understand the expression ‘prime the pump’? ... I came up with it a couple of days ago and I thought it was good. It’s what you have to do. We have to prime the pump.” — Economist interview
THE FACTS: He didn’t coin that phrase. It’s a well-worn metaphor for generating faster growth, first made popular as an economic analogy more than 80 years ago during the Great Depression.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary people quickly tweeted that the phrase “priming the pump” has been around since the early 1800s. Literally, it’s about pouring water into a pump to allow it to create suction. The phrase was commonly used by mining publications during the 1920s, but it took on new significance after the economy cratered during the Depression.
By 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had promoted the idea of flushing money into the economy to stimulate stronger growth with his New Deal policies. Such policies rankled Roosevelt’s predecessor, Herbert Hoover. “One of the ideas in these spendings is to prime the economic pump,” Hoover said in a 1935 post-presidential speech. “We might abandon this idea also, for it dries up the well of enterprise.”
___
WEEKENDS AWAY
TRUMP tweets, concerning his May 5-7 weekend: “Rather than causing a big disruption in N.Y.C., I will be working out of my home in Bedminster, N.J. this weekend. Also saves country money!” ‘’The reason I am staying in Bedminster, N.J., a beautiful community, is that staying in NYC is much more expensive and disruptive. Meetings!”
THE FACTS: True, less disruption in the New Jersey countryside than in the metropolis and almost certainly less cost to taxpayers.
But his weekends away, whether at his Florida resort or in New Jersey, are much more expensive than weekends at the White House, where security is already in place.
The White House doesn’t make it easy for taxpayers to know anything about these costs. The administration is mum when asked for an accounting, and past attempts by government auditors to gauge the costs of presidential travel are sketchy, fragmentary or outdated.
A law Trump signed provides nearly $120 million to reimburse law enforcement agencies for their costs of protecting his homes outside Washington and to house Secret Service agents in New York and Florida through September.
Bedminster town officials estimate local costs of $12,000 a day for heightened security when Trump stays there. Palm Beach County, Florida, spends more than $60,000 a day when the president visits, mostly for law enforcement overtime. The New York City Police Department has said it spends up to $146,000 a day to protect first lady Melania Trump and son, Barron, living at Trump Tower until the school year ends. That cost at least doubles when the president is there.
Those comparisons are inexact but they suggest a Manhattan weekend would be pricier to taxpayers.
Local enforcement is only one segment of costs, though. It costs roughly $200,000 an hour to fly Air Force One, the president’s armored limousine is flown separately to his destinations, and the Secret Service faces multiple other expenses associated with his travel. Trump has spent about half his weekends away since becoming president.
___
Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Paul Wiseman, Josh Boak, Jill Colvin and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
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EDITOR’S NOTE _ A look at the veracity of claims by political figures
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After President Trump suggested that he taped his conversations with former FBI director James B. Comey, lawmakers of both political parties on May 14 said Trump ought to release any recordings that may exist. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)
After President Trump suggested that he taped his conversations with former FBI director James B. Comey, lawmakers of both political parties on May 14 said Trump ought to release any recordings that may exist. Lawmakers of both political parties react to President Trump’s suggestion that he taped his conversations with former FBI director James B. Comey. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)
THE MORNING PLUM:
A few Republican senators heroically ventured on to the Sunday shows to profess deep concern about President Trump’s abrupt firing of the man overseeing the investigation into the small matter of whether his campaign colluded with a foreign power to undermine our democracy. Meanwhile, the New York Times assures us that GOP senators are “increasingly unnerved” by Trump’s “volatility” and are “starting to show signs of breaking away from him.”
That’s nice. But until GOP lawmakers support a full and independent probe into the Russia affair — not to mention real oversight of all the other ways in which Trump is shredding our democratic norms — they are essentially complicit in his ongoing abuses of power. Can this go on forever?
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Maybe not. Here’s why: ABC News is now reporting that associates of the fired former FBI director, James B. Comey, say he wants to testify publicly before Congress, and the Senate Intelligence Committee — which is probing the Russia story — seems like the right venue. Among other things, Comey will almost certainly address explosive but disputed reports over whether Trump demanded loyalty from him during a private dinner in January, as Comey’s associates have claimed.
Ron Wyden, a hard-charging member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, intends to use this moment to press Comey to detail what exactly happened in this exchange, a spokesman for the Oregon Democrat says.
“If and when Comey testifies, Senator Wyden will ask him if Donald Trump demanded a loyalty pledge,” Wyden spokesman Keith Chu told me this morning.
If Comey asserts in public that Trump did demand loyalty from him — which is plausible — consider what could happen then. Trump responded to initial reports of that demand with a threatening tweet that implied Trump may have been taping private conversations. If Comey goes public, the pressure on the White House to release these tapes — or admit they don’t exist — should intensify. Republican lawmakers — who already expressed discomfort with the firing and with Trump’s threat — will now be expected to comment about Comey’s on-the-record assertion that the president demanded a loyalty pledge from him.
White House spokesperson Sean Spicer said President Trump has "nothing further to add" to his tweets suggesting "tapes" of his dinner conversation with former FBI director James Comey. "That's not a threat," he said at the press briefing on May 12. (Reuters)
White House spokesperson Sean Spicer said President Trump has "nothing further to add" to his tweets suggesting "tapes" of his dinner conversation with former FBI director James Comey. "That's not a threat," he said at the press briefing on May 12. White House spokesperson Sean Spicer said President Trump has "nothing further to add" to his tweets suggesting "tapes" of his conversation with Comey. (Reuters)
Some legal experts have suggested such a loyalty demand could constitute obstruction of justice. It isn’t just that FBI directors (who serve insulating 10-year terms) aren’t supposed to be political loyalists. It’s also that Trump would have demanded loyalty from the man overseeing the FBI probe into his own campaign, even as that man (Comey) knew full well that Trump has the power to fire him, which Trump has now exercised, explicitly because of Comey’s handling of the investigation. This undermines basic norms dictating a clear separation between the White House and law enforcement and raises doubts as to whether the FBI’s investigation can proceed free of political interference.
A serious probe of this whole affair by an independent commission or similar would look not just at possible Russia-Trump campaign collusion. It would also seek to establish whether Trump demanded Comey’s loyalty. It would seek a full accounting of Trump’s decision to fire Comey, and what sort of role Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy, Rod J. Rosenstein, played in carrying that out. That latter question matters, since Sessions was supposed to recuse himself from the investigation, and any role Rosenstein played in the political hatcheting of Comey could compromise his role in overseeing the continuing FBI probe.
But some GOP leaders continue to resist this full accounting. The other day, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) responded to the Comey firing by claiming: “I’m focusing on what’s in my control, and that is what is Congress doing to solve people’s problems.” As Brian Beutler aptly points out, by saying the Comey firing is not in “his control,” Ryan is actually “denuding himself” of the congressional GOP’s oversight power and responsibilities:
What Ryan has done is surrender his own fundamental powers to Trump, knowing that people he likes and respects are telling reporters that Trump’s presence in the White House terrifies them.
Indeed, Trump may take this as a sign that Republicans will not exercise any meaningful oversight even if the revelations grow worse. The larger pattern here is crucial to appreciate. Trump is constantly trying to probe what abuses our institutions will let him get away with, whether it’s the in-your-face use of important diplomatic business to promote Mar-a-Lago and steer cash into his own pockets; the refusal to release his tax returns while advancing a tax plan that could deliver him and his family an enormous windfall; the constant lies about millions voting illegally in our election, which undermine public confidence in our democracy, and which he will now try to legitimize with a “voter fraud” commission; and, now, the firing of Comey.
Republicans have tolerated (or even embraced) all of these things, and Trump would be reasonable in concluding that they have no intention of ever mounting a check on his power, no matter what he does. The question is whether a dramatic moment from Comey — in which he asserts that the president did, in fact, demand his loyalty — is enough to change this.
* ANOTHER POLL FINDS TRUMP’S APPROVAL IN THE TOILET: A new NBC News-WSJ poll finds Trump’s approval at 39-54. Note these numbers on the firing of James Comey and the GOP health bill:
Asked whether Mr. Trump fired the FBI director to slow down the agency’s investigation into Russian meddling in the election, 46% said that was the case, while 36% disagreed … Some 23% said the GOP health-care legislation was a good idea, while 48% said it was a bad idea.
So pluralities think that Trump is interfering with the Russia probe and reject his repeal-and-replace push.
* CLAPPER: OUR DEMOCRACY IS UNDER ASSAULT ‘INTERNALLY’: ON CNN’s “State of the Union,” former director of National Intelligence James Clapper flatly stated that our institutions are under attack from within:
“In many ways, our institutions are under assault, both externally — and that’s the big news here, is the Russian interference in our election system — and I think as well our institutions are under assault internally … the founding fathers, in their genius, created a system of three co-equal branches of government and a built-in system of checks and balances. And I feel as though that’s under assault and is eroding.”
Asked directly whether he meant “internally from the president,” Clapper responded: “Exactly.”
* DEMOCRATIC RECRUITMENT LOOKS STRONG: National Journal reports that a number of strong candidates are gearing up to challenge House Republicans, and notes that GOP efforts to recruit candidates against vulnerable Democrats is faltering. As one GOP strategist put it:
“The environment is really bad for Republicans right now, and that will weigh heavily for anyone considering any race. The one thing that Republicans can control is the quality of their candidates and quality of campaigns being run. Right now, neither are adequate.”
If Trump’s numbers keep sliding, and the revelations (and all around craziness) around the Russia probe continue, look for this trend to intensify.
* TRUMP’S ‘MUSLIM BAN’ IS BACK IN COURT: Bloomberg reports that government lawyers today will try to persuade the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a lower court’s decision to block the second version of Trump’s travel ban:
At the heart of the legal arguments is the question of whether Trump’s comments as a candidate can be used as evidence that his travel order was founded on religious bias, in violation of the First Amendment … The Justice Department argues that his remarks as a candidate aren’t relevant to his actions as president. Until last week, the Trump campaign website included language promising a ban on Muslim immigrants.
The crux is whether the ban is discriminatory in intent and effect, and whether Trump’s own words prove legally decisive, we all know perfectly well what its goal really is.
* GOP PLANS HUGE CUTS TO PROGRAMS FOR POOR: Politico reports that House Republicans are quietly looking for ways to cut hundreds of billions of dollars from programs that help the poor, such as food stamps. Note this, on Medicare:
Atop that, GOP budget writers will also likely include Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) proposal to essentially privatize Medicare in their fiscal 2018 budget, despite Trump’s unwavering rejection of the idea. While that proposal is more symbolic and won’t become law under this budget, it’s just another thorny issue that will have Democrats again accusing Republicans of “pushing Granny off the cliff.”
If there’s anything that might get Trump voters to finally figure out how badly they’ve been scammed, it might be a broken promise not to cut Medicare.
* TRUMP IS BOTH AUTHORITARIAN AND INCOMPETENT: E.J. Dionne Jr. points out that we have been debating whether the real threat from Trump is his authoritarianism or his incompetence, and notes that the Comey firing has reminded us of the seriousness of the former:
Last week, the argument took a sharp, decisive and chilling turn. Trump proved that we can never be lulled into losing focus on the ways he could undermine the rules and principles of our democratic republic … Of course, Trump can be fairly regarded as both incompetent and authoritarian. We may be saved by the fact that the feckless Trump is often the authoritarian Trump’s worst enemy. If we’re lucky, Trump’s astonishing indiscipline will be his undoing.
Of course, even if Trump’s incompetence and indiscipline do prove to be his undoing, they could do incalculable damage to the country in the process.
* AND THE TRUMPIAN ANECDOTE OF THE DAY, WE-ARE-ALL-DOOMED EDITION: Shane Goldmacher brings us this doozy:
K.T. McFarland, the deputy national security adviser, [gave] Trump a printout of two Time magazine covers. One, supposedly from the 1970s, warned of a coming ice age; the other, from 2008, about surviving global warming, according to four White House officials familiar with the matter.Trump quickly got lathered up about the media’s hypocrisy. But there was a problem. The 1970s cover was fake, part of an Internet hoax that’s circulated for years. Staff chased down the truth and intervened before Trump tweeted or talked publicly about it.
Good to see those White House staffers are on the case! But it would be nice if they would also consider trying to persuade Trump that climate change is real. A lot is riding on that, you know.
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· · · · · · · · ·
American institutions are 'under assault' by Trump. But do people care?
Washington Post - 2 hours ago
Former director of national intelligence James Clapper issued a blunt warning on Sunday: President Trump is waging war on major U.S. institutions. “I think, in many ways, our institutions are under assault, both externally — and that's the big news ...
Former national security director claims President Trump is eroding America's system of checks and balances
<a href="http://WQAD.com" rel="nofollow">WQAD.com</a> - 13 hours ago
WASHINGTON, D.C.-- The former Director of National Intelligence says U.S. institutions are "under assault," after a tumultuous week in Washington. James Clapper, the director under former President Obama, says he feels in many ways that U.S ...
Clapper: Institutions 'under assault' including by Trump
Daily Mail - 22 hours ago
The former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper pointed a finger toward Russia and at the White House, warning that American institutions are under seige. 'The developments of the past week are very bothersome, very disburbing to me ...
But with the White House lurching from crisis to crisis, the president is hampering Republicans’ efforts to fulfill his promises.
“All the work that goes into getting big things done is hard enough even in the most tranquil of environments in Washington,” said Kevin Madden, a Republican operative who worked for John A. Boehner when he was the House speaker. “But distractions like these can become a serious obstacle to aligning the interests of Congress.”
When Congress and the White House are controlled by the same party, lawmakers usually try to use the full weight of the presidency to achieve legislative priorities, through a clear and coordinated vision, patience with intransigent lawmakers and message repetition. Mr. Trump’s transient use of his bully pulpit for policy messaging has upended that playbook.
“It does seem like we have an upheaval, a crisis almost every day in Washington that changes the subject,” Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, who has been trying to advance health care legislation, said in a television interview on Thursday night.
The latest subject-changing crisis has been the fallout from Mr. Trump’s sudden dismissal of Mr. Comey, who was leading the F.B.I.’s investigation into contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia. Mr. Trump suggested last week that he might have surreptitiously taped his conversations with Mr. Comey, and on Sunday two Republican senators, Mike Lee of Utah and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said the president should turn over any such tapes, if they exist.
In the days after Mr. Trump’s election victory, the mood was different, as Republicans expressed high hopes that they could move quickly on a conservative agenda that merged with Mr. Trump’s. “We’re going to be an enthusiastic supporter almost all the time,” Mr. McConnell said of Mr. Trump in November.
But Republicans have so far achieved few of their legislative priorities, like repealing the Affordable Care Act or cutting taxes. When Mr. Trump suggested this month that the Senate should change its rules to make it easier for Republicans to push bills through, Mr. McConnell firmly rejected the idea.
Lawmakers are also bucking the president by pushing ahead with bipartisan measures on sanctions against Russia. And this month, Republicans rejected many of the administration’s priorities in a short-term spending measure, including money for a wall along the border with Mexico.
Two Republican senators who face potentially tough re-election fights next year — Dean Heller of Nevada and Jeff Flake of Arizona — have been unabashed in their criticism of Mr. Trump and his administration, which they have clearly begun to view as a drag on their political prospects.
“In Arizona, we grow them independent,” Mr. Flake said, noting the unpopularity in his state of Mr. Trump’s views on the border wall and Nafta. “I expect people want someone who will say, ‘I’m voting with Trump on the good stuff and standing up to him on the not good stuff.’”
Some Republicans, like Mr. Ryan, have preferred to keep the focus firmly on the good stuff. Mr. Ryan has remained in harmony with the president, last month calling him “a driven, hands-on leader, with the potential to become a truly transformational American figure.”
Mr. Trump retains the support of about 80 percent of Republican voters, and although his overall popularity is at historic lows at this point in a presidency, it remains well above the depths eventually reached by presidents like George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter. At those levels, larger numbers of lawmakers might start to turn away from Mr. Trump — though even if they wanted to do so, Republicans would not be able to completely separate themselves from him on issues like a tax overhaul, where his blessing would be needed to move forward in any major way.
But while Mr. Trump’s approval rating has been sufficient to prevent mass defections — a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released on Sunday showed it at 39 percent — it is too low to pressure Democrats to support him in any significant way.
Any bills that require 60 votes to pass — almost everything aside from Republicans’ health care and tax measures — will be impossible to advance without the help of Democrats.
Republicans had been counting on Senate Democrats who are up for re-election next year in states won by Mr. Trump to bend to their will. But so far those Democrats, like Senators Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, have been largely comfortable standing against Mr. Trump, especially when their Republican colleagues tell them that they, too, have had about enough.
“I’m hearing more and more of them say privately that they are more and more concerned,” said Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio. “More importantly, there is a lot less fear of him than there was just a month ago.”
Already, Republicans are talking openly about rejecting components of the budget request that Mr. Trump is expected to release in two weeks. Any new request for money for a border wall would almost certainly be rejected, as would large cuts to drug control programs.
Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, has spoken in support of the programs on the Senate floor, and Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Republican of West Virginia, which has had large numbers of opioid deaths, issued a news release calling on the administration to “propose a realistic budget that demonstrates the administration’s commitment to combating drug addiction.”
If it does not, she warned in a letter to Mick Mulvaney, the White House budget director, “I will lead a bipartisan group of my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee and in the Senate to reject those proposed cuts.”
During his campaign, Mr. Trump found a winning message in criticizing trade agreements. But traditionally pro-trade Republicans — after yielding for a while to his rejection of such deals, including when he abandoned the Trans-Pacific Partnership on his first full weekday in office — have begun to push back. The president has vacillated on whether to also abandon Nafta.
“If you cancel Nafta, you harm the economy of my state,” said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona. Mr. Flake concurred: “Our trade relationship with Mexico is a positive, and not just in an economic sense, but in terms of security as well,” he said, citing cooperation between Mexican and American authorities on combating drug trafficking.
Mr. Trump should also not expect Congress to give Russia a pass over its actions in Ukraine, Syria and the 2016 American election.
“My sense is that Congress is going to act on sanctions against Russia,” said Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee and the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is working on bills now. “We plan to be very much in the middle of that.”
Even some of Mr. Trump’s most fervent backers see tensions in the future.
“There will be times when we disagree with the president,” said Senator Jim Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, who has criticized the administration for what he perceives as the possibility that it will keep the country in the Paris climate accord. “And we when do, we’ll be outspoken about it.”
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NPR News: 05-15-2017 10AM ET
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The Daily 202: Loyalty is a one-way street for Donald Trump
Washington Post - 1 hour ago
With Breanne Deppisch. THE BIG IDEA: Many West Wing staffers have sacrificed their personal reputations by parroting falsehoods on behalf of Donald Trump. How will their devotion be repaid? Perhaps with pink slips. The president has a congenital ...
Republicans who are complicit in Trump's abuse of power will soon have a big problem
Washington Post (blog) - 1 hour ago
THE MORNING PLUM: A few Republican senators heroically ventured on to the Sunday shows to profess deep concern about President Trump's abrupt firing of the man overseeing the investigation into the small matter of whether his campaign colluded with ...
This is why Richard Nixon taped his White House conversations
Washington Post - 3 hours ago
President Trump's Friday morning tweetstorm about former FBI director James B. Comey has led to speculation that the Trump administration has taken a page from Richard Nixon's playbook by surreptitiously recording conversations inside the White House.
What Just Happened? The James Comey Saga, In Timeline Form
NPR - 25 minutes ago
The James Comey saga that engulfed Washington last week and continues to be the talk of town this week began long before President Trump fired him as FBI director Tuesday afternoon. It began even before Comey's inaccurate testimony last week at a ...
Rosenstein in hot seat after Comey firing
The Hill - 4 hours ago
The controversy around President Trump's explosive decision to fire FBI Director James Comey has thrust Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein into the spotlight. Rosenstein, a 27-year Justice Department veteran, was little known outside of government ...
Read the whole story
· · ·
Americans Deserve To Know About Russian US Election Meddling | Senator Casey
Newsweek - 1 hour ago
It was with a highly questionable backdrop that President Trump fired Director Comey last week. But regardless of whether the timing represents coincidence or intentional obstruction, my gravest concern is the profound chilling effect that the firing ...
Clapper: Government 'under assault' by Trump after Comey firing
Fox News - 8 hours ago
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper described Sunday a U.S. government “under assault” after President Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey. "I think, in many ways, our institutions are under assault, both externally ...
Lawmakers Urge Trump to Avoid Giving the FBI Director Job to a Political Appointee
TIME - 6 hours ago
(WASHINGTON) — As President Donald Trump considers a replacement for fired FBI Director James Comey, lawmakers are urging the president to steer clear of appointing any politicians. The advice came Sunday amid more criticism over Trump's dismissal ...
Rosenstein in hot seat after Comey firing
The Hill - 5 hours ago
The controversy around President Trump's explosive decision to fire FBI director James Comey has thrust deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein into the spotlight. Rosenstein, a 27-year Justice Department veteran, was little known outside of government ...
As White House races to name new FBI director, demand mounts for Comey "tapes"
Hindustan Times - 28 minutes ago
Trump set off a firestorm when he sought to prevent Comey from leaking information by threatening him with “tapes” of their conversations. The White House has since refused to confirm or deny the existence of said tapes. world Updated: May 15, 2017 20 ...
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· ·
Are Republicans starting to pull away from Donald Trump?
Salon - 3 hours ago
As the firing of FBI Director James Comey pulls President Donald Trump deeper and deeper into scandal, the Republican Party remains deeply ambivalent about how to respond to its wayward leader. New reports indicate that party leaders in Congress are ...
How Trump gets his fake news
Politico - 6 hours ago
White House chief of staff Reince Priebus issued a stern warning at a recent senior staff meeting: Quit trying to secretly slip stuff to President Trump. Just days earlier, K.T. McFarland, the deputy national security adviser, had given Trump a ...
Report: Donald Trump's Advisers Slip Him Fake News Stories to Influence Him
GQ Magazine - 1 hour ago
The phrase "fake news" has become a ubiquitous phrase in our political landscape. Of course, it came to prominence in diagnosing a very specific phenomenon during the last election that benefited then-candidate, now-president Trump. A host of websites ...
Reince Priebus wants White House staffers to stop slipping the president fake news
Death and Taxes - 2 hours ago
It seems that even the White House staff can't resist the urge to fuck with Donald Trump. On Monday, Politico reported that chief of staff Reince Priebus spent a chunk of a recent meeting chastising senior staffers for trying to sneak bogus news ...
How Do You Keep False Information Away from the President?
National Review - 2 hours ago
At the climax of the movie version of The Sum of All Fears, Jack Ryan has learned that Baltimore was just nuked by a weapon stolen from the Israels, not by the Russians. At a check point in the Pentagon, Ryan desperately pleads with a general to let ...
Trump staffers reportedly keep feeding the president fake news as if it's real
The Daily Dot - 1 hour ago
White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus has reportedly warned West Wing staffers to quit slipping fake news and internet hoaxes onto President Donald Trump's desk. Priebus is trying to implement a new system for staffers wishing to submit documents ...
Read the whole story
· · ·
Americans Deserve To Know About Russian US Election Meddling | Senator Casey
Newsweek - 1 hour ago
It was with a highly questionable backdrop that President Trump fired Director Comey last week. But regardless of whether the timing represents coincidence or intentional obstruction, my gravest concern is the profound chilling effect that the firing ...
Donald Trump Keeps Making the Comey Fiasco Worse
Vanity Fair - 2 hours ago
Less than a week after former F.B.I. director James Comey was unceremoniously axed, Donald Trump remains his own worst enemy, simultaneously declaring Comey's ouster an open-and-shut case even as he throws gasoline on the firestorm he created.
First Read's Morning Clips: Only 29% Approve of Comey Firing
<a href="http://NBCNews.com" rel="nofollow">NBCNews.com</a> - 3 hours ago
Our new NBC/WSJ poll over the weekend showed that just 29 percent of adults approve of Trump's firing of James Comey. And nearly half of Americans say that the new GOP-led health care plan is "a bad idea." Making waves in POLITICO this morning: "How ...
Who will be the next FBI director? Here's a list of candidates
<a href="http://MyStatesman.com" rel="nofollow">MyStatesman.com</a> - 2 hours ago
Jacquelyn Martin/AP Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe listens on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, May 11, 2017, while testifying before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on major threats facing the U.S. President Donald Trump is considering ...
Trump Hopes To Name FBI Nominee Ahead Of Overseas Trip
CBS Miami - 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON (CBSMiami) – President Donald Trump may name his nomination for new FBI director before leaving this Friday on his first overseas trip as Command in Chief. “We can make a fast decision,” Mr. Trump told reporters who were with him aboard ...
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John Oliver blasts Trump over Comey firing: 'Does he really think we … are this stupid?'
Washington Post - 1 hour ago
First off, John Oliver would like you to know that he can't remember what “normal weeks” used to feel like. With that exasperated declaration, the comedian set about unpacking the week's news on his Sunday show, HBO's “Last Week Tonight” — starting ...
John Oliver compares Comey firing to breakup text
CNET - 31 minutes ago
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives. olivermay14.jpg Enlarge Image. And this was one of the milder moments. Last Week Tonight/YouTube screenshot by Chris MatyszczykCNET. Before Sunday's NBA ...
John Oliver Says For-Profit Dialysis Centers Are Sick
Newsweek - 2 hours ago
Did you know that chronic kidney disease is the ninth-leading cause of death in the United States? Or that as of the end of 2014, more than 460,000 Americans were undergoing dialysis? Do you even know what dialysis is? John Oliver broke it all down on ...
John Oliver calls on Congress to take action after Trump's Comey firing: 'It's on you'
Business Insider - 1 hour ago
On Sunday's episode of "Last Week Tonight," host John Oliver addressed the branch of government that has the power to look into President Donald Trump's surprise firing of FBI Director James Comey and potentially do something about it: Congress.
John Oliver calls for Congress to keep checks on Donald Trump
New York Daily News - 1 hour ago
Oliver opened this week's “Last Week Tonight” bashing Trump's decision to fire former FBI director James Comey while the president's campaign is under investigation for possible collusion with Russia. During an interview with NBC's Lester Holt, Trump ...
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· ·
Trump is reportedly considering a massive White House shakeup
Business Insider - 2 hours ago
sean spicer The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, walking from the West Wing of White House on Tuesday to speak with reporters. Associated Press/Carolyn Kaster. President Donald Trump, who has reportedly been isolated and frustrated by the ...
Is Donald Trump About to Blow Up the West Wing?
Vanity Fair - 3 hours ago
Frustrated with his staff's failure to contain the fallout from his seemingly abrupt decision to fire the director of the F.B.I., Donald Trump is reportedly weighing a “huge reboot” of his West Wing team. According to various reports Sunday, White ...
White House's source balks at Trump's dubious Russia assertions
MSNBC - 2 hours ago
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters on Friday that Donald Trump believes allegations about collusion between his campaign and Russia “is a hoax.” Spicer added, “It's been reaffirmed by several people, including [Senate Judiciary ...
Memorable Moments From Sean Spicer's Daily Briefings As Trump Plans To End White House Press Briefing
International Business Times - 5 hours ago
President Donald Trump threatened to cancel “all future press briefings” Friday morning in a series of tweets arguing that "it is not possible" for his staff to speak with "perfect accuracy" to the American public. Following his early morning Twitter ...
Donald Trump's advisers tell him he has 'nothing to lose' as he considers mass White House cull
The Independent - 4 hours ago
Donald Trump is mulling a massive shake-up of his closest advisers at the White House after the firing of former FBI director James Comey. Mr Trump is reportedly considering what has been described as a “huge reboot”, anonymous sources told Axios ...
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· ·
North Korea's latest missile launch suggests progress toward ICBM: experts
Reuters - 2 hours ago
SEOUL North Korea's successful missile test-launch signals major advances in developing an intercontinental ballistic missile, such as mastery of re-entry technology and better engine performance key to targeting the United States, experts say. The ...
North Korea: Russia reportedly ready to play 'constructive role' in addressing Pyongyang threat
Fox News - 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON – The United States asked Russia to be a part of an international effort to address North Korea's nuclear threat, according to a State Department official. Now, reports from South Korea claim Russian President Vladimir Putin told recently ...
How Significant Is North Korea's Latest Missile Test?
The Atlantic - 2 hours ago
Like The Atlantic? Subscribe to The Atlantic Daily, our free weekday email newsletter. North Korea says the missile it tested Sunday was a “newly developed ballistic rocket capable of carrying a large-size heavy nuclear warhead.” The claim, which ...
North Korea vows missile tests "any time, any place", defying US warnings
Reuters - 2 hours ago
The long-range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 (Mars-12) is launched during a test in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on May 15, 2017. KCNA via REUTERS. 1/3. left. right. The long-range strategic ...
North Korea claims new missile can carry "large" nuke
CBS News - 5 hours ago
Last Updated May 15, 2017 6:01 AM EDT. BEIJING -- North Korea claimed Monday that it successfully tested a new missile the previous day capable of carrying a "large, heavy nuclear warhead." North Korea launches successful missile test. Play Video.
Read the whole story
· ·
The Daily 202: Loyalty is a one-way street for Donald Trump
Washington Post - 1 hour ago
With Breanne Deppisch. THE BIG IDEA: Many West Wing staffers have sacrificed their personal reputations by parroting falsehoods on behalf of Donald Trump. How will their devotion be repaid? Perhaps with pink slips. The president has a congenital ...
Even the 'good guys' don't look so good
Washington Post (blog) - 1 hour ago
President Trump has demonstrated time and again that anyone who comes within his orbit becomes intellectually and ethically corrupted. Career prosecutor Rod J. Rosenstein is now sullied by his involvement in the firing of former FBI director James B.
This is why Richard Nixon taped his White House conversations
Washington Post - 3 hours ago
President Trump's Friday morning tweetstorm about former FBI director James B. Comey has led to speculation that the Trump administration has taken a page from Richard Nixon's playbook by surreptitiously recording conversations inside the White House.
Rosenstein in hot seat after Comey firing
The Hill - 4 hours ago
The controversy around President Trump's explosive decision to fire FBI Director James Comey has thrust Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein into the spotlight. Rosenstein, a 27-year Justice Department veteran, was little known outside of government ...
GOP Senators Call On Trump To Release Any Comey 'Tapes'
HuffPost - 3 hours ago
“You can't be cute about tapes. If there are any tapes of this conversation, they need to be turned over.” Ayesha Rascoe. U.S. lawmakers on Sunday called on President Donald Trump to turn over any tapes of conversations with fired FBI chief James Comey ...
Read the whole story
· · ·
WSJ.com: World News: Emmanuel Macron Arrives for Inauguration as French President - News In Photos
9:58 AM 5/15/2017 - World and Politics In Brief
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PBS NewsHour Weekend full episode May 14, 2017 https://t.co/kA2iZFRZoy via @YouTube— Mike Nova (@mikenov) May 15, 2017
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