| | | | I know this subject is sensitive. But it relates to almost every story that's in the news right now. What is President Trump's emotional state? What's causing his impulsive tweets, confusing comments, self-sabotaging behavior? A couple times on CNN and CNN International today, when I was asked "why is he tweeting like this?" I sidestepped the question, saying I'm not a psychologist. But I said his emotional state IS a part of this unfolding story. We're hearing more and more people ask, in effect, "What's wrong with this guy?"
Joe Scarborough has been bringing it up on "Morning Joe." If any big CEO was "behaving this way, he or she would be removed immediately" and there'd be a "psychiatric evaluation," Scarborough said Tuesday morning.
I also heard Tom Friedman go there on Tuesday's "Situation Room:" "I don't think he's a stable person. I'm not a doctor, but..." | | | This is notable because of who said it -- Fox News host Neil Cavuto -- on Tuesday afternoon: "Mr. President, it's not the fake news media that's your problem, it's you. It's not just your tweeting, it's your scapegoating, it's your refusal to see that sometimes you're the one who's feeding your own beast." | | --> Trump glued to cable news "even more than usual" | | | In this brand new story, the WashPost's Robert Costa, Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker say that Trump is "glued even more than usual to the cable news shows that blare from the televisions in his private living quarters, or from the 60-inch flat screen he had installed in his cramped study off the Oval Office..." | | | "I have been away for a very long time in cable news time," Rachel Maddow acknowledged at the top of Tuesday's "Rachel Maddow Show." It was her first time hosting in almost two weeks. She thanked bosses Phil Griffin and Andy Lack "for their understanding while I was out sick at a quite inopportune time," and while she didn't detail her ailment, she said "I'm OK. I'm not totally well, as you can probably tell, but I am like, I don't know, 90% of the way back." Then: "The universe has welcomed me back with late-breaking Trump/Russia news..." | | All these stories landed between 6:30 and 8:30 on Tuesday night:
-- ABC: "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..."
-- NYT: "Comey Told Sessions: Don't Leave Me Alone With Trump"
-- CNN: "Fired FBI Director James Comey will dispute President Trump's blanket claim that he was told he was not under investigation multiple times..."
-- WashPost: "Coats told associates Trump asked him if he could intervene with Comey on Russia probe..." | | Must-see hearings on Wednesday AND Thursday | | While there's literally a countdown to Comey's Thursday morning testimony, the Wednesday 10am hearing with DNI director Dan Coats could also make a lot of news, especially in the wake of that WashPost story...
>> Related from CNNPolitics: "Senior Intel officials expected to face pressure to reveal interactions with Trump" during Wednesday's hearing... | | "US Suspects Russian Hackers Planted Fake News Behind Qatar Crisis" | | | Before all those stories, CNN's Evan Perez and Shimon Prokupecz broke this news: "US investigators believe Russian hackers breached Qatar's state news agency and planted a fake news report that contributed to a crisis among the US' closest Gulf allies, according to US officials briefed on the investigation..." | | -- CBS has confirmed Scott Pelley's "CBS Evening News" end date: he'll anchor until June 16, and Anthony Mason will take over on June 19...
-- Megyn Kelly interviewed Alex Jones Tuesday at InfoWars HQ... it's unclear when the segment will air...
-- What's it like inside Fox News now, after Bill O'Reilly has exited and Roger Ailes has died? VF's Sarah Ellison just filed this in-depth story all about it... | | LET'S TALK ABOUT LEAKS... | | "Climate of fear surrounding the Russia investigations is off the charts" | | There are many kinds of leaks coming out of DC these days. Some are about White House infighting and incompetence... some are related to what the president did or didn't say about the Russia investigations... and some are directly involving classified information. My latest story about journalists and their sources focuses on the latter category -- national security reporters who say "the leak hunts are getting very aggressive" and "everyone is feeling the heat."
"This is a tough operating environment. There is a chill for sure. We'll see how bad it gets," NYT reporter Adam Goldman told me. Other reporters say Trump's crackdown on leaks has caused them to re-evaluate "source protection" and "operational security." Read more here... | | Confirmed: Several referrals to the Justice Department | | | A key detail from my story: A government source confirms that individual intelligence agencies have sent several referrals to the Justice Department for potential followup. (The referrals were first reported by ABC News last week.) Referrals about specific leaks of classified information open the door for a criminal investigation, but it is unclear how many such investigations are underway. A Justice Department spokeswoman said the agency will not comment "on the existence or non existence (or nature) of any investigations..." | | Confirmed: Several referrals to the Justice Department | | President Obama waged an intensive war against leakers. The difference now is Trump's words, and the chill they have created. Here are some of the standout quotes from my interviews with natsec reporters:
-- "I think that the unknown for us, as national security reporters, is: What are they willing to do? How far are they willing to go outside the lines to clamp down on things they don't like?"
-- Signs of leak hunts are abundant: "People who talk to certain reporters have been approached for info about specific reporters. The FBI has searched their employee phone records for contacts with reporters..."
-- "It's very rattling as a reporter, but also very motivating as a reporter..." | | "People are watching and following us with high expectations of our reporting and how we bring light and clarity to the issues of the day ... especially at a time like this there is no room for hubris or agenda other than a singular focus on exposing the truth. With truth and integrity on our side, no amount of ridicule or name calling from even the highest places can undermine our role."
--Honoree Lester Holt speaking at at Tuesday night's Museum of the Moving Image Award for Achievement in Media and Entertainment... | | Anderson Cooper interviews Reality Winner's parents | | | Reality Winner, the federal contractor accused of sending a top-secret NSA document to The Intercept, was "very scared" when she was arrested, her parents told Anderson Cooper on Tuesday night. Winner is a "patriot," her parents said, and if she really did what she's "being accused of... she's ready to pay the price." Here are clips from the interview... | | Did The Intercept screw this up? | | Did The Intercept make it easier for the government to ID the source of a top-secret NSA document? The debate raged in media circles on Tuesday. Tom Kludt summed up the arguments here.
-- One of Tom's points: Journalists shouldn't assume that every whistleblower is as competent and savvy as Edward Snowden... | | The Intercept casts doubt on the government's claims | | The Intercept's latest statement in response to the Justice Department's allegations: "Winner faces allegations that have not been proven. The same is true of the FBI's claims about how it came to arrest Winner."
Intercept co-founder Glenn Greenwald further stressed that point on Twitter: "It continues to be stunning (& scary) how often, easily & instantly people equate official assertions with Truth. *That's* authoritarianism." | | Snowden expresses support for Winner | | Edward Snowden, in a statement on Tuesday, said the Espionage Act must be "resisted:"
Reality Winner "is accused of serving as a journalistic source for a leading American news outlet about a matter of critical public importance. For this act, she has been charged with violating the Espionage Act—a World War I era law meant for spies—which explicitly forbids the jury from hearing why the defendant acted, and bars them from deciding whether the outcome was to the public's benefit. This often-condemned law provides no space to distinguish the extraordinary disclosure of inappropriately classified information in the public interest—whistleblowing—from the malicious disclosure of secrets to foreign governments..." | | -- Digiday's Lucia Moses with a must-read: "Breitbart ads plummet nearly 90 percent in three months as Trump's troubles mount..."
-- Dana Bash's new web and TV series, "Badass Women of Washington," launched on Tuesday. TheWrap's Brian Flood spoke with her about it...
-- Stephen Rodrick was working on an Esquire profile of Bill Maher when Maher "nearly blew his career up for the second time." Esquire has now published the piece... | | | Apple premiering "Planet of the Apps" | | Apple is releasing the first episode of its "first original series" on Tuesday night, THR's Natalie Jarvey reports. "If 'Planet of the Apps' does for the tech giant what many in Hollywood hope it will, it could end up being one of dozens of original shows that the tech company greenlights."
Details: The show will stream for free on Apple Music and a separate web site. "Each of the 10 episodes focuses on two mentors and two apps. The show is rolling out week-to-week in part to give the audience more time to download the apps featured in every episode. In fact, Apple will be promoting the show and its affiliated apps in its newly redesigned App Store..." | | | Is this the beginning of the end of autoplay? | | Dylan Byers writing about Apple's plan to block autoplay videos in Safari and Google's plan to roll out an ad blocker in Chrome:
"These moves are as likely to delight consumers as they are to terrify publishers. From the consumer perspective, autoplay videos and pop-up ads are the bane of the Internet user experience. They interrupt the flow of news consumption and create a nuisance for the reader. For publishers, including CNN, autoplay videos can be a huge revenue generator..." | | | Yes, @realDonaldTrump tweets are "official statements by the President of the United States." Sean Spicer said so at Tuesday's briefing... | | Dylan Byers moderated a discussion at PromaxBDA on Tuesday with Sara Fischer of Axios and Sasha Issenberg of Monocle. While I was watching the live stream, Issenberg made the point that Trump sends unusually pointed signals about "which team" he thinks media outlets are on -- a/k/a his team or the opposition.
Pull quote: "It was a big deal when Dick Cheney was caught on tape calling a New York Times reporter a major league A-hole. Now Donald Trump basically says that every day. The signals are now really overt." | | James Corden in London with a defiant message | | | Frank Pallotta writes: James Corden, with a heavy heart and in the shadow of Big Ben, opened Tuesday night's "Late Late Show" with a love letter to London, days after the terror attack at the London Bridge. The host, who is doing three consecutive shows from London this week, opened the show with a message of defiance and unity. "Some people might say it's a strange time to do a variety show from this city," he added. "I couldn't disagree more." He said "this is not a country that feels afraid." Read Frank's full story about the intro here... | | David Edelstein's defense | | Brian Lowry emails: Vulture's David Edelstein felt compelled to write a rather lengthy defense of his "Wonder Woman" review, which, as he noted, triggered both "outrage and ridicule." Edelstein insisted some passages were taken out of context but conceded that "to have to unpack my descriptions means, in the end, that they weren't good or nuanced or sensitive enough to their ramifications."
He also included a colleague's point of view that part of the blowback stems from his acknowledged contempt for the genre...
-- Lowry adds: Edelstein wasn't the only male critic called out for his review, although the Huffington Post seemed to be reaching a bit in finding a pattern among the "more condescending and negative reviews," citing three written by men... | | George and Amal's twins are here! | | | Chloe Melas emails: George and Amal Clooney welcomed twins early Tuesday morning -- a boy and a girl named Ella and Alexander. George, being his witty self, said in a statement that he is "sedated and should recover in a few days." Read the full story here... | | | For the record, part three | | | By Lisa Respers France:
-- You know a film is good when fans are craving a sequel within the first week of its release. Here's what we know about "Wonder Woman 2..."
-- A "Friends" reunion may be a dream for fans, but it's a literal nightmare for star Matthew Perry. Here's why the thought keeps Perry up at night...
-- Meg Tilly found stardom in films like "The Big Chill" but left Hollywood for three good reasons: her kids. She's now back and starring as Brad Pitt's wife in Netflix's "War Machine..." | | | What do you like about this newsletter? What do you dislike? Send your feedback to reliablesources@cnn.com. We appreciate every email. | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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