President Trump announced on Twitter Saturday afternoon that he is skipping the 103rd annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner amid an increasingly tense relationship with the media.
Some have even questioned whether the event will still go on as planned, but news organizations' strong interest in tickets for the April 29 dinner suggests that the night will remain sold out, as always.
Breitbart's Washington editor Matthew Boyle is scheduled to interview President Trump on Monday afternoon in the Oval Office, according to sources familiar with the arrangements.
Why this matters: It's the latest sign of Breitbart's clout and comes amid access concerns by reporters at outlets like the New York Times and CNN, which were shut out of a gaggle with Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Friday.
Churches around the country are gearing up to shelter immigrants imperiled by raids and in what BuzzFeed calls a "modern-day underground railroad" also work to spirit people to Canada. Members of churches are also signing up to volunteer spaces in their homes to hide immigrants. BuzzFeed says more than 800 churches have signed up with the National Sanctuary Movement to support the effort.
Last night on Real Time with Bill Maher, California Republican Darrell Issa said the House and Senate intelligence committees will investigate potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign activities, which will require a special prosecutor:
"You cannot have somebody, a friend of mine Jeff Sessions, who was on the campaign and who is an appointee. You're going to need to use the special prosecutor's statute and office to take — not just to recuse. You can't just give it to your deputy. That's another political appointee."
Clip below (the relevant bit starts six minutes in)...
A day after word that White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus asked the FBI to talk to the media to clarify reports about Trump campaign aides' contact with Russians, another doozy — one that's likely to increase congressional interest, and perhaps lead to an independent, 9/11-style commission:
Today's WashPost lead story, "Key officials were asked to rebut Russia report: White House arranged calls to media," by Greg Miller and Adam Entous: "The Trump administration has enlisted senior members of the intelligence community and Congress in efforts to counter news stories about Trump associates' ties to Russia ... Acting at the behest of the White House, the officials made calls to news organizations last week."
Sean Spicer didn't hold a press briefing today, but he did hold an off-camera gaggle with the press corps in his office. However, per The Hill, the White House did not permit a number of outlets to attend.
In: Breitbart, The Washington Times, One America News Network, Reuters, Bloomberg, NBC, ABC, FOX, and CBS (which, per Dave Lee of the BBC, agreed to share audio with the excluded press).
Out: NYT, Politico, BBC, LA Times, Buzzfeed, The Hill, The Huffington Post, Daily Mail, New York Daily News, and most of the foreign press — plus, the AP and Time boycotted the gaggle upon learning of the restrictions.
Following his return to CPAC, President Trump, with several chief executives from top U.S. corporations gathered around him, signed an executive order aimed at repealing and revising regulations.
Details of order: The new legislation directs federal agencies to create "regulatory reform" task forces to evaluate federal rules and recommend whether to repeal or simplify those deemed burdensome to the U.S. economy.
Earlier at CPAC, Trump vowed to put the regulatory industry "out of work and out of business," and chop "75% of the repetitive horrible regulations that hurt companies, hurt jobs, make us noncompetitive with companies overseas."
One of the primary faces of Brexit, former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, addressed CPAC this afternoon, bringing with him a nationalist message about last year's "great global revolution" that will soon "roll out across the rest of the West." Three quotes to sum up his message…
"Our real friends in the world speak English, have common law, and stand by us in times of crisis."
"2016 was the year the nation-state democracy made a comeback against the globalists and those that wish to destroy everything that we have ever been."
"We're not against anybody based on religion or ethnicity. We're not against anybody, we're for ourselves, we're for our country, we're for our communities…and we are winning!"
Trump went to CPAC — where's he's been a speaker several times until skipping last year — and delivered a victory speech applauding his administration's accomplishments so far, and nodding to the campaign promises he vows to follow through on. The crowd ate it up, giving the president a series of standing ovations and repeatedly chanting "USA! USA! USA!"
What came up: He didn't make news, so you got the litany of his greatest hits from the campaign and early presidency, including the "fake news media" (The Clinton news network, NBC, CBS, ABC); Trump's fondness for Bernie; the wall being built "way ahead of schedule", the mess Trump claims to have inherited; the repeal/replace of Obamacare; "bad dudes" being thrown out of the country; tax reform; his accomplishments as the President-elect; the new massive military budget; the eradication of ISIS; Trump's approach to keeping terrorists out; and the 2nd Amendment. And finally: how global cooperation is good, but there's nothing as great as the U.S.A.
In his speech at CPAC this morning, President Trump inveighed against journalists who use anonymous sources in their stories, saying "they shouldn't be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody's name."
As the Washington Post's White House reporter Phil Rucker points out, Trump's attack on anonymous sources this morning came shortly after his aides held an anonymous briefing with the press.
A group of parents of transgender children — all members of the Human Rights Campaign's Parents for Transgender Equality Council — are asking President Trump, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Attorney General Jeff Sessions for a face-to-face meeting to talk about the decision to rescind Obama's transgender bathroom guidance.
This is a follow-up to their earlier letter, signed by more than 1,000 parents, asking the administration to preserve the guidelines.
Trump took to Twitter this morning to reprimand the FBI:
Why this matters: Last night, CNN published a story on Trump's chief of staff, Reince Priebus, asking the FBI to talk to reporters and shoot down Russia stories. The FBI refused.
Coming Monday — from VERY well-known names in Democratic politics, progressive activism, and academia — an effort to rebut Trump Administration tweets, statements and actions in real time:
Said a source behind the movement: "@ShadowingTrump is a 'Shadow Cabinet' of policy experts debunking POTUS 45 and his appointees ... Sort of an online 'Justice League.' ... [W]e'll be a comprehensive, one-portal stop of 'Citizen Secretaries' — ex-officials and scholars who will comment agency-by-agency ... on issues both in headlines & within the bureaucracy."
From the pitch: "Please follow us on Twitter ... unless you think everything is ok."
The "Shadow Cabinet" Twitter feed is locked until Monday.
A DEFCON warning in next week's issue of The New Yorker ... "Active Measures" — by Evan Osnos in D.C., Editor David Remnick in NYC and Joshua Yaffa in Moscow — on fears of the neutering of NATO and the decoupling of America from European security: "If that happens, it gives Putin all kinds of opportunities."
Strobe Talbott, who was President Bill Clinton's leading adviser on Russia and the region, and now is Brookings President:
"There is a very real danger not only that we are going to lose a second Cold War — or have a redo and lose — but that the loss will be largely because of a perverse pal-ship, the almost unfathomable respect that Trump has for Putin."
White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus asked the FBI to "talk to reporters on background" to dispute reports linking the Trump campaign to Russia, CNN reports. The FBI declined. A White House official said the request was made only after the FBI said the reports were questionable.
CNN does an excellent job explaining why this matters:
The direct communications between the White House and the FBI were unusual because of decade-old restrictions on such contacts. Such a request from the White House is a violation of procedures that limit communications with the FBI on pending investigations.
