December 10, 2018 | by Chris Cillizza and Lauren Dezenski

Even James Comey is numb to all this

President Donald Trump fired James Comey as the head of the FBI. He has described Comey as a liar and a leaker. He has said he did the country a favor by firing Comey.

And on Sunday, this from Trump's Twitter feed: "Leakin' James Comey must have set a record for who lied the most to Congress in one day. His Friday testimony was so untruthful! This whole deal is a Rigged Fraud headed up by dishonest people who would do anything so that I could not become President. They are now exposed!"

But just hours after Trump's tweet, even Comey himself admitted that, against his better judgment, he has grown sort of numb to all of Trump's taunts.

"I kind of shrug and sometimes smile and laugh about it and then I have a secondary reaction, which is to be horrified at my own numb reaction, right?" Comey told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace at an event Sunday night in New York. "We have to remind ourselves the President of the United States of America is publicly announcing that people are committing crimes, that they should be in jail."

So say we all.

What Comey is tapping into is the sort of survival mentality that is the sort of de facto approach to the Trump presidency. Trump says and does so many things that are abnormal -- not just for politicians but for people -- that it is impossible to properly contextualize all of it. The mind reels. And the response is often to laugh, roll your eyes and move on. It's a coping mechanism -- and even James Comey uses it.

While it's an understandable reaction, it is, as Comey notes, not the right one. Whether you like Trump or loathe him, you have to acknowledge that nothing he is doing is anything like what any past president has done. He is charting his own course -- at all times.

The Point: None of this is normal. None of it. Remind yourself of that the next time Trump says something that is demonstrably false about a private citizen. Or a politician. Or anyone.

-- Chris

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"They're good guys, but I feel like the one random dad in the frat house."

-- Soon-to-be-former South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford on living with his son and other friends, all recent college graduates, in a DC-area home while he transitions out of his congressional office.

KIDS THESE DAYS

The kids are down to get out the vote -- so much so that they broke 50% turnout among eligible voters between 18 and 20 in this year's midterms.

At 50.1%, that's the highest turnout we have ever seen among that demographic in any midterm election over the last 100 years.

CHRIS' GOOD READS

John Podesta talks Pizzagate

The Bottomless Pinocchio is now a thing

2018 was a massive midterm turnout, reports Harry Enten

Ariel Levy on Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Your apps are watching you

MUSICAL INTERLUDE

Wham!'s "Last Christmas" is gold.

INSTA POINT

Today's topic: Who actually wants to be Donald Trump's chief of staff?

🌽NOT EXACTLY A WARM WELCOME IN IOWA 🌽

It's easy to focus on the Democrats running for President in 2020 (especially since the field is probably going to be MASSIVE) but let's not forget the Iowa caucuses also applies to the GOP.

Donald Trump is probably running again (Chris says there's 0% chance he doesn't run, for the record), and Iowa Republicans aren't exactly rolling out the red carpet for potential Trump challengers, Lauren writes.

Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley is playing it cool, telling the Des Moines Register: "They are welcome to come, but Chuck Grassley won't be appearing with them."

This is similar to the line drawn by Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Jeff Kaufmann: "If challengers want to come into Iowa, they're welcome," Kaufmann said in November. "...But if those challengers are criticizing Republicans and the President, I'll push back."

💸 MONEY MATTERS, 2020 EDITION 💸

CNN's David Harris has counted the campaign cash in the would-be 2020 candidates' war chests and found a whole lot of dough. Cash-on-hand for potential 2020-ers, post-midterms:

Elizabeth Warren: $12.5 million
Kirsten Gillibrand: $10.5 million
Bernie Sanders: $8.8 million
Amy Klobuchar: $4.4 million
Cory Booker: $4.1 million
Sherrod Brown: $1.8 million
Beto O'Rourke: $477,000

David's takeaways:

"Elizabeth Warren leaves 2018 in a commanding financial position, with $12.5 million in cash-on-hand, after having raised $25.7 million during her re-election bid. Over 62% of her '17-'18 contributions came from small dollar donors.

"Kirsten Gillibrand also had a strong fundraising cycle, raising over $17.8 million and exiting 2018 with over $10.5 million in cash on hand (over 35% of her contributions came from small dollar donors).

"Bernie Sanders had another strong fundraising cycle, taking in over $10.1 million and carrying nearly $8.8 million into the 2020 cycle. He had the highest proportion of small dollar donors in '17-'18, at over 76%.

"Meanwhile, fundraising juggernaut Beto O'Rourke enters 2020 with just about $477,000 in cash on hand, having burned through nearly all of his prodigious $80 million '17-'18 haul."

NOT-SO-SWEET SIXTEEN

We know at least 16 people connected to President Donald Trump have had contact with Russians during the campaign or transition -- and CNN's Marshall Cohen has made a handy list:

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort
Senior Trump campaign official Rick Gates
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn
Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr.
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner
Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos
Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page
Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions
Trump campaign official JD Gordon
Former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone
Former Trump campaign aide Michael Caputo
Trump associate Erik Prince
White House official Avi Berkowitz
Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen
White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump
Trump business associate Felix Sater

Worth noting: Everyone on this list denies participating in any "collusion" with the Russians.

YOUR DAILY GIF

From Brenna: "It looks like I'm not the only one who has to bang hammers on my desk to get through Monday. Oh, it's a gavel? And that's the House chamber? So THAT'S why it wasn't frowned upon when they did it. Gotcha. Share The Point with the people you share Monday with."

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