👓 Trump and His Aides Have No Idea What They’re Talking About | The Atlantic

Read Trump and His Aides Have No Idea What They're Talking About (The Atlantic)
A procession of contradictory statements leaves the public no closer to understanding the president’s deal with Stormy Daniels, but clearly shows the White House’s dishonesty.

📺 Michelle Wolf complete remarks at 2018 White House Correspondents’ Dinner | C-SPAN (YouTube)

Watched Michelle Wolf complete remarks at 2018 White House Correspondents' Dinner from C-SPAN (YouTube)
From C-SPAN coverage, Michelle Wolf remarks at the 2018 White House Correspondents' Dinner. Watch the complete video here: https://cs.pn/2JxzkC2

After having finally seen this, I don’t see anything wrong or problematic about Michelle Wolf’s act. In fact, she gave a generally solid roast that dished it around to almost everyone. If we want to take someone to task, why not Trump for being a “poor” coward? Was he worried he wouldn’t be the richest person in the room? Was Jeff Bezos RSVP’d?

Some have said that Wolf took Sarah Huckabee Sander’s appearance to task; the sad fact is that they’re just apparently not up enough on popular culture to have gotten some of the jokes. If anything Wolf was complimenting Sanders’ makeup technique.

On the other hand, if we want to beat someone up over taking people’s appearances to task, perhaps we should go back and do some better reporting on the President who says these things on a regular basis and not as part of an obvious comedy and satire routine? A real ad hominem appearance attack would sound something more like “With crazy hair, orange complexion, and bizarre makeup, I often wonder if Trump isn’t attempting to prove that he got just enough talent and votes to hold the office of “First Clown.” Apparently he wasn’t rich enough to buy the popular vote, but just like the sham of Trump University, he was able to afford the Electoral College. Can the voters get a settlement too?

At the end of the day it’s really Wolf who should be the most upset. The worst part of the whole performance was a painfully bad and poorly placed microphone that continually gave me nightmare flashbacks of Howard Dean’s Yahhh!! moment. Her material would have definitely done better with a more solid audio set up.

Now if the WHCA really wants to get righteously upset, maybe they should invite Jeffrey Ross to come? Perhaps he could toss off something tame along the lines of “I wouldn’t f@*k Trump with Sarah Huckabee Sander’s dick!” Maybe it would at least buy his redemption in Bea Arthur’s eyes?

👓 Opinion | ‘Fox & Friends,’ stuck with Donald Trump for all eternity | Washington Post

Read ‘Fox & Friends,’ stuck with Donald Trump for all eternity by Alexandra Petri (Washington Post)
The leader of the free world, a man who could order the launch of nuclear weapons, who has been signaling he wants to pull out of the Iran deal, whose travel ban is before the Supreme Court, spent half an hour ranting to Fox & Friends about his television viewing habits. The three hosts’ smiles and laughter grew increasingly strained as it became slowly apparent that the president would not get off the line unless forcibly removed, that maybe the president did not realize he had anything better to do, that the president would have to be reminded by the hosts of Fox & Friends that He Surely Had A Busy Schedule And A Lot Going On.
 

👓 Lawyer Who Was Said to Have Dirt on Clinton Had Closer Ties to Kremlin Than She Let On | New York Times

Read Lawyer Who Was Said to Have Dirt on Clinton Had Closer Ties to Kremlin Than She Let On by Andrew E. Kramer and Sharon LaFraniere (nytimes.com)
Newly released emails have renewed questions about who the lawyer, Natalia V. Veselnitskaya, was representing when she met with top Trump campaign officials promising dirt on Hillary Clinton.
 

🎧 ‘The Daily’: Trump’s Fixer | New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: Trump’s Fixer by Michael Barbaro from nytimes.com
For months, the federal inquiry into possible links between the Trump campaign and Russia focused on Washington. Now, it has led back to New York, and to Michael D. Cohen.

👓 Perspective | Trump lied to me about his wealth to get onto the Forbes 400. Here are the tapes. | Washington Post

Read Perspective | Trump lied to me about his wealth to get onto the Forbes 400. Here are the tapes. by Jonathan Greenberg (Washington Post)
Posing as ‘John Barron,’ he claimed he owned most of his father’s real estate empire.
A liar to create perceptions about himself for decades and decades…

👓 Trump gets lost in translation amid West Wing shuffle | Politico

Read Trump gets lost in translation amid West Wing shuffle (POLITICO)
The departure of key aides over the past two months has widened the disconnect between the president and his staff, leading to episodes like this week's sanctions flap.

👓 Michael Cohen Has Said He Would Take a Bullet for Trump. Maybe Not Anymore. | New York Times

Read Michael Cohen Has Said He Would Take a Bullet for Trump. Maybe Not Anymore. by Maggie Haberman, Sharon LaFaniere, Danny Hakim (nytimes.com)
Roger Stone says Mr. Trump has long treated Mr. Cohen, his lawyer and fixer, “like garbage.” Now he could end up cooperating in a criminal investigation against Mr. Trump.

👓 Rosenstein Tells Trump He’s Not a Target in Mueller, Cohen Probes | Bloomberg

Read Rosenstein Tells Trump He’s Not a Target in Mueller, Cohen Probes (Bloomberg.com)
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told President Donald Trump last week that he isn’t a target of any part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation or the probe into his longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, according to several people familiar with the matter.

👓 Sean Hannity Is Named as Client of Michael Cohen, Trump’s Lawyer | New York Times

Read Sean Hannity Is Named as Client of Michael Cohen, Trump’s Lawyer by Alan Feuer (nytimes.com)
Lawyers for Mr. Cohen, the president’s personal lawyer, had sought to keep Mr. Hannity’s identity a secret in a court challenge of an F.B.I. search of Mr. Cohen’s office.
 

👓 Fox’s Hannity, named as a client of Michael Cohen, spent days attacking FBI raid | Politico

Read Fox’s Hannity, named as a client of Michael Cohen, spent days attacking FBI raid (POLITICO)
The host cited the seizure of Michael Cohen’s documents to blast Mueller’s Russia investigation.

👓 Comey: Trump asked me to investigate ‘pee tape’ to reassure Melania | NY Post

Read Comey: Trump asked me to investigate ‘pee tape’ to reassure Melania (New York Post)
President Trump wanted then-FBI Director James Comey to investigate the infamous pee-tape allegations to reassure First Lady Melania Trump that he hadn’t actually paid Russian hookers to urinate on…

👓 Trump poised to pardon Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff: Sources | ABC News

Read Trump poised to pardon Dick Cheney's former chief of staff: Sources (ABC News)
The president has already signed off on the pardon, sources told ABC News.

👓 What Did Trump Tell Rosenstein Today – and Vice Versa? | Talking Points Memo

Read What Did Trump Tell Rosenstein Today - and Vice Versa? (Talking Points Memo)
We’ve now had numerous instances in which President Trump has taken some dramatically inappropriate or illegal steps but we only...
Some interesting politics to try to play out here…

🎧 ‘The Daily’: Trump’s Personal Lawyer Under Scrutiny | The New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: Trump’s Personal Lawyer Under Scrutiny by Michael Barbaro from nytimes.com

The F.B.I. has raided the home of President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen — the same man who acknowledged paying $130,000 to a pornographic film actress who said she had a sexual encounter with Mr. Trump.

What are investigators looking for?



On today’s episode:

• Matt Apuzzo, who covers law enforcement for The New York Times.

Background reading:

• The F.B.I. raid against President Trump’s longtime personal lawyeropens a new front for the Justice Department in its scrutiny of Mr. Trump and his associates.

• Mr. Trump angrily denounced the raids as “disgraceful” and “an attack on our country.” Read an annotated transcript of his remarks.

It kills me that we don’t have the morality and common sense people had in the 1990’s even. Thank goodness there are some solid institutions in the country left to handle these things.