Today’s POTUS performance was breathtaking in the sheer number of provable falsehoods, intentional mischaracterizations and outright lies uttered. Clearly someone feels emboldened. Will GOP leaders continue to shrug this off? Bury their head in the sand?
I miss the days when people muttered nutty conspiracy theories to themselves while meandering down a sidewalk. Now they share it on Twitter w/millions of followers and for some reason some folks amplify it. Treat these tweets the way you’d treat the sidewalk mumbler, look away
This is outrageous. I’m sorry, I don’t know what else to say to someone accusing me and my colleagues of causing war. I know he’s baiting us to respond. I’m taking the bait in hopes that rational folks realize this is wrong and dangerous.
The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know it’s TRUE. I am providing a great service by explaining this to the American People. They purposely cause great division & distrust. They can also cause War! They are very dangerous & sick!
An extraordinarily disappointing moment by
@PressSec
just now... Her inability to acknowledge the role POTUS has played in all of this media bashing only hurts her own credibility...She had a chance to defend the institution and take the high ground and show leadership, instead..
The silence of Cong GOPers not named McCain is obviously not surprising anymore but is there any limit for them? It’s a fight with Canada and the rest of the G6, only the most important allies of this country. Is the rest of the GOP using “stunned silence” as their “comment”?
If you work in American politics or in the Gov’t on any level and your first reaction to today’s Mueller indictment is NOT ”how are we going to prevent this from happening again and how are we going to punish Russia,” then you need to rethink your priorities as a citizen.
Even though it should no longer be shocking, it is surprising how little empathy the president of the United States has for his fellow citizens in harm’s way.
There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!
Remarkable stat from
@peterbakernyt
: Trump is only POTUS in Gallup polling history to “never to earn the support of a majority of Americans even for a single day of his term.”
My father died in 1988 and like many folks with deceased parents, I envision many conversations with him. I would love to see how he would have answered this question: of Bill Cosby and Donald Trump, which one will be president in 2018 and which one will be in prison?
.
@PeteButtigieg
on Evangelical Christians sticking with Donald Trump: "It's something that really frustrates me because the hypocrisy is unbelievable"
#MTP
Been fascinating watching folks decide it’s easier to try to smear me or my family rather than debate the merits of the media piece I wrote... Ironically, the reactionary lashing out behavior only reinforces my point... If you don’t have the facts, so what, just smear and attack!
What exactly were House Republicans hoping to accomplish by demanding the full release of these memos? Nothing I’ve read seems to change Comey’s story and if anything, these memos give more, not less, credence to the dossier.
It’s not easy to go 0-2 in the same race with two different candidates but
@realDonaldTrump
just pulled that off. He has Bannon to thank for that 2nd loss
The issue isn’t about ideology, it’s about basic truth. Those trying to make this a left-right issue are being intentionally dishonest. This is about whether honest journalists are supposed to lend their credibility to someone who intentionally tried to ruin ours.
Not surprised when the WH or its surrogates choose to incorrectly spin the significance of the Flynn news, but to see some journalists and columnists do it when they clearly know what they are saying is misleading makes it look as if all they care about is their WH access
Those trying to tar all media today aren’t interested in improving journalism but protecting themselves. There’s a lot more accountability in media these days than in our politics. We know we live in a glass house, we hope the folks we cover are as self aware.
Will serious Congressional Republicans still truly sit back and say nothing following this POTUS performance on the world stage uttering what he’s said while standing and UPLIFTING one of the great adversaries of freedom and democracy?
Don’t miss
@MeetThePress
tomorrow! I know folks may be tired in the morning due to springing forward, so set those clocks and DVRs now before your eyes get too sleepy.
China isn’t supposed to have a say about press access. Previous press secs used to fight with Chinese counterparts for press access when in China. Witnessed personally.
Asked why President Trump didn’t take questions from reporters today, Sarah Sanders said, “It was at the Chinese insistence there were no questions today.”
...over the years, I would return to criticism that it wasn’t good enough – that I should have gotten Saint Petersburg in addition! Much of our news media is indeed the enemy of the people and all the Dems...
David Brooks closing column line. Brutal: “The rot afflicting the G.O.P. is comprehensive — moral, intellectual, political and reputational. More and more former Republicans wake up every day and realize: ‘I’m homeless. I’m politically homeless.’”
"The idea that Russia did not meddle in our election is fake news. They did meddle in our election and they're doing in again in 2018,"
@LindseyGrahamSC
tells me on
@MeetThePress
Wow, Trump is going out of his way to praise Russia. I guess “wow” is now an understatement, but this is truly a remarkable moment in American history, 72 hours after the DoJ accused Russia of a criminal act against the democracy, POTUS essentially forgives Russia on world stage
For upcoming fights with Pres. Trump,
@RepAdamSchiff
will support Pelosi for Speaker because: "We need the strongest general that we have. We need the best tactician, we need the best organizer. ... No one else honestly that comes close."
#MTP
.
@HillaryClinton
reflects on losing John McCain at this particular moment in American history: "Our institutions are being severely tested right now, including his beloved Senate. He was, in every way he knew how, trying to sound the alarm."
#MTP
Sad to see so many intellectually dishonest folks who think pointing out incorrect facts and blatant misconceptions is evidence of bias. Amazing the disease that has stricken so many
Not a good look by the House GOP to release cherry picked excerpts through friendly media outlets in order to build a narrative. Only reinforces the partisan look to all this. A truly nonpartisan act would have been a complete release without cherry picks
This will be a tough tweet and idea for McConnell to defend. He has to make the case that midterms matter less than presidentials for this tweet to be taken seriously.
“It's our responsibility at least at some point when he goes so far to stand up and say: This is not normal. We should not normalize this behavior." --
@jeffflake
on how his colleagues in the Senate should respond to Trump’s behavior.
#MTP
@meetthepress
Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!
If you actually believe media is the problem then the last thing one should do is respond with your own hate and anger... Try leading; try setting an example; Try living by the mantra “two wrongs don’t make a right.” But then that would mean cutting back on stoking the division.
"When the president says things that are just totally wrong -- it's the responsibility of members of congress, particularly those in the President's party" to stand up and speak out,
@JeffFlake
tells me this morning on
@MeetThePress
What's on TV is a political tactic but something else terrifying is going on. Formerly responsible ppl suddenly sound like extremists. Left's no longer working to convince those who disagree. They’re trying to destroy those in the way. It’s not a pose. They're sincere. It's war.
So shoving Mattis out earlier in what is clearly the result of a tantrum isn’t going to fix his problems with Senate GOPers... this abrupt move could make it worse.
It’s sad to see elected officials blaming the press for covering what the president says. We are getting lectured for not accepting this spiral downward in discourse, governing and morality?
Parkland student during listening session with President Trump: “How is it this easy to buy this type of weapon? How have we not stopped this after Columbine, after Sandy Hook?”
Perhaps this should be a pinned tweet: Commerce Sec Ross after I asked if it’s possible POTUS could rescind his tariff proposal: “Whatever his final decision is, is what will happen. What he has said he has said; if he says something different, it’ll be something different”
George Will on Trump vs Pence: “Trump is what he is, a floundering, inarticulate jumble of gnawing insecurities and not-at-all compensating vanities, which is pathetic. Pence is what he has chosen to be, which is horrifying.”
No tribute from Russian state tv, as it reports the death of John McCain: “He was an implacable opponent of Russia, who supported even tougher sanctions...”
It’s sad that the Baseball all star game is in dc and the presidency and White House aren’t involved in any meaningful way. Understandable for a million different reasons. Just simply sad how degraded the office appears to many entities right now.
This attempt to delegitimize law enforcement with code words like “secret police” is how we lose our democratic values. No one is above criticism but ground it in fact. Stop playing footsie with this nonsense
This is how secret police start, when law enforcement agencies decide to do the bidding of politicians, rather than pursue impartial justice on behalf of the public. Let's nip this nightmare in the bud right now.
#FBI
#Tucker
@FoxNews
Election Day 2017 is not complicated when you look at the results nationwide. This was about the political environment created by Donald Trump, pure and simple. Trump and Trumpism was not a winning strategy.
During the touching tribute to the Pittsburgh SWAT officer, POTUS has left out the shooter’s other motive for the shooting besides anti-semitism... the shooter was angry with the Tree of Life’s support for refugees
Does anyone think for one second that the founders ever thought the head of the executive was or should be above the law? To think, we may actually have to pass a Constitutional Amendment to declare that a potus can’t pardon themselves.
#sad
As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong? In the meantime, the never ending Witch Hunt, led by 13 very Angry and Conflicted Democrats (& others) continues into the mid-terms!
Will be interesting to see how some GOP senators rationalize the idea that it’s suddenly now ok to debate an open SCOTUS seat in an election year. They may fully pull that hypocrisy muscle.
Has anyone ever finished a tube of Chapstick before losing it? I swear I’ve never witnessed or seen an empty Chapstick tube.
#scouredhousethismorningforChapstick
I thought
@AOC
was just dumb but she is a liar too. She claims this was
@CPAC
last week when it was actually in 2015 the day after the deadly CA attacks by radical Muslims (“those” Muslims I referenced) She also deleted the last part of my quote “before they walk in and kill us”.
Just a remarkable lack of urgency here in DC with hours to go before shutdown. Where’s bipartisan WH meeting? Where’s POTUS leadership? Where is the bipartisan Hill shuttle diplomacy-like leadership talks. Where’s plan b or c? Both parties prefer to spin than talk?
Attacking the press these days from the right is the lazy go-to deflection for conservatives who have run out of ways to defend some of the most troubling POTUS actions.
.
@WilliamJBennett
says press hates Trump, "but for all the years of complaining about the presidency being too staged this is not an artificial presidency."
#Mediabuzz
I don’t know if folks realize how extraordinary and un-democratic (small d) it is for the president of the United States to run down a civil servant like this... Q for legal folks: when does this become an intimidation tactic to the point of legal obstruction?
Fired FBI Agent Peter Strzok is a fraud, as is the rigged investigation he started. There was no Collusion or Obstruction with Russia, and everybody, including the Democrats, know it. The only Collusion and Obstruction was by Crooked Hillary, the Democrats and the DNC!
Given today’s indictments, don’t be surprised if serious foreign policy types from both sides of the aisle call for POTUS to cancel his Putin meeting as an immediate response. And can this summit be useful if America can’t take Putin at his word?
McConnell does not toss bombs at potus very often and he wouldn’t be doing this if this wasn’t representative of a large majority of the GOP conference.
The key folks in the transition who Flynn would have been “directed by” were: Mike Pence (who was running the transition), Jared Kushner (who was basically the shadow transition chief on foreign policy and natsec) Priebus who had already been named CoS and of course Trump.
Man, summer is going to suck... it will be ugly; normally nice people will act like idiots... we have a full fledged political circus on our hands... up to the voters to decide what they want...
“The reason I'm so outspoken on this now is there is no seeming consequence to the president and lies. And if we accept that as a society, it is going to have incredibly harmful consequences in the way that we operate going forward"
@MarkSanford
tells me on
@meetthepress
#MTP