| | | | Russia investigation: Trump lawyer won't cooperate with Congress | | | One of President Donald Trump's personal attorneys, Michael Cohen, has confirmed that he received an "invitation to provide information and testimony" that pertains to the Russia investigation to House and Senate intelligence committees. "I declined the invitation to participate, as the request was poorly phrased, overly broad and not capable of being answered," Cohen told CNN's Jim Acosta and Tom LoBianco, adding that he considered it a "total fishing expedition." "They have yet to produce one single piece of credible evidence that would corroborate the Russia narrative," Cohen said. He called the investigation a "rush to judgment." | | Trump doesn't know how the Senate works | | | President Donald Trump began today with a curious tweet: | | A few points here:
1) On health care and tax reform, the Senate is already operating under a 51-vote threshold. They're moving under budget reconciliation rules -- which means the rule change Trump wants is, for those two bills, already in place.
2) For legislation generally, the elimination of the 60-vote filibuster-breaking threshold is just not gonna happen. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said so in April. "The core of the Senate is the legislative filibuster," McConnell told USA Today. "This notion that this [changing the filibuster rule to confirm Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch] somehow bleeds over into the legislative filibuster is untrue. I'm opposed to it ... I think that's what fundamentally changes the Senate."
Trump's problem on both health care and tax reform is with Republicans. And it's not clear whether he's just not briefed on basic Senate rules or knows them and is intentionally misleading people in an effort to blame Democrats if the measures stall. CNN's Chris Cillizza has more. | | "People who lost the vote hate to acknowledge that they indeed lost because the person who won was closer to the people and had a better understanding of what people wanted." -- Russian President Vladimir Putin, claiming -- contrary to US intelligence agencies' conclusion -- that Russia did not meddle in the 2016 presidential election, in an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro. | | | | Kathy Griffin's photo by Tyler Shields of her holding a detached, blood-covered head resembling Donald Trump burned up Twitter -- and drew widespread condemnation -- this afternoon after TMZ posted it. Griffin later apologized in a video posted to her Twitter account, saying: "I went too far." | | From CNN's Chris Cillizza: President Donald Trump is increasingly frustrated with the inability of his White House to move beyond the story of Russia's meddling into the 2016 election and possible collusion with his campaign. He is openly considering a staff shuffle among his senior aides. His polling numbers are at record lows for this stage of a presidential tenure.
You wouldn't know any of that if you tuned into White House press secretary Sean Spicer's daily press briefing -- an optimism-laden, everything-is-awesome romp that ended with Spicer citing a single tweet from a single reporter as evidence that his boss's long-standing claims about "fake news" are entirely justified. | | Then things went off the rails. Asked to comment on the reporting that White House adviser Jared Kushner had sought a secret back channel by which to communicate with the Russians, Spicer offered only this: "I am not going to get into what the president did or didn't discuss." Then Spicer started to veer from established facts, offering a dubious take on communications director Mike Dubke's departure.
Then Spicer began to attack the "fake news" for not covering all the good things Trump had done and was doing. CNN's Jim Acosta asked Spicer to name an example of a news story that was fake. Spicer's response? Citing a tweet by a BBC reporter that erroneously reported that the President was not wearing an earpiece to hear the translation of remarks made by Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni. (The BBC reporter corrected himself after being told by the White House Trump was wearing a small, not-very-visible earpiece.) He offered no further examples. | | | Political provocateur and Donald Trump ally Roger Stone -- who has acknowledged he still talks to Trump -- tweeted a completely unsubtle indication that White House chief of staff Reince Priebus's days in the role are numbered, and that Priebus could land instead as the US ambassador to Greece. | | 3 things you might have missed today | | SCOTUS will consider Ohio voter purge case: The Supreme Court agreed to hear a case concerning whether Ohio's method of removing names from its voter rolls violates federal law. A federal appeals court said last fall that the program violated the National Voter Registration Act, and the state of Ohio appealed. More from CNN's Ariane de Vogue.
White House communications director stepping down: White House communications director Mike Dubke is leaving the administration, he said, amid swirling speculation about a possible Trump staff shakeup. He told CNN he submitted his resignation on May 18 but offered to stay until the end of President Donald Trump's foreign trip. A final day has not been set, Dubke said. More from CNN's Jeff Zeleny, Jim Acosta and Sara Murray.
Trump signals he's ready to exit Paris climate accord: Trump has signaled he's ready to withdraw or dramatically alter the landmark Paris climate agreement ahead of an expected announcement this week, though he is still weighing a final decision amid new pressure from foreign governments, business leaders and members of his own party to remain committed to the carbon reduction pact. More from CNN's Kevin Liptak. | | | President Donald Trump met with two candidates to be the next director of the FBI. ... Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs replaced his glasses after they were broken when he was allegedly assaulted by Republican Congressman-elect Greg Gianforte. ... Trump returns to the White House this week just as he left -- lonely, angry and not happy with much of anyone. | | | Get the Nightcap, a comprehensive summary of the most important political news, delivered to your inbox daily. | | | | | |
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