Week 95

This week, the country watched the contentious Senate hearings for Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. Senator Patrick Leahy called it the “most incomplete, most partisan, least transparent” vetting of a Supreme Court nominee in his forty-four years in the senate. As hearings wrapped up, questions linger about whether Kavanaugh has lied under oath in this and past judicial hearings, as well as whether Trump had selected Kavanaugh, who was not on his 2016 campaign list, in order to protect himself from the Mueller probe.

This week was also dominated by previews of Bob Woodward’s upcoming book “Fear” on Trump’s White House, and an explosive opinion piece in the Times by an anonymous senior official in the Trump regime. Both seemed to suggest that Trump is unfit for office, and his White House is operating chaotically, potentially exposing the country to danger. Trump lashed out, seeking to discredit Woodward, and summoning his Justice Department to investigate the NYT for what he described as “treason.”

As the week came to a close, former President Obama re-emerged on the national political scene, two months ahead of midterms, calling out Trump by name, and rallying voters to be engaged. As with the funeral of Sen. John McCain in Week 94, Obama’s presence, in sharp contrast to Trump, served as a reminder of how far from normalcy our country has strayed since Trump took office.

ABC News reported press secretary Sarah Sanders spent a combined three hours and 58 minutes at 13 press briefings during June, July, and August — significantly less than last summer and in prior administrations.
WAPO reported that after 592 days in office, Trump has made 4,713 false or misleading claims. Although he averaged 4.9 claims per day in his first 100 days, in the past 3 months he has averaged 15.4 false claims per day.
After June with 534 false or misleading claims, August ranked second with 469 claims. Immigration is the top source of Trump’s misleading claims, now totaling 592 claims.
NYT compiled a list of Trump ethical lapses in the Trump regime so far. First, five who have been convicted of or have pleaded guilty to crimes five, including Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, Rick Gates, and Michael Flynn.
Second, seven current and former Cabinet officials have misspent taxpayer money or violated ethics rules, including Scott Pruitt, Ben Carson, David Shulkin, Wilbur Ross, Tom Price, Brenda Fitzgerald, and Nikki Haley.
Finally, four current or former White House staffers have security or ethics issues, including Rob Porter, Dan Scavino Jr., Kellyanne Conway, and John McEntee.
In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee last Friday, Trump said he will not release 102,000 pages of records from Kavanaugh’s tenure for George W. Bush, claiming they would be covered by executive privilege.
On Sunday talk shows, Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee spoke out against Trump’s refusal to release records. Dick Durbin said there’s “more concealment of documents…than ever in the history” of the country, and Amy Klobuchar said, “This is not normal.”
On Sunday, Axios reported Omarosa taped nearly every conversation she had while working in the White House. She carried two phones, allowing her to record conversations she was having on one phone on the other.
On Sunday, in an op-ed at the Des Moines Register, Mollie Tibbett’s father asked that people not distort her death to advance racist views: “On behalf of my family and Mollie’s memory, I’m imploring you to stop.”
An Idaho white supremacist group placed a robocall in Florida targeting Democrat Andrew Gillum, saying “Well hello there. I is Andrew Gillum,” and in the background are sounds of drums and monkeys.
The calls end saying they were funded by The Road to Power, an anti-Semitic, white supremacist website, which also did robocalls in Week 94 using the death of Mollie Tibbetts to promote white supremacist messages.
On Sunday, members at the North Austin Muslim Community Center in Austin, Texas said someone tried to break into their building. Photos show shattered glass on the front door and side entrance.
Vassar College said the students responsible for creating and distributing a “disorientation” guide that is “provocative of violence and anti-Semitism” distributed to incoming freshmen last week will face penalties.
On Monday, New Yorker editor David Remnick canceled a scheduled appearance by Steve Bannon at the magazine’s October festival, after a social media backlash and several notables pulled out in protest.
On Wednesday, the Atlantic reported Daily Caller writer and editor Scott Greer wrote under a pseudonym for an alt-right website associated with Richard Spencer. Greer severed ties with The Daily Caller after the Atlantic reporting.
On Wednesday, the Justice Department issued subpoenas demanding millions of North Carolina voter records be turned over to ICE by September 25, threatening chaos two months ahead of midterms.
The secretive move appeared to be part of an effort to crack down on unauthorized voting, after federal officials announced 19 noncitizens in North Carolina were charged last week with casting illegal votes in 2016.
Critics speculated the move was a continuation of the work by the Trump regime’s Election Integrity Commission, which was disbanded in January after finding no evidence of significant fraud or a corrupt voting system.
On Thursday, ProPublica reported internal documents from a Chicago shelter for migrant children forcibly separated from their parents, one of the nation’s largest networks for unaccompanied minors, reveal despair and tedium.
Documents reveal children considering suicide, going on a hunger strike, contemplating escape. A 10-month-old boy was repeatedly bitten by an older child and later hospitalized after falling from a highchair.
On Thursday, the Trump regime announced a new rule which would allow immigrant children with their parents to be held in detention indefinitely, upending a ban on indefinite detention in place since 1997.
The rule proposed by the departments Homeland Security and Health and Human Services is meant to terminate the Flores settlement agreement which says children must be released in 20 days, citing court backlogs can drag out the time immigrants must wait.
On Thursday, in a court document, the Trump regime said 416 migrant children separated under Trump’s zero-tolerance policy have yet to be reunited with their parents, 14 of which are under 5 years-old.
On Monday, NBC News anchor Chuck Todd said in an op-ed it was time for the press to stop complaining and start fighting back, citing Trump’s “campaign to destroy the legitimacy of the American news media.”
On Tuesday, Trump shot back at “Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd of Fake NBC News” in a tweet, saying of the media they have been fighting: “They’ve gone all out, and I WON, and now they’re going CRAZY!”
Trump also called out “NBC FAKE NEWS” over their killing of the Harvey Weinstein story, and again called for reexamining NBC’s TV license, which it does not have. The FCC does not issue licenses to TV networks.
On Tuesday, in an interview with The Daily Caller, Trump said of NBC and their pattern of alleged corruption, “Well, not only NBC, I think the media, large segments of the, not all, large segments of the media are corrupt.”
Trump also said about Chuck Todd, “He’s Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd. He covers me very dishonestly,” and of CNN commentator Ana Navarro, “she’s sick. I mean, she’s sick.”
Trump told The Daily Caller on the topic of Mueller, “I could give you 100 pictures of him and Comey hugging and kissing each other. You know, he’s Comey’s best friend.” No such pictures have been made public.
On Monday, The Young Turks reported federal documents show at least two former clients of FEMA Administrator William “Brock” Long have received FEMA contracts totaling more than $14 million.
Long joined FEMA in June 2017 after six years at Hagerty Consulting, a disaster consulting firm. Eagle Hill won a $53k contract from FEMA, while Booz Allen got multiples contracts totaling approximately $14 million.
On Tuesday, AP reported analysis completed by Trump’s EPA concluded that the rollback of pollution rules would lead to a greater number of people dying prematurely and suffering health problems in coal country.
The EPA analysis found Trump’s plan would lead to thousands more heart attacks, asthma problems, and other illnesses that would not have occurred under the Obama administration’s plan.
On Thursday, the Guardian reported, according to documents released under the FOIA, a government photographer edited official pictures of Trump’s inauguration to make the crowd appear bigger.
Documents provided by the inspector general of the Department of Interior reveal an early morning call between Trump and the acting National Park Service director, Michael Reynolds on January 21, 2017.
Documents also show that Sean Spicer, then White House press secretary, called NPS officials repeatedly that same day to follow up on making the photos more flattering.
On Monday, Nike revealed Colin Kaepernick, the former NFL quarterback who drew Trump’s ire by kneeling during the national anthem, as a face of its campaign for the 30th anniversary of “Just Do It.”
The caption for Kaepernick read: “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” Kaepernick has sued the NFL for collusion, citing no team would employ him up after he protested.
On Tuesday, in an interview with The Daily Caller, Trump said Nike sent a “terrible message” picking Kaepernick, and added Nike was a tenant of his and paid “a lot of rent,” referring to its Niketown store on East 57th Street.
Trump supporters responded by trending #BoycottNike, and showing photos and videos on social media of Nike products being set on fire, cut up, or otherwise destroyed.
On Wednesday, Trump tweeted, “Just like the NFL, whose ratings have gone WAY DOWN, Nike is getting absolutely killed with anger and boycotts,” adding, of the NFL, “I just find it hard to watch, and always will, until they stand for the FLAG!”
On Friday, Edison Trends reported Nike sales grew 31% from the Sunday of Labor Day weekend through Tuesday, as compared with a 17% gain in the prior year. Nike’s stock also rebounded back.
On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for Kavanaugh began. Hours before the hearing, the White House sent 42,000 pages of documents to the committee that had been previously withheld.
Democrats complained that William Burck, a private attorney who is a Kavanaugh associate, and works for George W. Bush and worked with Bush’s presidential library, is deciding which documents can be released.
Democrats also complained just 4% of Kavanaugh’s White House records have been made public, and 7% have been made available to the committee. That compares to 99% of Justice Elena Kagan’s White House records.
Women dressed as handmaids from the Hulu series, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” stood lining the halls outside the hearing room.
U.S. Capitol Police said they had made 70 arrests on the first day of hearings, which was marked by frequent outbursts by protestors.
On Tuesday, in an interview with The Daily Caller, Trump called the anti-Kavanaugh protestors “an embarrassment to the country,” adding, “in the old days, we used to throw them out.”
On Wednesday, the second day of Kavanaugh hearings, the number of seats for the public were reduced by half, from 48 to 24. Following media inquiries, the committee restored the full 48 seats six hours later.
NYT reported on hundreds of pages of emails detailing Maria Butina’s work with former N.R.A president David Keene, and his wife Donna, a Washington D.C. lobbyist, to pursue a big pay day for brokering jet fuel.
On Sunday, NYT reported the FBI and Justice Department attempted to gain cooperation from roughly a half-dozen Russian oligarchs. Bruce Ohr and Christopher Steele were involved in the effort.
Between 2014 and 2016, agents unsuccessfully tried to turn Oleg Deripaska into an informant to get information on Russian organized crime and later on Russian aid to Trump’s 2016 campaign.
The Daily Beast reported Nell Hughes, a highly-visible Trump surrogate on CNN during the 2016 election, took a new job with Russian-state media outlet, RT.
On Tuesday, NYT reported Mueller’s team told Trump’s lawyers in a letter that they will accept written answers from Trump on whether his campaign conspired with Russia’s election interference.
Mueller did not say he was giving up on an interview altogether, including on questions of obstruction of justice; but the tone of the letter indicates the scope may be more limited than Trump’s team initially believed.
On Thursday, Rudy Giuliani told AP early in the day that Trump would not voluntarily submit to an interview. Later, he told Politico Trump would provide some written answers, and has not ruled out an interview.
On Wednesday, U.K. authorities charged two men it says are Russian G.R.U. military intelligence officers, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, with the nerve-agent poisoning of Sergei Skripal.
Prime Minister May said the use of a chemical weapon, which left a British woman dead and four people seriously ill, was carried out by officers and was almost certainly approved “at a senior level of the Russian state.”
Reuters reported PM May had briefed Trump on Tuesday evening, ahead of the charges. Trump did not issue any comment or tweet.
On Wednesday, NYT reported Mueller’ team subpoenaed Jerome Corsi, a conspiracy theorist with links to Roger Stone, to testify on Friday before a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. on Russia’s election interference.
Corsi, who previously worked for Alex Jones’ Infowars, was also one of the people whom Trump, before he was a candidate, contacted for information Obama’s birth certificate in pressing the false birther claim.
Corsi did not testify on Friday. His attorney spoke to Mueller’s office Thursday to negotiate a voluntary interview for his client in lieu of a grand jury appearance. The topic is thought to be Corsi’s contacts with Stone.
Corsi shared research with Stone around the same time Stone said he was in contact with Julian Assange and had advance knowledge of WikiLeaks’ releases of the hacked emails.
On Friday, radio host Randy Credico, an associate of Stone, with a dog in tow, testified before Mueller’s grand jury. Credico’s attorney said, “Mr. Credico’s testimony was concerning his relationship with Roger Stone.”
On Tuesday, WAPO reported on Bob Woodward’s upcoming book, “Fear,” which is drawn from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand participants and witnesses that were conducted on “deep background.”
The book describes John Dowd conducting a mock interview with Trump about the Russia investigation, which provoked stumbles, contradictions and lies from Trump. Dowd said Trump could end up in “an orange jumpsuit” if he testifies.
Trump’s national security team was shaken by his lack of curiosity and knowledge about world affairs, and contempt of mainstream perspectives. Jim Mattis said Trump had the understanding of a “a fifth- or sixth-grader.”
Gary Cohn removed documents from Trump’s desk to avoid him signing. Trump said of his initial speech after Charlottesville condemning white supremacists, “That was the biggest fucking mistake I’ve made.”
On Tuesday, Trump tweeted the book “has already been refuted and discredited” by Chief of Staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary Mattis, saying, “their quotes were made up frauds,” and “Woodward is a Dem operative.”
Trump also tweeted the book, “has me calling Jeff Sessions “mentally retarded” and “a dumb southerner.” I said NEITHER,” adding, “never used those terms on anyone.” A video surfaced of Trump saying “retarded”
Trump also told The Daily Caller that Woodward had not interviewed him for the book, saying, “I probably would have preferred to speak to him, but maybe not…He wanted to write the book a certain way.”
WAPO released the audio of Woodward seeking an interview with Trump as he was writing the book. Trump said no, and then called Woodward in August to say he would participate after the manuscript was done.
On Wednesday, Axios reported Trump’s White House was caught flat-footed and unprepared by the explosive content in Woodward’s book, and that no one had seen an advance copy, similar to Omarosa’s book.
On Wednesday, press secretary Sanders told “Good Morning America” that Woodward’s hundreds of hours of tapes are probably come from “disgruntled former employees” and “a lot of anonymous sources.”
On Wednesday, Trump tweeted a statement by Kelly, denying a passage in Woodward’s book that he called Trump an “idiot” and other negative things: “The idea I ever called the President an idiot is not true.”
Trump also tweeted out a statement by Mattis denying what is attributed to him in the book. Trump wrote, “Thank you General Mattis, book is boring & untrue!”
Throughout, Woodward said he stood by his reporting. He provided CNN a copy of a letter Cohn stole from Trump’s desk described in the book, which would have terminated a free trade deal with South Korea.
On Wednesday, Vanity Fair reported after news of the Woodward book broke, “pandemonium” broke out as the West Wing came to a standstill. Current and former staffers pointed the finger in all directions for leaks.
Reportedly after the McCain funeral, Ivanka and Kushner told Trump that if they are going to last in Washington, he needs to get control of himself, saying they cannot be this far off the mark with the establishment.
On Tuesday, Bill Graves, the former Republican governor of Kansas, endorsed the Democrat running for governor, Laura Kelly, over GOP nominee Kris Kobach.
On Tuesday, in the Massachusetts primary, Ayanna Pressley — a black, female, Bostonian — sent shock waves after beating 10-term incumbent Michael Capuano by 17 points for a congressional seat once held by J.F.K.
On Wednesday, at a hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg testified, “We were too slow to spot this and too slow to act” relating to Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testified the company found itself unprepared and ill-equipped for the immensity of the problems it faced: abuse, harassment, troll armies, propaganda and misinformation.
Google, which has been under attack from Trump and his allies for allegedly rigging search results against Trump and conservatives, did not show up for the hearings.
Outside the Senate Intelligence hearings, Alex Jones taunted Sen. Marco Rubio as he was speaking to the media, calling him a “little gangster thug” and “frat boy.” After Jones patted him, Rubio said, “not to touch me again.”
On Thursday, joining Facebook, Apple, and Google, Twitter permanently suspended Alex Jones’s account, as well as the account for Infowars, citing, “videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behavior policy.”
On Monday, Trump blasted attorney general Sessions, tweeting, “investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen” were charged right before midterms, saying Democrats, “must love him now.”
On Wednesday, Sessions announced he was gathering state attorneys general to examine whether tech companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter are “intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas” online.
On Friday, WAPO reported Democratic attorneys general have not yet been invited by Sessions to the Justice Department’s upcoming review of tech companies, prompting charges that the inquiry is a politically motivated attack.
Attorneys general from two tech hubs, California and New York, as well as officials from Connecticut and Washington, which are active on issues related to technology, consumer protection, and antitrust, were not invited.
On Wednesday, a poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation poll found Trump’s approval rating has dropped to 37%. This third poll follows two polls in Week 94 which found his approval had dropped to 36%.
On Thursday, a weekly survey conducted for The Economist found Trump’s approval rating had fallen to 38%, two points above his all-time low in December. His approval was pulled down by college-educated whites.
On Wednesday, NYT published an anonymous op-ed by a senior Trump official who claimed to be part of the resistance inside the Trump regime who have vowed to “thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.”
The official wrote “the root of the problem” is Trump’s “amorality,” adding, “he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making,” and he is “impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.”
The official wrote that there were “early whispers” of the Cabinet invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump, but decided instead to avoid a constitutional crisis and work within the administration to contain him.
On Wednesday, WAPO reported Trump reacted to the NYT op-ed with “volcanic” anger and was “absolutely livid” over what he considered a treasonous act of disloyalty. Trump tweeted, “TREASON?”
Trump also questioned in a tweet, does the “so-called “Senior Administration Official” really exist,” or whether it was the “Failing New York Times with another phony source?”
Trump also tweeted that if the “GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist,” then, falsely claiming, the Times should “for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!”
Trump was angered by a line in the op-ed calling Sen. John McCain “a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue.” NYT’s editor said the op-ed came in before the Woodward story broke.
The op-ed put White House is disarray as aides canceled meetings and huddled behind closed doors to strategize on a response. Aides said it was hard to narrow down the person, saying it could be so many people.
WAPO also reported prior the op-ed there was a dwindling circle of people Trump felt he could trust. After the op-ed, a source said Trump fretted that he could only trust his children.
On Wednesday and Thursday, one by one, Trump’s cabinet, Vice President Pence and others senior officials came forward to deny writing the op-ed. NYT reported Trump’s White House had a list of about 12 suspects.
Trump ally Sen. Rand Paul recommended that Trump force members of his regime to take polygraph examinations. Another proposal by aides was asking senior officials to sign sworn affidavits that could be used in court.
On Thursday, NYT reported Kim Jong-un offered an olive branch to Trump, telling a South Korean envoy that he wanted to denuclearize North Korea before Trump’s first term ends.
On Thursday, without context, Trump tweeted, “Kim Jong Un of North Korea proclaims “unwavering faith in President Trump,”” thanking “Chairman Kim,” and saying “We will get it done together!”
On Thursday, in a Fox News interview, Trump said of the person who wrote the op-ed, “may not be a Republican, it may not be a conservative, it may be a deep state person who has been there for a long time.”
On Thursday, Trump tweeted, “The Deep State and the Left, and their vehicle, the Fake News Media, are going Crazy — & they don’t know what to do.”
On Thursday, First Lady Melania Trump said in a statement the free press is “important to our democracy,” but to the op-ed writer, “you are not protecting this country, you are sabotaging it with your cowardly actions.”
On Friday, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that Sessions “should be investigating who the author of that piece was” saying the NYT op-ed is a “national security” issue.
Hours later, a White House official tried to clarify Trump’s comments about wanting the Justice Department to investigate, saying they did not amount to an order to federal prosecutors.
On Friday, Trump told North Dakota television station KVLY that he can identify up to five people who could have written the anonymous op-ed, adding, “mostly people that either I don’t like or don’t respect.”
Trump also told KVLY that the issue is “reverberating in the opposite direction,” saying people think it is “disgusting” that the Times would publish such a piece.
On Wednesday, Sen. Kamala Harris grilled Kavanaugh about whether he had discussed Mueller’s investigation with any individuals at Trump lawyer Marc Kasowitz’s law firm. Kavanaugh avoided answering directly.
On Thursday, NYT reported on leaked Kavanaugh documents it obtained. As a lawyer for the W. Bush administration, he challenged the accuracy of Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision to be “settled law of the land.”
Kavanaugh also engaged with the DOJ in what became the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program, and was critical about some Department of Transportation affirmative action regulations.
On Thursday, Sen. Cory Booker released confidential documents relating to Kavanaugh’s views on racial profiling, saying, “I’m knowingly violating the rules,” and “I openly accept the consequences.”
Several other Democrats, including Sens. Dick Durbin, Mazie Hirono, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Richard Blumenthal said they also planned to release confidential documents or reserved the right do so in the future.
When asked by Sen. Booker if he would recuse himself from the Mueller probe, Kavanaugh answered no, saying, “All I would be doing is demonstrating that I don’t have the independence of the judiciary.”
Sen. Blumenthal asked Kavanaugh if like his predecessor Justice Neil Gorsuch, he would condemn Trump’s attacks on the judiciary, Kavanaugh said he did not want to “get within three Zip codes” of such a political controversy.
On Thursday, when Sen. Harris pressed Kavanaugh again on whether he had a conversation with anyone at Kasowitz Benson Torres about the Mueller probe, after initially dodging, he answered, “The answer is no.”
On Thursday, Mother Jones summarized the five times Kavanaugh appears to have lied to Congress while under oath, including saying he knew nothing about warrantless wiretapping and torture in a 2006 hearing.
In 2004, Kavanaugh said he had not “personally” worked on the nomination of Judge Pryor for W. Bush, and in 2006 downplayed his role in the nomination of Charles Pickering, a controversial judicial appointee.
In 2002 he was a White House lawyer working on judicial nominations when Manuel Miranda, a GOP aide on the Senate Judiciary Committee, stole thousands of documents belonging to the committee’s Democratic staff.
On Friday, a former Democratic staffer who wrote some of the stolen confidential emails Kavanaugh received from Miranda, said Kavanaugh for should be impeached for lying about it.
Citing the op-ed, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat, tweeted, “Kavanaugh used materials stolen from Democratic senators to advance President Bush’s judicial nominees. He was asked about this in 2004, 2006 and this week. His answers were not true.”
According to U.S. Capitol Police, at least 227 demonstrators, mostly women, were arrested between the start of the nomination hearings on Tuesday and the end of testimony on Friday.
On Thursday, Trump held a rally in Montana, for the second time since July 4. Sections of the arena were empty, and the crowd was silent at times during his speech, which lasted for over an hour.
Before his speech, Trump did an interview with Fox News at the arena, which aired Friday morning on “Fox & Friends.”
In the interview, Trump accused the NYT of “virtually” committing “treason” by publishing the anonymous op-ed. Trump also said the author must be “fairly low level,” and suggested they could be a “deep state person.”
In his speech, Trump told the audience they had to show up at the polls, saying, “this election, you aren’t just voting for a candidate, just before bringing up what he called “the impeachment word.”
Trump said Democrats will impeach him, regardless of whether he has done something to merit it, impersonating Rep. Maxine Waters and saying, “It doesn’t matter, you will impeach him!”
Trump also said his impeachment would be strictly political, saying it would start of a cycle of impeachment, “If the opposite party becomes president, every time before it even starts.”
Trump praised Rep. Greg Gianforte, who in Week 28 body-slammed a reporter, mimicking the move while speaking, “This man has fought in more ways than one, for your state…He is a fighter and a winner.”
A 17 year-old senior at Billings’ West High School who stood behind Trump drew national attention for his facial expressions, interpreted as looks as disbelief, and mouthing the word, “Have you?”
Tyler Linfesty said before the rally he was told, “you have to be enthusiastic and be clapping and cheering.” He was escorted off-stage, then he said the Secret Service agents took him to a back room and looked at his ID.
On Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren told CNN that Trump should be removed from office, saying if senior officials think “the President of the United States is not able to do his job, then they should invoke the 25th Amendment.”
On Friday, NBC News reported, according to experts, a majority of the country’s voting machines and the PCs that tally the votes are not reliable. Most voting machines are close to 15 years old.
Despite U.S. intelligence finding Russia compromised seven states prior to the 2016 election, little progress has been made in the two years since to improve matters. Lack of funding is cited by state voting officials.
On Friday, Papadopoulos was sentenced in federal court in Washington to 14 days in prison for lying to the FBI. Papadopoulos is the first former Trump campaign aide to be sentenced in Mueller probe.
Prosecutors said Papadopoulos repeatedly lied in January 2017 interview with investigators, which hampered the Russia probe at a critical moment, allowing professor Joseph Mifsud to leave the U.S. in February 2017.
The judge stressed the importance of the investigation to the integrity of American democracy, saying determining whether a foreign government interfered in the electoral process was “a matter of enormous importance.”
Trump mocked the sentence, tweeting, “14 days for $28 MILLION — $2 MILLION a day, No Collusion. A great day for America!” This is a false claim: the Mueller probe has secured other guilty pleas and indictments.
On Friday, Papadopoulos told the Times he had “no recollection” of telling any Trump advisers about the emails supposedly in Russia’s hands. He said a call with Stephen Miller that was scheduled later that day was canceled.
Papadopoulos also claimed he had no memory of discussing the dirt about Hillary Clinton in May 2016 with Alexander Downer, the top Australian diplomat in London, which prompted the FBI to open its investigations.
On Friday, in a court filing by the Democratic National Committee in its suit against Russia, the Trump campaign, and WikiLeaks for interfering in the 2016 election, DNC lawyers say professor Joseph Mifsud may be dead.
The filing say DNC lawyers believe all the defendants in the case have been served with the complaint, “with the exception of Mifsud (who is missing and may be deceased).” The lawyers did not elaborate further.
On Friday, Bloomberg reported Manafort is considering a plea deal to avoid a second criminal trial in September. Manafort faces as long as 10 years in prison under advisory sentencing guidelines in the Virginia case.
It is not clear if Manafort would cooperate in Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election, although experts expect Mueller would require it. Manafort faces emotional and financial costs in a second trial.
On Friday, Bloomberg reported in a follow-up to the Cohen conviction, federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating whether anyone else at the Trump Organization violated campaign-finance laws.
The Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg cooperated with the Cohen probe, with limited immunity. Trump Organization is a stable of private companies run by Donald Jr. and Eric since Trump took office.
On Friday, Trump told reporters, “Canada has been ripping us off for a long time.” Later, at his speech in North Dakota, Trump threatened tariffs on cars, which he said would cause the “ruination” of Canada.
Also at his rally in North Dakota, Trump called Woodward an “idiot” and said he wrote a “fiction book.” Trump said, “the concept is true,” but that he would not use crude words, adding, “I went like to the best college.”
On Friday, WAPO reported House Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tried to coax Trump away from his threats to shut down the government at the end of the month by using props and flattery.
McConnell presented a Washington Examiner article which claims Trump is brilliantly handling the current budget process, while Ryan brought glossy photos of a wall under construction along the U.S.-Mexico border.
On Friday, a lawyer for Essential Consultants, the company created by Cohen in 2016, sought to void the nondisclosure agreement at issue in a lawsuit filed by Stephanie Clifford, seeking to avoid further litigation.
The filing included a promise by Cohen not to sue Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, over claims that she breached the contract, and reserved the right to seek repayment of the $130,000 hush money payment.
On Friday, former President Obama re-entered the national political debate giving an hour-long speech at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and for the first time, calling out Trump by name.
Obama said of Trump, “He is a symptom, not the cause. He’s just capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years, a fear and anger that’s rooted in our past”
Obama compared Trump to foreign demagogues who exploit “a politics of fear and resentment and retrenchment,” saying, “This is not normal. These are extraordinary times, and they are dangerous times.”
Obama rebuked Trump’s response to Charlottesville, saying, “We’re supposed to stand up to discrimination…and unequivocally to Nazi sympathizers. How hard can that be, saying that Nazis are bad?”
Obama also said, “None of this is conservative,” adding, “It’s not conservative. It sure isn’t normal. It’s radical. It’s a vision that says the protection of our power and those who back us is all that matters.”
At a rally in Fargo, North Dakota, Trump responded to Obama’s speech, saying, “I’m sorry, I watched it, but I fell asleep,” adding, “I found he’s very good, very good for sleeping.”
At a later stop in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Trump said Obama’s re-emergence will motivate Trump’s base. “Now if that doesn’t get you out to vote for the midterms, nothing will.”
Politico reported Trump is jealous of the fawning coverage and adulation Obama has received, and sees him as a much more formidable political opponent than Hillary. Aides worry Obama could get in to Trump’s head.

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Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) talk with each other as they listen to Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the third day of his Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill September 6, 2018 in Washington, DC. Kavanaugh was nominated by President Donald Trump to fill the vacancy on the court left by retiring Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy.