| | | | | Welcome to The Point with Chris Cillizza – a brand new nightly politics newsletter! This new addition to your evenings will cut through the day's news and get right to The Point with analysis from Chris Cillizza and co-author Saba Hamedy. See something you like -- or don't? Or something that we can do better? Let us know. Send your thoughts to cillizza@cnn.com. Enjoy! | | Washington politics feels like a bad soap opera right now | | Consider what's happened in just the past 48 hours:
1. The president of the United States cyber-bullied Mika Brzezinski over an alleged plastic surgery procedure.
2. Mika responded on Twitter with an insinuation about Donald Trump's hand size, a topic about which he is purportedly self-conscious.
3. Brzezinski and co-host Joe Scarborough wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post Friday morning with the not-at-all provocative headline "Donald Trump is Not Well."
4. On "Morning Joe" Friday, Brzezinski and Scarborough suggested they had been blackmailed by the White House to keep a negative National Enquirer story about them from being published.
5. Trump took to Twitter to dispute the story. He tweeted about Scarborough: "Watched low rated @Morning_Joe for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show."
6. Scarborough then, of course, doubled down. "Yet another lie," he tweeted to Trump. "I have texts from your top aides and phone records. Also, those records show I haven't spoken with you in many months."
If you read a soap opera script with that plotline, you'd roll your eyes and toss it in the trash. Too ridiculous -- even for Washington, you'd say to yourself.
Well, this isn't a soap opera. This is real life. And the effects of the past 48 hours on how politicians interact with the media and on how we decide what's acceptable conduct from our leaders will be long-lasting and profound.
Trump either doesn't recognize the danger in what he is playing at -- making ad hominem attacks against the news media, potentially weaponizing the National Enquirer -- or doesn't care.
We should. Because this isn't fiction. It's reality. | | WH PRESS BRIEFINGS: A TIMELINE | | Friday marked the 12th off-camera White House press briefing in June alone (For those curious: CBS' oracle Mark Knoller has been keeping track on Twitter).
The stat inspired CNN's Liz Stark to do a deep dive into how we got here.
Pre-inauguration, January 2017: Considerations for press briefing space
White House press secretary Sean Spicer told CNN mid-January that the Trump transition team was looking for spaces with "additional capacity to accommodate members of media" besides the regular James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. One possibility raised by aides was the idea of moving the press briefings into the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, located across the street from the White House.
Post-inauguration, January 2017: Spicer holds on camera briefing
Spicer held his first official White House press briefing on camera on January 23, which lasted well over an hour and covered a wide range of issues from ISIS to Russia to trade relations. Spicer famously told reporters that his "intention is never to lie to you."
February 2017: Off camera gaggle, but only with a select group of outlets
Handpicked media outlets were selected to attend an off-camera gaggle in press secretary Sean Spicer's office, including conservative media organizations Breitbart News, The Washington Times and One America News Network, as well as four of the five major television networks -- NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox News. Among those excluded from the meeting were CNN, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Politico, BuzzFeed, the BBC and the Guardian.
Early May 2017: On-camera briefing with deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Deputy press secretary Sanders filled in at the podium for Spicer, who was fulfilling his Navy reservist duty at the Pentagon. Sanders had briefed reporters off-camera in the past, but this marked the first time she led an official White House briefing on camera.
Mid-May 2017: Trump proposal for canceling press briefings – doing written statements instead
Amid mixed messages from the White House about President Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey, Trump floated the idea of canceling the briefings altogether and issuing written statements instead. "As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!" Trump tweeted. "Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future "press briefings" and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???" | | DEEP THOUGHTS ON THE 'DEEP STATE' | | Outgoing Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah is already gearing up to live his best post-Hill life. The soon-to-be Fox News contributor announced in an interview on KSL Newsradio that he is writing a book about "the deep state" in DC, which he deemed "a monster unto itself."
The phrase "deep state," popularized in Turkey to describe a shadow government, is used to suggest there is an architecture of government that operates outside the democratic system. It resurfaced during the Trump presidency. In March, Google Trends said interest in the term online in the US reached its highest point.
Here's our suggested reading list of other "Deep State" related #content: | | Trump may have a new golfing buddy come 2018.
Golfer Natalie Gulbis, who spoke at the Republican National Convention last year, is reportedly eyeing a seat in the House.
According to The Nevada Independent, the professional golfer met with Republicans in Washington, DC, to talk about running for Nevada Rep. Jacky Rosen's seat. Gulbis has been sharing pictures of her trip to DC over the past few days on social media. Her most recent tweet is a photo of her walking on the Hill.
The Lake Las Vegas resident is a big Trump fan. She's been deemed "one of the most beautiful women in golf," and briefly had her own reality TV series -- The Natalie Gulbis Show -- on the Golf Channel. She appeared on season two of Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice," but was fired during episode 8. In June of 2016, she wrote an op-ed for Golf.com called "The Donald Trump I Know," in which she described Trump, then the Republican presidential candidate, as "the hardest working individual I've ever met." | | | On Thursday evening, Jay-Z dropped his 13th album "4:44" exclusively on his streaming service, Tidal (BTW, he reveals in lyrics that he did cheat on Beyonce -- and he apologizes). Since we can't link to Tidal (you have to be a subscriber to stream), we have an alternative Jay-Z-inspired soundtrack for you: "The Grey Album," by Danger Mouse. It uses an acapella version of Jay-Z's "The Black Album" and mashes it up with samples from The Beatles' LP "The White Album." | |  | | Former Gov. Martin O'Malley at the Democratic National Convention in 2016. | | We asked CNN's Eric Bradner: "Which Democrat is doing the most 2020 jockeying right now?"
Here's what he told us:
It's easier to list elected Democrats who aren't thinking about running for president in 2020 than to name those who are.
But a few are being more obvious about it than most -- starting with some long shots. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley never really stopped running for president [after 2016]. And Jason Kander, fresh off a trip to Iowa, just booked a visit to New Hampshire for next week. (Editor's note: I interviewed Kander earlier this year about the future of the Democratic party.)
A bunch of senators are considering it -- but Minnesota's Amy Klobuchar explicitly offered herself as a voice for "people in the middle of this country" in Des Moines recently, and I've heard she's been a bit more obvious in conversation than others. Oregon's Jeff Merkley sees a lane if neither Bernie Sanders nor Elizabeth Warren runs (probably wishful thinking).
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is a few months away from being unemployed and isn't coy about his desire to stay in the conversation. Another long shot is Rep. John Delaney of Maryland, who will decide in July whether to run for governor of Maryland, but we're hearing might have his eyes on a bigger job.
Over and over, smart Iowa Democratic strategists keep telling me the same thing: If you want to win in Iowa ... DON'T COME TO IOWA. Not yet, at least.
Here's what Warren, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand and others all know: The Democratic base is singularly obsessed with fighting President Trump right now. Even in the early states, Democratic activists aren't demanding candidate face time yet. They're more likely to reward those who stand out as leaders of the anti-Trump resistance and devote their extra time to helping Democrats win House and Senate seats in 2018.
Check out more presidential chatter in Eric's weekly #2020Vision memo here. | | Just because it's a holiday weekend doesn't mean you should neglect what is still the most important story to follow: Health care.
As I wrote earlier, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, after insisting that the vote had to happen before the July 4 recess, postponed the vote earlier this week. The votes weren't there -- or even close to there.
There are 52 Republican senators, and the bill needs at least 50 "yes" votes to move through Senate. And Trump isn't making the Senate negotiating process any easier.
"If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date!," Trump tweeted at 6:37 am Friday morning. | | Much to the dismay of teens across the US, fidget spinners -- those simple yet mesmerizing toys that you can spin in your fingers -- may not be as safe as they seem.
Two separate reports -- from Michigan and Alabama -- surfaced this week about exploding Bluetooth-enabled fidget spinners.
Kimberly Allums of Gardendale, Alabama, told WBRC that her son's fidget spinner was plugged into an outlet to charge when her son noticed it was on fire. "The fidget spinner wasn't smoking, it was in flames." In Michigan, another mom, Michelle Carr shared a similar incident to local station WEYI.
Sidebar: WHY does a fidget spinner have to be Bluetooth-enabled? | | 'THE PROGRESSIVE LIBERAL' DOMINATES THE RING | | Daniel Richards is tackling the wrestling world with his taunts and Hillary Clinton-adorned t-shirts.
He has made a name for himself in red states across the US with his wrestling persona "The Progressive Liberal." On his wrestling persona's official Facebook Page, the "About" section reads: "I preach the virtues of democratic socialism. Then in the ring I conquer the heroes of the "conservatives" who defy my message."
His uniform: T-shirts with Clinton's face.
His finishing move: "The Liberal Agenda."
His notorious taunts: Making fun of people's accents and yelling things like "Feel the Bern!"
He's already been featured in Deadspin, The Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, Fox News and The Hill. | | | Thanks for reading. We'll be back Monday, so for those of you taking a long weekend: Don't forget about us. And of course, remember tell everyone you know to subscribe. | | | Get the Nightcap, a comprehensive summary of the most important political news, delivered to your inbox daily. | | | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment