Idiocracy

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 …

ABC News has the scoop: As the White House braces for former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony Thursday, sources tell ABC News the relationship between President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions has become so tense that Sessions at one point recently even suggested he could resign. The friction between the two men stems from the attorney general’s abrupt …

Newsweek reports: Virtually every single poll tracking President Donald Trump’s approval rating showed the figure plummeting Monday morning, well below the margin of error compared to the rising level of support for impeachment. The results follow Trump’s controversial decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord; the ongoing investigation into his campaign’s possible ties to the Kremlin …

NOTED, thinks the Supreme Court. Via Raw Story: During Tuesday’s White House press briefing, Spicer was asked if the White House considered Trump’s tweets to be “official statements.” “The president is the president of the United States so they are considered official statements by the president of the United States,” Spicer insisted. The press secretary also suggested that Trump was …

AOL News reports: Press Secretary Sean Spicer will address reporters at the White House on Tuesday in the wake of a leak involving a top-secret NSA document. The information that was leaked to The Intercept reported that hackers connected to the Russian military attempted to breach American voting systems in the days before the 2016 presidential election. The Department of …

The Brookings Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, reports: Last month, President Trump visited Saudi Arabia and his administration announced that he had concluded a $110 billion arms deal with the kingdom. Only problem is that there is no deal. It’s fake news. I’ve spoken to contacts in the defense business and on the Hill, and all of them say the …

The Hill reports: President Trump on Tuesday attacked the media, saying reporters “hate” his use of social media and criticizing election analysts that predicted he would lose. Trump often tweets his criticism of the media, decrying coverage of the investigations into Russian election interference as “fake news.” Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday that no one in the …

NBC News reports: Donald Trump’s planned state visit to Britain should be canceled, London’s mayor said Tuesday after the president repeatedly criticized him following the latest terrorist attack. Sadiq Khan said Trump was “wrong” about “many things” and should not be welcomed to the United Kingdom. The president is expected to make an official visit in October following an invitation …