One of the most stunning leaks out of President Trump's administration has returned the White House to a state of paranoia.
Axios on Sunday published months of Trump's private schedule, with 95 pages of documents showing that the president spends about 60 percent of his time devoted to unstructured "Executive Time." This leak "set off internal finger-pointing and speculation more fevered than any since The New York Times' anonymous op-ed," Axios reported Monday, also citing insiders as saying the document release "sowed chaos."
There have been plenty of leaks out of the White House, to be sure, some of which have inspired the staff to desperately hunt for who could have been responsible. But this one was far more severe than usual, as Cliff Sims, the former White House aide who recently authored the tell-all book Team of Vipers, told Axios. "There are leaks, and then there are leaks," he said. "If most are involuntary manslaughter, this was premeditated murder. People inside are genuinely scared." Daily Mail's David Martosko similarly reports, "I'm told this has the West Wing rattled,
This reaction can be gleaned even just from the White House's strong pushback, with Director of Office Operations Madeleine Westerhout writing that it's "a disgraceful breach of trust to leak schedules." White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, meanwhile, defended Trump's Executive Time schedule by saying that this time is "to allow for a more creative environment that has helped make him the most productive president in modern history." Brendan Morrow
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reportedly still has his eye on a run for Senate — and the White House.
At a private dinner this spring, when asked if he has considered running for president, Pompeo said "I have," Politico reports. Pompeo attended this event with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who Pompeo reportedly pointed to and said, "And I might be running against that guy."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has reportedly lobbied Pompeo to run for Senate in Kansas next year to replace Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), who is retiring. Pompeo in February said of this potential Senate run, "It's ruled out. I'm here. I'm loving it."
But Politico cites Pompeo's confidants as saying that's actually not true; the run reportedly isn't ruled out at all, and Pompeo is still "quietly evaluating the next steps in his political career," with this 2020 Senate bid potentially being a step toward a White House run. McConnell himself remains enthusiastic about Pompeo running for Senate, telling Politico, "he’s still my first choice" although "I doubt the president would agree with that."
Still, some Republicans are urging Pompeo to stay where he is at the State Department, with Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) telling Politico, "We need to see stability." Brendan Morrow
Ethics issues continue to shroud the Trump family, The New York Times reports.
The Trump administration has worked to reverse course on the Obama administration's efforts to protect the Boundary Waters, a pristine wilderness area in Minnesota, from a copper mining project near the area. But the renewed leases are being scrutinized after the revelation of a personal connection between Andrónico Luksic, a Chilean billionaire whose family controls the mining conglomerate attempting to renew leases for its operations in Minnesota, and Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.
Shortly before President Trump entered the Oval Office, Luksic purchased a $5.5 million house in Washington, D.C. to add to his personal investment portfolio. Within a week, Kushner and Ivanka Trump had reportedly worked out an arrangement to rent the home. The Wall Street Journal first reported about the home in 2017, while Twin Metals, a subsidiary of Luksic's conglomerate that is seeking the leases in Minnesota, was suing the federal government. Twin Metals has since increased its lobbying efforts. That's raised ethics concerns, both from environmental groups seeking to protect the Boundary Waters and Democrats in Congress, the Times reports.
For example, Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, argued in a letter that the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture both "blatantly ignored scientific and economic evidence," while also mentioning the "interesting coincidence" surrounding the rental agreement.
Rodrigo Terré, chair of Luksic's family investment office, said the arrangement is nothing more than a simple real estate transaction, unrelated to the Minnesota mine. A spokeswoman for the Department of the Interior also said Kushner and Ivanka Trump have not been involved in discussions. That hasn't helped alleviate everyone's concerns, though.
"There may be nothing wrong," Arthur Andrew Lopez, a former federal government ethics official, said. "But it doesn't look good." Read more at The New York Times. Tim O'Donnell
Former Vice President Joe Biden is reportedly preparing for the first Democratic debate by boning up on old Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) clips.
Biden and Sanders, the top two candidates in most Democratic primary polls, have been placed together in the second night of primary debates this week, and CNN reports the former vice president has been "viewing some of Sanders' exchanges with [Hillary] Clinton in 2016" and "trying to acquaint himself with Sanders' style."
Numerous campaign advisers who spoke with CNN said they're cautioning the candidates against directly attacking their fellow Democrats, and Sanders told CNN that he expects the debate to be "friendly" while promising that they'll be "debating the real issues facing the American people" and not getting "into personal controversy and gossip."
That doesn't mean there will be no engagement between the candidates at all, though, as Sanders added that "we are going to be contrasting our views with other people." That should include Biden, who Sanders has taken some recent digs at, in April interview encouraging voters to "take a look at my record versus" the former vice president's. This possible confrontation between the race's two frontrunners is set for June 27. Brendan Morrow
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in an address on Tuesday criticized President Trump's newly-imposed sanctions as "outrageous and idiotic" — and that's not all.
Trump on Monday signed an executive order imposing what he called "hard-hitting" new sanctions on Iran following its shooting down of a U.S. drone, saying the sanctions would deny Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and others "access to key financial resources and support."
On Tuesday, Rouhani responded by saying the White House has become "mentally crippled," The Washington Post reports, also saying the administration is "afflicted by mental retardation," The Associated Press reports. The sanctions, Rouhani said, represent the Trump administration's "certain failure," and he asked, "You sanction the foreign minister simultaneously with a request for talks?"
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman additionally warned that the sanctions indicate "the permanent closure of the doors of diplomacy," the Post reports. White House National Security Adviser John Bolton, meanwhile, says that Trump has "held the door open to real negotiations" and that "all that Iran needs to do is walk through that door." Brendan Morrow
Former Vice President Joe Biden came under fire last week for his comments about working with segregationists, but likely Democratic primary voters don't seem to much care.
Biden at an event recently touted his past ability to work with segregationist senators with whom he disagreed like James Eastland, saying they were able to get things done and that back then, "at least there was some civility." Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) called on Biden to apologize, but Biden doubled down, saying Booker is the one who should offer an apology.
Now, a new Politico/Morning Consult poll found that 41 percent of likely Democratic primary voters said Biden's comments about working with segregationists would make no difference in their vote. In fact, 29 percent said it would actually make them more likely to vote for him, compared to 18 percent who said it would make them less likely to do so.
Overall, Biden's position at the top of the newest Morning Consult tracking poll has not changed at all since last week. In the survey taken from June 17 through June 23, he's still leading the pack with 38 percent support, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in second place with 19 percent. Biden's segregationist comments were made on June 19. Morning Consult for the poll spoke online with 16,188 registered voters who say they may vote in the 2020 Democratic primary.
Biden's comments have also not had much of an effect on black voters, according to the Politico/Morning Consult poll, as 30 percent said they'd be more likely to vote for him now, while 27 percent said it didn't make a difference and 20 percent said they're less likely to vote for him. Noting Biden's unchanged status in the race after a controversy-filled week, pollster Nate Silver observed, "you'll rarely go wrong by discounting how much the media controversy of the week will move the numbers." Brendan Morrow
The New York Post, the conservative New York tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., published an article Friday on longtime New York-based columnist E. Jean Carroll's allegations that President Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room 23 years ago — and then it vanished Friday afternoon, as did an Associated Press article on Carroll's assault allegation. It turns out, CNN Business reported Monday night, the Post's former editor-in-chief, Col Allen, ordered the articles scrubbed.
Allen, a longtime Murdoch lieutenant and professed Trump supporter, rejoined the Post as an adviser earlier this year. As of Tuesday morning, there are no articles on Carroll's allegations on the Post's site — though the dead link to Friday's article still appears on Google and is drawing considerable traffic to what's now a 404 page, CNN Business reports, citing people familiar with the matter.
"A spokeswoman for the Post declined to comment," CNN Business reports. "The spokeswoman did not dispute the account of events CNN Business provided to her, nor did she provide an explanation for the removal of the stories about Carroll's accusations." It's widely suspected inside the Post that Murdoch brought Allen back to steer the tabloid in a more pro-Trump direction, CNN Business reports, and one of the people who said the yanked Carroll article has prompted significant chatter among Post staffers also said there's no real debate as to why it was removed: "Nobody needs to explain why. We already know."
The Wall Street Journal and Fox News' website, also owned by News Corp., both have articles about Carroll's assault accusation. Peter Weber