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Morning Briefing: Donald Trump Finally Did Something To Which Even Fox News Objected

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | July 26, 2018 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | July 26, 2018 |

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— Yesterday during a pool spray, CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins shouted out questions to the President after his prepared remarks — as is customary — and the White House didn’t care for the questions she was asking (“Did Michael Cohen betray you, Mr. President?” “Are you worried about what Michael Cohen is going to say to prosecutors?” “Why hasn’t Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted your invitation to the White House”), so they banned her from an event at the Rose Garden later that day. Keep in mind that, from what I understand, one reporter from each of the five networks takes turns and asks questions for the group, so if Collins had not asked the questions, another reporter would have. This was a case where the White House was singling out one CNN reporter.

The backlash from the White House press corps and the White House Correspondents’ Association was immediate and vociferous, and even Fox News raised objections.

That was the news division, of course, which is not always terrible (Shep Smith runs it, and Christopher Wallace and John Roberts sometimes even ask hard mildly difficult questions). However, the editorial side, of course, thought it was great. “It’s about time,” said Lou Dobbs.

I should also note that we profiled Collins last year, who moved from the conservative Daily Caller to CNN after she began asking tough questions during the White House press briefings. Big fan.

— Trump is ranting about “shadow bans” of certain Republicans this morning thanks to a misleading article written by Vice News.

Twitter is not “shadow banning” anyone. Their algorithm is designed so that it doesn’t auto-populate certain Tweeters in the suggested accounts field who are not good for “healthy public conversation,” and apparently a few Republicans (like Don Jr.’s spokesperson) got caught up in that algorithm (I wonder why?). Twitter is issuing a fix.

— As I’m sure you’re aware by now, the Freedom Caucus — representing about 40 of the most conservative members of the House — issued Articles of Impeachment on Rod Rosenstein. This means almost next to nothing. Only 11 members even signed on. The way in which they were issued does not even require that a House subcommittee vote on it. It was all a show to illustrate these members’ fidelity to the President. One of those members, of course, is Jim Jordan, the Ohio rep. who looked the other way as an Ohio State wrestling coach when hundreds of students were sexually abused by the team doctor.

— Michael Avenatti does not like all the attention that Michael Cohen is getting, although he may also be right.

— Finally, I just want to express our sadness that the Necco wafer factory has been shut down, ending the run of the longest, continuous running candy company in America. The company has been sold, and we don’t know yet if the new company will resume production. Sad day in America when you can no longer buy gross thin discs of sugary chalk. But damnit, they were our gross thin discs of sugary chalk.