| | | | | President Trump sits on Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House after returning from his Asia trip Tuesday night. Credit: Andrew Harrer/Pool/Getty Images | | | The Woman Who Got Fired After She Flipped off Trump's Motorcade Has Raised Six Figures: A GoFundMe account for her surpassed the $100,000 mark this afternoon
Is the President Cranky Today?: His tweets complain about CNN and ask for a thank-you from UCLA players.
Scaramucci Shops New Book: How long could it possibly be? | | | What the White House is Talking About:
President Trump has nothing on his public schedule today. However, there is anticipation that he could make a statement from the White House at 3pm, as yet unofficially confirmed.
What the White House Press Corps is Talking About:
Press corps recovery day. Also, is the President cranky? First a tweet about CNN, and then one about the three American college basketball players he helped to get released from China, trolling them for gratitude, and referring to himself in the third person. The New York Times got some of his ire, too. Happy Wednesday, everyone. Also, hate it when that happens: | | Credit: @realDonaldTrump/Twitter
Jeff Sessions, A Digest:
Attorney General Jeff Sessions testified before the House Judiciary Committee yesterday for five hours. It was a lot. Sessions basically changed his story on how much he knew about the Trump campaign's relationship with Russia, specifically an encounter with George Papadopoulos, which he didn't remember at one point, but now he does. "I do now recall the March 2016 meeting," Sessions said. So that happened. Another doozy was Sessions' admission that the Department of Justice currently has 27(!) open leak investigations.
This Pope Lamborghini Thing is Blowing My Mind:
Pope Francis continues his run as the most interesting Pope of modern times by autographing a fancy car. Here, I'll let the greatest headline Newsweek has probably ever written explain: | | Credit: Newsweek.com
The money raised from the Sotheby's auction of the $236,000 sports car will go to help Christians displaced by ISIS in Iraq. | | Credit: @ctrlamb/Twitter
Pete Souza Gives Book Talk:
Barack Obama's former chief photographer hasn't actually said much since Trump has been in office, but he's posted a ton of images throwing shade at the new POTUS. It's like he has a pic for each occasion -- when Trump does something controversial, Souza posts a shot of Obama in a similar scenario, and it always seems to work. On Monday night, Souza talked up his new book, "Obama: An Intimate Portrait," at Sixth & I Synagogue, and he said that sometimes he used to sleep in his White House office to get the best spontaneous shots of Obama. He cited this pic of Obama and Malia and Sasha playing in a 2010 snowstorm as an example of one of those times -- in all, Souza estimated he took about 1.9 million photographs of Obama. | | Credit: @petesouza44/Instagram
Anthony Scaramucci Shops New Book:
AScaramucci is apparently trying to land a lucrative book deal about his time at the White House as communications director. Guys 👏 he 👏 was 👏 there 👏 ten 👏 days 👏. Page Six says the Mooch has been meeting with potential publishers.
Paul Ryan Orders New Sexual Harassment Training:
In the wake of yesterday's House administration hearing about the, frankly, atrocious stories of sexual harassment on Capitol Hill, Speaker Paul Ryan has issued new mandatory training guidelines.
Don't Eat the Green Ones:
My colleague and editor Rebekah Metzler was stationed at CNN's Hong Kong bureau for the duration of the President's Asia trip and she's just back in the DC bureau today -- with a little souvenir for us! | | Credit: @katebennett_DC/Twitter
Verdict: Well, not great. First of all, they're green. But the taste isn't that bad, if you know what matcha tastes like. Hunter, however, was *not* a fan. | | What Washington is Talking About:
Senate Repubs are hoping to kill two birds with one stone, adding an individual mandate repeal in their tax bill as a way to undo a major provision of Obamacare after several failed attempts to repeal it. And Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, and other House Dems said they will file articles of impeachment against President Trump (don't get too worked up over it, though; Repubs are still in the majority, and top Dems have signaled they're not interested in trying to impeach Trump right now).
What America is Talking About:
Blake Shelton has been named People magazine's sexiest man of 2017. Bravo to his publicist.
Poll of the Day:
A Marist poll found 58% of American adults believe Trump's policies are directed more toward helping the wealthy, versus 30% who said they're aimed at helping the middle class and 3% who felt they were directed toward assisting the poor. | | Credit: Marist
Fake News RoboCall:
A pastor in Alabama told local news channel WKRG he received a robocall of a recording of a man falsely claiming to be a reporter from the Washington Post with the made-up name Bernie Bernstein (subtle) who talked more like a tabloid reporter than a political reporter from a Pulitzer-prize winning newspaper:
"Hi, this is Bernie Bernstein, I'm a reporter for the Washington Post calling to find out if anyone at this address is a female between the ages of 54 to 57 years old willing to make damaging remarks about candidate Roy Moore for a reward of between $5000 and $7000 dollars. We will not be fully investigating these claims however we will make a written report. I can be reached by email at albernstein@washingtonpost.com, thank you."
You can listen to the recording here. | | Credit: WKRG
The email bounces back as undeliverable, because it's fake. WaPo executive editor Marty Baron said in a statement:
"The Post has just learned that at least one person in Alabama has received a voicemail from someone falsely claiming to be from The Washington Post. The call's description of our reporting methods bears no relationship to reality. We are shocked and appalled that anyone would stoop to this level to discredit real journalism."
The Conservative Reaction to Colin Kaepernick's GQ Cover:
Cultural flashpoints on the right can be at their most explosive when they involve questions over who we as a country consider our heroes. We saw it play out when Caitlyn Jenner was awarded the Arthur Ashe award at the 2015 ESPYs. I wrote about it at the time for the Washington Post, and noted the tendency for some conservatives to view heroism as a zero-sum game. If Jenner was a hero, what about the troops?
But Kaepernick being honored by GQ feels potentially even more divisive. Jenner was herself a conservative at a time when acceptance of transgender people was growing is the US. Kaepernick is a liberal at a time when a plurality of Americans are opposed to pro football anthem protests.
Some of the reactions include this photoshopped version of the GQ cover with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's face, calling him "GO-KNEEL" and the "worst 'leader' in human history," from @thebradfordfile, a MAGA account that @realDonaldTrump RTed last month. | | Credit: @thebradfordfile/Twitter
On Fox News, Greg Gutfeld mocked GQ in his monologue and warned the magazine about becoming another Teen Vogue, which announced two weeks ago it would cease regular print publication after becoming a progressive darling for its political coverage this year.
Rep. Brian Mast, a Florida Republican and Army veteran who was wounded in Afghanistan, told "Fox & Friends" that Kaepernick has been divisive, disrespectful, and that he stole "one of the greatest moments of Americana in professional sports out of everybody's life and I don't think that's worthy of praise."
And of course, Tomi Lahren weighed in, saying, "Wouldn't it be nice if some of these mainstream fashion magazines and lifestyle magazines look at the actual heroes we have? Law enforcement, military, everyday heroes like that?" | | Credit: Fox News
Imagine a Donald Trump v. LaVar Ball Feud:
Kate mentioned Trump's tweet about the UCLA basketball players this a.m. We're now all waiting to see if LaVar Ball, father of one of the players, LiAngelo, responds.
Ball is a bombastic brand-building father of three ball players, including Lonzo, who plays for the Lakers, and LaMelo, who's still in high school, and he's been described as the Donald Trump of sports by GQ in April ("He has embraced Donald Trump's playbook and is using it to perfection. In politics, that's a scary and worrying playbook. In sports? It's entertaining as hell. I wish more people treated sports as pro wrestling, because why not?") and Axios in May ("Donald Trump created the blueprint for building an avalanche of earned media momentum: be the loudest, most outrageous voice in the room. Generate buzz with confrontational statements, outsized self-promotion, and abundant charisma. Now we're seeing that strategy executed to a tee in a different habitat of the media ecosystem, and it could lead to more copycats.").
I've turned my LaVar Ball notifications on and am now patiently waiting.
This Barstool Sports Profile is So Good:
A 21-year-old intern at the sports media start-up named Noah Ives said interning at ESPN was on his mind in college, but Barstool is a "cooler brand" that people his age respect, describing the worldwide leader in sports by saying, "ESPN is just spitting facts and political correctness." This is what the story's author, Jay Caspian Kang, wrote about ESPN dropping Barstool Sports' show after a single episode:
"The cancellation sparked joy in sports media's more progressive ranks, which tend to view Barstool with the same disdain that their colleagues in political news might view Breitbart or The Daily Caller."
The Woman Who Got Fired After She Flipped off Trump's Motorcade Has Raised Six Figures:
A GoFundMe account for Juli Briskman passed the $100,000 earlier this afternoon.
Concert Security Post-Manchester and -Las Vegas:
Mike Downing, the vice president of Prevent Advisors, a firm that does security consulting for 28 arenas, told Rolling Stone he's suggesting to clients they should consider "overwatch" prep, or analyzing possible bullet trajectories from nearby buildings, something he does for presidents and diplomats. He also said he spoke recently with an Iraqi general who asked him, "How could such a mature, developed society such as America have this kind of savagery all the time?"
Congrats, KFILE:
Our Andrew Kaczynski made Forbes' media 30 under 30 list. 🙌🙌🙌
Street Art Sighting:
I call it "The Rock ... et Man." As seen near Dupont Circle. | | Credit: @hunterschwarz/Instagram
Send your political street art pics to me at coverlinehunter@cnn.com, tweet me @hunterschwarz or tag @cnncoverline on Instagram. | | | | | | |
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