The interviewer is from the Washington Free Beacon, a Trump-friendly news outlet. And even they get the brushoff. Nope. Interviewer was from CBS
Good News In The Offing
(1) Georgia On My Mind In Georgia 6th district, the special election to replace Tom Price in the House, Jon Ossoff received 48.1 percent of the vote, just short of the 50 percent threshold needed to win the seat, and he will face Karen Handel, the top Republican vote-getter, in a June runoff. This is a terrific showing from a … Read More
Recommended Reading
I guess it is not a surprise, but Ryan Lizza at The New Yorker reports that Trump advisers turned the White House upside-down looking for information to justify Trump’s crazy “Obama spied on me” tweet. Key graf: The intelligence source told me that he knows, “from talking to people in the intelligence community,” that “the White House said, ‘We are going … Read More
Carter Page: Subject Of A FISA Warrent
It has been a weird week in news, as the nation focuses on United Airlines and its treatment of passengers. It’s a nice break from the Trump-Russia scandal, I suppose, but the steady drumbeat of that scandal continues, as each week offers up more revelations. WaPo reports that Carter Page, whose credentials Trump once bragged on like a proud grandpa … Read More
Nunes Recuses Himself From Trump-Russia Investigation And Lies About Why
So the bombshell this morning? House Intel Committee Chairman Devin Nunes dismisses himself from the Trump-Russia investigation. Obviously, it relates to his difficulty being impartial and running defense for the executive branch. In a petty statement, Nunes said: Nope. it has nothing to do with leftwing activist groups filing accusations. The accusation exist and the House Ethics Committee seems to … Read More
Bannon On The Run
Steve Bannon has more free time: President Donald Trump has removed Steve Bannon, his chief strategist, from the National Security Council, according to a filing in the federal registry. A top White House official told NBC News that Bannon was put on the NSC’s Principals’ Committee only as a check against then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Now that Flynn is … Read More
Yeah, I Admit That I Just Emailed Rachel Maddow
I know you get a lot of email, which means I only have a few seconds to grab your interest. Here I go… WHY AREN’T YOU DOING A COMPLETE SHOW ON EZRA COHEN-WATKINS? Let me bullet-point it for you: Reminder: ECW is the 30-year-old White House aide — the NSC’s senior director of intelligence who started his own ‘review’ of surveillance intercepts of … Read More
Wow! Fox News And The White House Are Going Full Bore On This Susan Rice Thing!
It is amazing how the goalposts have moved from Trump’s initial tweets on March 10. Let’s look at them again: Okay. So Obama has now become Susan Rice, Obama’s National Security Adviser. “Wiretap” has become “names unmasked”. “Trump” and “Trump Tower”, the object(s) of the supposed “wiretap(p)”, is not Trump associates. But other than those things — Trump was 100% … Read More
When Doing Something Legal Is A Scandal
So let’s recap two of Trump’s tweets this morning: .@FoxNews from multiple sources: “There was electronic surveillance of Trump, and people close to Trump. This is unprecedented.” @FBI — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2017 Such amazing reporting on unmasking and the crooked scheme against us by @foxandfriends. “Spied on before nomination.” The real story. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) … Read More
Some Leaks Are Illegal; Ours Aren’t
At a press conference today, House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes gave the following statement: At our open hearing on Monday, I encouraged anyone who has information about relevant topics—including surveillance on President-elect Trump or his transition team—to come forward and speak to the House Intelligence Committee. I also said that, while there was not a physical wiretap of Trump Tower, … Read More
Take Him At His Word
The right wing Washington Times reports: White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Monday that President Trump has access to information and intelligence others do not and that “credible news sources” suggested there might be more to look into, after Mr. Trump accused former President Barack Obama over the weekend of tapping phones in Trump Tower during last year’s campaign. “Well, … Read More
The Trump-Russia Connection
With a line that runs through newly confirmed Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Rachel Maddow connects the dots between a billionaire Russian oligarch and a Donald Trump deal worth tens of millions of dollars. It’s long (Rachel tends to baby-step us through things) but thought-provoking. At the end of the day, I have to ask…. so what? Any illegalities? It might … Read More
The Law of Leaks
Today is the day two story of the Flynn resignation and the White House wants us to focus on a different aspect of the story: the rampant leaks from the intelligence community. But for perspective, let’s start off with Trump’s most interesting morning tweet: The Democrats had to come up with a story as to why they lost the election, … Read More
Last Night’s Bombshell: Trump Campaign Advisers Talked With Russia Throughout The Campaign
The New York Times broke the story at 9:11 pm EST. (Obviously, the story is longer than that). The first two paragraphs are the bombshell; the third one there is an important caveat. In some ways, it is not news — in a largely ignored story from November, CNN reported that Russia said it was in contact with Trump campaign … Read More
Lot Of Hypocrisy About Leaks
The Pentagon Papers was a leak from Daniel Ellsberg. It helped de-legitimize the Vietnam War. Deep Throat was Mark Felt, a top FBI official. He gave Woodward and Bernstein the deep background on the Watergate scandal. Edward Snowden leaked information about US government surveillance programs. Chelsea Manning leaked documents and video relating to Iraqi air strikes, diplomatic cables, and Gitmo, … Read More