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Day 141: Complete vindication.
1/ Trump breaks his Twitter silence, declaring “total and complete vindication” in response to Comey’s testimony. The tweet ends his second-longest Twitter drought – at about 2,753 minutes – since he declared his candidacy. Comey detailed months of distrust during testimony and asserted that Trump had fired him to interfere with the probe of Russia’s ties to the campaign. (ABC News / Washington Post)
Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication...and WOW, Comey is a leaker!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2017
- Behind Trump’s temporary Twitter silence: Let others do the punching. First it was Donald Trump Jr. who played his father’s role on Twitter, then Trump’s personal lawyer delivered the formal response. (Washington Post)
- “I was right”: Trump insisted to his legal team while he watched the Comey testimony. (New York Times)
- Comey’s indictment of Trump. The fired FBI director’s demeanor did little to mask his barbed accusations. (Politico)
2/ Trump’s lawyer plans to file a complaint against Comey for leaking his memos. Marc Kasowitz will file complaints with the Justice Department Inspector General and the Senate judiciary committee accusing Comey of violating executive privilege, which was called “frivolous grandstanding” by an expert in whistleblower protection. (CNN / Washington Post)
- Trump’s personal lawyer released a letter filled with typos in response to Comey’s Senate testimony. (Vox)
- Trump’s lawyer claims Comey violated executive privilege. 10 legal experts say he didn’t. (Vox)
3/ Jeff Sessions may have met with the Russian ambassador a third time, Comey told senators in a closed hearing. The information is based in part on Russian-to-Russian intercepts talking about the meeting. (CNN)
4/ Paul Ryan insisted that Republicans wouldn’t call for impeachment of a Democratic president accused of the same actions as Trump. Ryan also suggested that Trump’s behavior might be the result of not having experience in government before becoming president. (The Hill)
5/ Trump will spend the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, NJ. He’s claimed in the past that working from “home” will save taxpayers money by not being at Trump Tower in New York City. (NJ.com)
Rather than causing a big disruption in N.Y.C., I will be working out of my home in Bedminster, N.J. this weekend. Also saves country money!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2017
6/ Mitch McConnell took a procedural step to fast-track efforts to repeal Obamacare, which side-steps typical committee processes. By invoking Rule 14, McConnell can now put the bill on the Senate calendar so that a vote can be held as soon as the bill is ready. The move means the Senate GOP can bypass committee hearings and debates of the Republican health care bill in an effort to get a vote by July 4. (Washington Post / Talking Points Memo / Think Progress)
It begins: McConnell initiates the "Rule 14" process of putting the House-passed AHCA on the Senate calendar for fast-track consideration.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) June 7, 2017
A political newsletter for normal people
WTF Just Happened Today? is a sane, once-a-day newsletter helping normal people make sense of the news. Curated daily and delivered to 200,000+ people every afternoon around 3 pm Pacific.
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