Source: Politico


The president will appear at a dinner benefiting his campaign and the Republican National Committee.

By ALEX ISENSTADT 05/31/2017 05:04 PM EDT

President Donald Trump continues to prepare for his next election — in 2020.

Trump is slated to headline a Washington, D.C., fundraising dinner on June 28 that will benefit Trump Victory, a joint fundraising agreement between Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee, according to an invitation obtained by POLITICO. Funds raised at the event will be split between the two accounts.

It will be the first fundraising event Trump has held for Trump Victory since his inauguration — and it represents the latest step Trump has taken to prepare for reelection. After winning in November, Trump decided to keep his campaign office in Trump Tower open. The office is overseen by Michael Glassner, one of his top 2016 campaign aides.

Also listed on the invitation for the June 28 event are RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and the RNC’s national finance chairman, Steve Wynn. Each person attending the dinner is being asked to donate $35,000.

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Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/31/donald-trump-reelection-fundraiser-238996

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Source: Talking Points Memo


By ALLEGRA KIRKLAND Published MAY 31, 2017 1:51 PM

President Donald Trump’s tweets may be able to drive a news cycle, but they won’t impact how the House Intelligence Committee carries out its investigation into Russia’s election interference, the panel’s ranking Democrat said Wednesday.

Trump’s campaign adviser Carter Page, with a tweeted assist from Trump, criticized the committee this week for slow-rolling its probe, claiming that plans to interview him were delayed.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said that it was up to him and Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX), who took the lead on the probe after committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) temporarily stepped down due to ethics complaints, to decide if and when witnesses would be brought in to testify. The investigation includes looking into Russia’s election meddling as well as potential collusion between Trump campaign associates and Kremlin operatives.

“Mr. Conaway and I have agreed to review relevant documents before interviewing witnesses, as you would expect in a comprehensive investigation,” Schiff said in a statement. “And while we anticipate interviews to begin shortly, we have agreed that the pace of those interviews will be dictated by the needs of the investigation and not the preferences of outside parties.”

-snip-

https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/869958720373104641

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/schiff-trump-carter-page-badgering-wont-change-pacing-russia-interviews

Source: Politico


By NOLAN D. MCCASKILL 05/31/2017 05:23 PM EDT

Hillary Clinton joked Wednesday that she took President Donald Trump’s use of the non-word “covfefe” in a late-night tweet as a dispatch to Russia.

Trump tweeted shortly after midnight: “Despite the constant negative press covfefe” — an incomplete thought that had Webster’s dictionary at a loss for words.

“I thought it was a hidden message to the Russians,” Clinton quipped to Kara Swisher on Wednesday at Recode’s Code Conference. Clinton later painted “covfefe” as a distraction for the White House.

“You can’t let Trump and his allies be a diversion,” the Democratic presidential nominee warned in response to an audience question. “They are a threat, and they have been effective up until now.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/31/trump-covfefe-clinton-russia-238997

Source: Politico



By DAVID SIDERS 05/31/2017 04:10 PM EDT


LOS ANGELES — California Gov. Jerry Brown, one of the nation’s foremost proponents of efforts to address climate change, on Wednesday called President Donald Trump’s planned withdrawal from the Paris climate accord “outrageous,” while predicting the effect of the move will be short-lived.

“This current departure from reality in Washington will be very short-lived, that I promise you,” Brown told POLITICO in an interview. “I’ve spoken with Republicans here in the Legislature, and they’re beginning to get very serious about climate action, so the momentum is all the other way. And I think Trump, paradoxically, is giving climate denial such a bad name that he’s actually building the very movement that he is (purporting) to undermine.” Brown added, “You can’t fight reality with a tweet.”

News of the president’s decision drew ire from Democrats and environmental groups across the country, nowhere more so than in California, where the state Senate hours later passed major climate legislation requiring utilities to obtain 100 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2045.

After the vote, state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León told reporters that Trump’s decision is “distressing” but that California “will forge ahead.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/31/jerry-brown-donald-trump-paris-climate-change-deal-238993

Source: Politico



By AUSTIN WRIGHT 05/31/2017 05:14 PM EDT

The House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday approved subpoenas for former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and President Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, as part of the panel’s investigation into Russia’s meddling in the presidential election.

The panel is also issuing subpoenas to businesses owned by the two men.

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Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/31/house-russia-investigators-subpoena-flynn-cohen-238998

Source: Talking Points Memo



By MATT SHUHAM Published MAY 31, 2017 2:31 PM

-snip-

A week ago, Boehner told the KPMG Global Energy Conference that Trump “did what he could” to pass health care legislation.

“Everything else he’s done in office has been a complete disaster,” he said. “He’s still learning how to be President.” But at another industry conference on Wednesday — this time for the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers Employee Leadership Forum — Boehner distanced himself from that criticism, according to Politico.

“Let me address this because some people have gotten carried away in their interpretation of what I said,” he said. “Listen, Donald Trump is my friend. He was my supporter. I play golf with him and frankly I like the President. I voted for him. I want him and frankly I want the country to succeed. But I’ve seen some people write — I think they’ve gotten a little carried away in their interpretation of what I said.”

“I did not say that the President’s policies were a disaster,” he said. “I did not say that the President’s agenda was a disaster. What I was referring to was the execution of the President’s agenda and the President’s policies. And frankly I think there have been a number of missteps, unforced errors that the President has made and I think the White House would agree that they’ve had their share of mistakes as the President learns to be the President.”

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/boehner-walks-back-criticism-complete-disaster-trump

Source: The Washington Post


By Krissah Thompson, Kathy Orton and Emily Heil May 31 at 3:30 PM

Looks like former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama are putting down deeper roots in Washington: After renting a Kalorama home for their post-White House stint, the couple have purchased the eight-bedroom, nine-and-a-half-bath home for $8.1 million, according to property records.

The Obamas have said they plan to remain in D.C. while their younger daughter, Sasha, finishes high school at Sidwell Friends. After leaving the executive mansion in January, the family settled into a rental home owned by Bill Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart and his wife, Giovanna Gray Lockhart, an 8,200-square-foot home that was built in 1921 and renovated in 2011.

The Obamas still own a Georgian-style home in the Hyde Park neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, the city that will house the Obama presidential library.

Spokesman Kevin Lewis, in a statement, said the purchase just made sense for the family: “Given that President and Mrs. Obama will be in Washington for at least another two and a half years, it made sense for them to buy a home rather than continuing to rent property.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/reliable-source/wp/2017/05/31/the-obamas-are-buying-their-rental-home-in-washington/

by MATT SHUHAM Published MAY 31, 2017 11:31 AM

The publisher of the New York Times announced Wednesday that the paper was eliminating its public editor position, a role currently held by Liz Spayd.

“The responsibility of the public editor – to serve as the reader’s representative – has outgrown that one office,” Arthur Sulzberger Jr. wrote in a memo to colleagues, which was obtained by TPM. “Our business requires that we must all seek to hold ourselves accountable to our readers. When our audience has questions or concerns, whether about current events or our coverage decisions, we must answer them ourselves.”

Many papers over the years have fazed out public editors, ombudsman and other positions meant to hold publications accountable on readers’ behalf.

Sulzberger outlined a mélange of new and existing measures to fill the void, including “dramatically expanding our commenting platform” to more articles (only 10 percent of articles are currently open to commenting, the memo said); engaging with readers on social media; publishing “behind-the-scenes dispatches describing the reporting process;” and the creation of a “Reader Center,” which Sulzberger described as “the central hub from which we engage readers about our journalism” in which “the work will be shared by all of us.”

Spayd has faced harsh criticism during her short stint in the role, including from the Times’ own executive editor, Dean Baquet.

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/new-york-times-eliminates-public-editor

Source: Newsweek



BY CRISTINA SILVA ON 5/31/17 AT 10:02 AM

The Black Lives Matter social justice movement has been recognized with a global peace prize that in the past has highlighted the work of South African civil rights activist Desmond Tutu, renowned philosopher Noam Chomsky and former Irish President Mary Robinson.

The Sydney Peace Foundation announced last week it will give Black Lives Matter its 2017 peace prize during a ceremony scheduled in November for Sydney. The award recognizes the work of the founding leaders of the social justice activist network, Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi, who began working together after Florida neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman was acquitted in 2013 in the shooting death of black teen Trayvon Martin.

"This is the first time that a movement and not a person has been awarded the peace prize—a timely choice. Climate change is escalating fast, increasing inequality and racism are feeding divisiveness, and we are in the middle of the worst refugee crisis since World War II. Yet many establishment leaders across the world stick their heads in the sand or turn their backs on justice, fairness and equality," the Sydney Peace Foundation said in announcing the award.

Black Lives Matter has sometimes been accused by critics of stirring racist division and violence, while organizers and supporters, including former President Barack Obama, have praised the activists for highlighting police brutality, economic inequality and other societal woes in the aftermath of the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown, 18, in Ferguson, Missouri, and other violence.

Read more: http://www.newsweek.com/black-lives-matter-wins-global-peace-prize-championing-justice-and-equality-618217

‘He is the root of dysfunction’: Right-wing WSJ editorial shreds Trump for sowing White House ‘chaos’

BRAD REED
31 MAY 2017 AT 11:30 ET

The Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial page has written a blistering editorial calling out President Donald Trump for sowing “chaos” in the White House — and it says that Trump has no one to blame for it but himself.

The editorial begins by noting that White House Communications Director Mike Dubke submitted his resignation this week — and then goes on to say that merely overhauling the White House’s public relations team won’t do any good as long as Trump keeps behaving so erratically.

“Mr. Trump certainly needs to fix his White House mess, but staff changes won’t matter unless the President accepts that he is the root of the dysfunction,” the editors write.

The editors then go on to recount the ways that Trump has caused massive problems for himself through his rash decision-making process and his lack of formal structure for crafting and selling policies. They also write that Trump has fostered an atmosphere of intense back-biting within the White House, which has led to an unprecedented number of internal leaks to the media.

more
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/he-is-the-root-of-dysfunction-right-wing-wsj-editorial-shreds-trump-for-sowing-white-house-chaos/