Jake Tapper? @jaketapper
A friend of Harward's says he was reluctant to take NSA job bc the WH seems so chaotic; says Harward called the offer a "shit sandwich."

https://mobile.twitter.com/jaketapper/status/832384718624665600

AFP news agency? @AFP
#BREAKING Trump withdraws appeal of travel ban suspension

https://mobile.twitter.com/AFP/status/832315822014132224

Democrats appear to be mocking FBI Director James Comey with a resolution admonishing the TV show "Designated Survivor."

A Wall Street Journal reporter tweeted Wednesday that a Democratic National Committee resolution to be considered later this month describes the show as focused on a fictional FBI director "being blackmailed into confessing to a crime he did not commit."


"The portrayal of this situation is unbelievable and could result in the undermining of faith in the FBI," the resolution states.
The resolution goes on to criticize Comey, saying he "demonstrated in the recent 2016 election that he does not need to be blackmailed to engage in illegal partisan actions."

"Director Comey's infamous, partisan and illegal letters resulted in the election of the man some refer to as 'not my president,'" the resolution says.

"All US citizens are encouraged to have the same respect for the FBI as Director Comey demonstrated with his illegal actions."

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/319734-dnc-mocks-comey-with-resolution-condemning-tv-show-designated

As part of intelligence operations being conducted against the United States for the last seven months, at least one Western European ally intercepted a series of communications before the inauguration between advisers associated with President Donald Trump and Russian government officials, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation.

The sources said the interceptions include at least one contact between former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and a Russian official based in the United States. It could not be confirmed whether this involved the telephone call with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that has led to Flynn’s resignation, or additional communications. The sources said the intercepted communications are not just limited to telephone calls: The foreign agency is also gathering electronic and human source information on Trump’s overseas business partners, at least some of whom the intelligence services now consider to be agents of their respective governments. These operations are being conducted out of concerns that Russia is seeking to manipulate its relationships with Trump administration officials as part of a long-term plan to destabilize the NATO alliance.

Moreover, a Baltic nation is gathering intelligence on officials in the Trump White House and executives with the president’s company, the Trump Organization, out of concern that an American policy shift toward Russia could endanger its sovereignty, according to a third person with direct ties to that nation’s government.

These sources spoke on condition that they not be identified because they were not formally authorized to disclose the information. While Newsweek was told which allied nations intercepted the communications and are gathering intelligence on Trump associates, the sources did so on condition that the countries not be identified out of concern those governments would incur the president’s wrath.

<>

These operations reflect a serious breakdown in the longstanding faith in the direction of American policy by some of the country’s most important allies. Worse, the United States is now in a situation that may be unprecedented—where European governments know more about what is going on in the Executive Branch than any elected American official. To date, the Republican-controlled Congress has declined to conduct hearings to investigate the links between Trump’s overseas business partners and foreign governments, or the activities between Russia and officials in the Trump campaign and administration—the very areas being examined by the intelligence services of at least two American allies.

http://www.newsweek.com/allies-intercept-russia-trump-adviser-communications-557283

The saying "it's not the crime, it's the cover-up" may not apply here.

There is an old chestnut that gets tossed out whenever a scandal hits: It's not the crime, it's the cover-up. The saying traces back to Watergate. Sen. Howard Baker, the top Republican on the Senate Watergate committee, once noted, "It is almost always the cover-up rather than the event that causes trouble." This week, following the resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn, NBC News' Chuck Todd was one of many who quipped, "It's not the crime, it's the cover-up." And that was certainly a significant element of the Flynn imbroglio: Flynn had lied about his December conversation with the Russian ambassador, concealing the fact that they had discussed the sanctions President Barack Obama had just levied on Russia as punishment for its covert efforts to swing the 2016 election to Trump. But in this case the bigger scandal at hand is not a cover-up. It is the thing itself: the connections between the Trump camp and Moscow during the campaign, when Vladimir Putin was trying to subvert American democracy.

< Read much more here >

On Tuesday, I bumped into a prominent Republican consultant, and he said that Trump had to "get out in front of" the burgeoning scandal and disclose all the facts because "the cover-up is always worse." The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza offered similar advice to the president on Wednesday morning: "What is really needed at this point is a full and complete debrief for the American people from Trump himself. Why was his campaign in 'constant' contact with Russian officials? Who in the campaign—or the broader Trump organization—was involved? Are they still with the campaign or the business? What was discussed on these calls?...Why is Trump so reluctant to condemn Russia and Vladimir Putin in particular?"

But the cover-up here may not be worse than the actions being covered up.

At a minimum, it seems that Trump associates—at least Flynn—were secretly interacting with the Putin regime as it was plotting to subvert American democracy to help Trump win the White House. A key question is obvious: What did they discuss? The darkest possibility is that they talked about the Kremlin assault on the US election. Short of that, might Flynn or others have encouraged Putin's clandestine operation by signaling that Moscow would have an easier time with a Trump administration than with a Clinton administration? Were there any winks or nods? After all, in late July, Trump called on Russia to hack Clinton. Whatever was discussed, any Trump associate who spoke with Russian officials during the summer or fall of the campaign had reason to know that he or she was interacting with a member of a regime that was actively attempting to undermine the election in a manner beneficial to Trump.

< much more excellent analysis here >

Another famous line is this: You can't handle the truth. Further revelations about contacts between the Trump camp and Russia could pose an existential threat to the Trump White House. The clear choice for him and his gang is to deny, to stonewall, to distract, to lie. Trump doesn't explain the pre-election contacts; he complains about leaks. He casts all interest in this controversy as merely the revenge of the Clinton losers. He calls reporting on the Russia connection "fake news" and slams journalists pursuing the Flynn story as "fake media." This is not shocking. He might not be able to survive a full accounting. The poison of the cover-up may be less deadly than the poison of the event itself. Only Trump and the people involved can know for sure. But investigations of the Russian contacts now being conducted by the FBI and the congressional intelligence committees—if they are mounted effectively and yield public results—may eventually allow us to see the full calculation. In the meantime, the public can justifiably conclude that when it comes to Trump-Russia connections during the campaign, the Trump team has been covering up for very good reasons.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/02/donald-trump-cant-come-clean-on-russia-michael-flynn

President Donald Trump responded Wednesday to a question about increased anti-Semitic incidents after his election by bragging about his victory in the Electoral College and citing his Jewish relatives.

"Well, I just want to say that we are very honored by the victory that we had," Trump told a reporter who asked him to respond to Jewish constituents who are concerned about xenophobic and racist undercurrents in his administration.

"306 Electoral College votes, we were not supposed to crack 220, you know that, right?" said during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "There was no way to 221. But then they said there's no way to 270."

Trump said that "there's tremendous enthusiasm" for his administration's agenda, which the President described as stopping "a lot of bad things."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-answers-question-on-antisemitism-by-bragging-about-election-win