Heidi Heitkamp's brother Joel on MSNBC: "She may lose. But in the morning, when she's brushing her teeth, she needs to like the person she sees."
Philip Rucker
50.5K posts
Philip Rucker
@PhilipRucker
CNN Senior Vice President, Editorial Strategy and News. Co-author of No. 1 NYT bestsellers “I Alone Can Fix It” + “A Very Stable Genius.” Ex-Wash Post + MSNBC.
- “He’s our president and I would rather he not be taking something that has not been approved by the scientists, especially in his age group and in his, shall we say, weight group — morbidly obese, they say” — Speaker Pelosi to @andersoncooper on CNN.
- Notably Colin Powell in @jaketapper interview doesn’t just eviscerate Trump for lying, dividing and threatening the Constitution, but also condemns GOP lawmakers for not speaking up and acting. “We’re not a country of just a president. We have a Congress. We have a Supreme Court”
- Literally every Washington power player -- Democratic and Republican, past and present -- is at McCain's funeral, except the sitting president, who is tweeting his grievances about the DOJ and FBI.
- Watching returns from Georgia, it’s hard not to think about the hundreds of election workers who again tonight are carefully doing democracy’s business under unprecedented scrutiny, amid a raging pandemic, and with a president relentlessly and baselessly calling them thieves.
- Trump: “Nancy’s in a situation where it’s not easy for her to talk” Pelosi: “Mr. President, please don’t characterize the strength that I bring to this meeting as the leader of the House Democrats who just won a big victory" Schumer: “Elections have consequences, Mr. President”
- To recap: -Trump pressured Pence to subvert the vote, which VP can’t do -Trump told his supporters to march on the Capitol, where Pence was doing his constitutional duty -They chanted “Hang Mike Pence” -Trump hasn’t spoken to Pence, nor condemned the chants for his assassination
- Keep in mind Trump is reading his speech from a prepared text, which presumably means that a number of aides helped him compose this litany of lies and attacks on the integrity of America’s democracy.
- Obama, in McCain eulogy, condemns today's politics that are "mean" and "petty," and based on "bombast, insult, phony controversies and manufactured outrage." This politics, he says, "pretends to be brave and tough, but in fact is born in fear."
- Rep. Peter Meijer, one of the Republicans who voted to impeach, tells @HallieJackson on @MSNBC that he’s buying body armor and altering his daily routines because his life is in danger.
- Obama: “Do what you think is right. Doing what feels good—what’s convenient, what’s easy—that’s how little kids think. Unfortunately a lot of so-called grown-ups, including some with fancy titles and important jobs, still think that way, which is why things are so screwed up.”
- During the 2016 campaign, whenever Trump made racist or xenophobic comments there was a small but reliable chorus of Republican office holders who spoke out. Today, there’s silence, nine hours later.
- Asked why Dr. Fauci isn't at today's briefing, Trump said, "He's not here because we weren't discussing what he's best at." Fauci is best at mitigating infectious diseases, according to his credentials, and sits on the coronavirus task force.
- So much to chew over in Trump’s Rose Garden speech, but I’m stuck on this: He claimed previous presidents have told him they wish they’d built a border wall. Really? Obama? Bush 43? Clinton? Bush 41? Carter? None has signaled in any way that he is pro-wall.