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Leak Stuns White House

March 21, 2018 at 7:48 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The report that President Trump “did not follow specific warnings from his national security advisers” when he congratulated Russian president Vladimir Putin was breathtaking and “one of the most startling leaks” of this whole administration. It has left President Trump and his senior staff furious and rattled,” Jonathan Swan reports.

“The speed and sensitivity of the leak prompted immediate finger-pointing within the administration, as aides reeled from a leak that could only have come from a small group of people, each of whom is trusted with sensitive national secrets. Possible motives include concern about how Trump is handling Putin, frustration by the officials about Trump ignoring their advice, or internal power games.”

CNN: Trump furious over leak of warning to not congratulate Putin.

Carson Blames His Wife for Dining Room Purchase

March 21, 2018 at 7:44 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

HUD Secretary Ben Carson told a House committee that he had “dismissed” himself from the decision to buy a $31,000 dining room set for his office last year, leaving the details to his wife and staff, the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Carson offered a rambling, at times contradictory, explanation of the purchase of the table, chairs and hutch, a transaction that turned into a public relations disaster that led President Trump to consider replacing him, according to White House aides.”

Bredesen Holds Early Lead for Tennessee Senate Seat

March 21, 2018 at 7:38 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new Public Policy Polling survey in Tennessee finds former Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) with a slight edge over Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) in the U.S. Senate race, 46% to 41%, with 13% still undecided.

Illinois Governor’s Race Will Be Expensive and Brutal

March 21, 2018 at 7:33 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Democratic billionaire J.B. Pritzker will take on wealthy Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner in November, a race expected to easily shatter Illinois campaign spending records and make a run at the national mark,” the Chicago Tribune reports.

“Both candidates enter a nearly eight-month general election campaign needing to unify their respective parties following bruising primary campaigns. More than half of Democratic voters preferred one of the other five candidates to Pritzker, while Rauner narrowly beat back a strong challenge from conservative state Rep. Jeanne Ives (R).”

“To a large extent, Rauner’s task is the more daunting. It’s difficult for a Republican to win statewide in Democrat-leaning Illinois, and this fall is a midterm election in which Republican President Donald Trump remains deeply unpopular here.”

Democrats Were Fired Up In Illinois

March 21, 2018 at 7:32 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “Democratic primary turnout was up across the state — overall, it was triple what it was in 2014, according to the Democratic Governors Association.”

“And turnout was 30 percent higher on Tuesday than in 2010, a more comparable primary election since there was a competitive Democratic primary that year. In an ominous sign, Republicans saw an estimated drop of 30 percent in turnout over 2014, which was a highly competitive primary where Rauner edged out three other top contenders.”

Newman Declines to Concede Primary to Lipinksi

March 21, 2018 at 7:30 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Anti-bullying advocate and first-time political candidate Marie Newman declined to concede in her nationally watched race against seven-term Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL) late Tuesday night, saying she ‘would like Mr. Lipinski to have a very painful evening’ and the contest was too close to call,” the Chicago Tribune reports.

“Lipinski held a razor-thin lead when he took the stage and told supporters he wasn’t declaring victory because ‘I am careful. I am an engineer.'”

Ex-French President Sarkozy Arrested

March 20, 2018 at 11:16 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was taken into custody in connection with allegations that he received millions of euros in illegal campaign financing from the regime of late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, the AP reports.

Illinois Primary Results

March 20, 2018 at 8:54 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Leave your comments as returns come in.

Bannon Oversaw Collection of Facebook Data

March 20, 2018 at 8:41 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Stephen Bannon oversaw Cambridge Analytica’s early efforts to collect troves of Facebook data as part of an ambitious program to build detailed profiles of millions of American voters,” the Washington Post reports.

“The 2014 effort was part of a high-tech form of voter persuasion touted by the company, which under Bannon identified and tested the power of anti-establishment messages that later would emerge as central themes in President Trump’s campaign speeches, according to Chris Wylie, who left the company at the end of that year.”

Among the messages tested were “drain the swamp” and “deep state.”

Said Wylie: “The only foreign thing we tested was Putin. It turns out, there’s a lot of Americans who really like this idea of a really strong authoritarian leader and people were quite defensive in focus groups of Putin’s invasion of Crimea.”

Farenthold May Resign from Congress

March 20, 2018 at 7:51 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) “is considering stepping down from Congress before the end of his term,” Politico reports.

“Farenthold already announced he would not seek re-election in his southeastern Texas district, after Politico reported he settled a sexual harassment lawsuit with $84,000 in taxpayer funds. But he now is on the brink of leaving Congress well before the end of his term, which would allow him to dodge an Ethics Committee investigation into allegations of inappropriate office behavior.”

Trump Ignored Warnings of National Security Advisers

March 20, 2018 at 7:29 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump did not follow specific warnings from his national security advisers when he congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin Tuesday on his reelection, including a section in his briefing materials in all-capital letters stating ‘DO NOT CONGRATULATE,'” the Washington Post reports.

“Trump also chose not to heed talking points from aides instructing him to condemn Putin about the recent poisoning of a former Russian spy in the United Kingdom with a powerful nerve agent, a case that both the British and U.S. governments have blamed on Moscow.”

Flake Would Support Impeachment If Trump Fires Mueller

March 20, 2018 at 7:28 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) told the Washington Post that he would support impeachment proceedings against President Trump if the president ends special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election “without cause.”

Said Flake: “We’re begging him: ‘Don’t go down this road. Don’t create a constitutional crisis. Don’t force the Congress to take the only remedy that Congress can take. To remind the president of that is the best way to keep him from going down that road. To fire Mueller without cause, I don’t know if there is any other remedy left to the legislative branch.”

Pruitt Spent $120K on Trip to Italy

March 20, 2018 at 7:23 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt “spent more than $120,000 in public funds last summer for a trip to Italy that included a meeting of G-7 ministers and a private tour of the Vatican,” the AP reports.

“The known cost of Pruitt’s previously reported trip grew this week after the agency disclosed a heavily censored document showing expenses for Pruitt’s security detail cost more than $30,500. That’s on top of nearly $90,000 spend for food, hotels, commercial airfare and a military jet used by Pruitt and nine EPA staff.”

Quote of the Day

March 20, 2018 at 4:33 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Fox has degenerated from providing a legitimate and much-needed outlet for conservative voices to a mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration.”

—Retired Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, quoted by BuzzFeed, explaining to friends why he quit his job as a Fox News analyst.

Undercover Secrets of Trump’s Data Firm

March 20, 2018 at 4:04 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“An undercover investigation by Channel 4 News has revealed how Cambridge Analytica claims it ran key parts of the presidential campaign for Donald Trump.”

“The British data company was secretly filmed discussing coordination between Trump’s campaign and outside groups – an activity which is potentially illegal.”

“Executives claimed they ‘ran all the digital campaign, the television campaign and our data informed all the strategy’ for President Trump.”

Look Who Posed with the Russian Ambassador

March 20, 2018 at 2:58 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Mother Jones found an interesting photo of Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix.

”He happens to be posing with Alexander Yakovenko, the Russian ambassador to the United Kingdom. The photo was taken days after Democratic National Committee files and emails hacked by Russian intelligence were dumped online by WikiLeaks at the start of the Democratic Party’s convention. The previous month, the Trump campaign had hired Nix’s company, and by this point, it had been widely reported that Russian intelligence was behind the DNC hack.“

Judge Says Trump Can Be Sued for Defamation

March 20, 2018 at 2:33 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump must face a defamation lawsuit by a former contestant on his reality TV show “The Apprentice” after a Manhattan judge ruled in a first-of-its kind decision that he could not claim immunity through his job as the nation’s commander-in-chief, the New York Post.

Trump Calls to Congratulate Putin

March 20, 2018 at 2:29 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump said that he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin to congratulate him on his recent election victory and said that the two would likely get together in the not too distant future, ABC News reports.

Said Trump: “We had a very good call.”