Idiocracy

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 …

Politico reports: Roughly half of voters who said they voted for Donald Trump last November, 49 percent, believe Trump won the popular vote, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll. That’s compared to 40 percent who say Democrat Hillary Clinton won. Overall, a majority of voters, 59 percent, believe Clinton won more votes than Trump, but 28 percent believe Trump …

The Hill reports: President Trump at a Tuesday evening rally floated the idea of someday being on Mount Rushmore before turning to attack the press corps. During a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, Trump turned to a routine talking point, saying “every president on Mount Rushmore believed in protecting American industry.” But the president quipped that if he jokingly suggested he …

Speaking at his campaign rally in Youngtown, Ohio tonight, Trump told the crowd, “Sometimes they say, ‘He doesn’t act presidential.’ And I say, with the exception of the late, great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president that’s held this office. That I can tell you. It’s real easy.” Points for mentioning that Lincoln is dead, unlike …

The Hill reports: Conservative author Ann Coulter said that President Trump needs to “be a man” and decide whether or not to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in an email sent to the Washington Post. “Be a man- if you don’t want Sessions, then fire him. You’re the PRESIDENT,” Coulter said in the email, according to the Washington Post’s Robert …

Via Mediaite: “When they say he endorsed me, I went to Alabama,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal. “I had 40,000 people. He was a senator from Alabama. I won the state by a lot, massive numbers. A lot of the states I won by massive numbers. But he was a senator, he looks at 40,000 people and he probably says, …

With the vote standing at 48-50, Sen. John McCain arrived last in the Senate chamber to cast his vote, joined by Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, in favor of advancing the bill to repeal Obamacare. With the vote then standing at 50-50, Vice President Mike Pence cast the tie-breaking vote. Johnson’s vote came after an “intense” but unheard discussion on the …