President Trump returned home to New York City today for the first time since his inauguration. He'll be meeting with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and giving remarks commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is targeting 30 vulnerable Republicans with a 5-figure ad campaign over the GOP healthcare bill that narrowly passed through the House today.
Guilt by association: Some of those being targeted actually voted against the bill.
It's about the midterms: The DCCC tweeted "see you in 2018" after the vote and says "there's a lot more in to come next week."
After Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hinted yesterday that the United States would no longer "condition [its] national security efforts on someone adopting our values," a group of 15 bipartisan senators — led by Marco Rubio and Ben Cardin — sent a letter to President Trump urging him to advocate for democracy and human rights. An excerpt:
"It was more than 240 years ago that the Founding Fathers declared that all are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These principles have successfully formed the backbone of the American experiment in self- government. The rights the Founders recognized are not by any means solely 'American,' but rather are universal. Being fortunate to enjoy these freedoms ourselves, we have the moral imperative to promote democracy and human rights across the globe."
French presidential candidates Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron faced off last night in a heated debate in need of trigger warnings for Americans still haunted by our own presidential debates. Le Pen's debating and insulting style is reminiscent of Trump.
Nationalism:
LePen: "Unlike you, I want a strong France in Europe."
Trump: "I will make American great again."
Strength and control:
Le Pen: "Not only you don't have any plan [to fight terrorism] but you are complacent towards Islamists.''
Trump: "Secretary Clinton doesn't want to use a few words: Law and order."
House Republicans gathered in the White House Rose Garden after they passed the American Health Care Act Thursday. President Trump kicked off the congratulatory speeches, saying he's "so confident" the bill will pass in the Senate.
Trump: "[For] only being a politician for a short period of time, how am I doing? Okay? I'm president. I'm president! Can you believe it?"
Pence: "Thanks to the leadership of Pres. Donald Trump, welcome to the beginning of the end of Obamacare..."
Paul Ryan: Ryan thanked Trump and Pence for "their personal involvement in working with our members."
Kevin McCarthy: The president told me, "Let's not make this partisan... Do what's right for the American country... I've only been through a few presidents, but I've never seen someone so hands on."
Majority leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that the Senate will wait to vote on the GOP's health care bill until it is scored by the Congressional Budget Office, per Reuters. His statement came immediately after the House passed the plan.
Trump delivered remarks during the National Day of Prayer before calling on a series of religious leaders to stand behind him as he signed his executive order promoting free speech and religious liberty.
You're now in a position where you can say what you want to say, and I know you'll only say good.
Key piece of the order: It eases restrictions imposed by the Johnson Amendment, which limits political participation by tax-exempt religious groups.
Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski shared how their engagement went down in an interview with Vanity Fair, but they also dished that President Trump offered to officiate their wedding at the White House.
How it went down: Over lunch with POTUS, Ivanka, and Jared just after the inauguration, Trump said that if the couple got married, they should do so at Mar-a-Lago or the White House. Kushner jumped in and offered to officiate the ceremony.
POTUS' response: "Why would you marry them? They could have the President of the United States marry them."
Mika's reaction: "If it weren't Trump, it might be something to think about. The mental picture is just fascinating, but the reality is just . . . no. No, no, no, no, no."
Spicer told reporters that "it is literally impossible at this point" to predict how the GOP health care bill will affect premiums and benefits. As for those with preexisting conditions? Spicer said that Trump has made it "very clear" that everyone with a preexisting condition will be covered.
Border wall update: Spicer clashed with Breitbart's Charlie Spiering over whether the photos of the "various types of walls" shown during the briefing represented the final border wall. Spiering noted that the photos looked more like fences. Spicer insisted that one was a levee wall and one was a bollard wall.
Trump's lunch with Abbas: Spicer said Trump raised the issue of payments to Palestinian terrorists in his lunch with Abbas, and emphasized the need to resolve the issue.
On Trump's Comey tweets: "The president has confidence in the director," said Spicer.
Hillary Clinton's "comeback": "With all respect to her, you don't get to pick the day the election's on," said Spicer. "I'm a Patriots fan. If games ended in 3rd quarter, a different team would have been here last week."
President Trump and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas delivered a joint statement at the White House Wednesday expressing their belief that a Middle East peace deal is achievable. Abbas flattered Trump for his "courageous stewardship" and "great negotiating ability," but said Israel must first end "its occupation of our people and our land." Abbas made clear that "we want Israel to recognize the Palestinian state like we recognize the state of Israel."
Trump closed out the statement: "People say the toughest deal is between the Israelis and the Palestinians, let's see if we can prove them wrong."
Former Obama White House adviser David Axelrod chided Hillary Clinton for her excuses yesterday for losing the election.
"Jim Comey didn't tell her not to campaign in Wisconsin after the convention. Jim Comey didn't say, 'Don't put any resources into Michigan until the final week of the campaign... One of the things that hindered her in the campaign was a sense that she never fully was willing to take responsibility for her mistakes, particularly that server."
While Axelrod agreed that Comey's letter had something to do with her loss, he added:
"It takes a lot of work to lose to Donald Trump, let me tell you. ... The fact that she was in a position to lose because of the Comey letter is something that deserves some introspection."
FBI Director James Comey was in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee today — his first appearance on the Hill since March's explosive testimony confirming an active investigation into connections between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Why he sent a letter to Capitol Hill on newly-discovered Clinton emails just days before the election: "I sat there that morning and I could not see a door labeled 'no action here'...concealing in my view would be catastrophic." Comey said he stands by his decision, but added, "It makes me mildly nauseous to think we might have had some impact on the election."
An Obama White House alumnus told us last night that Jimmy Kimmel killed the Republicans' already shaky efforts to revive the House's health-care reform. (In prime time last night, CNN was running the banner: "LATEST GOP HEALTH CARE BILL ON VERGE OF COLLAPSE." The WashPost's lead story is "GOP health bill on shaky ground.")
The instant ubiquity of the late-night host tearfully discussing his baby Billy's open-heart surgery, along with a message decrying Trump's proposed cuts to the National Institutes of Health ("If your baby is going to die, ... it should not matter how much money you make"), is an eye-opening case study of the stunning velocity of the new media ecosystem.
So we decided to quantify the reach of the "Jimmy Kimmel Live" monologue, beyond the 7 million views on his official YouTube page.
