Trumpworld has set out on a hiring spree of defense lawyers to protect them from future scandal as over a dozen people with ties to the administration face questioning related to Russia probes.
Diagram: Lazaro Gamio / Axios
Why it matters: The number of outside counsel hired in relation to the Russia probes reflects the size of the investigations and how seriously White House officials are taking them.
Trump's Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity asked all 50 states and D.C. this week to hand over all publicly available data from state voter rolls and sensitive information about voters, including felony conviction info, military status, and voter history from 2006 onward. The deadline for sending info is in two weeks.
Why it matters: The commission is getting pushback — Virginia, Kentucky, California, and other states have already said they won't comply since they're concerned the administration is launching a "voter suppression" commission, not an election integrity commission. The DOJ also asked this week that 44 states send over information on the maintenance of voter rolls, ProPublica reports, raising the level of alarm.
More news has emerged from the Donald Trump-Morning Joe spat this afternoon regarding the White House's alleged pressuring of Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski to soften their Trump coverage or face a scathing gossip piece in the National Enquirer about their relationship.
"Tapes" part 2? Per CNN, an NBC spokesman confirmed that Scarborough kept NBC executives in the loop regarding the Trump administration's alleged threats, suggesting that his tweet about texts and phone records from his contacts with the White House might be corroborated.
New York Magazine reports that Scarborough's point of contact in the White House about the Enquirer story was Jared Kushner, although a source familiar with the interactions strongly disputed to Axios that there was any 'quid pro quo' offered and said Kushner told Scarborough that he wasn't the person to deal with it and he should take it up with the President.
Trump said "the era of strategic patience with the North Korean regime has failed…that patience is over," while delivering a joint statement with South Korean President Moon at the White House Friday.
Trump added "our goal is peace, stability, and prosperity for the region. But the United States will defend itself, always…and we will always defend our allies." Moon added that South Korea would work to build up its ability to defend itself to "strengthen our overwhelming deterrence" as part of the combined ROK-U.S. defense posture.
Trade: Trump said he wanted to work out a "fair and reciprocal" trade with South Korea, and Moon said economic growth will be promoted in South Korea.
Moon also invited Trump to visit Korea this year and Trump accepted.
On MSNBC's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough told a story about a call he received from a "senior member" of Congress "that everybody knows" regarding a "vicious" President Trump telling members of Congress at the White House during health care debates that Mika Brzezinski had "blood coming out of her ears, out of her eyes."
I'm told that to make things less awkward, the U.S. plans to have many aides in the room with President Trump next week when he and Russian President Vladimir Putin hold their first meeting, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.
Everyone will be watching the body language. Heather Conley, a former State Department official in the George W. Bush White House, tells Reuters: "If there are big grins on both of their faces, that will be the picture on the front pages of every Western newspaper, as the investigation continues here."
AP: "Trump will kick off his second foreign trip in Warsaw, Poland, where he plans to deliver a major speech at Krasinski Square, the site of the memorial to the 1944 Warsaw Uprising against the Germans during World War II."
Advertising executive and television personality Donny Deutsch took "the low ground" on President Trump on MSNBC's Morning Joe this morning, lashing out at what he called the president's "obvious misogyny, obvious vulgarity, and obvious stupidity" following yesterday's tweets about Mika Brzezinski. Some of his choice quotes:
"He's a pig, he's a vulgar pig…he's physically disgusting to look at, that's what I find ironic."
"He's not mentally okay. This is the man with the nuclear codes — we have to start paying attention to it."
"Enough is enough with this disgusting, vulgar man…you are doing disgusting things to this country."
