Morning Briefing: Andrew McCabe, Parkland, Kamala, Manafort, and Colin Kaepernick

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | February 14, 2019 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | February 14, 2019 |

— Good morning. It is Valentine’s Day! It is also the year anniversary of the Parkland shooting, and I’m sure that many parents this morning were feeling a little apprehensive about sending their kids to school today (it is the twins’ birthday, and I felt doubly apprehensive). It’s been a year, and nothing has really changed, and that’s scary. In fact, while gun violence is not widely reported, there have been 1,200 gun deaths since the Parkland shooting. How do I know that? Because teen journalists have written obituaries for all 1,200 people who have died because of guns over the last year. 1200!

— This story is not new, but it is the first time that a named source spoke on the record. Andrew McCabe — the former number two at the FBI — tells 60 Minutes that the FBI did, in fact, seriously discuss using the 25th Amendment to have the President removed from office after he fired FBI Director James Comey. They didn’t actually discuss it with the cabinet members, but they did speculate about which cabinet members would support using the 25th Amendment to remove the President (dollars to donuts says that, if he had the numbers, Mike Pence definitely would’ve voted to remove Trump).

Wow - McCabe also tells CBS that Rosenstein's offer to wear a wire with the president was raised more than once and that McCabe took it to the lawyers at the FBI to discuss. https://t.co/R0pT5UI0RN

— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) February 14, 2019

This is a striking quote from McCabe (in the Atlantic): “Every day brings a new low, with the president exposing himself as a deliberate liar who will say whatever he pleases to get whatever he wants. If he were ‘on the box’ at Quantico, he would break the machine.”

I wish any of this would move the needle, but more likely than not, it’s just going to add more fuel to the deep-state conspiracy fires and give Trump more reason to feel paranoid.

— Meanwhile, a judge has found — as Bob Mueller suggested — that Paul Manafort lied to prosecutors while under a cooperation agreement. It will probably increase the length of his sentence. But then again, maybe Trump pardons him. And even if he doesn’t, well, he might get the Bill Cosby treatment, anyway. There’s just no winning.

— In other news, after the Black Caucus in the Wisconsin legislature proposed a list of Black figures to be celebrated during Black History month, the all-white GOP struck Colin Kaepernick — a Wisconsin native — from the list.

Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, who is white, told reporters during a news conference Tuesday that Kaepernick was left off the list “for obvious reasons.”

In case the point is lost: The White people are telling the Black people who they can and cannot celebrate.

— On the flip side, a sports apparel store is going out of business after 20 years because they decided to stop selling Nike apparel because of Colin Kaepernick. “As much as I hate to admit this, perhaps there are more Brandon Marshall and Colin Kaepernick supporters out there than I realized,” said the store owner. Ya think?

— This is perhaps not indicative of where the votes will go, but it’s nevertheless interesting to see this chart of the 2020 Democrat candidates social-media users interact with the most (via Axios):

During these early days, Kamala really does seem to be the frontrunner. Contrast that, however, with this graphic from MSNBC that’s been going around:

Literally so interchangeable that they used the photo of Sherrod twice and didn't notice pic.twitter.com/cLTW2AGWom

— Sady Doyle (@sadydoyle) February 14, 2019

I feel like that must be page 2 of the graphic, right? Because MSNBC wouldn’t leave out ALL the women candidates, would they? But that Sherrod Brown thing is pretty funny.