Idiocracy

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump on Friday pushed the Senate to change its rules — even though the sweeping revision he proposed would not have saved Republicans’ latest doomed Obamacare repeal effort. After the early Friday vote, Trump in a tweet called on the chamber to change procedures and require only a 51-vote majority on legislation — getting rid of …

The Hill reports: Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), who is running for the Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions is renewing his calls for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to step down from his leadership role after the chamber rejected the latest effort to repeal and replace ObamaCare. “Unquestionably the leadership at the top is responsible. The buck stops …

Entertainment Weekly reports: Stephen Colbert’s Thursday night monologue came with a caveat: “I want give a quick warning to the CBS censors: You guys are going to have to break out the emergency extra bleeps for this one.” The Late Show host wasted little time tearing into newly appointed White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci and his NSFW interview with …

Bloomberg reports: U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions vowed to ramp up criminal investigations into leaks of sensitive information, his first comments on the issue since a series of tweets from President Donald Trump taunting him for being too weak. “Some people need to go to jail,” Sessions said Thursday in an interview with Tucker Carlson of Fox News. “If we …

Gizmodo weighs in: Why does Huckabee, whose daughter Sarah Huckabee Sanders just became the White House Press Secretary, want state legislatures to choose US Senators? Obviously he’s frustrated with last night’s failure of the Republicans to repeal Obamacare. But the reason that repeal of the 17th Amendment would favor his party is because the majority of state legislatures are Republican. …

New Yorker reporter Ryan Lizza says hothead White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci called him to scream about a leaked report that he would be dining with Trump and Sean Hannity. And then, holy cow. An excerpt: I asked him why it was so important for the dinner to be kept a secret. Surely, I said, it would become public …

Fox News reports: The GOP-controlled House has given tentative approval to a $1.6 billion down payment for President Donald Trump’s long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The controversial wall money is being given a ride on legislation to give the Pentagon a massive spending boost and increase funding for veterans medical care. The House added Trump’s wall funding by a …

The Hill reports: The White House on Thursday declined to apologize to the Boy Scouts after criticism about the political tone of President Trump’s speech at the group’s National Jamboree earlier this week. When asked if Trump would apologize after the head of the Scouts penned his own letter apologizing for the president’s tone, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee …

The Associated Press reports: Attorney General Jeff Sessions tells The Associated Press he’ll continue to serve as long as President Donald Trump wants him to. Sessions told AP Thursday in El Salvador that Trump has every right to find another attorney general. He says: “I serve at the pleasure of the president. I’ve understood that from the day I took …

The Washington Examiner reports: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci is “full of himself” and is acting “more pugnacious than effective.” “I think Scaramucci is full of himself,” Gingrich said Thursday in a radio interview with Laura Ingraham. “I think he got down here from New York and he is all excited. Frankly, he …

Via Mediaite: The cameras are back two days in a row, and the health care talks continue. White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci will also be a big topic of conversation, after he posted and then deleted a tweet about a leak in the White House. Watch all this and more unfold at 1:45 p.m. EST with Press Secretary Sarah …

The Hill reports: Almost half of Republicans say they are in favor of courts shutting down media outlets that publish inaccurate or biased information, according to a new survey. Forty-five percent of Republicans in the Economist–YouGov poll said courts should be able to shut down media outlets, while 20 percent of Republicans are opposed the idea. Just 18 percent of …

“There are so many qualified men and women who wanted to serve this president, this administration, and their country – who have been completely demoralized and completely, I think, disinclined to do so, based on the paperwork that we have to put forward – divesting assets and the different hoops we have to run through – because this White House …

The Guardian reports: The new head of communications at the White House brought up Abraham Lincoln’s struggle to end slavery when asked about the difficulty Donald Trump has faced in trying to repeal Barack Obama’s healthcare legislation. In his first UK television interview, Anthony Scaramucci said Trump would push through the abolition of the healthcare plan, despite opposition in Congress. …

White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci called into CNN this morning to essentially accuse Reince Priebus of being the leaker. The Hill reports: White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci on Thursday said if chief of staff Reince Priebus wants to explain he isn’t a leaker, he can do that. During an interview on CNN’s “New Day,” Scaramucci said he doesn’t …

The New York Post reports: Sean Spicer is taking his first steps to transition from the White House briefing room to the bright lights of a TV news studio — but he’s also being courted by “Dancing with the Stars,” Page Six has learned. The outgoing press secretary spent the day in New York City in talks with major broadcasters …

Talking Points Memo reports: Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA), frustrated at the Senate’s pace in their effort to repeal Obamacare, said Wednesday that “somebody needs to go over there into that Senate and snatch a knot in their ass.” The remark came during an interview with MSNBC’s Ali Velshi, after the cable news host asked about a female senator’s “no” vote …

Buzzfeed News reports: At the Pentagon, the first of the three tweets raised fears that the president was getting ready to announce strikes on North Korea or some other military action. Many said they were left in suspense for nine minutes, the time between the first and second tweet. Only after the second tweet did military officials receive the news …

CNBC reports: White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is expected to take questions from reporters at a Wednesday news conference. Sanders succeeded Sean Spicer as press secretary after he resigned from the role on Friday. Spicer made the decision after reportedly opposing President Donald Trump’s appointment of Anthony Scaramucci as communications director. Spicer has said he wanted the communications …

AOL News reports: President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions are no longer on speaking terms, according to a new POLITICO report. Trump has reportedly told advisers he has no desire to speak to Sessions after he began taking aim at him last week, revealing he “would have picked somebody else” as attorney general had he known Sessions was going …