“Republican-affiliated campaigns, committees and outside groups have spent more than $3 million at various Trump properties since just after the 2016 election through last month, with roughly $924,000 coming from the Republican National Committee,” according to ABC News.
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Sasse Writing a Book on Political Polarization
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) is writing a book about the polarization of America, the Lincoln Journal Star reports.
“The book is coming together during the 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. hours that Sasse devotes to reading and writing most days.”
It’s going to be titled Them: Why We Hate Each Other and How to Heal.
Trump Fires Back at Joe Biden
President Trump called former Vice President Joe Biden “weak, both mentally and physically,” suggesting he could easily beat up Biden, in response to the former vice president’s comment that he would have sought to fight Trump over his remarks about women if the two were in high school together, Politico reports.
Said Trump: “Crazy Joe Biden is trying to act like a tough guy. Actually, he is weak, both mentally and physically, and yet he threatens me, for the second time, with physical assault. He doesn’t know me, but he would go down fast and hard, crying all the way. Don’t threaten people Joe!”
Retired General Tears Into Kushner
Retired four-star Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey tore into White House adviser Jared Kushner during an interview on MSNBC.
Said McCaffrey: “Putting Jared Kushner, a 30-something person with no foreign policy or defense policy experience, as a leading representative of the United States is simply outrageous.”
He also warned that Kushner’s portfolio shows the “personalization of a family business dealing with U.S. policy.”
Newsom Surges In California Governor’s Race
A new Public Policy Institute of California poll finds Gavin Newsom (D) has surged ahead in the gubernatorial race with 28%, followed by John Cox (R) at 14%, Antonio Villaraigosa (D) at 12%, Travis Allen (R) at 10%, John Chiang (D) at 6% and Delaine Eastin (D) at 5%. A quarter of likely voters are still undecided.
In the U.S. Senate race, Sen. Dianne Feinstein continues to lead Kevin de León (D) by double digits, 42% to 16%, among likely voters, with 39% undecided.
Ex-CIA Boss Says Russians Could Have Dirt on Trump
Former CIA Director John Brennan suggested that President Trump is withholding criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin because the Russians might have compromising personal information on Trump, CNN reports.
Said Brennan: “I think he is afraid of the President of Russia.”
Asked why, Brennan said, “The Russians could have something on him personally that they could always roll out and make his life more difficult.”
Zuckerberg Feels ‘Really Bad’ About Letting Down Users
While not definitively saying yes, Mark Zuckerberg told Recode that he’s “open” to testifying before members of Congress regarding Facebook’s recent privacy scandal involving Cambridge Analytica.
Said Zuckerberg: “We let the community down and I feel really bad and I’m sorry about that.”
Thousands of Milwaukee Voters Dropped from Rolls
“Thousands of Milwaukee voters have been dropped from voter rolls — including some erroneously — through the state’s registration system,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
“Some 44,000 voters were removed from city rolls after the state started using a new process in the Electronic Registration Information Center, they said. It’s unclear how many of those were dropped in error.”
Mueller Investigated Sessions for Perjury
“Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the FBI investigated Attorney General Jeff Sessions last year for misleading lawmakers about his contacts with Russians before eventually closing that part of the case,” Bloomberg reports.
Mueller Wants to Interview Trump on Four Areas
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has so far discussed with President Trump’s lawyers four main topics they want to talk about with the President, CNN reports.
“According to two sources, the areas that the special counsel investigators have indicated they want to pursue with Trump are the President’s role in crafting a statement abroad Air Force One that miscast Donald Trump Jr.’s campaign June 2016 meeting with Russians in Trump Tower, the circumstances surrounding that Trump Tower meeting as well as the firings of FBI Director James Comey and national security adviser Michael Flynn.”
Gohmert Says Mueller Should Be Fired
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) said Wednesday that special counsel Robert Mueller should be fired from his position investigating Russia’s election meddling and the Trump campaign, The Hill reports
Said Gohmert: “I think Mueller should be fired. He should never have been appointed and he should never have accepted. He should be fired.”
However, Gohmert “clarified that he thinks the president should not actually fire Mueller, because Republicans in Congress might impeach him if he did so.”
GOP Lawmaker Blames ‘Deep State’ for Carson’s Spending
Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) appeared to blame the nefarious “Deep State” for ordering a costly dining set for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, the Daily Beast reports.
Said Tenney: “Somebody in the Deep State, it was not one of his people apparently, ordered a table, like a conference room table or whatever it was for a room. And that’s what the cost was. Ben Carson tried to—he said ‘you know how hard it is to turn it back because of the way that the procurement happens?'”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I’m sick of politics.”
— Gov. John Kasich (R), quoted by the Associated Press.
Conway May Accept Communications Job
“Kellyanne Conway is moving closer to accepting President Trump’s offer for her to succeed Hope Hicks as White House communications director, if only on an interim basis,” The Atlantic reports.
Said one official: “It’s becoming increasingly difficult for her to say no.”
“The official said that First Lady Melania Trump and Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff have both encouraged her over the last few days to reconsider Trump’s offer.”
McCabe Authorized Criminal Probe of Sessions
Nearly a year before Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired senior FBI official Andrew McCabe for what Sessions called a “lack of candor,” McCabe oversaw a federal criminal investigation into whether Sessions lacked candor when testifying before Congress about contacts with Russian operatives, ABC News reports.
“Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly accused Sessions of misleading them in congressional testimony and called on federal authorities to investigate, but McCabe’s previously-unreported decision to actually put the attorney general in the crosshairs of an FBI probe was an exceptional move.”
Peru’s President Resigns Before Impeachment Vote
Peru President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski “presented his resignation to Congress after vote-buying allegations ensnared his center-right government in a fresh scandal on the eve of an impeachment vote,” Reuters reports.
Cambridge Analytica Was Offered Hacked Emails
“The data analytics firm that worked on the Donald Trump election campaign was offered material from Israeli hackers who had accessed the private emails of two politicians who are now heads of state,” the Guardian reports.
“Multiple sources have described how senior directors of Cambridge Analytica – including its chief executive, Alexander Nix – gave staff instructions to handle material provided by computer hackers in election campaigns in Nigeria and St Kitts and Nevis.”
Huge Majority Say Trump Is Not a Good Role Model
A new Quinnipiac poll finds American voters disapprove of President Trump’s job performance by 53% to 40%.
By a 55% to 42% margin they say Trump “does not have a sense of decency,” and by a 67% to 29% margin they say “he is not a good role model for children.”
Said pollster Tim Malloy: “Americans say President Trump is damaging the country’s image globally; flunking the decency test and setting a bad example for kids. There’s no way to spin or sugarcoat it. The optics are ugly.”
