| | | | | President Trump enters the East Room of the White House Wednesday for a ceremony to present Valerie Nessel, widow of Air Force Tech Sgt. John Chapman, with his Medal of Honor. Credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images | | | The Time-Honored Art of the Flip: Trump wants flipping to be illegal
White House Fun Fact: How many gallons of paint does it take to cover the White House?
Nearly a Quarter of Trump's Instagram Posts Come From Fox News: @realdonaldtrump can sometimes feel like a Fox fan account | | | What the White House is Talking About:
President Trump with just one event on his public schedule today, a roundtable discussion on the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act.
What the White House Press Corps is Talking About:
The legal shenanigans the President has found himself tangled in.
"Everybody Would Be Very Poor":
So, this was Trump's analysis when asked what would happen if he were to be impeached. The stock market would crash, everyone would lose everything, the sky would fall, cats and dogs living together, it'll be anarchy. (Ok, that last one was Bill Murray in "Ghostbusters," but still.)
In a wide-ranging interview recorded yesterday on the patio outside the Oval Office and aired this morning on Fox News, Trump told Ainsley Earhardt that he doesn't know how you can impeach someone "who has done a great job." Now, I'm no constitutionalist, but I'm pretty sure that's not how it works.
The Time-Honored Art of the Flip:
Trump thinks flipping should be outlawed, even though it's been a tool handy enough in our legal system to have put away countless numbers of hardened criminals. But, yeah, Trump's like, make it go away. "It's called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal," he said in the interview. The President also says he knows all about flipping, and not the kind you can watch on HGTV: "I know all about flipping, 30, 40 years I have been watching flippers. Everything is wonderful and then they get 10 years in jail and they flip on whoever the next highest one is or as high as you can go." What he's saying is basically mob-speak for a rat is someone who squeals to the feds, or at least that's what I remember from "Goodfellas." Either way, Trump is adamant he did nothing wrong and that Cohen (now a guy he barely worked with, see below) is just telling lies to lower his possible jail sentence.
Cohen?:
The President is also distancing himself from the man he literally sat in an office NEXT TO for years and years in Trump Tower. A man who is on tape threatening a reporter for digging into Trump stories. A man who said he would do anything for Trump, who was proud to be called his "fixer." A man who worked for Trump as his personal lawyer and was executive vice president of the Trump Organization. Anyway, this is a good CNN explainer of the Trump-Cohen relationship, its evolution and its demise. And here's what Trump said about Michael Cohen in the Fox News interview that aired today: | | Credit: screenshot of interview transcript
Attorney General Job Requirement: Loyalty:
Sorry to keep going on about this interview, but the things the President talked about were pretty fire, including his take on Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Trump said he only put him in the role because Sessions had been loyal to him during the campaign. He added how upset he was that Sessions recused himself from being involved in the Russia investigation, and he blamed him for "never taking control" of the Justice Department. He then asked, "What kind of man is he?" Ouch.
TIME Magazine Cover Series is Actually Great:
No matter your political leanings, you have to hand it to the art directors at TIME magazine for their creativity with these covers of Trump being drowned in a storm. Artist Tim O'Brien's series started back in March. Here's the latest one, out this week: | | Credit: time.com
And here are the two previous O'Brien covers in the series: | | Credit: time.com
Mitch McConnell Has a Lot (of Nothing) to Say About Things:
CNN's Liz Landers caught up with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell this morning to ask him how he feels about the Cohen guilty plea and the latest Trump drama. He was ... not forthcoming. | | Credit: @marshallcohen/Twitter
White House Fun Fact:
You might have noticed from the live shots on CNN that something is happening on the North facade of the White House -- the whole place is getting a new paint job. It takes about 570 gallons of paint (said to be Duron's "Whisper White"), which can cost about $25,000. By the way, the White House was first made "white," from a whitewash used to protect the grayish sandstone it was originally built with -- Betsy Klein wrote a great piece about the history last year. You know I love a good fun fact 🤓. | | | Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | | What Washington is Talking About:
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi wrote a letter to fellow Democrats telling them that while they will hold President Trump and his administration accountable, they need to "stay focused on delivering our strong economic message to hard-working families," aka impeachment is not our midterm message.
Some key Senate Democrats, including Chuck Schumer and Kamala Harris, are calling for Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to be put on hold following this week's news about Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen.
And Republicans running in tight races have been given the green light from some party leaders to distance themselves from Trump, according to the New York Times. "Anybody who says this is not disturbing is not being honest," former congressman and NRCC head Tom Cole told NYT. "My advice to any candidate would be: Keep your powder dry and don't rush to attack or defend anybody because you just don't know enough to have a reaction that you can still defend three months from now."
What America is Talking About:
Hurricane Lane is threatening Hawaii, "The Big Bang Theory" announced its final season, and George Clooney bested The Rock to top Forbes' list of the highest-paid actors, thanks to the sale of his tequila company.
Poll of the Day:
Support for special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation has risen from 48% of registered voters in July to 59% in August, according to a Fox News poll released last night. | | Credit: Fox News
The increase appears to come from a decline in respondents saying they don't know what they think about the investigation, from 12% last month down to just 4% now.
DNC Hack Attempt was False Alarm:
The DNC contacted the FBI Tuesday after finding a fake login page for Votebuilder, their online voter database, that could be used to obtain users' login passwords. It turns out neither Russia nor Iran was behind it -- it was the Michigan Democratic Party, which conducted a security test but forgot to tell the national party.
Nearly a Quarter of Trump's Instagram Posts Come From Fox News:
I did some digging through Trump's Insta and found that between May 22 and August 22, it reposted 85 photos or videos from Fox News, Fox Business, or "Fox & Friends." That equaled about 24% of all @realdonaldtrump Instagram posts in that three-month time period. Many of these reposts were Fox graphics of Trump tweets, creating a social media feedback loop: Trump tweets, Fox turns the tweet into an image for Instagram, and Trump's Instagram account reposts it. | | Credit: @realdonaldtrump/Instagram
Steven Tyler Wants Trump to Stop Playing Aerosmith:
Tyler's attorney sent Trump a cease-and-desist letter after he played Aerosmith's "Livin' on the Edge" at his rally in West Virginia Tuesday. "I do not let anyone use my songs without my permission," Tyler said in a statement. "My music is for causes not political campaigns or rallies. Protecting copyright and songwriters is what I've been fighting for even before this current administration took office."
LeBron and Other Athletes Love Beto O'Rourke's Answer on NFL Protests:
A video of the Texas Democrat saying that he "can think of nothing more American than to peacefully stand up or take a knee for your rights" when asked about the NFL's racial injustice protests during the anthem has caught the eye of sports stars like LeBron James, Kurt Warner, and Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr. In the video, O'Rourke said although "reasonable people can disagree" on the protests, "they take a knee to bring our attention and our focus to this problem."
Guys, Super Deluxe's Alex Jones Folk Song is on Spotify:
Last July, Super Deluxe (full disclosure, it's owned by Warner Media, which is also the parent company of CNN) turned some Jones rants into a Bon Iver-style folk song, and it's now up on Spotify, along with an album's worth of Super Deluxe music, including "Trump Speeches as an Emo Song," "Meghan Kelly as a Screamo Song," and "Sarah Huckabee Sanders as a Country Song." Amazing. | | Credit: via Spotify
Street Art Sighting:
The street art group Indecline put up this "Greetings from America" mural near the intersection of Melrose and Fairfax in Los Angeles. Each letter in "America" has a different image inside. The "M" is Trump in front of the KKK, the "E" is Breitbart and Fox News, and the "R" is a 2016 ballot box in front of a Russian flag. | | Credit: @impermanent_art/Instagram
If you spot political street art, tweet me @hunterschwarz, tag me on Instagram @hunterschwarz, or email me at coverlinehunter@cnn.com with your sighting so I can feature it in COVER/LINE. | | | | | | |
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