Archives for January 2018
How Michael Wolff Wrote the Book
Hollywood Reporter: “After the election, I proposed to him that I come to the White House and report an inside story for later publication — journalistically, as a fly on the wall — which he seemed to misconstrue as a request for a job. No, I said. I’d like to just watch and write a book. ‘A book?’ he responded, losing interest. ‘I hear a lot of people want to write books,’ he added, clearly not understanding why anybody would. ‘Do you know Ed Klein?’– author of several virulently anti-Hillary books. ‘Great guy. I think he should write a book about me.’ But sure, Trump seemed to say, knock yourself out.”
“Since the new White House was often uncertain about what the president meant or did not mean in any given utterance, his non-disapproval became a kind of passport for me to hang around — checking in each week at the Hay-Adams hotel, making appointments with various senior staffers who put my name in the ‘system,’ and then wandering across the street to the White House and plunking myself down, day after day, on a West Wing couch.”
Harper Will Not Seek Re-Election
Rep. Gregg Harper (R-MS), who chairs the Committee on House Administration, will not run for re-election in 2018, Roll Call reports.
Trump Will Dramatically Expand Offshore Drilling
“The Trump administration unveiled a controversial proposal to permit drilling in most U.S. continental-shelf waters, including protected areas of the Arctic and the Atlantic, where oil and gas exploration is opposed by governors from New Jersey to Florida, nearly a dozen attorneys general, more than 100 U.S. lawmakers and the Defense Department,” the Washington Post reports.
“Under the proposal, only one of 26 planning areas in the Arctic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean would be off limits to oil and gas exploration.”
Is Something Neurologically Wrong With Donald Trump?
James Hamblin in The Atlantic:
After more than a year of talking to doctors and researchers about whether and how the cognitive sciences could offer a lens to explain Trump’s behavior, I’ve come to believe there should be a role for professional evaluation beyond speculating from afar.
The idea that the president should not be diagnosed from afar only underscores the point that the president needs to be evaluated up close. A presidential-fitness committee … could exist in a capacity similar to the Congressional Budget Office. It could regularly assess the president’s neurologic status and give a battery of cognitive tests to assess judgment, recall, decision-making, attention — the sorts of tests that might help a school system assess whether a child is suited to a particular grade level or classroom — and make the results available.
The Unmaking of the President
Coming soon: The Unmaking of the President 2016: How FBI Director James Comey Cost Hillary Clinton the Presidency by Lanny J. Davis.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“Lindsey used to be a great enemy of mine, now he’s a great friend of mine.”
— President Trump, quoted by CNN, about Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
Headline of the Day
Republican Wins Random Drawing In Virginia
In a random drawing to decide a tie race in the Virginia’s 94th district, incumbent David Yancey (R) won.
The decision gives Republicans a 51 to 49 edge in the House of Delegates.
Quote of the Day
“The portrait of an unfit president in a dysfunctional administration at a time the world is characterized by mounting disarray adds up to a truly dangerous moment in history. The best that can be hoped for is drift. The worst to be feared is a disaster of some magnitude somewhere.”
— Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haass, on Twitter.
Justice Department ‘Looking Into’ Clinton Emails Again
“Justice Department officials are taking a fresh look at Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state,” the Daily Beast reports.
“An ally of Attorney General Jeff Sessions who is familiar with the thinking at the Justice Department’s Washington headquarters described it as an effort to gather new details on how Clinton and her aides handled classified material. Officials’ questions include how much classified information was sent over Clinton’s server; who put that information into an unclassified environment, and how; and which investigators knew about these matters and when. The Sessions ally also said officials have questions about immunity agreements that Clinton aides may have made.”
None of This Is Normal
James Hohmann: “Try to picture Barack Obama declaring that David Axelrod had ‘lost his mind,’ George W. Bush saying that Karl Rove ‘is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look,’ or Bill Clinton’s lawyers sending James Carville a cease-and-desist letter threatening ‘imminent’ legal action. Conversely, imagine Robby Mook saying that Chelsea Clinton is ‘dumb as a brick.'”
“You can’t. Because all those scenarios are inconceivable. But that’s just another Wednesday in this chaotic White House, which once again plunged into crisis mode after the publication of excerpts from a forthcoming book by Michael Wolff called Fire and Fury.“
Where the Real Power Lies In the GOP
Jon Favreau: “I wasn’t as surprised about how the Republican Party has behaved toward Trump because, though I badly missed the ultimate prediction of who was going to win in the general election, I believed Trump was going to win the primary.”
“Having watched it from my perch at the White House during the Obama administration, I thought the Republican Party had rotted. The party has a base that is constantly in a frenzy because of the right-wing media. That’s the real center of gravity in that party. It’s not the Republicans in Congress; it’s not even really Donald Trump. So to me, that partisanship is wholly due to the fact that the Republican Party has been rotten to its core for some time now.”
For members: Rupert Murdoch Controls What Trump Thinks
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner Are House Hunting
“It seems Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are looking to put down roots in Washington — the couple has recently been touring homes for sale,” the Washington Post reports.
“Javanka, both White House advisers in addition to being the son-in-law and daughter of the president, respectively, rent a six-bedroom home in the swanky Kalorama neighborhood — a spot they settled into last year after leaving Manhattan for Washington following President Trump’s election. The location has its upside: loads of charm, plus it’s close to their synagogue, TheShul of the Nation’s Capital, meaning the couple and their three children have a short walk on Sabbath days, when the observant family eschews transportation.”
“Downsides? The house is very close to two streets, making it highly visible.”
Trump Tries to Halt Publication of Book
President Trump’s lawyer demanded that author Michael Wolff and his publisher immediately “cease and desist from any further publication, release or dissemination” of a forthcoming book, Fire and Fury, according to a letter obtained by ABC News.
The letter says they are looking into possible defamation of Trump and his family and invasion of privacy. It goes on to accuse the author of “actual malice.”
Two GOP Lawmakers Call on Sessions to Resign
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) write in the Washington Examiner:
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from the Russia investigation, but it would appear he has no control at all of the premier law enforcement agency in the world. It is time for Sessions to start managing in a spirit of transparency to bring all of this improper behavior to light and stop further violations. If Sessions can’t address this issue immediately, then we have one final question needing an answer: When is it time for a new attorney general?
Sadly, it seems the answer is now.
Sessions to End Policy That Let Legal Pot Flourish
Attorney General Jeff Sessions “is rescinding the Obama-era policy that had paved the way for legalized marijuana to flourish in states across the country,” the Associated Press reports.
“Sessions will instead let federal prosecutors where pot is legal decide how aggressively to enforce federal marijuana law.”
Trump Aide Said Drafting of Statement Was Obstruction
Axios has more from Michael Wolff’s book:
On the the July 8 preparation aboard Air Force One of the initial (and false) explanation about the Trump Tower meeting with Russians during the campaign, made under Trump’s personal direction: “Ivanka, according to the later recollection of her team, would shortly leave the meeting, take a pill, and go to sleep. Jared, in the telling of his team, might have been there, but he was ‘not taking a pencil to anything.”
“Nearby, in a small conference room watching the movie Fargo, were Dina Powell, Gary Cohn, Stephen Miller, and H. R. McMaster, all of whom would later insist that they were, however physically close to the unfolding crisis, removed from it.”
“Mark Corallo [former spokesman for Trump’s personal legal team] … privately confiding [to Wolff] that he believed the meeting on Air Force One represented a likely obstruction of justice — quit.”
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