| | | | John Dowd's resignation tells you a lot about Donald Trump's mindset | | The resignation of John Dowd, Donald Trump's top personal attorney, is the latest -- and largest -- signal the President of the United States is shifting his strategy in regards to special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Even as Mueller's questions for Trump have come into much sharper relief over the past 10 days, Trump has upped his personal attacks on the former FBI director while adding controversial conservative attorney/talking head Joseph diGenova to his team. And now, the Dowd resignation.
The message is unmistakable: The closer Mueller and his team move to Trump himself -- the terms of an interview between the special counsel and the President remain a matter of considerable debate -- the more the President appears to be bracing for a very negative end result from the investigation and putting the pieces in places to win the PR battle that will follow the conclusion of the Mueller probe.
Remember that Dowd was part of the legal brain trust that assured Trump this whole Mueller probe would be wrapped up by the end of the year, that there was absolutely nothing to worry about and that the best course of action for Trump was to ignore Mueller.
What appears to have dawned on Trump is that playing nice (or his version of nice) with Mueller isn't working. Mueller doesn't appear to be moving to end the probe any time soon and he seems disinclined to treat Trump nicely. Of course, this was always a ridiculous supposition by Trump: Mueller is leading a criminal investigation and will go wherever the evidence leads. The idea that he would go easy on the President because Trump didn't attack him by name is totally without grounding in anything we know about Mueller.
Read my full take here.
--Chris | | Dowd isn't the only one to depart the White House today. On Thursday afternoon (aka when most news breaks), CNN's Zachary Cohen reported: "President Donald Trump's national security adviser H.R. McMaster has agreed to resign, a White House official announced on Thursday.
"The two have been discussing this for some time. The timeline was expedited as they both felt it was important to have the new team in place, instead of constant speculation," the official said. "This was not related to any one moment or incident, rather it was the result of ongoing conversations between the two."
"McMaster will be replaced by John Bolton, Trump tweeted."
Read more here, and read Chris' take from earlier this month about Trump's very public embarrassment of McMaster here. | | "This can be a very mean-spirited town."
-Rex Tillerson, about Washington, during his State Department farewell address | | | | Bustle made a list of 23 songs from "The O.C." (best show!). And since it's Thursday, may as well enjoy this musical #tbt. | | CNN's Caroline Kenny writes: "Former California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't shy about saying who he wants to challenge President Donald Trump in 2020.
"The former movie star-turned-politician is calling on Ohio Gov. John Kasich to make a second run for the Oval Office. Kasich, who ran against Trump in 2016, is consistently named as a potential Republican alternative to Trump.
"John, get back to Washington and kick some butt and take care of this mess, once and for all. We can't take it anymore," the actor and former California governor told Kasich in Sacramento on Wednesday at an event hosted by New Way California. "Your vision and inclusiveness is just what our nation needs," Schwarzenegger said to Kasich in front of the crowd."
Read more here. Also, check out CNN's list of people talking about whether they'll run for president (from CNN's Sam Petulla, Jenny Hansler and Eric Bradner). It will continue to be updated. | | Comedian Stephen Colbert did Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's infamous workout -- with RBG herself.
"How strong are you on the Second Amendment? Because welcome to the gun show," Colbert says in a clip released by CBS' "Late Show" on Wednesday.
Ginsburg is 85 years old and a two-time cancer survivor. In 2017, the book "The RBG Workout: How She Stays Strong ... and You Can Too!" was released by her personal trainer, Bryant Johnson, and gives readers a peek at Ginsburg's workouts. Read more in CNN's story by Sophie Tatum here and watch the clip here. | | ICYMI: ZUCKERBERG IS SORRY FB DATA GOT COMPROMISED | | In an exclusive interview with CNN's Laurie Segall, Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg apologized for how his company handled the Cambridge Analytica debacle. The data firm, which has ties to President Donald Trump's campaign, reportedly accessed information from about 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge. Read the transcript here or watch the interview here.
Chris' take? Facebook has a problem that not even Zuckerberg can solve -- as he writes: The greatest strength of Facebook is also its largest weakness -- or, in terms more apropos for what happened in the 2016 election -- its biggest vulnerability: The sheer size of it. | | | Sens. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, and Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, ventured outside Thursday morning for a "snowball duel," CNN's Sophie Tatum reports. "The stakes: Loser would have to buy pizza for the winner's staff. Booker announced he lost the duel to Flake." Read more about the snowball fight here. | |  | | H/T Brenna | | | Snowbody said recovering from a snow day was easy. But at least it's Thursday! As always, please tell people you know to subscribe to The Point. | | We'd love to share our other newsletters with you. Follow this link for daily coverage of the world's top stories, savvy market insights, an insider's look into the media, and more. Our authors for The Point are Chris Cillizza and Saba Hamedy. Send your tips and thoughts via email to Chris or Saba. Follow on Twitter: Chris and Saba. | | | | | | |
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