Trump goes on 45 minute tirade on Hannity at Fox his Cabinet

President Trump called into Sean Hannity's show on Thursday night. And it was exactly what you expect. "Hi, Sean," the president said at the start of a 45-minute chat. NYT's Katie Rogers tweeted: "This interview is Mad Libs. 'No collusion.' 'Two lovers, two sick lovers!' 'One-sided witch hunt.'" Let me add another: "Dirty cops." At times, Trump literally repeated Hannity's nightly talking points back to him. "This was a coup," Trump said, even though it was not. "This was an attempted overthrow of the United States government." He continued a little while later: "This was an overthrow. And it's a disgraceful thing. I think it's far bigger than Watergate. I think it's possibly the biggest scandal in political history in this country. Maybe beyond political."   Trump says "they owe me an apology" Per Mediaite's Caleb Howe, Hannity asked Trump, "Do you think the news media in this country and their coverage on this, owes you an apology?" Trump: "Well, they do owe me an apology. A big one. They owe YOU an apology." I know it's easy to dismiss this as typical Trump and Hannity shtick, but millions of people absorb it...   "There's no global mute button..." Former Obama WH aide/CNN national security analyst Sam Vinograd emailed with her takeaway from the phoner: "There's no global mute button when Trump chooses to go on TV and to broadcast that he bases his official statements on 'hunches' and 'wisdom' (propagated by a shadow cabinet of certain media anchors and commentators) rather than on analysis compiled by his own experts. The President has access to the best information in the world, he just chooses to ignore it."   Sometimes the news is what's not spoken... CNN's Matthew Hoye notes: "The president was not asked about reports that came out today that North Korea forced the US delegation that arrived in Pyongyang to sign a two million dollar invoice for medical care for the release of detained American student Otto Warmbier."   FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE  -- Just posted, from the May issue of Vanity Fair: "Fox's Lachlan Murdoch is in a Trump trap," by Gabriel Sherman... (VF) Source CNN Reliable Sources

http://footprintsstrategies.com

Official Working on 2020 Security ‘Warned Not to Tell Trump’

When former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen set out to strengthen efforts to protect the 2020 election from Russian interference, Donald Trump’s chief of staff reportedly warned her to keep it a secret from the president through fear it would upset him. The New York Times reports that, before Nielsen left the Department of Homeland Security earlier this month, she became increasingly concerned about Russia’s continued attempts to disrupt elections despite being caught red-handed in 2016. When she wanted to push ahead with new measures to help fight back earlier this year, chief of staff Mick Mulvaney warned her that Trump still equated discussion of Russian election interference with questions about the legitimacy of his victory. Mulvaney reportedly told her it “wasn’t a great subject and should be kept below his level.” Nielsen eventually gave up on her effort to organize a White House meeting of cabinet secretaries to discuss how to protect next year’s presidential elections.
	Read it at New York Times

http://footprintsstrategies.com

Trump's Attempt to Cut Off Abortion Funding Blocked by Judge

The Trump administration's attempt to cut off government money from family planning clinics that offer abortions is set to be blocked by a federal judge in Oregon, according to local reports. Donald Trump’s so-called “Title X” rule, which was set to take effect across the country in May, would stop government funds for Planned Parenthood clinics that subsidize birth control for low-income women and other clinics that either provide abortions or refer women to abortion providers. But the Oregonian reported late Tuesday that U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane will grant a preliminary injunction against the restrictions which he called a “ham-fisted approach to public health policy.” Oregon is one of 20 states that challenged the new rules. The states wanted a national block, but Judge McShane said he’s reluctant to set “national health care” policy and would soon set out how wide-ranging his injunction will be in a formal written ruling.
	Read it at The Oregonian

http://footprintsstrategies.com

Trump's Approval Numbers Tank after Russia Collusion Report

A new public opinion poll released Tuesday morning by Morning Consult and POLITICO finds the Russian interference investigative report from Special Counsel Robert Muellerhas dragged down President Donald Trump's already weak approval ratings to a new low.

The poll, conducted Friday through Monday of 1,992 registered voters, gave Trump a 39 percent approval rating, down 18 points from the last time Morning Consult surveyed on him, on March 20. That is the lowest approval rating Morning Consult has found since it began its monthly approval polling of Trump at the start of his presidency.

Another 57 percent of voters said they disapprove of the job Trump is doing.

Morning Consult/POLITICO is reporting a 2 percent margin of error.

The same new poll shows broad reluctance among voters on the question of whether the U.S. House of Representatives should pursue impeachment proceedings. Forty-eight percent oppose impeachment, and only 34 percent say yes. The rest are undecided. As expected, the poll shows a strong partisan divide on the question, with 59 percent of Democrats supporting impeachment, 31 percent of independent voters supporting, and just 7 percent of Republicans.

Trump did not receive majority job approval ratings from either men or women, from any ethic or racial group, from any group arranged by education, from any group arranged by income, or from any age group, though he came close with voters 65 or older, receiving 49 percent positive job approval ratings from that group. He did receive majority positive job approval ratings from protestants, the only religious group to offer that. Voters in urban, suburban, and rural settings all gave him majority disapproval.

Perhaps more alarming for Trump's re-election campaign, just 37 percent said they believe the country is going in the right direction, and 63 percent said it was going in the wrong direction.

And the issues are very different on the minds of people who believe America is going in the right direction, compared with those who believe it is going in the wrong direction.

Those who said the country is going in the right direction said their top concern was security, followed by the economy, Medicare and Social Security, and education.

Those who said the country is going in the wrong direction said their top concern were women's issues and energy, followed by health care and "other."

Morning Consult/POLITICO report that the report and defenses of Trump offered by Attorney General William Barr and others have done little to alter public opinion on Trump's actions, his campaign, or Russia.

Forty-seven of registered voters in the survey said they believe Trump tried to impede or obstruct the investigation and 41 percent said they believed members of the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 election, compared with 44 percent and 39 percent, respectively, who said the same the last time Morning Consult asked, in February. Also, 51 percent of the voters said the believe it is likely that Russia has compromising information on Trump, a finding unchanged from February.

http://footprintsstrategies.com

Betsy DeVos was confronted with her department’s charter school fraud

The report, from Network for Public Education Executive Director Carol Burris, found that up to $1 billion awarded by the federal government’s Charter Schools Program (CSP) went to charter schools that never opened or opened for only brief periods before being shut down for mismanagement, poor performance, lack of enrollment, and fraud. Our calculation was that a least a third of the $4.1 billion spent by the CSP was wasted.

http://footprintsstrategies.com

BUTTIGIEG SHRUGS OFF ANTI-GAY HECKLERS

The campaign expected about 50 people for its town hall at the gymnasium at Benjamin Franklin Junior High school in Des Moines. The school estimated 1,650 people showed up.

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg swept into Iowa on Tuesday, drawing some of the biggest crowds of the 2020 race so far in the first-in-the-nation caucus state. He faced anti-gay hecklers at two events, including in Des Moines where a man in the crowd shouted 'remember Sodom and Gomorrah!' just after Buttigieg talked about marrying his husband, Chasten, who attended the event.

"The man kept shouting but the crowd chants of 'Pete! Pete!' drowned him out. Buttigieg calmly looked on as security escorted away the individual. 'The good news is, the condition of my soul is in the hands of God, but the Iowa caucuses are up to you,' Buttigieg said to laughter and cheers.

"In all, three hecklers over two Iowa events were taken away and each time Buttigieg unflinchingly carried on after cracking a joke or commenting on freedom of expression. A campaign aide said it was the first time the mayor faced such security incidents since touring nationally." Video

-- BUTTIGIEG EDGE: "Two days after officially entering the presidential race, Buttigieg was expecting 50 people at a Polk County meet and greet. As RSVPs rolled in, organizers moved it from a small gym at Franklin Junior High to the large gym, to an auditorium and finally moving it outside. A good thing: a stunning 1,650 people showed up in the end.

"It isn't just the number of people that stands out: Buttigieg has yet to staff up with organizers in Iowa, so this turnout was mostly organic. Buttigieg spoke to a progressive Iowa group in December and has visited the earlier this year but this crowd was exponentially larger."

Source Politico



http://footprintsstrategies.com