| | | | Rudy Giuliani's totally irrational quid pro quo | | Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani has started saying something interesting -- and totally irrational -- in interviews this week: That President Donald Trump's decision on whether to sit down with special counsel Robert Mueller depends, at least in part, on what information the Justice Department hands over in what the President has taken to calling "Spygate."
"We want to see how the briefing went today and how much we learned from it," Giuliani told Politico's Darren Samuelsohn on Thursday of the Justice Department's briefings for a handful of lawmakers on an informant's work in 2016. "If we learned a good deal from it, it will shorten that whole process considerably."
Here's BuzzFeed on Giuliani:
Rudy Giuliani says that an ultimate decision won't be made on whether President Donald Trump will sit for an interview with Special Counsel Robert Mueller until "the details of this 'Spygate' situation" are figured out.
And here's HuffPost: That decision, though, will apparently hinge on whether Trump is given whatever report is produced following a Justice Department probe of the FBI's use of an informant to learn about his campaign's contacts with Russia. Trump demanded the review on Sunday following a coordinated effort by his Capitol Hill allies and conservative media to discredit the informant. "Are we going to get a report on 'spygate'?" Giuliani said, using the term Trump invented this week.
That is amazing/appalling.
Let's remember that Trump has invented the idea that the FBI authorized a "spy" to be embedded in his 2016 campaign out of whole cloth. No source familiar with the FBI's operations says anything like that happened. What did happen is that the FBI had suspicions about contacts between two Trump advisers -- Carter Page and George Papadopoulos -- and Russian officials. So they used a longtime confidential source to talk to the two men -- as a way to suss out what the Russians might be up to.
There is no "Spygate." Not based on the available facts. (Rep. Adam Schiff, ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said this on Thursday after being briefed about the confidential sources by DOJ officials: "Nothing we heard today has changed our view that there is no evidence to support any allegation that the FBI or any intelligence agency placed a spy in the Trump campaign.")
To use a trumped-up -- ahem -- controversy as a negotiating tool for a presidential interview in an investigation in which five people (including Trump's deputy campaign chairman and his national security adviser) have already pleaded guilty is a remarkable move.
The Point: Giuliani continues to go back and forth as to whether Trump will sit down with Mueller. But to use the carrot-and-stick approach to extract supposed information on a conspiracy theory that the President has convinced himself of is a new low.
-Chris | | "You are a victim of your success in one way."
- "Fox & Friends" co-host Brian Kilmeade in an interview with President Donald Trump on Thursday morning. (Read Chris' 14 most memorable lines from the interview here). | | | Big news from the White House: There will be no more summit with North Korean leaders. CNN's Jeremy Diamond, Kevin Liptak and Elise Labott reported: "President Donald Trump will not meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un next month, he announced in a letter to Kim released by the White House Thursday morning, scrapping plans for what would have been a historic diplomatic summit. ... Trump and Kim were scheduled to meet in Singapore on June 12, for what would have been the first face-to-face meeting between a US and North Korean leader ...
"Still, the collapse of the summit was not entirely a surprise, even if Thursday's announcement was abrupt. North Korea has offered diplomatic openings to the United States several times over the past decades, only to return to bellicose threats. Hours later, a North Korean official lashed out at (Vice President) Pence and said Pyongyang is ready for a nuclear showdown if dialogue with the United States fails."
Read more here. | | | Robert Zimmerman (aka Bob Dylan) was born in Duluth, Minnesota 77 years ago today. I grew up not liking Dylan because my dad was so into him, and, as a teenager, you never think what your dad likes is cool. In college, I realized my dad was right. I love lots and lots of music. I don't love anyone as much as I love Bob Dylan. Here's Bob doing "Mr. Tambourine Man" live at the Newport Folk Festival in 1964. And, thanks Dad. -- Chris | | CNN's Betsy Klein and Jennifer Hansler reported Thursday: "President Donald Trump granted a posthumous pardon to boxer Jack Johnson on the advice of actor Sylvester Stallone."
"Today I've issued an executive grant of clemency, a full pardon, posthumously, to John Arthur 'Jack' Johnson. ... The first African-American heavyweight champion of the world, a truly great fighter. Had a tough life," Trump said. Trump was joined in the Oval Office by Stallone, current heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder and Johnson's great-great niece Linda Bell Haywood, among others. Last month, Trump said he was considering the pardon. Read more here.
In April, Trump granted a pardon to Scooter Libby, the chief of staff to then-Vice President Dick Cheney who was convicted of perjury in 2007. From CNN's story: "Libby had been convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in 2007 in the investigation into who leaked the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame. He was not accused of the leak itself."
Trump also used his pardon authority last year when he pardoned Joe Arpaio, a controversial sheriff in Arizona who had been convicted of criminal contempt related to his hard-line tactics going after undocumented immigrants. | | SENATE PASSES BILL TO ADDRESS HARASSMENT ON THE HILL | | From CNN's Sunlen Serfaty: "Long stalled legislation to address how Congress handles sexual harassment passed the Senate by unanimous consent on Thursday.
"The bill now goes back to the House, where the expectation is that there will be a conference committee to work out the differences between the two bills after Congress returns from its weeklong Memorial Day recess. The House passed its version in February. The legislation moved forward following a deal reached by Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt and Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar."
Read more here. | | WOMEN RUNNING FOR OFFICE: BY THE #'S | | CNN's Grace Sparks took a look at the uptick of women running for office. Here are some main takeaways from the story: - More than a quarter of this year's 33 Senate races have no female candidates. Women make up more than 50% of candidates in only three states: Hawaii, Nebraska and Wisconsin.
- In 2018, a record share -- 22% -- of candidates are women, a peak not seen since 1994, when the share was 19%.
- In 2018, 107 women hold seats in Congress, 20% of the 535 members. Of these women, 78 are Democrats and 29 are Republicans. This is the largest number of women ever representing constituents on Capitol Hill.
Read more in her full story here, filled with graphics like the one above by CNN's Joyce Tseng. | | PAUL RYAN MAKES CASE FOR CATHOLICISM | | House Speaker Paul Ryan spoke at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, where he "made the case for Catholicism as a faith that can help solve the country's problems," CNN's Ashley Killough reported.
"If there was ever a time, if there was ever a place where Catholics — from the clergy to the laity — are needed, it is here and it is now, helping solve this problem, addressing this challenge," Ryan said. "Our social doctrine is the perfect antidote to what ails our culture."
Read more here. | | | From Brenna: "Go ahead, pinch yourself. (It's what you do every evening when you open this newsletter anyway, right?) Nope, you're not dreaming and/or nightmare-ing. Former Vice President Joe Biden is back! He was speaking at an event for the NY state Democrats." As always, thanks for reading. And if you don't mind, 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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