President Trump said he doesn’t view former Vice President Joe Biden as a threat to his reelection bid, The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “I don’t see him as a threat. I think he’s a threat to himself.”
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Castro Hasn’t Qualified for Debate Yet
Julián Castro told anchor MSNBC that has has “not yet” hit the individual donor threshold to be on the stage for the first Democratic presidential debate in June.
Said Castro: “We’re getting closer and closer… But we have not — we’ll be releasing the fundraising numbers in the next couple of days.”
Trump Says Law ‘On My Side’ In Tax Return Dispute
President Trump said the law is “100 percent” on his side in a battle with Democrats over the release of his tax returns, The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “That’s up to whoever handles it. Hey, I’m under audit. But that’s up to whoever it is. From what I understand the law is 100 percent on my side.”
Democrats Mobilize to Unseat John Cornyn
Texas Tribune: “Emboldened after their gains in 2018 — including the closer-than-expected Senate race — the state party is establishing a ‘Cornyn War Room’ to ‘define Cornyn before he defines himself,’ according to a memo. It is unlike anything the party has done in recent history surrounding a U.S. Senate race, and it reflects the urgency with which Texas Democrats are approaching a potentially pivotal election cycle.”
Cornyn responded to the initiative saying he hopes Democrats “spend every last penny they get from their out-of-state puppet masters.”
Swalwell Will Announce Campaign on Monday
The Atlantic: “There are more long-shot Democrats running for president this year than there have been total candidates in previous campaigns—and next week, Eric Swalwell is joining the pack. The California congressman and frequent cable-news guest on all things related to President Trump and Russia will announce his presidential plans in an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.”
“But he won’t be running on Russia, or on the continuing fallout from the Mueller report and the Barr letter. Swalwell will center his campaign on gun control.”
Trump Will Skip Correspondents’ Dinner Again
President Trump said he will skip this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner and hold a rally instead, The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “The dinner is boring and so negative that we’re going to hold a very positive rally.”
Trump Lies Because ‘It’s Fun’
Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci told CNN that President Trump lies “because he thinks it’s fun.”
Said Scaramucci: “He does it because he thinks it’s fun and he also does it because he likes the fact that you guys are talking about it There’s a very large group of people inside of our population that when he does it and the media talks about it, they laugh.”
Cohen Says He Was Praised After False Testimony
Michael Cohen said he was “congratulated” by one of President Trump’s lawyers after giving false testimony to Congress about Trump’s Russia ties during the 2016 campaign, BuzzFeed News reports.
The claim was made in a 12-page memo sent by Cohen’s lawyers to House Democrats in a bid to delay the start of Cohen’s prison term.
Trump Already Planning His Post-White House Memoir
Daily Beast: “Since at least mid-2017, Trump has been talking about the post-presidential memoir he will write; or, more likely, have ghostwritten on his behalf. He is planning on it being explosive and assumes (not without reason) that it will be a New York Times bestseller. And since the early days of his administration, he has conveyed his eagerness to get started on the project.”
“Another source, who is a friend of Trump’s, said the president has casually discussed how such a book could be used to dish dirt and settle scores with his foes in the media, the Democratic Party, non-loyal Republicans, law enforcement, and even individuals in his own administration. Trump, according to this person, noted that this memoir could help ‘correct’ the ‘fake news’ already published in popular books and newspapers, and give him the opportunity to spin a juicy yarn on his time at the heights of power.”
“The source recalled there was at least one time when he heard the president say, ‘that’ll go great in a book,’ referring to something that had just happened in a social setting. The implication left was that Trump was passively taking note of potential fodder.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I doubt that will be a nomination. But if it were a nomination, you can bet what the interest rates he would be pushing for. If Herman Cain were on the Fed, you’d know the interest rate would soon be 9-9-9.”
— Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), quoted by Politico, on reports that President Trump might name former presidential candidate Herman Cain to the Federal Reserve Board.
Trump Says Barbara Bush Was ‘Nasty’ to Him
President Trump told the Washington Times that he understands why Barbara Bush was so critical of him, because he was so hard on her sons.
Said Trump: “I have heard that she was nasty to me, but she should be. Look what I did to her sons.”
He added: “She’s the mother of somebody that I competed against. Most people thought he was going to win and he was quickly out. I hit him very hard.”
House Democrats Pile Into 2020 Race
Politico: “Democratic Reps. Tim Ryan, Eric Swalwell, Tulsi Gabbard and Seth Moulton aren’t likely to be elected president in 2020. But faced with a stagnant leadership structure in the House and a political environment defined more by internet fame than legislative achievement, these Democratic lawmakers are weighing longshot bids for the White House or have already jumped into the race.”
Warren Will Propose Ending the Filibuster
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) “is set to call Friday for eliminating the filibuster, publicly endorsing for the first time a drastic change to Senate rules that would allow Democrats to pass sweeping, progressive bills with only a simple majority if they controlled the Senate in the future,” CNN reports.
Flake Says He’s Been Threatened by Trump Supporters
Former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) told the Guardian he received a number of threats from supporters of the president before he left office this year.
“Flake described several examples of threatening messages and behaviour made against him and his family that he said were currently being investigated by law enforcement agencies in Arizona and Washington DC.”
Said Flake: “I would have liked to have done one more term in the Senate, that’s probably all. But its been at a heavy cost to my family. The sacrifices they’ve been made to make, what they had to endure.”
Pelosi Skeptical of ‘Medicare for All’
Speaker Nancy Pelosi “questioned whether a health-care proposal embraced by several Democratic presidential candidates would be too expensive and fail to provide the same coverage as the Affordable Care Act. Instead, Pelosi suggested Thursday that she would rather build on the 2010 law and is yet to be convinced the Medicare-for-all proposal pushed by many liberals would achieve its purported goals,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Pelosi: “I’m agnostic. Show me how you think you can get there. We all share the value of health care for all Americans — quality, affordable health care for all Americans. What is the path to that? I think it’s the Affordable Care Act, and if that leads to Medicare-for-all, that may be the path.”
Most Americans Don’t Like Social Media
A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds Americans “hold negative views of social-media giants like Facebook and Twitter, with sizable majorities saying these sites do more to divide the country than unite it, and spread falsehoods rather than news.”
Barrage of Setbacks Spoil Trump’s Post-Mueller Reset
“It was just last week that President Trump and his allies euphorically celebrated what they called Trump’s exoneration after special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. The apparent absence of proof that Trump’s 2016 campaign conspired with the Kremlin produced talk of a fresh start for Trump’s presidency ahead of the 2020 election,” Politico reports.
“But misfortune and mayhem almost immediately began piling up.Trump unleashed two new political crises — one on health care, one on the Mexican border — and then retreated on both of them. A brief lull in House Democratic oversight action ended abruptly when House investigators demanded his tax returns.”
“And news reports revealed that Mueller’s soon-to-be-released findings may be far more damaging than Attorney General William Barr has publicly indicated, suggesting that the Russia scandal is hardly in the president’s rear view window.”
Quote of the Day
“They’re lousy politicians, they’re lousy on policy, they got the worst ideas in the world, but they stick together. And the Republicans do not stick together as well, OK? There’s no question about it. And I respect them for that, and I tell the Republicans that. I say, ‘These people stick together. Even if it’s bad, they stick together.'”
— President Trump, in an interview with Politico, on the Democrats.
