By Dustin Rowles | Politics | January 25, 2019 |
By Dustin Rowles | Politics | January 25, 2019 |
Back during the early days of the Administration, the news would pile up so quickly — and each three-hour news cycle would bury the last — that we would periodically round up the last 24 hours in this shit show we call the White House.
We’re bringing it back.
— Yesterday morning, Trump woke up licking his wounds, after Nancy Pelosi canceled his State of the Union address, originally meant to be delivered on Tuesday.
— Yesterday, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross suggested that there shouldn’t be a “liquidity” problem during the shutdown and furloughed workers shouldn’t have to use food banks because they ought to be able to take out small loans, and so what if they have to pay a little interest?
— Donald Trump piggybacked upon Wilbur Ross’ statement and somehow made it worse, basically suggesting that government workers should just, you know, get credit from their grocery stores.
Donald Trump, defending Wilbur Ross, says government workers not receiving a paycheck because of the #TrumpShutdown can simply convince their local grocery stores to “work along” with them. pic.twitter.com/bIvu2CJxHb
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) January 24, 2019
— Soon thereafter, the Senate voted on two proposals to reopen the government, a Republican one with full funding for the wall and a Democrat one, which would re-open the government until February 8th while Congress continued to negotiate. Both bills failed, but despite the fact that the Senate is 53-47 GOP, the Democratic bill got one more vote than the Trump bill.
— While those bills were being debated, Colorado Senator Michael Bennet destroyed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate.
WHOA WHOA WHOA.
— Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) January 24, 2019
Colorado Senator Michael Bennet calls out Ted Cruz BIG TIME talking about his actions during 2013 that caused a shutdown.
"These crocodile tears that the Senator from Texas is crying for first responders are too hard for me to take."pic.twitter.com/zcfHd48kOh
— Weezer released an album of cover songs. It is bad. Really, really bad.
— NBC dropped a report that suggested that Jared Kushner’s White House security clearance was denied, but that some sycophantic, corrupt Trump appointee overrode career professionals and approved Kushner’s clearance, along with 29 other clearances that were initially denied. The Democratic Oversight Committee is currently investigating.
— Meanwhile, after the Senate bills failed, there was a Republican luncheon. It did not go well.
“This is your fault,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) at one point, according to two Republicans who attended the lunch and witnessed the exchange.“Are you suggesting I’m enjoying this?” McConnell snapped back, according to the people who attended the lunch.
…
Six Republicans broke ranks to vote for the Democratic plan, which would have reopened shuttered government agencies through Feb. 8, without any wall money. Among them was Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who explained in the lunch why he planned to vote for both bills.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who voted for Trump’s bill but opposed the Democratic plan, started to interrupt him and Romney snapped back, according to one of the people who attended the lunch and another person familiar with it.
— This morning, I expected the GOP meltdown over the shutdown would be the top story. Then this happened:
Furloughed FBI agents volunteering to arrest Roger Stone. pic.twitter.com/MaA7hWi7xb
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) January 25, 2019
Those are FBI agents, working without pay, arresting Roger Stone.
.@npr playing a mournful French Horn version of "Auld Lang Syne" as an outro to their Roger Stone story… so someone over there is smiling whilst sipping from a pledge-drive mug.
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) January 25, 2019
Former NFL receiver Chad Johnson witnessed it!
World-record humblebrag about getting in an AM workout: https://t.co/78y5wzLU8j
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) January 25, 2019
The indictment, well, let’s just say it’s not great for the White House. It’s a seven-count indictment that accuses Stone of repeatedly lying under oath and witness tampering. For the purposes of Trump, however, it also suggests that Stone was not only in contact with the Trump administration, but that Trump himself directed senior campaign officials (likely Steve Bannon) to reach out to Roger Stone and find out if Wikileaks had any more dirt on Hillary, and that Stone had frequent communications with our old friend “Person 1.”
The "high-ranking Trump official" Stone communicated with per Mueller indictment appears to be Steve Bannon (source: https://t.co/tzf0AQg1wb) pic.twitter.com/yTX75xQRQP
— Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) January 25, 2019
.@JeffreyToobin makes the critical point.
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) January 25, 2019
Mueller says a top campaign official WAS DIRECTED to contact Stone about Wikileaks
Who directed the official?
It sure sounds like Trump. The use of the passive voice is conspicuous and, as Toobin notes, who else would it be? pic.twitter.com/sPWI9YkT65
As for the witness tampering? Roger Stone used a Godfather II reference to basically say that the witness should feign ignorance during his Congressional testimony. From the indictment:
On multiple occasions, including on or about December 1, 2017, STONE told Person 2 that Person 2 should do a “Frank Pentangeli” before HPSCI in order to avoid contradicting STONE’s testimony. Frank Pentangeli is a character in the film The Godfather: Part II, which both STONE and Person 2 had discussed, who testifies before a congressional committee and in that testimony claims not to know critical information that he does in fact know.
— So far, Sarah Sanders is the only person from the Administration to make a statement on Stone’s indictment.
Sarah Sanders says Roger Stone’s indictment and arrest has “nothing to do with the President.”
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) January 25, 2019
Roger Stone is the sixth Trump associate to be charged in the Mueller investigation. @MSNBC pic.twitter.com/jOU9kQZCeU
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 25, 2019
— Meanwhile, today, government workers missed their second paycheck.
— And now, LaGuardia is halting flights.
BREAKING: FAA says it is halting flights into New York's LaGuardia airport due to air traffic control staffing issues. https://t.co/jn8limUSe7
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) January 25, 2019