It’s Time to End the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
Margaret Sullivan: “It never has been a particularly good idea for journalists to don their fanciest clothes and cozy up to the people they cover, alongside Hollywood celebrities who have ventured to wonky Washington to join the fun. But in the current era, it’s become close to suicidal for the press’s credibility.”
“Trust in the mainstream media is low, a new populism has caught fire all over the Western world, and President Trump constantly pounds the news media as a bunch of out-of-touch elites who don’t represent the interests of real Americans.”
“The annual dinner — or at least the optics of the dinner — seem to back him up.”
Nate Silver: “The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is one seriously screwed-up ritual. Like, it’s literally like some weird shit you’d read about in an anthropology textbook.”
An Open Letter to Anthony Kennedy
The New York Times editorial board writes to Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy concerning rumors that he might soon retire:
How can we put this the right way? Please don’t go…
As Justice O’Connor would tell you, legacy isn’t only what you do when you’re on the court; it’s also the circumstances in which you leave it. To put it bluntly, did you spend a lifetime honoring and upholding the Constitution and the values of civility and decency in American public life only to have your replacement chosen by Donald Trump?
Do you want to give your seat to a president whose campaign and administration are under criminal investigation, whose closest aides have been indicted or have pleaded guilty to federal crimes? A president with so little regard for or understanding of the role of the judiciary, the separation of powers and the rule of law? A president who nominated to the federal bench someone who called you a “judicial prostitute”?
Only Charlotte Seems Interested in GOP Convention
Charlotte Observer: “There has been little media attention from other cities that might be bidding, and some prominent convention cities have told the Observer they are not interested.”
“The city of Dallas told the Observer that it was asked by the RNC to bid but declined. Dallas was a finalist for the 2016 RNC, which was awarded to Cleveland. The Observer has reached out to a number of other large cities, many of them in swing states. Orlando; Phoenix; Atlanta; Nashville; Columbus, Ohio; and Pittsburgh said they are not bidding.”
Kamala Harris Builds an Online Army
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) “recently became the latest potential presidential candidate to pledge to no longer accept money from corporate political action committees — a move adopted by an increasing number of progressive Democrats who calculate that they have more to gain than lose by forgoing corporate PAC money,” Politico reports.
“But Harris’ decision also reflected a broader — potentially more significant — effort to fortify her small-donor fundraising strategy ahead of the 2020 election.”
“She’s spending aggressively to bolster her digital campaign infrastructure and cultivate supporters online, creating a template that resembles the one that served Sanders so well against Hillary Clinton.”
Michelle Wolf Obliterates President Trump
Michelle Wolf turned in an especially biting performance at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner and went after President Trump “in a routine that swerved from raunchy to downright nasty,” the Washington Post reports.
Trump Jr. Stayed In Contact with Oligarch’s Family
“A direct line of communication between the Kremlin-connected Agalarov family and the Trump family was open during the transition after President Trump’s presidential election,” BuzzFeed News reports.
“The ‘first of a series’ of text messages was sent between Emin Agalarov and Donald Trump Jr. two days after the 2016 election… The communications continued through at least mid-December 2016.”
Kim Will Give Up Weapons if U.S. Won’t Invade
“North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, told President Moon Jae-in of South Korea when they met that he would abandon his nuclear weapons if the United States would agree to formally end the Korean War and promise that it would not invade his country,” the New York Times reports.
“In a faith-building gesture ahead of a summit meeting with President Trump, Mr. Kim also said he would invite experts and journalists from South Korea and the United States to watch the shutdown next month of his country’s only known underground nuclear test site.”
Quote of the Day
“What happened with the Paralympics was so incredible and so inspiring to me. And I watched — it’s a little tough to watch too much, but I watched as much as I could.”
— President Trump, quoted by the PBS Newshour.
Tom Steyer Keeps Spending In Effort to Oust Trump
Bloomberg: “Steyer isn’t the first to claim there are grounds for booting Trump from office, but his enormous pools of wealth, outrage, and ambition mean he can do more than the members of Congress responsible for impeachment proceedings: He can spend the money required to stoke a fire and fan its flames until a real chance to burn down the administration presents itself. Thus far, he’s pledged about $40 million for Need to Impeach and an additional $30 million to get millennials into voting booths in November.”
“He views himself as the leader of a movement to deliver America from evil—not one of those billionaires who cut checks merely to buy influence in Washington. Never mind that Steyer spent more on disclosed donations during the 2014 and 2016 election cycles than anyone else.”
For members: The Impeachment Trap
Democrats Suddenly Competitive In Rural Districts Too
Last year’s special election for Tom Price’s (R) seat in suburban Atlanta “became the most expensive House race ever, about $50 million on all sides, and while Democrats lost, it was by a narrow margin in a wealthy suburban district the Republicans used to win easily. It led Democrats to believe their initial strategy of focusing on the suburbs gave them a path to the majority,” the Washington Post reports.
“However, the more telling special elections might have been a handful in more rural districts President Trump won by overwhelming margins. Five special elections have been held for seats where Trump won 56 percent to 60 percent of the vote — in Kansas, Montana, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Arizona — and in each of those races the Democrat did much better than expected, winning one and getting very close in two others.”
Trump’s Role in Midterm Elections Roils Republicans
President Trump “is privately rejecting the growing consensus among Republican leaders that they may lose the House and possibly the Senate in November, leaving party officials and the president’s advisers nervous that he does not grasp the gravity of the threat they face in the midterm elections,” the New York Times reports.
“Congressional and party leaders and even some Trump aides are concerned that the president’s boundless self-assurance about politics will cause him to ignore or undermine their midterm strategy. In battleground states like Arizona, Florida and Nevada, Mr. Trump’s proclivity to be a loose cannon could endanger the Republican incumbents and challengers who are already facing ferocious Democratic headwinds.”
“Republicans in Washington and Trump aides have largely given up assuming the president will ever stick to a teleprompter, but they have joined together to impress upon him just how bruising this November could be for Republicans — and how high the stakes are for Mr. Trump personally, given that a Democratic-controlled Congress could pursue aggressive investigations and even impeachment.”
Pruitt Leaves EPA Staff In ‘Despair’
Politico: “Scott Pruitt may have survived his testimony on Capitol Hill, but he’s coming back to a further enraged and demoralized EPA staff. Several current and former EPA officials and other people close to the agency said Pruitt did himself no favors with his congressional testimony Thursday, in which he blamed his aides for installing a $43,000 privacy booth in his office and approving more than $100,000 in first-class flights that he took last year.”
“Pruitt also denied knowing key details about raises that his top staff received last year. … In conversations with 11 people who know the atmosphere inside EPA, including Republican political appointees, a handful said his refusal to grovel may have pleased President Trump. But others said his strategy was appalling to the current and former staffers who found themselves thrown under the bus.”
Trump Calls on Tester to Resign
President Trump tweeted this morning that Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) “should resign” because allegations he made against White House doctor Ronny Jackson, who withdrew as his nominee to head Veterans Affairs, “are proving false.”
Axios: “One of the reasons White House officials continued backing Jackson, even after they expected him to withdraw, was that they believed some of the allegations would prove false or exaggerated, and they wanted to set a political trap for Tester, a red-state Democrat up for election.”
GOP Lawmakers Took Part In Straw Donor Scheme
“Three Indiana members of Congress gave and received money from Rep. Jim Renacci (R-OH) in what experts said may have been an improper straw donor scheme — including two Indiana congressmen running for the U.S. Senate,” the Indianapolis Star reports.
“The Senate candidates, Reps. Todd Rokita (R-IN) and Luke Messer (R-IN), denied any wrongdoing. Rep. Jackie Walorski’s (R-IN) campaign did not respond to multiple phone calls and emails seeking comment.”
“The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Messer and Walorski received contributions from Renacci’s congressional campaign between April and June last year. Although he was not named in that story, Rokita also received campaign contributions from Renacci. Within two months of receiving a donation, all three then contributed money to Renacci’s gubernatorial campaign.”
[alert type=”general” dismiss=”no”]Renacci is effectively using funds from his federal campaign account to unlawfully support his state gubernatorial run and doing it through his fellow GOP lawmakers.[/alert]
Stein Won’t Comply With Senate Russia investigation
Jill Stein’s presidential campaign “is refusing to comply fully with a Senate intelligence committee request for documents and other correspondence, made as part of the committee’s probe into Russian activities in the 2016 election,” The Intercept reports.
“The Green Party campaign will agree to turn over some documents, but raised constitutional objections to the breadth of the inquiry, which was first made in November 2017, arguing that elements of it infringe on basic political rights enshrined in the First Amendment.”
Court Grants 90-Day Delay In Stormy Daniels’ Lawsuit
A federal judge ruled that a lawsuit filed by Stormy Daniels over an alleged “hush money” deal with President Trump and his attorney Michael Cohen will be put on hold for three months because of a criminal investigation Cohen is facing, Politico reports.
The judge said it appeared “likely” that Cohen would be indicted in connection with the ongoing investigation.
Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for Daniels, responded in a tweet: “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
Flynn Met with Russian Ambassador Before Speech at Gala
Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn “met with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. in December 2015, shortly after Flynn first met then-presidential candidate Donald Trump,” the New York Daily News reports.
“About a week after the meeting, Flynn traveled to Moscow to hold a paid speech at a gala hosted by Russian state-owned media organization RT. Flynn was seated next to President Vladimir Putin during the gala.”
“A few months after that speech, Flynn formally joined the Trump campaign as a national security adviser.”
