Bill O’Reilly told a radio show that President Trump called him last night to complain that special counsel Robert Mueller doesn’t like him because Trump once refused to refund a country club membership deposit.
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Federal Subpoena Demands Records on Andrew Gillum
“Andrew Gillum (D) is a focal point of a recently issued federal grand jury subpoena that demands information on the former Democratic candidate for governor, his campaign, his political committee, a wealthy donor, a charity he worked for and a former employer,” the Tampa Bay Times reports.
“Throughout his campaign last year, Gillum insisted that he was not a target of a sprawling FBI investigation of Tallahassee city hall, which has taken at least three years and resulted in three arrests… But the recent one does.”
Merkel Believes Germany Can Not Rely on the U.S.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel “has faced a barrage of attacks since Trump took office — over German luxury cars, defense spending, Iran, Russian gas, and doing business with China’s Huawei Technologies Co. But it was the rupture after last June’s G-7 meeting that made up her mind: Trump is not a partner that Germany can rely on,” Bloomberg reports.
“Almost 12 months on, the situation has only gotten worse. There’s a mix of anguish and frustration in Berlin and officials are asking themselves whether the relationship has already crossed the point of no return. Even if Trump loses in 2020, they say the trust that underpinned the transatlantic friendship for seven decades may be gone for good. Germany has already started building new alliances that will safeguard its interests in a world where the U.S. won’t. And some of them are not to Washington’s liking.”
Over 1,000 Immigrants Apprehended In One Day
“More than 1,000 immigrants were apprehended after illegally crossing the border near El Paso, Texas early Wednesday morning,” NBC News reports.
“The group of 1,036 is the largest ever encountered by the Border Patrol; the previous record of 424 was set last month.”
“Customs and Border Protection has noticed a trend in the number of large groups crossing the border together. In fiscal year 2018, border agents encountered 13 groups of more than 100 immigrants. Now, they have seen that same number in a single day.”
Ex-Prosecutors Speak Out Against Trump
Republicans for the Rule of Law has produced a five-minute video with three former federal prosecutors who are registered Republicans discussing how, if Trump was not president, they believe he would have been charged with obstruction of justice.
Gowdy Says Trump Should Let Himself Be Indicted
Former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) told Fox News that President Trump should consider opening himself up to being indicted for obstruction of justice.
Said Gowdy: “I’d take my chances with 12 reasonable minded fellow citizens than I would the House Democrats.”
He added: “You can waive any right you have. You have the right to remain silent, but you can talk to the police if you want to. You have a right to a jury trial, but you can plead guilty if you want to. I’ll bet the president has a right to say, go ahead, indict me. If you have enough — the Supreme Court’s never said that I can’t be indicted. This is DOJ. I’m the head of DOJ. I run the executive branch. If you have enough to indict me, go ahead and do it. At least you’ll have some clarity.”
Disney May Halt Work In Georgia Over Abortion Law
Disney CEO Bob Iger told Reuters it would be “very difficult” for the company to continue filming in Georgia if the state’s highly restrictive abortion law is carried out.
New York Times: “Iger’s comments were the strongest sign yet that Hollywood could pull back from Georgia, which has lured television and film producers with generous tax breaks, but has also at times repelled the industry with its politics.”
Meanwhile, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos told TechCrunch the company will “rethink its whole investment in Georgia” if a recently signed abortion law goes into effect.
Trump Claims Courts Won’t Allow Impeachment
President Trump revealed he has no idea how impeachment actually works, insisting to reporters, “I can’t imagine the courts allowing it.”
Of course, the courts have nothing to do with impeachment, which is the domain of Congress.
Trump Might Meet with Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage
President Trump said he might meet with Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage, pro-Brexit politicians who now are vying to replace Prime Minister Theresa May, when he visits the UK next week, Politico reports.
Trump told reporters that he considers Johnson and Farage to be “very good guys” and “very interesting people.” But he refrained from offering support to either candidate.
U.S. Intelligence Partners Wary of Barr’s Russia Review
“Key allies who share intelligence with the United States could soon be dragged into the middle of Attorney General Bill Barr’s politically-charged Justice Department review of how the Russia investigation began,” CNN reports.
“President Trump has said he wants Barr to look into the role key intelligence partners, including the United Kingdom and Australia, played in the origins of Russia probe. He has said he could raise the issue with the British Prime Minister Theresa May during his state visit next week and suggested he may ask her about his accusation that Britain spied on his 2016 presidential campaign.”
GOP Stunned Mueller Suggested Trump Not Innocent
Jonathan Chait: “Robert Mueller’s brief, eight-minute remarks on Wednesday about his investigation left the non-conservatives who closely follow his work fairly nonplussed. Mueller was simply reiterating things he had already written in his report. Conservatives, on the other hand, erupted in outrage.”
“What so vexed the right about Mueller’s curt affirmation of his previous conclusions? The answer, as we’ll see, seems to be that they believed their own propaganda about what Mueller had (and had not) found. Presented even briefly with reality, their minds have reeled in shock.”
Trump Walks Back Tweet Saying Russia Helped Him Win
President Trump told reporters that Russia did not help him get elected in 2016, contradicting a tweet sent minutes earlier saying Moscow’s election interference helped him win, The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “No, Russia did not get me elected.”
A video shows Trump also called members of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team “some of the worst human beings on Earth.”
Impeachment Is Not the Answer
David Frum: “Right now Trump is fighting on many fronts to suppress many investigations of many different forms of alleged wrongdoing. He must plug more holes in the dike than he has fingers. But submerge all those many stories into one big question—“remove or don’t”—and the impeachers will have to focus their energy on the most salient allegations. The battlefront will narrow, and as it narrows, the unity of the executive branch will confer a tactical advantage on even a weak presidential defense over the fissiparous offense in the House of Representatives.”
“Impeachment at this point is all but certain to end in Trump’s acquittal in the Senate… It will change only if new real-world facts materialize—either legal facts (evidence of other crimes) or political facts (a collapse in Trump’s support in the country).”
“A Trump facing impeachment will rally reluctant Republicans to him, with the argument, so effective for Bill Clinton in the 1990s, Even if he did something wrong, it does not merit removal from office.“
Impeachment Would Freeze the Democratic Race
First Read: “By the way, if you wanted a taste of what the 2020 Democratic presidential race might look like if Congress does go down the impeachment rabbit hole, you got it yesterday after Mueller’s statement.”
“The 2020 field took second (or third) stage.”
“Impeachment most likely would relegate the Dem race to the backburner and freeze the contest until afterward.”
Hard Drives Reveal Details on Citizenship Question
“Thomas Hofeller achieved near-mythic status in the Republican Party as the Michelangelo of gerrymandering, the architect of partisan political maps that cemented the party’s dominance across the country,” the New York Times reports.
“But after he died last summer, his estranged daughter discovered hard drives in her father’s home that revealed something else: Mr. Hofeller had played a crucial role in the Trump administration’s decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.”
“Files on those drives showed that he wrote a study in 2015 concluding that adding a citizenship question to the census would allow Republicans to draft even more extreme gerrymandered maps to stymie Democrats… The disclosures represent the most explicit evidence to date that the Trump administration added the question to the 2020 census to advance Republican Party interests.”
Russian Interference Is the Biggest Red Flag from Mueller
First Read: “As everyone continues to parse Robert Mueller’s words from Wednesday — ‘It’s time to impeach!’ ‘Trump is exonerated!’ ‘Congress needs to do its job!’ — most politicians and commentators are still missing his unequivocal message.”
“Russia clearly interfered in the 2016 presidential election.”
“The lack of urgency and attention to that interference remains, in many ways, the real scandal. That applies to a president who continues to describe that interference as a hoax… And it applies to a Congress that’s been unable to mount a united front to prevent future interference.”
Trump Slams ‘Highly Conflicted’ Mueller
President Trump tweeted that he “had nothing to do with Russia helping me get elected” while slamming special counsel Robert Mueller again.
Tweeted Trump: “The Greatest Presidential Harassment in history. After spending $40,000,000 over two dark years, with unlimited access, people, resources and cooperation, highly conflicted Robert Mueller would have brought charges, if he had ANYTHING, but there were no charges to bring!”
Axios: “While it’s not the first time Trump has admitted that Russia interfered in 2016, it’s the first time Trump has stated it could have helped him win.”
Nikki Haley Has a Book Coming
Out this fall: With All Due Respect by Nikki Haley.
