| | | | A week in Washington not about Donald Trump (sort of) | | | President Donald Trump is a scene eater. From the moment he emerged on the political scene in June 2015, it was hard to take your eyes off him. He said things and acted in ways that no politician -- certainly not one running for president -- ever dared to. He was -- and is -- incredibly watchable.
What all that means is that when you sit back on a Friday afternoon to write a reflection on the week that was, you are almost always writing about Donald Trump. Not just because he is president, but because he goes out of his way to make as much news as possible, to always be the center of attention.
This week was, in theory, going to be an exception to that rule. John McCain's death over the last weekend meant that the week would almost certainly be focused on the remarkable life of the late Arizona senator. With memorial services in Arizona and Washington, and a funeral service set for Saturday at the Naval Academy, it seemed like this was a week where Donald Trump might take a backseat -- and rightly so.
That's not exactly how things turned out.
On Monday, sharp observers noticed that the flags flying over the White House, which had been flying at half-staff over the weekend to honor McCain, had been returned to full-staff on Monday morning. After a day spent equivocating and taking loads of incoming criticism from all over the political spectrum, the White House announced late Monday that flags would fly half staff over 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue all the way until McCain's burial on Saturday.
On Thursday, a Bloomberg reporter asked Trump whether he regretted that kerfuffle -- given McCain's service to the country, in both war and elected office. "No, I don't think I did at all," Trump replied. "I -- I've -- I've done everything that they requested, and no, I don't think I have at all. You know, we had our disagreements and they were very strong disagreements. I disagreed with many of the things that I assume he believed in. But with that being said, I respect his service to the country."
Suddenly, Trump was the story -- or at least a major part of the story. Which, of course, is how Trump wants it. Of course, accomplishing a goal isn't the same thing as showing grace and class.
-- Chris
And now, the week that was in 24 headlines:
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday | | "When word went out that Ms. Franklin passed, Trump said 'she used to work for me.' No, she used to perform for you, she worked for us. Aretha never took orders from nobody but God."
-- Al Sharpton criticizing Trump over his comments about Franklin after her death, during a service on Friday in Detroit. | | | MCCAIN HONORED IN WASHINGTON | | CNN's Lauren Fox tells the story:
"On Friday, John McCain came home to the Senate one last time, becoming only the 31st person to lie in state in the US Capitol, a rare honor reserved for government officials and military officers. While minutes before the sun had shone over the dome, as McCain, carried by an honor guard, ascended the steps, the clouds opened and rain poured down.
Shortly before 11 a.m., McCain's body entered the Capitol Rotunda. They set the casket atop President Abraham Lincoln's catafalque, a wooden structure that has been used for decades for such services. McCain's former colleagues looked on...
...McCain's wife, Cindy, visited her husband's desk on the Senate floor with McCain's friend, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. While in the chamber, Cindy McCain sat in her husband's chair. Graham sat in his own chair. After a brief conversation, Graham took two white roses out of a vase that had been sitting on McCain's desk all week and gave them to Cindy McCain.
The public began filing into the Capitol to pay their respects to McCain around 1 p.m."
Fox has a rundown of what McCain's former colleagues said during an emotional day in DC. | | | Holy crap: Justin Vernon (of Bon Iver) and Aaron Dessner (of The National) have a side project called Big Red Machine. And there's a whole album of new music! | | | Today's topic: Chris wonders: Who will be the next John McCain in the Senate? | | A new Washington Post-ABC News poll released Friday brought some sad(!) summer numbers for Trump, whose attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions and special counsel Robert Mueller do not seem to be breaking through -- at least, not in the way he's intended.
CNN's Colin McCullough sorted through the survey for the BIG numbers:
1. Trump's job performance, approve or disapprove?
60% disapprove; 36% approve.
2. Should Trump fire Sessions?
64% say no; 19% say yes. (Notable: 47% of REPUBLICANS say no.)
3. Support or oppose Mueller's investigation?
63% support; 29% oppose.
4. Should Trump pardon former campaign chair Paul Manafort?
66% oppose; 18% support.
5. Did Trump commit a crime if he told his erstwhile fixer Michael Cohen to pay off women alleging affairs?
61% said yes; 31% said no.
For more on this and more on the poll, here's the full story. | | Trump campaigned for GOP Senate nominee Mike Braun in Indiana on Thursday. And by campaign, we of course mean gave a meandering speech, mostly about himself, to a crowd of supporters who gleefully gobbled it up. Chris pulled out a mere 43 interesting, odd or otherwise noteworthy lines.
Here's a taste of what you might have missed:
1. "But when I start screaming 'fake news,' you see those red lights go off for a little while. You know, excuse me, we have technical difficulties, OK, then they go back."
Note: We only know Trump said this because ... it was recorded. By TV cameras.
2. "If Crooked Hillary came here, if she had 300 to 500 people -- first of all, she wouldn't be in this building. She'd be in a hotel conference room. It would be a conference room, right?"
As Cillizza notes: "The 2016 election ended 661 days ago."
3. "These -- this is a group of gang members -- I can't say 'animals' anymore, because Nancy Pelosi got very angry when I called them animals. I called them animals. She went crazy. I can't do it."
Yup, just the President of the United States moaning that the Democratic House minority leader doesn't want him to call undocumented immigrants "animals." Pelosi's quote, in context, is here.
4. "They want to raid Medicare to pay for socialism. Somehow I don't see Indiana being the next Venezuela. I just don't see it."
Remember the guy at a 2009 town hall who said, "keep your government hands off my Medicare." He's basically the President now.
5. "And now tomorrow you're going to read headlines, 'Trump had protesters all over the place.' One person. One person."
Well, no, that wasn't a big headline, but it could have (should have?) been after this image emerged of a staff member's (literal) handiwork. The man in the photo below was caught by an AP photographer trying to block another photojournalist from snapping a picture of a protester: | | Suddenly (somewhat) endangered Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who is running uncomfortably close to Democratic challenger Rep. Beto O'Rourke in the polls, will get a visit from Trump in October.
"I'm picking the biggest stadium in Texas we can find," Trump tweeted early this afternoon. "As you know, Ted has my complete and total Endorsement. His opponent is a disaster for Texas - weak on Second Amendment, Crime, Borders, Military, and Vets!"
Cruz tweeted back a few hours later, saying: "Terrific! Texas will be glad to see you..."
CNN's Rebecca Berg has more on why this is so important and, honestly, super weird (given the history between the two). | | Former secretary of state, US senator and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry is not not running.
At least, that was the only reasonable takeaway from his non-answer to a question from CBS News' Margaret Brennan, who asked if he would run for president again.
"Talking about 2020 right now is a total distraction and waste of time," Kerry said, notably omitting the word "no" from his response. "What we need to do is focus on 2018. We need to win back the confidence of the country to move in a better direction and to do it in sensible ways."
For progressive Dems fretting that Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren could split the party's left (a simplistic view, but anyway...) in 2020, the prospect of Kerry joining the race and potentially siphoning off support and donor dough from a potential run by Joe Biden could be equally concerning.
Potentially. | | THE NEW FACES OF DEMOCRATIC POLITICS | | The Democratic Party is changing. But how?
The nomination of three African-American progressive gubernatorial candidates gives us some strong insight into how.
To start: 2016 is over, folks. Done. Sorry! Florida's Andrew Gillum, Georgia's Stacey Abrams and Ben Jealous of Maryland were all backed during the primaries by Sen. Bernie Sanders. Abrams was also endorsed by Hillary Clinton. Gillum and Abrams supported Clinton in 2016. Jealous was a top surrogate for Sanders.
Point being, the rifts from two years ago still exist -- but mostly as part of a political argument that a healthy party, frankly, should be having while it's out of power. The divide as a personality-driven psychodrama is all but over, but for some dead-enders on Twitter.
Here's a longer -- but not loooong -- look at the trio and what people around them are saying about their campaigns. | | | From Brenna: "President Trump met the president of FIFA earlier this week. He gave a red card to the press. Hardy har har. Make your friends smile by sharing The Point with them and check out more GIFs from this week in politics here." | | | | | | |
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