| | | | | President Trump boards Air Force One in West Palm Beach, Florida, Sunday as he returns to Washington, D.C. Credit: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images | | | Trump, He's Just Like Us: I mean, I watch TV and drink Diet Coke
What Washington is Talking About: It's Alabama special Election Day eve
Trump Accusers Getting Their #MeToo Moment: Trump's accusers are back, and UN Amb. Nikki Haley said they should "be heard" | | | What the White House is Talking About:
President Trump signs a space policy directive today.
What the White House Press Corps is Talking About:
How many Diet Cokes the President drinks a day.
To the Moon! (And Maybe Mars?):
Trump is moving forward with his pledge to invest more in space exploration. According to the White House press office, the Space Policy Directive 1 gives more attention to the goal of sending American astronauts back to the moon and eventually to Mars. This sentence in a statement from deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley is interesting: "[Trump] will change our nation's human spaceflight policy to help America become the driving force for the space industry, gain new knowledge from the cosmos, and spur incredible technology." I'm going to miss you, 2017, for your sheer weirdness with each news cycle.
Obama Records Robocalls:
Barack Obama is not just quietly observing tomorrow's Alabama election for the US Senate, he's getting involved. CNN's Jeff Zeleny was first to report this morning the details of Obama's recorded messages for Alabama residents, imploring them to get out and vote for Roy Moore's opponent, Doug Jones. "This one's serious. You can't sit it out," says Obama in one of the messages, which sources tell Zeleny were recorded in recent days as President Trump stepped up his (very vocal) endorsement of Moore. | | Trump, He's Just Like Us:
I mean, I watch TV and drink Diet Coke ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. This weekend's New York Times feature on what the President does day to day for what they deem is "self-preservation" was big on color, but not super-robust on information. However, the Times' claim that Trump watches between four and eight hours of television a day brought a salty tweet from the President this morning. | | Credit: @realDonaldTrump/Twitter
The Best Holiday Gifts, According to WH Social Secs:
This is a cute/insightful gift guide in New York magazine, authored by Lea Berman and Jeremy Bernard. Berman, who was White House social secretary during the George W. Bush years, and Bernard, who served in the same role for the Obama administration, are co-authoring the upcoming book, "Treating People Well: The Extraordinary Power of Civility at Work and in Life." I like this idea of a GoPro for your dog -- I'm easy like that. Here's where Berman got the idea: | | Credit: nymag.com
Bonjeans Go Full Tori Spelling:
For the past 14 years, Ron and Sara Bonjean (GOP strategists), have hosted a super-popular, annual Christmas party at their Virginia home, and it's become something of a legend, mainly because DC wonks go bananas for celebrities. The kitschy part of the party is that the Bonjeans invite a secret celebrity guest to attend, and this "celebrity" basically spends the entirety of the party taking selfies with over-eager Washington types who are reliving some sort of late aughts/early 90s popularity fantasy. This year the guest was Tori Spelling, so there were lots of "Donna Martin graduates!" references, see below, (if you don't know what I'm talking about you're too young to care so I won't go into an explanation), and glowing reviews about how nice she was in person. Full disclosure: I have never attended a Bonjean party, but might someday because I'm most impressed by the couple's commitment to coordinating holiday ensembles, and not because I want to make googly-eyes at a celebrity who served as part of my early pop culture vernacular who is now reduced to collecting checks for random appearances -- just can't. | | Credit: @mkhammer/Twitter
Here are the Bonjeans' plaid looks from the party this year, and their floral designs at last year's bash with guest Flavor Flav. Their dedication to fashion is worthy of applause: | | What Washington is Talking About:
It's Alabama special Election Day eve. Alabama's Sen. Richard Shelby, a Repub, told our Jake Tapper on Sunday's "State of the Union" that he "couldn't vote for Roy Moore" when he filled out his early ballot, writing in a candidate instead.
What America is Talking About:
The explosion this morning in New York City at the Port Authority Bus Station near Times Square. NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill said police responded to a call about the blast at about 7:20 a.m. and found a 27-year-old man wearing an improvised, low-tech explosive device on his body. Three bystanders were injured.
What Jerusalem is Talking About:
Protests in the region that began after Trump said the US would recognize the city as Israel's capital have mostly ended. On Sunday, two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
Trump Accusers Getting Their #MeToo Moment:
Three women who accused Trump of sexual assault appeared on Megyn Kelly's show this morning and at a news conference held by the group Brave New Films, calling for a congressional investigation into their claims. One of the accusers, Jessica Leeds, said at the news conference that the Harvey Weinstein story was "like an explosion in a shingle factory" and that although some of the men accused of sexual harassment and assault since then have been held accountable, "we are not holding our President accountable."
This comes after a female member of Trump's administration, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, said Sunday on CBS's "Face The Nation" that the women accusing Trump "should be heard." Haley said:
"We heard from them before the election. And I think any woman who has felt violated or felt mistreated in any way, they have every right to speak up."
Ronna Romney McDaniel Reportedly Dropped her Maiden Name for Trump:
Trump asked Ronna Romney McDaniel to drop the "Romney" before she took over the role of RNC chairwoman, according to the Washington Post. McDaniel, the granddaughter of former Michigan governor and 1968 presidential candidate George Romney and niece of Mitt Romney, had used her maiden name for years in Michigan politics, but it's gone. Our Andrew Kaczynski found changes to her Twitter bio between May 2017 and December 2017: | | Credit: @KFile/Twitter
Former Facebook Exec Feels Guilty About Facebook:
Chamath Palihapitiya, a former vice president of user growth at Facebook, said he feels "tremendous guilt" about the social media site. "I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works," he said in remarks in November that are receiving renewed attention.
"The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we've created are destroying how society works," he said. "No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth. And it's not an American problem — this is not about Russian ads. This is a global problem."
Eminem Talks to Elton John About Trump and "The Storm":
Eminem said in an interview with Elton John for Interview magazine that his anti-Trump rap "The Storm" was originally supposed to be performed live at the BET Hip-Hop Awards, but last-minute changes to his plans meant it was pre-taped in Detroit. He said:
"One of the things we were trying to mimic was Public Enemy's 'You're Gonna Get Yours' cover. I don't know if anybody got that, but that's kind of the feel that we were going for. My main concern was trying to get the message out and also memorize all the words. I have a hard time memorizing stuff. I'm always in the process of writing a new song, so trying to learn a new one takes a minute."
Eminem said opposition to Trump isn't meant as disrespect to the country, the flag, or the military, and the freedom to express that opposition is "exactly what the people in the military and the people who have given their lives for this country have fought for."
"We have a president who does not care about everybody in our country; he is not the president for all of us, he is the president for some of us. He knows what he's doing. As long as he's got his base, he does not give a f**k about anybody else in America. But guess what? There's more of us than there are of them. I still feel like America is the greatest country to live in. This is my opinion. But we have issues that we need to work on and we need to do better." | | Credit: Craig McDean for Interview
Street Art Sighting:
Projection artist Robin Bell has again hit the Trump International Hotel in D.C., projecting this image about Puerto Rico on the side of the building: | | Credit: @julito77/Twitter
Send your political street art pics to me at coverlinehunter@cnn.com, tweet me @hunterschwarz or tag @cnncoverline on Instagram. | | | | | | |
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