If you’ve been studying Donald Trump for any period of time, you know that despite claiming to have one of the “best temperaments” of “anybody that’s ever run for the office of president,” it takes very little to set him off. Examples of things that have inspired volcanic rage in the former real estate developer include but are certainly not limited to Academy Award acceptance speeches, Snoop Dogg, Nordstrom, the Kentucky Derby, wind turbines, ads about his weight, toilets, showers, sinks, lightbulbs, and dishwashers. So the news that a new poll has the top six Democrats all beating him in a general election will almost certainly inspire the sort of outburst typically reserved for Nancy Pelosi, if not dogs and maps (his true foes).
According to the latest Quinnipiac national poll, among registered voters, Trump would lose the 2020 election to Mike Bloomberg, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, and Pete Buttigieg if it were held today. For a guy who seemingly only quakes in fear at the idea of going head-to-head with Bloomberg or Biden, and who is all but begging voters to nominate the senator from Vermont, that’s not great news!
The poll also puts Trump’s favorability underwater, with just 42% of registered voters reporting a favorable opinion of him and 55% thinking he sucks (or reporting an “unfavorable” view of him). Notably, this is his best favorability rating since March 7, 2017. Anyway, stay tuned for the 12-alarm meltdown!
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Trump praises China’s execution of drug dealers
The president, who is currently campaigning on his alleged support of criminal justice reform, said at the White House Monday that he’d love to tackle drug issues in the U.S. by taking a page from China’s playbook, where drug dealers are executed following a “fair but quick trial.”
“States with a very powerful death penalty on drug dealers don’t have a drug problem,” Trump said during an event with governors. “I don’t know that our country is ready for that, but if you look throughout the world, the countries with a powerful death penalty—death penalty—with a fair but quick trial, they have very little if any drug problem. That includes China.” This isn’t the first time Trump has praised an authoritarian nation for sentencing drug dealers to death. In 2017, he congratulated Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, whose “shoot to kill” policy against drug dealers had resulted in at least 7,000 people being killed for doing an “unbelievable job on the drug problem.”
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Nothing to see here, just the DOJ setting up a special hotline for Rudy Giuliani’s conspiracy theories
This definitely sounds legitimate and in no way another abuse of the president’s power:
Attorney General William P. Barr acknowledged Monday that the Justice Department would evaluate material that Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal attorney, had gathered from Ukrainian sources claiming to have damaging information about former vice president Joe Biden and his family—though Barr and other officials suggested Giuliani was being treated no differently than any tipster. At a news conference on an unrelated case, Barr confirmed an assertion made Sunday by Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) that the Justice Department had “created a process that Rudy could give information and they would see if it’s verified.” Barr said he had established an “intake process in the field” so that the Justice Department and intelligence agencies could scrutinize information they were given.
A Justice Department official said Giuliani had “recently” shared information with federal law enforcement officials through the process described by Barr. Two people familiar with the matter said the information is being routed to the U.S. attorney’s office in Pittsburgh. That Giuliani would have a direct pipeline to the Justice Department for providing information on a political rival of Trump raised fears among some legal analysts that federal law enforcement was being conscripted into doing campaign work for the president. The matter is complicated, too, because Giuliani is under investigation by the Justice Department. That case already has produced campaign finance charges against two of his associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who helped in Giuliani’s Ukraine-related pursuits.
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Parnas and Fruman have both pleaded not guilty. Giuliani did not return a message from the Post seeking a request for comment, probably being too busy getting his important papers and cocktail-napkin scribbles re: Biden out of a storage unit in Queens.
Kellyanne Conway casually admits more people will probably be fired for retaliating against Trump
What, you thought he was just going to let people testify against him and get away with it, jobs and kneecaps intact?
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Monday hinted that additional officials could be forced out of their roles following the ousters last week of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and Ambassador Gordon Sondland—both high-profile witnesses in the impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump. Asked during an interview on Fox & Friends whether there will be more dismissals in the days to come, Conway said, “maybe,” and sought to defend Vindman’s removal from a detail at the National Security Council. Vindman’s twin brother Yevgeny, who had served as a senior lawyer on the NSC, was also forced out of the White House on Friday. “In the case of the Vindman brothers, you remember, they were detailed here,” and remain “employed today,” Conway said, agreeing with host Steve Doocy’s assessment that the two former NSC staffers “didn't get fired” but “just got relocated.”
You know, like how people who cooperate with the government against the mob don’t get their legs cut off, they just have them relocated from their bodies to a dumpster off of the New Jersey Turnpike.
“They are working at the Army, where they were. They were detailed to the NSC. This is typical,” Conway said. “I’ve had detailees on my small staff. This is very typical in a White House to have a detailee for a temporary period of time who then returns to what their full-time job is.” Conway did not explain why Vindman’s detail to the NSC ended on Friday when it was previously slated to finish in July.
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As for Sondland, Conway suggested that the former U.S. envoy to the European Union should be grateful he was given his position in the first place after not just showing disloyalty to Trump vis-à-vis the whole Ukraine affair but failing to pledge his firstborn to the president the day he announced his candidacy for office. “He wrote a big check to the inauguration but wasn’t really there before the president improbably, unsurprisingly, won, for people like that,” Conway said of Sondland, who was named to his post after donating $1 million to Trump’s inauguration committee. In other words, cutting a huge check for Team Trump, which is made up of cheap whores, will certainly get you a foot in the door but blind loyalty must be adhered to at all costs. Just something for would-be donors to remember about should there be a second term.
Elsewhere!
Top Democrats turn on each other after Iowa, complicating the party’s chances against Trump (Washington Post)
Buttigieg and Sanders campaigns request Iowa caucus recanvass (Fortune)
Trump’s New Budget Proposal Slashes Medicare, Medicaid, Pesky CDC Funding (Hive)
‘“Like Europe in Medieval Times”: Virus Slows China’s Economy (NYT)
New York suit says Trump travel restrictions are unconstitutional (Politico)
Elizabeth Holmes Challenges U.S. Charges Over Theranos Blood Tests (Bloomberg)
Résumé of Lori Loughlin’s daughter surfaces in college admissions scandal (NYP)
Meghan Markle, Prince Harry face backlash after attending JPMorgan summit (NYP)
Police Find Illegal Narcotics Stash Inside Pouch Labeled “Bag Full of Drugs” (TSG)
More Great Stories From Vanity Fair
— Is the DOJ’s Hillary Clinton investigation a bust?
— Do the Russians really have information on Mitch McConnell?
— The mystery of the Trump chaos trades, Iran/Mar-a-Lago edition
— Why Trump has a huge advantage over Dems with low-information voters
— The Obamoguls: propelled by still-potent political hope, Barack and Michelle have gone multiplatform
— New evidence suggests disturbing scheme by Trump’s Ukraine goons against Marie Yovanovitch
— From the Archive: The death and mysteries in Geneva of Edouard Stern
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