Politico: “The still far-fetched proposition of removing Trump from office has increasing appeal to Republicans who are growing weary of defending Trump and are alarmed by his conduct in office. But such whispers are cringe-worthy for Pence and his aides, who have made an art of not upstaging the mercurial president. Pence’s press secretary declined to comment for this article.”
Archives for May 2017
Democrats Running Neck-and-Neck In Virginia
A new Washington Post-Schar School poll in Virginia finds the Democratic race for governor very close, with Tom Perriello (D) at 40% and Ralph Northam (D) at 38%.
Key finding: “Perriello leads by 18 points among Democratic-leaning registered voters who wanted Sanders to win the party’s presidential nomination last year, while Clinton voters split 35 percent for Northam and 34 percent for Perriello.”
Comey Still Wants to Testify
Former FBI Director James Comey “most definitely” wants to testify before Congress — and wrote other memos in addition to the one claiming President Trump asked him to drop an FBI investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, a source familiar with Comey’s thinking told CBS News.
Trump Knew Flynn Was Under Investigation
“Michael Flynn told President Trump’s transition team weeks before the inauguration that he was under federal investigation for secretly working as a paid lobbyist for Turkey during the campaign,” the New York Times reports.
“Despite this warning, which came about a month after the Justice Department notified Mr. Flynn of the inquiry, Mr. Trump made Mr. Flynn his national security adviser. The job gave Mr. Flynn access to the president and nearly every secret held by American intelligence agencies.”
Meanwhile, McClatchy reports one of the Trump administration’s first decisions, weeks before Flynn was fired, “conformed to the wishes of Turkey, whose interests, unbeknownst to anyone in Washington, he’d been paid more than $500,000 to represent.”
Mueller Has History of Standing Up the White House
Robert Mueller, “who served as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation during the last two administrations, brings to his new role as special counsel a proven willingness to take on a sitting president,” the Washington Post reports.
“In a high-drama episode in 2004, he and then-Deputy Attorney General James Comey were preparing to resign from their positions if President Bush reauthorized the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretap program without changes. Bush backed down.”
Washington Post: Democrats and Republicans agree Mueller is a great pick.
McCarthy Suggested Putin Pays Trump
“A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of his closest allies in Congress — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) — made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the beneficiary of payments from Russian President Vladimir Putin,” the Washington Post reports.
“House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-WI) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy… Ryan instructed his Republican lieutenants to keep the conversation private.”
Said Ryan: “No leaks…This is how we know we’re a real family here.”
Special Counsel Named to Oversee Russian Investigation
The U.S. Department of Justice has named former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel in charge of Russia investigation.
Said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein: “I determined that it is in the public interest for me to exercise my authority and appoint a Special Counsel.”
Washington Post: “The move marks a concession by the Trump administration to Democratic demands for the investigation to be run independently of the Justice Department. Calls for a special counsel have increased since Trump fired FBI Director James Comey last week.”
New York Times: “The appointment of Mr. Mueller dramatically raises the stakes for President Trump in the multiple investigations into his campaign’s ties to the Russians.”
Flynn and Manafort Are Key Figures In Russia Probe
“Former Trump aides Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort have emerged as key figures in the FBI’s investigation into Russian campaign interference, which has just been taken over by a special counsel,” four law enforcement officials told NBC News.
“Officials say multiple grand jury subpoenas and records requests have been issued in connection with the two men during the past six months in the ongoing probe into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russian attempts to influence the election, an inquiry that will now be overseen by former FBI Director Robert Mueller.”
Tapper Slams Trump for ‘Self-Pity’
Jake Tapper took exception on CNN at President Trump’s claim that he’s been treated more unfairly than any other president in history.
Said Tapper: “Every single one of the president’s wounds is self-inflicted. Every single one. I don’t really understand the propensity for self-pity at a time like this.”
He added: “My second reaction is, four U.S. presidents have been actually literally assassinated and killed. But more broadly speaking, when it comes to a president that has been treated unfairly, I mean that president led the charge claiming that the first African-American president was born in Africa. Which is not only a charge that is false, but is not a little bit racist.”
Trump Rules Out Moving Embassy to Jerusalem for Now
President Trump “has decided not to immediately move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a senior White House official said, violating a campaign promise but avoiding a provocation that could drive Palestinians away from peace talks,” Bloomberg reports.
“The official said the administration considers its discussions with both the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority to be promising, with the Palestinians in particular agreeing to talk without preconditions. The official asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.”
Kelly Suggests Trump Use a Sword on the Press
After President Trump was presented with a ceremonial saber at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy commencement, ABC News picked up Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly telling the president: “You can use that on the press, sir.”
There’s Probably More Than One Comey Memo
Five days before we learned that ousted FBI Director James Comey had written a memo saying President Trump asked him to stop the investigation into National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, the former top Justice Department spokesman tweeted this:
“One thing I learned at DOJ about Comey: he leaves a protective paper trail whenever he deems something inappropriate happened. Stay tuned.”
Today, Miller told the Washington Post: “We have no idea who made the decision to leak this, whether it was Comey himself or it was people at the FBI. And we don’t know what their complete strategic goals are. But if you were really looking to damage the president, you wouldn’t leak the most damaging memo first. So who knows what comes next?”
Hacking Trump Is So Easy
Gizmodo and ProPublica: “We parked a 17-foot motor boat in a lagoon about 800 feet from the back lawn of the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, and pointed a two-foot wireless antenna that resembled a potato gun toward the club. Within a minute, we spotted three weakly encrypted Wi-Fi networks. We could have hacked them in less than five minutes, but we refrained.”
“A few days later, we drove through the grounds of the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., with the same antenna and aimed it at the clubhouse. We identified two open Wi-Fi networks that anyone could join without a password. We resisted the temptation.”
The risks: “Sophisticated attackers could take advantage of vulnerabilities in the Wi-Fi networks to take over devices like computers or smart phones and use them to record conversations involving anyone on the premises.”
House GOP Caucus Is ‘Shellshocked’
“In the House Republicans’ conference meeting on Capitol Hill this morning, the mood among members was subdued and somewhat anxious,” according to Jonathan Swan.
One source described members as “shellshocked.”
“Republican leaders are distressed by what’s going on, but don’t want to join the pile on… The posture (for now): let’s get the facts out there and try to be ‘sober’ about them. The last thing GOP leaders want is for pertinent facts to remain undisclosed, because all that means is the news media will ferret them out, blast them out and further shake the system.”
Trump Says No President Has Been Treated More Unfairly
President Trump complained to cadets at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy commencement that he had not been treated well as president, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Said Trump: “No politician in history, and I say this with great surety, has been treated worse or more unfairly.”
Comey Asked to Testify Publicly
The Senate Intelligence Committee has sent a request to former FBI Director James Comey to testify publicly in the wake of his firing by President Trump, The Hill reports.
Trump Gave Russians Secrets Media Asked to Withhold
“Some of the intelligence President Trump provided to Russian officials is so secret that American news organizations are still being asked not to report it,” two U.S. officials told NBC News.
“The requests by U.S. intelligence officials cast doubt on the assertion by the president’s aides that the sharing was appropriate.”
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Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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