| | | | Donald Trump 'feels' like there was voter fraud in 2016. So? | | Here's an actual quote from White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Monday afternoon: "The president still feels there was a large amount of voter fraud."
So.
Well.
Ok.
But, here's the thing: Last I checked, how the President or me or anyone else "feels" about a topic is not a substitute for the established facts. And, in this case the established facts simply do not bear out what Trump feels.
Study after study has shown that allegations of widespread and/opr coordinated voter fraud simply isn't a thing.
Take this study by Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt, in which he tracked US elections from 2000 to 2014 in search of voter fraud, or, as he put it, "specific, credible allegation that someone may have pretended to be someone else at the polls."
He found 31 such instances out of more than 1 billion (yes, billion with a "b") votes cast. Thirty-one! That's .0000031% of all ballots cast. (That doesn't mean that each of those 31 shouldn't be examined closely in hopes of making that number zero. But what it does mean is that there is simply no evidence of any sort of broad-scale voter fraud in the country.)
In lieu of any evidence, Sanders offered this by way of explanation for Trump's "feeling": "We certainly know that there were a large number of incidences reported, but we can't be sure exactly how much because we weren't able to conduct the full review that the President wanted because a number of states did not want to cooperate and refused to participate."
It's true that Trump's vote fraud commission languished after 44 states and the District of Columbia failed to turn over some information to the group. But, that was far from a partisan move; 44 states refused!
And, citing that refusal as proof that some sort of bombshell details of widespread voter fraud does exist is super super sketchy.
--Chris | | WHAT EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW | | Some afternoon breaking news: The FBI raided the office of Michael Cohen, a personal lawyer and confidant of President Donald Trump, Cohen's attorney confirmed to CNN's Eli Watkins and Katelyn Polantz.
"The New York Times first reported on news of Monday's raid. A person briefed on the search told the Times that one of the topics being investigated was the payment Cohen facilitated to Stephanie Clifford, known as the porn actress Stormy Daniels. The FBI also seized emails, tax documents and business records, including communications between Trump and Cohen, according to the Times." Read more here.
Chris' initial reaction: "Whoa." Read his thoughts on the 5 questions that Cohen needs to answer. | | "Is he gonna wear a suit and tie and a clean white shirt? That's my biggest question. Is he gonna behave like an adult, as a major corporate leader, or give me this phony baloney -- what is it hoodies and dungarees?"
-Larry Kudlow, President Trump's economic adviser, on Mark Zuckerberg | | | | Mark Zuckerberg was in fact wearing a suit and tie as he arrived for meetings on Capitol Hill on Monday. The Facebook CEO will face down congressional lawmakers twice this week -- in back-to-back sessions Tuesday and Wednesday -- as he seeks to stop the bleeding from a series of recent negative news stories detailing Facebook's seemingly lax security standards with its users' data. Chris chatted with Laurie Segall, CNN's chief technology correspondent, to get more insight into the hearings. "The theme will be transparency," Laurie told Chris. Read more here. | | | The Point team minus Chris -- aka Saba, Brenna Williams and Leigh Munsil -- plus colleague Alysha Love spent Friday night catching a live show of "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend." It was awesome. So here's the show's leading ladies singing "Friendtopia." | | FLORIDA GOV. RICK SCOTT ANNOUNCES SENATE RUN | | CNN's Maegan Vazquez and Eric Bradner reported Monday a.m. that "Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott launched his long-anticipated challenge to Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson on Monday, officially kicking off one of 2018's most important -- and likely most expensive -- races. Scott announced his entry into the race in interviews and a video posted on his social media accounts reviewing his two terms as governor." Read more in their story here.
Chris' take? "The less obvious but more important impact of Scott's candidacy is that Democrats will now have to spend heavily -- VERY heavily -- to hold (or try to hold) the Florida seat. And that means less money for other potential races." Read more here.
Per CNN's latest Senate key race alerts, Florida is now a toss-up. Chris talks about this in a video using CNN's amazing magic wall. Watch here. | | TRUMP SYRIA DECISION COMING SOON | | CNN's Jeremy Diamond and Noah Gray report: President Donald Trump said Monday he will make a decision as early as this evening on the US response to what he called an 'atrocious' chemical weapons attack on civilians in Syria and warned that he will hold the responsible parties accountable.
"We cannot allow atrocities like that. Cannot allow it," Trump told reporters on Monday during a Cabinet meeting as he warned that "nothing's off the table." "If it's Russia, if it's Syria, if it's Iran, if it's all of them together, we'll figure it out and we'll know the answers quite soon." Read more in CNN's story.
Also, per reporting from CNN's Zachary Cohen: The United States has not ruled out launching airstrikes against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in response to the weekend's suspected chemical gas attack on civilians, Defense Secretary James Mattis said. | | SEN. DUCKWORTH GIVES BIRTH TO GIRL 👶🏽 🍼 | | Illinois Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth gave birth to a girl Monday, the first US senator to do so while in office. Duckworth had her first child in 2014, when she was serving in the House of Representatives. "Bryan, Abigail and I couldn't be happier to welcome little Maile Pearl as the newest addition to our family and we're deeply honored that our good friend Sen. Akaka was able to bless her name for us — his help in naming both of our daughters means he will always be with us," Duckworth said in her office's statement.
Read more in CNN's story by Daniella Diaz and Sunlen Serfaty. | | Click on CNN Politics' Instagram video story every Monday through Friday afternoon for more #content from Chris and Brenna Williams.
Can you guess today's topic based on these emojis? HINT: The topic is mentioned in today's newsletter.
👥 📖 🙇🏻♂️🆘🏛️ | | Brenna Williams is going to send some politics news from beyond the Beltway -- so you get more than just your daily dose of D.C. politics. Today, she writes:
Meanwhile in ... Alaska: Voters in Anchorage voted against a so-called "bathroom bill," which would have restricted restroom access for transgender people. The city's nondiscrimination ordinance allows people to choose facilities based on gender instead of sex assigned at birth. It was a close one -- 52.7% opposed the bill and 47.3% supported it. CNN's Emanuella Grinberg has more here. | | | Brenna writes of today's GIF: They're baaaaaack! Congress is back in D.C. this week after a two-week break. Rep. Barbara Comstock took the helm -- well, the gavel -- to bring the House into a quick pro forma session before things really get rolling again tomorrow. Happy Monday! Remind 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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