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.
Tag: Donald J. Trump
👓 Lawyer Who Was Said to Have Dirt on Clinton Had Closer Ties to Kremlin Than She Let On | New York Times
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
👓 Trump finally spoke about Stormy Daniels — and he made things much worse | Think Progress
Ignorance is not always bliss.
It really worries me that the depth of his thinking is so tremendously shallow.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: The Prospect of Pardons | The New York Times
As the special counsel built his case against Michael T. Flynn and Paul Manafort, pressure was mounting for the men to to cooperate with the Russia inquiry.Then a lawyer for President Trump came to them with an idea: What if the president were to pardon his former advisers?
On today’s episode:
• Michael S. Schmidt, who has been covering the Russia investigation for The New York Times.
Background reading:
• The talks about possible pardons for two former Trump adviserssuggest that the White House was concerned about what Mr. Flynn and Mr. Manafort might reveal to the special counsel in the Russia investigation.
Presidents should not be able to grant or push potential pardons in actions in which they’re so closely involved.