| | | | Trump's odd approach can't save the health care bill | | President Donald Trump is taking a, well, unorthodox approach to convincing wavering senators to vote for the health care legislation.
According to CNN's Eric Bradner, Trump and other White House officials have had a series of conversations with prospective Republican candidates about challenging Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake in the 2018 GOP primary.
Both former Arizona Republican Party Chairman Robert Graham and former state Sen. Kelli Ward told Bradner they've spoken to the White House several times -- including as recently as two weeks ago. A third candidate, state treasurer Jeff DeWit, has also had a series of conversations with Trump.
It's hard to explain how odd all of this is. The President is the head of his party. As such, he traditionally works hard to defend any and all sitting incumbents of his party -- unless they are badly damaged by scandal. Flake isn't.
Trump having one-on-one discussions with three potential primary challengers to a sitting incumbent is the opposite of all that.
We know that Trump and Flake are not exactly allies, despite hailing from the same political party. Flake chose not to support Trump for President, and has been a regular critic of the President since Jan. 20. That includes being one of the holdouts on the health care bill.
"If I wanted an easier path through the primary, then I would line up more with where the President is," Flake acknowledged to The Washington Post in May.
Not even Flake, however, would have likely considered that Trump would be in talks with a panoply of potential primary challengers as a way, perhaps, to strong-arm him into supporting the bill.
One longtime Senate Republican aide I spoke with on Monday suggested that the idea this is all a grand strategy to get Flake to be for the bill may be misguided.
"I'm not sure it's a way to threaten the vote," the source said. "Not sure they have that level of sophistication. They've been talking about this as retribution for months."
Either way, it's a strange strategy. A very strange strategy. And it may be immaterial, given that Sens. Mike Lee and Jerry Moran came out against the motion to proceed on the legislation Monday night -- meaning that the bill is dead for now. | | A SHOCKING ADMISSION FROM LINDSEY GRAHAM | | South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham shocked Chris -- and probably lots of other people -- when he told CNN's Manu Raju late Monday that Arizona Sen. John McCain was getting forgetful and needed the recent surgery he had to remove a blood clot from above his left eye.
Graham, McCain's closest friend in the Senate, then told Manu that he misspoke and didn't mean to say McCain was getting forgetful. He also said the Arizona Republican was back to the "old John McCain" when he spoke to him after the surgery. | | YES. HE REALLY SAID THAT. | | "He wanted to kiss me so badly."
-- Donald Trump on the Omaha Steaks CEO | | | 🌎 HAPPY WORLD EMOJI DAY! 🌎 | | Today, July 17, is otherwise known as #WorldEmojiDay. And you know that those of us at The Point LOVE using emojis to express ourselves.
There are plenty of ways to celebrate 🎉: you can participate in events around the world, sing the #WorldEmojiDay anthem, or check out the Empire State Building, which will be lit "emoji yellow" to commemorate the holiday.
In honor of #WorldEmojiDay, CNN's Liz Stark 🔍 analyzed President Donald Trump's emoji use since taking office. His most frequently used emoji? The American flag, of course 🇺🇸. Trump has incorporated the American flag in at least 49 tweets, followed by the arrow emoji in at least 27 tweets.
Trump also uses emojis for Twitter diplomacy, adding the flags of countries like 🇮🇱 Israel, 🇨🇴 Colombia, 🇫🇷 France, 🇮🇪 Ireland, 🇵🇦 Panama, and 🇵🇱 Poland to his tweets.
As for the most emoji-dense tweet, Trump used the checkmark emoji three times in a single tweet ✔️ ✔️✔️ about upcoming House votes.
For sports, Trump used the baseball emoji ⚾ in two tweets: one to welcome the 2016 World Series Champion Chicago Cubs to the White House and another to commemorate the Congressional Baseball Game last month. He also used the football emoji to honor the Clemson Tigers on their national championship. | | TRUMP KEEPS TWEETING ON RUSSIA | | | We're not sure we agree with President Donald Trump's logic on this -- Trump continues to defend his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., on Twitter amid mounting questions about his son's meeting with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign. | | Trump's Sunday morning tweetstorm implied a media double standard in its treatment of Hillary Clinton.
The President also commended ex-campaign adviser Michael Caputo for publicly denying knowledge of any alleged contacts between the campaign and Russia after testifying privately to the House intelligence committee Friday.
Caputo, a former top adviser to Donald Trump's campaign with strong ties to Russia, said at a press conference after his testimony that "there was absolutely not discussion of Russia" in the Trump campaign while he was there. | | There's a lot going on this photo snapped by C-SPAN: President Donald Trump in a truck -- again -- while Press Secretary Sean Spicer is spotted in the rearview mirror snapping a photo of Trump in the truck on his phone.
The firetruck was at the White House on Monday as part of "Made in America" week at the White House. The White House also revealed that July 24 will be "American Heroes" week and July 31 will be "American Dream" week. | | | Trump wearing the cowboy hat reminded us of this blast from the past: | | #2020 VISION -- KAMALA HARRIS IS NETWORKING | | From CNN's Eric Bradner: Here's more evidence Sen. Kamala Harris is a rising star in Democratic circles (and intent on elevating her national profile):
Michael Kempner, the MWWPR founder and a huge fundraiser for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, told CNN he hosted Harris at his home in the Hamptons on Sunday. Other members of Clinton's inner circle, including Margo Alexander, Dennis Mehiel, Steven Gambrel and Robert Zimmerman, are there. Liz Robbins, a DC lobbyist, hosted a separate lunch for Harris.
Page Six's Emily Smith had this first. | | | This has nothing to do with politics -- but it's one of the craziest stories we've ever read. (H/T Saba who sent this over while she's on vacation). | | | BuzzFeed contributor Jim DeRogatis wrote parents have told police that R&B legend R. Kelly is holding women and running an abusive "cult." It's definitely worth a read. | | From CNN's Ryan Struyk: Yes, we know Trump's approval rating is a record-breaking low for the six-month mark of a new presidency. But it's also really low – just in general. More than half of US presidents in the modern era never reached an approval rating as low as President Donald Trump just hit in ABC News/Washington Post and Gallup polling.
Only six of the last 13 presidents in modern times ever registered an approval rating as low as Trump's latest number in this weekend's ABC News/Washington Post poll -- most of them coming long after the honeymoon phase of a new presidency had completely worn off. | | | No words. Thanks for reading. As always, remember to tell your friends -- and your enemies -- to subscribe. | | | Get the Nightcap, a comprehensive summary of the most important political news, delivered to your inbox daily. | | | | | |
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