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 by Matt Kiser and delivered to 200,000+ people every afternoon around 3 pm Pacific.
Day 536: Piece of trash.
Today in one sentence: Trump will announce his Supreme Court nominee tonight at 9 p.m.; the Trump administration will miss a court-ordered deadline to reunite immigrant children under age 5; the U.S. opposed a United Nations resolution encouraging breast-feeding; Giuliani encouraged Cohen to "cooperate" with prosecutors as long as he tells the truth; and Trump's tariffs on Chinese goods don't apply to Ivanka Trump's foreign-made products for her fashion line.
1/ Trump says he is “very close to making a decision” on his Supreme Court nominee. Aides, however, have prepped rollouts for multiple Supreme Court nominees knowing that Trump could change his mind at the last minute. Trump has narrowed his list down to two potential nominees: Brett Kavanaugh and Thomas Hardiman. The White House expects to hit the ground running once Trump makes his 9 p.m. announcement – a time he selected for maximum TV exposure. “I have long heard that the most important decision a U.S. President can make is the selection of a Supreme Court Justice,” Trump tweeted. As he boarded Air Force One after a weekend of golfing at his private club in Bedminster, N.J., Trump said: “You can’t go wrong.” (New York Times / Washington Post / Politico)
I have long heard that the most important decision a U.S. President can make is the selection of a Supreme Court Justice - Will be announced tonight at 9:00 P.M.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2018
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Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s prospects are slipping over confirmation concerns. Trump said he would settle on a nominee by noon Monday, but aides said they were unsure as recently as Sunday night where he would land. (Wall Street Journal)
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Trump has been lobbied in the final hours of his selection process by both supporters and opponents of the Supreme Court candidates. Trump has also been working the phones seeking input about Brett Kavanaugh and Thomas Hardiman. (New York Times)
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Mitch McConnell told Trump that Judges Raymond Kethledge and Thomas Hardiman present the fewest obvious obstacles to being confirmed to replace Justice Anthony M. Kennedy on the Supreme Court. (New York Times)
2/ The Trump administration will miss a court-ordered deadline to reunite immigrant children under age 5 who were separated from their parents at the U.S. border. About half of the children under 5 years old will be reunited by Tuesday’s court-ordered deadline. The administration doesn’t know when the rest will be reunified. The federal judge who set the deadline said he was “very encouraged” by the administration’s progress. (Reuters / CNN / Los Angeles Times)
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A one-year-old child who was separated from his father at the southern U.S. border appeared in immigration court. The child is one of several toddlers who have had to appear in court without their parents present. (Associated Press / NPR)
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Five pregnant women in immigration detention said they were denied adequate medical care while they were obviously miscarrying. ICE and Customs and Border Protection guards were either unwilling or unable to respond to medical emergencies. (BuzzFeed News)
3/ Trump lashed out at NATO on Twitter two days before the alliance’s summit, saying NATO members “must do much more” and up their defense spending contributions. “The United States is spending far more on NATO than any other Country. This is not fair, nor is it acceptable.” (Axios / Politico)
The United States is spending far more on NATO than any other Country. This is not fair, nor is it acceptable. While these countries have been increasing their contributions since I took office, they must do much more. Germany is at 1%, the U.S. is at 4%, and NATO benefits.......
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2018
...Europe far more than it does the U.S. By some accounts, the U.S. is paying for 90% of NATO, with many countries nowhere close to their 2% commitment. On top of this the European Union has a Trade Surplus of $151 Million with the U.S., with big Trade Barriers on U.S. goods. NO!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2018
4/ The U.S. opposed a United Nations resolution encouraging breast-feeding, siding with manufacturers of infant formula and stunning public health officials and foreign diplomats in the process this past spring. American officials wanted to soften the resolution by removing language that called on governments to “protect, promote and support breast-feeding.” When the effort failed, the United States threatened to withdraw military aid and hit Ecuador and other countries with punitive trade measures if they didn’t drop support for the resolution. The U.S., however, backed off when Russia introduced the resolution. (New York Times)
- Trump defended the report that the U.S. tried to undermine the World Health Organization resolution in support of breastfeeding, saying “the U.S. strongly supports breast feeding but we don’t believe women should be denied access to formula.” The U.S. wanted the resolution to remove language calling on governments to “protect, promote and support breast-feeding.” (BBC)
5/ Rudy Giuliani appeared to confirm that Trump asked then-FBI director James Comey to drop the probe into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Trump has previously denied saying to Comey “I hope you can let this go.” “He didn’t direct [Comey] to do that,” Giuliani said. “What he said was, can you, can you …” Giuliani continued: “He said a lot of other things, some of which has turned out to be untrue. The reality is, as a prosecutor, I was told that many times, ‘can you give the man a break,’ either by his lawyers, by his relatives, by his friends. You take that into consideration. But you know that doesn’t determine not going forward with it.” (CNN / ABC News)
6/ Giuliani: Michael Cohen “should cooperate” with prosecutors as long as he tells the truth. Giuliani repeatedly downplayed the possibility that Cohen could provide damaging information to prosecutors. “As long as he tells the truth, we’re home free.” Two people familiar with Cohen’s thinking say he has already “hit the reset button” and will continue to speak the “real truth.” (NPR / CNN)
- Why does Michael Cohen keep publicly hinting that he’ll flip on Trump? There have been some reports that Cohen wants Trump to pay his legal fees. (Vox)
7/ Giuliani: Trump is close to refusing to sit down for an interview with Robert Mueller. On Friday, Giuliani set new conditions for an interview with the special counsel, saying Mueller needs to prove – before Trump would agree to sit for an interview – that Trump committed a crime and that his testimony is essential to completing the investigation. Giuliani also claimed that the Mueller investigation was the “most corrupt I’ve ever seen.” He called prosecutors working on the investigation “very, very severe partisans working on an investigation that should have been done by people who are politically neutral.” (The Guardian / New York Times)
poll/ 65% of women said they disapproved of Trump’s job as president, while 32% said they approved. 54% of men say they approved of Trump, while only 45% said they disapproved. (Washington Post)
Notables.
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Protesters chased Mitch McConnell through a restaurant parking lot, calling him “turtle head,” and asking “Where are the babies, Mitch?” – a reference to the infant migrant children who were separated from their families at the southern U.S. border. (Washington Post)
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Steve Bannon was called a “piece of trash” by a woman at a bookstore in Richmond, Virginia. The owner of Black Swan Books called the police after the woman refused to leave. (CNN)
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Stephen Miller threw away $80 of takeout sushi after a bartender raised both middle fingers and cursed at him while he was picking up takeout in his DC neighborhood. (Washington Post)
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The Trump administration is freezing billions of dollars in payments to Affordable Care Act insurers. The so-called risk adjustment payments are meant to protect insurers from incurring big losses from many unexpected high-cost patients. (Politico)
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White House communications director Bill Shine will attend Trump’s meeting with Putin in Helsinki on July 16. The West Wing delegation also includes John Kelly, deputy chief of staff Zach Fuentes, national security adviser John Bolton, Stephen Miller, social media director Dan Scavino, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Melania Trump, and other high-level staffers and their aides. (Politico)
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Trump: “I have confidence” that Kim Jong Un will honor our “contract” and handshake agreement to denuclearize, but China may be working against it. (CNBC)
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Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods don’t apply to Ivanka Trump’s foreign-made products for her fashion line. The goods to be levied with tariffs were apparently chosen based on what would disrupt the U.S. economy the least and have the least impact on consumers. (HuffPost / Fortune)
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Members of Trump’s Florida clubs appear to have been invited to tour Air Force One. Two separate tours were scheduled at the Atlantic Aviation FBO at Palm Beach International on Feb. 18, 2017. Those attending would have paid Trump’s exclusive clubs thousands of dollars annually. (BuzzFeed News)
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Trump’s personal driver for more than 25 years sued the Trump Organization for more than $200,000 in unpaid overtime wages over the past six years. Noel Cintron received two raises in 15 years, but had to give up his Trump Organization health insurance in order to get a $7,000 pay increase. (Bloomberg / Washington Post)
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The EPA granted “super polluting freight trucks” a loophole in the final hours of Scott Pruitt’s tenure as administrator. The move by the EPA will allow a significant increase in the production of a diesel freight truck that produces as much as 55 times the air pollution of trucks with modern emissions controls. (New York Times)
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 by Matt Kiser and delivered to 200,000+ people every afternoon around 3 pm Pacific.
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