CBS News: “Facebook said it saw a ‘steep increase’ in the creation of abusive, fake accounts in the past six months. The company took down more than 3 billion fake accounts from October to March, twice as many as it did in the previous six months.”
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Kushner Offered to Help Indicted Banker
“Shortly after Donald Trump’s 2016 election, Paul Manafort wrote to Jared Kushner to ask the incoming administration to consider giving a ‘major appointment’’ to Manafort’s banker,” Bloomberg reports.
Replied Kushner: “On it!”
“That email exchange, which was admitted as evidence during Manafort’s tax-fraud trial last year, gained new significance Thursday with the unsealing of a federal indictment in New York. The new filing accused the banker, Stephen Calk, of extending loans to Manafort as part of an effort to bribe his way into a plum administration job.”
Trump Steps Up Prosecution of Journalist Sources
“With its latest leak indictment last week, the Department of Justice under Donald Trump is now on pace to break the previous record for prosecutions of journalists’ sources, just two and a half years into its administration,” the Columbia Journalism Review reports.
“A new report, released for the first time today, shows just how dangerous such cases can be to journalists.”
Pelosi Says Trump Needs an ‘Intervention’
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that Donald Trump needs “an intervention” after his latest “temper tantum” at the White House, ratcheting up her criticism of a president she says is not fit for office, Politico reports.
Said Pelosi: “I wish that his family or his administration or his staff would have an intervention for the good of the country.”
She added: “What goes on there? Who’s in charge? And he says he’s in charge. And I suspect that he may be. And I suspect he may be even more since yesterday, because I don’t think that any responsible assistant to the president of the United States would have advised him to do what he did yesterday.”
Democrats Would Prefer a Candidate In Their 50s
When asked about the ideal age for a president, a new Pew Research poll finds most Democrats say they prefer someone in their 40s through their 60s, with 47% saying the best age for a president is “in their 50s.”
Conway Says Pelosi Treated Her Like a Maid
“Kellyanne Conway escalated a feud with Nancy Pelosi on Thursday, accusing the House speaker of treating her like “her maid” following the previous day’s disastrous meeting on infrastructure,” Politico reports.
Said Conway: “When she was finished I said, respectfully, ‘Madam Speaker, would you like to address some of the specifics the president talked about.'”
According to Conway, Pelosi shot back: “I don’t — I talk to the president, I don’t talk to staff.”
Biden Maintains Big Lead In Democratic Race
A new Monmouth poll finds Joe Biden currently has the support of 33% in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. He’s followed by Bernie Sanders at 15%, Kamala Harris at 11%, Elizabeth Warren at 10%, Pete Buttigieig at 6%, Beto O’Rourke at 4% and Amy Klobuchar at 3%.
Candidates who receive 1% support include Cory Booker, Julián Castro, Bill de Blasio, Tulsi Gabbard, Andrew Yang, and Marianne Williamson. The remaining 11 candidates included in the poll receive less than 1% or were not selected by any respondents.
How Trump Could Win Without Pennsylvania
Henry Olsen: “President Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania on Monday has rekindled speculation that in order to retain the White House, Trump must win the Keystone State in 2020. Former vice president Joe Biden, who was born in the state, has emphasized his ability to win it back for the Democrats, going so far as to locate his campaign headquarters in Philadelphia. There’s only one problem with this narrative: It’s wrong.”
“Trump would surely benefit from Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes, but he doesn’t need them to win. Arizona, Wisconsin and Maine are the states to watch; if Trump wins there, he’s highly likely to win a second term.”
Test it yourself on our interactive Electoral Vote Map.
Pelosi Says Trump Wants to Be Impeached
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told her Democratic colleagues Thursday that President Trump “wants to be impeached” so that he can be vindicated by the Senate, NBC News reports.
Pelosi also called Trump’s actions “villainous.”
Avenatti Says Trump Is Behind His Indictment
Michael Avenatti told the Washington Examiner that his recent indictment is a product of political revenge by the Trump administration, alleging one Republican close to the president said it “had Trump’s fingerprints all over it.”
More Popular Than Jesus
The Atlantic: “Barack Obama is literally more popular than Jesus among Democrats. Unfortunately, neither the former president nor any of the party’s 23 candidates currently seeking the 2020 nomination know quite what to do with that information.”
Trump Prepares $16 Billion More In Farm Aid
“The Trump Administration will provide $16 billion in a new round of farm-aid payments to compensate for losses from the U.S. trade war with China, Bloomberg reports.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said that China is targeting President Trump’s political base with its retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agricultural products and that the president won’t let farmers “bear the brunt of that.”
‘Elizabeth Warren Called Me’
Vox: “Do a quick scan of Twitter and for months, Warren supporters have been popping up expressing their joy and surprise that they’ve received a call from the senator herself. … What Warren is doing here is pretty straightforward: When a small-dollar donor gives money to her campaign through her website, they’re asked for some basic information, including their name, address, and phone number. That information comes in and her campaign picks out donors for her to call and thank. Her campaign has put out videos of her making the calls.”
“What makes this feel more organic and effective is the declarations of the people she’s calling announcing what’s happened and expressing their excitement. A lot of them are doing it on social media, and chances are those people are also telling their family and friends about getting a call from Liz.”
Who’s Not Running for President?
Dan Zak: “Steve Bullock is not John Hickenlooper, and John Hickenlooper is not Jay Inslee, but they do blend seamlessly into a haze of slight jowls and ruddy whiteness, such that if you puree their chromosomes in a laboratory, you might get Michael Bennet, who is also running for president, even though you can’t remember who he is or what he looks like. It is also important to note that Seth Moulton is not Tim Ryan, and Tim Ryan is not Eric Swalwell — but they might as well be, because each of them is an avatar of ish-ness: young-ish, handsome-ish and nonexistent-ish, with each polling close to zero in the 2020 Democratic presidential race, which feels like it started a generation ago and will probably continue until your uncle declares, too, sometime during Thanksgiving dinner later this year.”
Bank CEO Charged Trying to Bribe Trump Administration
“Federal Savings Bank CEO Stephen Calk has been charged with bribery for trying to solicit a position in the Trump administration from former campaign manager Paul Manafort in exchange for $16 million in loans,” Axios reports.
Trump Hits Back at Tillerson
President Trump tweeted that former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was “dumb as a rock” and “totally ill prepared and ill equipped to be Secretary of State.”
He claimed Tillerson “made up a story (he got fired) that I was out-prepared by Vladimir Putin at a meeting in Hamburg, Germany. I don’t think Putin would agree. Look how the U.S. is doing!”
Graham Calls Mueller Probe a ‘Political Rectal Exam’
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) decried special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation in a Fox News interview as a “political rectal exam.”
Said Graham: “After two years of a political rectal exam, nobody’s been looked at more than Trump. They found nothing. But the answer for the Democrats is ‘Trump’s gotta go.'”
Trump May Bypass Congress on Saudi Arms Sale
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) warned that the Trump administration is considering a move to bypass Congress and push through the sale of bombs to Saudi Arabia by declaring a national security emergency, NBC News reports.
Said Murphy: “I am hearing that Trump may use an obscure loophole in the Arms Control Act and notice a major new sale of bombs to Saudi Arabia (the ones they drop in Yemen) in a way that will prevent Congress from objecting. Arms control law allows Congress to reject a sale to a foreign country. But Trump would claim the sale constitutes an ‘emergency’ which means Congress can’t take a vote of disapproval. It would go through automatically.”
