Idiocracy

The Independent reports: Donald Trump has claimed his approval rating is higher than that of Barack Obama – despite the data he is referring to suggesting the opposite is true. “The new Rasmussen Poll, one of the most accurate in the 2016 Election, just out with a Trump 50% Approval Rating. That’s higher than O’s #’s,” he wrote in an …

ABC News reports: The senior Justice Department official with ultimate authority over the special counsel’s probe of Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 election has privately acknowledged to colleagues that he may have to recuse himself from the matter, which he took charge of only after Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ own recusal, sources tell ABC News. Those private remarks from …

Mediaite reports: Kellyanne Conway appeared on Fox & Friends Friday morning, and was quick to link media coverage of President Donald Trump to the shooting at a House GOP baseball practice that wounded Rep. Steve Scalise and four others. After delivering those comments — with the incendiary rhetoric dialed up to 11 — Conway noted that since the tragedy there …

The Washington Examiner reports: President Trump confirmed Friday morning he is under investigation over his decision to fire FBI Director James Comey. “I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt,” he said on his Twitter account. News surfaced this week that Trump is being investigated for …

The New York Daily News reports: She’s arranged tournaments at Trump golf courses, served as the liaison to the Trump family during his presidential campaign, and even arranged Eric Trump’s wedding. Now President Trump has appointed longtime loyalist Lynne Patton — who has zero housing experience and claims a law degree the school says she never earned — to run …

Raw Story reports: White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Thursday that she was forbidden from discussing things that President Donald Trump has written on Twitter. In a tweet on Thursday morning, Trump accused Special Counsel Robert Mueller of conducting a “witch hunt” after news reports suggested that the president may be under investigation for obstruction of …

The Washington Post reports: Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s testimony has been marked by some heated moments, including tense debates over whether he is “stonewalling” the committee. And then came Sen. Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas. The first-term senator opened by suggesting Democrats on the committee were going down “rabbit trails,” invoked the novels of John le Carré and the James …

The Hill reports: President Trump appears to have blocked a veterans group that has been critical of his time in office on Twitter. “The Commander in Chief can block @VoteVets, the voice of 500k military veterans and families, but we will NOT be silenced,” VoteVets.org wrote on Twitter, including a screenshot that shows Trump had blocked the organization’s account. The …

The Washington Examiner reports: President Trump criticized former Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Tuesday morning, saying Lynch’s actions during her time leading the Justice Department were “totally illegal.” Trump appeared to be referencing a revelation from former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee last week. During the hearing, Comey said Lynch asked him to refer to …

The Week reports: President Trump’s supporters are nearly evenly split on whether it’s “appropriate” for a politician to body-slam a journalist, a Public Policy Polling survey released Monday revealed. While 45 percent of Trump supporters said that it was not acceptable for a politician to use physical force against a reporter, 42 percent said it was. The poll was released …

Another day, another meltdown: Hours before his attorney general is expected to answer tough questions from the Senate intelligence committee on Russia’s involvement in the U.S. president election, President Donald Trump fired off a hostile tweet about the media’s alleged “agenda of hate.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions is scheduled to testify Tuesday afternoon. President Trump did not mention this specifically …

The New York Daily News reports: All hail President Trump — says Trump. The President of the United States on Monday made everyone at a meeting of cabinet members and senior staff go around the table and praise him on camera — a self -indulgence that drew immediate mockery on social media and from Chuck Schumer. At the White House …

The New York Daily News reports: Greg Gianforte, the soon-to-be Montana congressman who body slammed a reporter on the eve of his special election last month, was sentenced to 40 hours of community service on Monday, after having a 180-day jail sentence deferred. Gianforte had previously pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault charges over the incident, and was sentenced Monday to …

Politico reports: Kellyanne Conway was overheard Thursday night talking about her West Wing co-workers to fellow revelers at a party. Conway was having an off-the-record conversation with a group of reporters and other attendees at the British Embassy at their election-night watch party. She said President Donald Trump told her to “go out there and say ‘Jim Comey is going …

New England News reports: In announcing the appointment of Joseph Otting to a key treasury job on Monday, the White House Press Office trumpeted his credentials, noting that he was a graduate of the School of Credit and Financial Management at Dartmouth College. But in fact, Dartmouth does not have such a school. “Joseph Otting is not a Dartmouth graduate,” …

Scheduled for 2:45PM. CBS News reports: President Trump on Friday afternoon will hold his first press conference since fired FBI Director James Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday. Mr. Trump will appear at a joint news conference with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, who is in Washington, D.C., to discuss defense issues with Mr. Trump. But questions about Comey’s …

The Hill reports: White House counselor Kellyanne Conway defended President Trump’s active Twitter persona by arguing he’s promoting the “democratization of information.” Trump has recently been criticized for taking aggressive positions on Twitter or posting unconfirmed information, but Conway said his messages are about keeping all Americans on the same playing field. “His social media platform is incredibly powerful — …

According to a tweet from PBS NewsHour executive producer Sara Just, Mike Pence has abruptly canceled an interview scheduled for this afternoon. As much of Twitter has noted, the cancellation came shortly after former FBI director James Comey released his statement an advance of tomorrow’s public testimony before the Senate. The PBS NewsHour team had traveled with Pence to Johnson …

Axios reports: Kellyanne Conway told Mike Allen this morning that Trump “has confidence in the people who work for him” when asked if POTUS still believes in his Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who allegedly offered to resign over tensions with Trump. On the Russia investigation: Trump “sees that there’s nothing there…if you look at everything that’s been said and done …

CNBC reports: The situation in Washington has become more serious than during the Watergate scandal, and investigators must get to the bottom of ties between the Trump administration and Russia, the former director of U.S. national intelligence said Wednesday. In a speech to Australia’s National Press Club, James Clapper said allegations that President Donald Trump shared intelligence with Moscow were …