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Why Trump Plays to Conservative Media

April 3, 2018 at 8:41 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The mainstream media’s skeptical-to-sneering coverage of Fox and Sinclair just endears those outlets to Trump, and causes his diehard supporters to dig in even deeper,” Axios reports.

How it works: “Trump demands instant gratification and the quickest way to do it is to kick a shared enemy of his media allies (WaPo being the one this week). He’ll get instant feedback, phone calls from cable hosts and approving coverage on their shows. It’s the modern version of call and response: his tweets, their chyrons.”

Earlier for members: A Look at the Fox News-Trump Feedback Loop

O’Rourke Raised Staggering Sum Last Quarter

April 3, 2018 at 8:18 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) raised over $6.7 million for his U.S. Senate bid in the first quarter of 2018, “a staggering number that poses a new category of threat” to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), the Texas Tribune reports.

“The haul is easily O’Rourke’s biggest fundraising quarter yet, more than double his next-closest total for a three-month period. It also is more than any Democratic Senate candidate nationwide took in last quarter, O’Rourke’s campaign said.”

[alert type=”general” dismiss=”no”]And that’s without taking any PAC money.[/alert]

Trump Gives Obama a Nickname

April 3, 2018 at 8:04 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump finally gave his predecessor a nickname in a tweet this morning:

Thank you to Rasmussen for the honest polling. Just hit 50%, which is higher than Cheatin’ Obama at the same time in his Administration.

Sinclair Chief Says Print Media Has ‘No Real Purpose’

April 3, 2018 at 7:24 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

David Smith, the executive chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group, told New York magazine that he dislikes and fundamentally distrusts the print media, which he believes “serves no real purpose.”

Said Smith: “I must tell that in all the 45 plus years I have been in the media business I have never seen a single article about us that is reflective of reality especially in today’s world with the shameful political environment and generally complete lack of integrity. Facts and truth have been lost for a long time and likely to never return.”

He added: “The print media is so left wing as to be meaningless dribble which accounts for why the industry is and will fade away. Just no credibility.”

Pruitt Bypassed White House to Give Raises to Top Aides

April 3, 2018 at 7:12 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“In early March, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt approached the White House with a request: He wanted substantial pay raises for two of his closest aides… Because both women were political appointees, he needed the White House to sign-off on their new pay,” The Atlantic reports.

“The White House, the source said, declined to approve the raises.”

“So Pruitt found another way. A provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act allows the EPA administrator to hire up to 30 people into the agency, without White House or congressional approval. The provision, meant to help expedite the hiring of experts and allow for more flexible staffing, became law in 1996.”

Mueller Authorized to Investigate Manafort Collusion

April 3, 2018 at 7:07 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein “told special counsel Robert Mueller in a classified August 2, 2017, memo that he should investigate allegations that President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was ‘colluding with Russian government officials’ to interfere in the 2016 presidential election,” CNN reports.

“Mueller was also empowered by Rosenstein to investigate Manafort’s payments from Ukrainian politicians, a cornerstone of the Trump adviser’s decades-long lobbying career that has resulted in several financial criminal charges so far.”

“The revelation of the August 2 memo comes amid a broader court filing from Mueller’s prosecutors that offers a full-throated defense of their investigative powers and indictments thus far.”

EPA Explored Private Jet for Pruitt

April 3, 2018 at 7:02 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “Aides to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt last year considered leasing a private jet on a month-to-month basis to accommodate his travel needs, according to current and former agency officials. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the agency ultimately did not move forward with the plan because it would have been prohibitively expensive.”

Court Will Hand Down First Sentence In Mueller Probe

April 3, 2018 at 7:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Dutch national Alex van der Zwaan is expected to become the first person sentenced in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation on Tuesday in federal court in Washington, having pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents,” ABC News reports.

“Van der Zwaan, 33, the son-in-law of a Russian oligarch, entered his guilty plea in February for lying about his work in Ukraine with Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and deputy Rick Gates.”

Trump Wants to Take Down Jeff Bezos

April 2, 2018 at 9:32 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Vanity Fair: “For the first time in Donald Trump’s presidency, the West Wing soap opera appears to be in hiatus, with many of its starring characters (Gary Cohn, Hope Hicks) either permanently offstage or with much reduced roles (John Kelly, Jared Kushner). Currently, there’s one star—a situation Trump is obviously enjoying—and his new freedom is used to focus ever more closely on his perceived enemies and obsessions. Amazon, whose owner, Jeff Bezos, also owns The Washington Post, is currently the main target.”

“Now, according to four sources close to the White House, Trump is discussing ways to escalate his Twitter attacks on Amazon to further damage the company.”

Said one source: “He’s off the hook on this. It’s war. He gets obsessed with something, and now he’s obsessed with Bezos. Trump is like, how can I fuck with him?”

New York Times: “People close to the president have said critical articles in The Post often trigger his public musings about Amazon.”

Trump Only Leads Kasich by 6 Points In New Hampshire

April 2, 2018 at 9:29 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new American Research Group poll in New Hampshire finds President Trump leads Gov. John Kasich (R) in a possible presidential primary by 6 points, 48% to 42%.

Trump leads Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) by a wider margin, 49% to 33%, with 18% of voters undecided.

Pruitt’s Lobbyist-Owned Pad Was GOP Fundraising Hub

April 2, 2018 at 9:24 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The lobbyist-owned townhouse that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt rented for relatively small nightly sums also served as a hub for Republican lawmakers hoping to raise money for their congressional campaigns,” the Daily Beast reports.

“A review of fundraising invitations reveals that at least three members of Congress had fundraisers at the now-controversial Capital Hill brownstone during the same period of time that Pruitt was living there. Several of those fundraisers took place on dates when Pruitt was in Washington D.C., according to a cross reference of the invitations and Pruitt’s schedule.”

Jill McCabe Breaks Her Silence

April 2, 2018 at 9:23 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jill McCabe writing in the Washington Post:

I am an emergency room pediatrician and an accidental politician — someone who never thought much about politics until I was recruited to run for state office after making a statement about the importance of expanding Medicaid. That decision — plus some twisted reporting and presidential tweets — ended up costing my husband, Andrew, his job and our family a significant portion of his pension my husband had worked hard for over 21 years of federal service. For the past year and a half of this nightmare, I have not been free to speak out about what happened. Now that Andrew has been fired, I am.

White House Considered Firing Pruitt

April 2, 2018 at 9:14 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“White House chief of staff John Kelly has considered the firing of embattled Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt in the coming months as part of a wave of ousters of top officials causing headaches for the president,” Politico reports.

“Pruitt is still hanging on for now, in part because Kelly wanted to wait for an upcoming EPA inspector general’s report into his expensive travels, the senior official said. Another possible reason: Pruitt is doing the job President Trump wants — including an announcement Monday that the agency will reverse the Obama administration’s attempt to tighten fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks.”

Trump Attorney Tries to Sideline Porn Star Suit

April 2, 2018 at 9:12 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump’s personal lawyer asked a federal judge on Monday to force adult film star Stormy Daniels to use arbitration to settle a dispute over an agreement to keep quiet about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump,” Reuters reports.

Bruising GOP Primary Fights Worry Party Leaders

April 2, 2018 at 7:09 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“In many parts of the country, Republican candidates are trying to put distance between themselves and President Trump. In the Indiana Senate primary, the bruising fight is over which candidate is the more authentically Trumpian,” the New York Times reports.

“As the May 8 primary election approaches, the race here has taken a nasty turn, with candidates attacking one another as insufficiently aligned with the president, or way too late to Team Trump. Some Republicans worry that the tenor has the potential to bloody the winner so badly that he will be weakened in the general election contest against Sen. Joe Donnelly, one of this election year’s most vulnerable Democrats.”

“The Indiana primary is among several, including those in West Virginia and Wisconsin, where Republicans are locked in nominating battles in states Mr. Trump won in 2016 and where the party has hoped to add to its slender two-seat majority.”

Trump Seeks to Speed Deportations by Imposing Quotas

April 2, 2018 at 6:27 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Trump administration will pressure U.S. immigration judges to process cases faster by establishing a quota system tied to their annual performance reviews,” the Washington Post reports.

“The judges will be expected to clear at least 700 cases a year to receive a ‘satisfactory’ performance rating, a standard that their union called an ‘unprecedented’ step that risks undermining judicial independence.”

Related from Axios: “The White House is working with lawmakers on a new immigration package that would end the practice of ‘catch and release,’ make it easier to deport immigrant children from countries outside of Mexico and Canada, and toughen screening for asylum applicants.”

Trump’s Support Among Women Falls

April 2, 2018 at 6:10 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll finds that President Trump’s support among women plunged this month as he battled controversies surrounding alleged affairs with the adult-film actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Support from women fell 6 points to 35%, even as Trump’s support among men rose 3 points to 53%.

Walker Is Quietly Keeping His National Profile Alive

April 2, 2018 at 5:46 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Scott Walker’s political rebound is supposed to be grounded in Wisconsin, where he’s expected to run a robust gubernatorial campaign in a state where he has done nothing but win,” BuzzFeed News reports.

“But Walker, whose surprisingly quick rise and fall as a Republican presidential contender hurt his standing at home, also is carefully and somewhat quietly maintaining his national brand.”