| | | | It's like the president is determined to prove them all right.
All the people saying he's incompetent, dangerous, prone to volcanic outbursts. All the people saying he's unfit for office. Wednesday's shocking op-ed by a "senior official" said more of the same. And Trump's reaction -- which was televised and tweeted for the world to see -- backed up the allegations against him.
First, Trump turned a photo op with sheriffs into a full-fledged live TV event, and he whipped out a piece of paper with stats about the successes of his admin. He raged about the leaker and attacked the NYT. "Can you believe it? Anonymous. Meaning gutless. A gutless editorial."
Then, on Twitter, he asked if it amounted to "TREASON?" (No.) He kept going, expressing doubt about whether the senior official was real. (Yes.) Then he made the preposterous assertion that The Times "must" for "national security reasons" turn the person in. Obviously that's not going to happen...
| | More and more parallels to Nixon | | Douglas Brinkley said on "CNN Tonight" that Trump's behavior "smacks of Nixon." But he said it's unique: "There's nothing at all like this in American history."
--> David French tweeted: "I suspect part of the goal of the op-ed was to provoke a huge presidential reaction. He just might want America to see Trump (more) unleashed. He's playing with fire."
--> Consider: Of all the places this official could have gone... Of all the ways they could have blown the whistle... They did it through the newspaper Trump loves and hates the most...
| | "It's a game of whodunit here in the West Wing, no doubt about it," Jeff Zeleny said on CNN -- both to find the op-ed writer and the sources for Bob Woodward's book.
Per the WSJ's Michael Bender, some W.H. aides called reporters "to ask who may be behind the op-ed -- whether it came from inside the White House or a cabinet-level agency." I sorta assume it's coming from the cabinet, due to this detail from the piece: There were "early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment," but "no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis..."
| | My interview with the NYT's op-ed editor | | Jim Dao called me... reluctantly, I think... to answer a few questions about the op-ed. Here's the rundown:
-- Did the Times approach the source? No, the source approached the Times. "The person contacted me through an intermediary," Dao said.
-- When did this happen? Dao said "several days ago" and declined to be more specific.
-- Did Dao speak directly to the source? He said yes.
-- How does the Times define "senior?" Dao would not say.
-- Was the release the op-ed timed to coincide with the Woodward book? Dao said that as far as he knows, it's a "coincidence."
-- Was there a special effort to disguise the person's writing style, for example by rewriting the piece in some fashion? Dao said no.
-- What kind of editing was done? Just the usual, making the person's views "clearer" and adhering to style standards.
-- Who knows the identity of the senior official? "A very small number of people within the Times."
-- What's been done to protect the source? Dao said "we have taken a number of special precautions" but understandably didn't list them off. More here...
| | Here's some historical context | | This is "unprecedented," insofar as a senior admin official writing a scathing unnamed op-ed about the boss has never happened before. But the NYT has published a few unnamed op-eds before. It's usually because the person fears for his or her safety.
Dao said he had published a couple other anonymous pieces during his tenure as op-ed editor, which began in early 2016. The most recent example was a piece in June by an unnamed asylum seeker from El Salvador...
--> Michael Barbaro will have more from Dao on The Daily podcast Thursday morning...
--> And I'll have more on CNN's "New Day" in the 7am hour...
| | The NYT's DC bureau and NYC bureau scrambled just like everyone else when the op-ed hit around 3:40pm. "The news and opinion departments function independent of one another, and editorial page editor James Bennet confirmed to me that he did not inform executive editor Dean Baquet about the column in advance, in order to respect the firewall," VF's Joe Pompeo reports.
There are some grumblings from the newsroom about Opinion's decision to do this. BuzzFeed's Steven Perlberg has details here...
| | On Page One of Thursday's paper... | | Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman share the byline on the story about the op-ed... The story notes that they don't know the identity of the official... and says "Trump erupted in anger after reading the Op-Ed." The headline: "Trump Seethes As a 'Resistance' Spills Into View."
| | View on the right: "This is a coup" | | This exchange on "AC360" summed up much of the day's debate:
Gloria Borger: "The person who wrote this was trying to do a patriotic thing here," although the person shouldn't have stayed anonymous.
Trump booster Michael Caputo: "This is a plot against the president... I believe this is about the midterms... about setting the president up for impeachment."
Trump opponent Paul Begala: "What we really ought to be talking about" is fitness. "Is the president fit to lead the greatest country on God's green earth?" Begala said no.
Caputo: "This is a coup."
| | "The sleeper cells have awoken" | | From Thursday's WaPo: "The stark and anonymous warning was a breathtaking event without precedent in modern presidential history." And it came just one day after Woodward's findings began to dribble out. "Taken together, they landed like a thunder clap," the Post says, "portraying Trump as a danger to the country that elected him and feeding the president's paranoia about whom around him he can trust."
--> Per the Post, "the phrase 'The sleeper cells have awoken' circulated on text messages among aides and outside allies..."
--> CNN's John Avlon calls all of this "Operation Contain the President..."
| | -- Rachel Maddow: "This feels like the end of something, and I don't know what happens next..."
-- John Kerry on "AC360:" "This is a genuine constitutional crisis..."
-- Zeke Miller tweeted: "An amazing thing about this op-ed is not that someone wrote it, but how many people in the administration plausibly could have written it."
-- An outside adviser said this to VF's Gabriel Sherman about the Woodward excerpts: "Everybody on the inside knows it's true. It's just Fox News people who don't want to admit how crazy he is..." | | Trump is holding a rally on Thursday | | | He'll be speaking in Billings, Montana, on Thursday night around the time "Hannity" is on... | | Sometimes the most damning evidence comes from Trump's own words | | | That's why I wanted to flag the upcoming rally. Here's another example: Trump's interview with The Daily Caller. The website helpfully released a complete transcript of Tuesday's interview, and it's a must-read if you want to understand Trump's mindset... | | -- Arlette Saenz is jumping from ABC to CNN... She'll be covering politics for us... (Twitter)
-- CBS News White House reporter Jacqueline Alemany is jumping to the Washington Post, where she'll write a "forthcoming early-morning newsletter" called "Power Up..." (WaPo)
-- And speaking of letters: Dave Weigel will write the Post's three-days-a-week campaign newsletter called "The Trailer..." (WaPo)
-- Louise Story is joining the WSJ "next week in a new, senior role as Editor, Newsroom Strategy..." (WSJ) | | Another Fox Newser joining the State Dept? | | Fox News correspondent Lea Gabrielle is "a leading candidate to head the State Department agency tasked with combating propaganda and disinformation from foreign adversaries," CNN's Michelle Kosinski and Jennifer Hansler report.
She isn't commenting and neither is Fox. But "a friend of Gabrielle's told CNN that she was indeed leaving Fox News and moving to Washington, DC..." | | Shari and CBS ready to settle? | | First came this Deadline story on Wednesday: "The bitter legal battle between CBS and National Amusements over corporate control and a possible merger with Viacom may be coming to an end." The site reported "settlement talks" and said "the recently started sit-down has not come to a conclusion over the fate of CBS CEO Les Moonves, who has been accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault."
Then came the WSJ, confirming settlement talks and adding more details. But I want to highlight this next story...
| | LAT: CBS board members are talking about a possible Moonves exit | | The LAT's Meg James has further reporting about Moonves -- she says the talks between Shari Redstone and CBS Corp. board members could "pave the way" for Moonves' exit.
Specifically: "Discussions have focused on the size of a severance package for Moonves — a payout could be in excess of $200 million — and whether he would segue into a producer role, two people familiar with the talks said..." | | -- On Wednesday Brooke Baldwin launched a "second run of her digital series, 'American Woman,' devoted to stories of women who are breaking conventions. The newest iteration is called 'American Woman in Politics'" (Variety)
-- Sara Bernstein, a 19-year veteran of HBO who shepherded dozens of documentaries, "has been set as EVP at Imagine Documentaries, a new division of Imagine Entertainment..." (Deadline)
-- A man intentionally drove his truck into KDFW, the Fox station in Dallas, on Wednesday morning. According to police, it "does not appear the suspect was targeting the media." He was making rambling statements... (CNN) | | NFL season opener on Thursday... | | It's the Falcons versus the Eagles on NBC... Of note, Nike's two-minute ad featuring Colin Kaepernick will air during the game... And during the US Open, MLB games and college football this week. Jill Disis has the details here.
I highly recommend you watch the ad... And I sure hope that all the Fox News viewers who are being told Nike + Kaep is "an attack on the country" will get a chance to watch it... | | 🎧 "Serial" is back 🎧 | | | Julia Waldow emails: Good news, podcast fans -- "Serial" is officially coming back for a third season. The next installment, which focuses on multiple stories instead of just one arc, offers an inside look at the criminal justice system in Cleveland, Ohio. The first two episodes launch September 20, with weekly episodes to follow every Thursday... | | | All of Turner's podcasts, including "Reliable Sources" and the rest of the CNN lineup of pods, are now available through Spotify. If you have ideas for guests you'd like to hear on our "Reliable" pod, I'm all ears! | | | For the record, part three | | | By Julia Waldow:
-- NYT's scoop: Jerome Corsi, a conspiracy theorist with connections to Roger Stone and Alex Jones, has been subpoenaed in the Mueller probe... (NYT)
-- "If I can figure out what happened to Tucker Carlson, how he went from successful magazine writer to contrarian journalist to raving Fox News host, I believe I will understand what happened to my country, my life even." Read Lyz Lenz's provocative profile and personal take on Carlson... (CJR)
-- ICYMI: The Atlantic is launching a new section called "Ideas..." (The Atlantic) | | Donie O'Sullivan emails: In simpler times, two of the most powerful execs at two of the most influential tech companies in the world testifying before Congress on election security would be the main news item. Not so on Wednesday. There were few fireworks when Facebook and Twitter appeared on the Hill. Google didn't show up at all — quite remarkable given how big an issue election security has been this year. Senators were annoyed about that, and left an empty chair in the company's place... Details here...
--> Bottom line: Neither Jack Dorsey nor Sheryl Sandberg made any major slip-ups...
--> An interesting question: Tom Cotton asked why Wikileaks was still on both platforms, and the execs said the group hadn't violated its policies...
--> And: For the play-by-play from the hearing, check CNN's live blog... | | | For the record, part four | | | By Daniella Emanuel:
-- Rosie Gray revealed that the Daily Caller's Scott Greer was writing for a white-supremacist publication under a pseudonym. Now Greer has "severed all ties" with the Calller... (The Atlantic)
-- Fox's plans for its $$$ streaming service Fox Nation are taking shape. Tomi Lahren's digital videos are moving to the service exclusively, i.e. she'll be behind the paywall... Fox Nation will launch in Q4... (Deadline)
-- Nicole Clemens is the new president of Paramount Television. She is replacing Amy Powell, "who was fired in July over alleged racially insensitive comments..." (Variety) | | Hey, how fast will this case be thrown out? | | | Megan Thomas emails: Roy Moore has filed $95 million defamation suit against Sasha Baron Cohen and Showtime over his "Who is America" appearance, per THR... | | Chloe Melas emails: New York Fashion Week kicks off on Thursday! The shows to look out for:
-- Ralph Lauren will celebrate the 50th anniversary of his line with an epic party in Central Park on Friday...
-- Kate Spade will have a runway show at the New York Public Library on Friday. A tribute to the late designer and founder is expected...
-- Escada will host its first-ever NY runway show and Rihanna will debut her lingerie line...
-- The 80s are back baby! Expect to see lots of gold, metallics, tiered skirts, shoulder pads, blazers and the power suit make a comeback! For more on fashion week, check out my HLN TV segment here... | | Netflix is bringing back "Designated Survivor" | | | "Netflix has picked up another canceled TV show, this time reviving 'Designated Survivor' for a third season," TheWrap's Tim Baysinger reports. "The drama, which stars Kiefer Sutherland, will return for a 10-episode third season with its fifth different showrunner in 'ER' and 'Law & Order' vet Neal Baer. Netflix had been talks with eOne, which produces the show, since it was canceled by ABC back in May..." | | Lowry reviews "Sierra Burgess is a Loser" | | | Brian Lowry emails: Netflix has been very shrewd about hitting different demographic constituencies in order to attract a broad cross-section of its subscribers. "Sierra Burgess is a Loser" checks off several of those boxes, starring "Stranger Things'" Shannon Purser, while mixing a teen version of "Cyrano de Bergerac" with the romantic comedies that the service has been offering, seeing an opportunity in that genre... | | Thinking ahead to "premiere week..." | | | Brian Lowry emails: Two years ago, the broadcast networks said that the heightened interest in the presidential campaign was actually a distraction from launching their fall lineups. While the alibis haven't started yet, it's beginning to feel like the current news cycle -- and the drumbeat toward the midterm elections, along with everything else that surrounds them -- could present a similar hurdle as they build up toward "premiere week" later this month... | | | For the record, part five | | | By Lisa Respers France:
-- Kim Kardashian West is working to get another prisoner released. On Wednesday she visited the White House again...
-- Colton Underwood is the first virgin "Bachelor." Here's what else you need to know about him...
-- Kanye West has apologized to Drake for what has been a major hip-hop beef... Get caught up here... | | |
Thanks for reading! Email me your feedback... See you tomorrow...
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