Like what you read below? Sign up for HUFFPOST HILL and get a cheeky dose of political news every evening!
Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe told Congress there “has been no effort” to impede the investigation into Russia’s election meddling — minus, you know, the episode that made him the acting director. Today is white nationalist Richard Spencer’s birthday and, on a totally unrelated note, remember how people get punched on their birthdays for every year they’ve been alive? And President Trump is hanging a map of his electoral college win on a White House wall. This would be the weirdest bit of art in the Trump administration if HUD Secretary Ben Carson didn’t already have that picture of himself and Jesus. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Thursday, May 11th, 2017:
LEFT HAND DOESN’T KNOW WHO THE RIGHT ONE IS FIRING - Ryan J. Reilly: “President Donald Trump had already made up his mind to fire FBI Director James Comey long before Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein wrote up a memo to justify the decision, the president said in an interview with NBC News on Thursday. Trump’s team had repeatedly claimed that Rosenstein’s memo precipitated Comey’s firing. Hours after Trump fired Comey on Tuesday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer blamed Rosenstein for the FBI director’s dismissal. ‘It was all him,’ Spicer said, referring to Rosenstein. But in an interview with Lester Holt on Thursday, the president revealed he’d made up his mind to fire Comey before he met with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Rosenstein on Monday. ‘I was going to fire Comey, my decision,’ Trump said. ‘I was going to fire Comey,’ he repeated, adding that there was no good time to fire someone. ‘I was going to fire him regardless of recommendation. He made a recommendation, but regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey.’” [HuffPost]
Today in things that won’t happen: Merrick Garland as FBI director.
GOOD GOD THE PRESIDENT REALLY DOESN’T KNOW HOW ANY OF THIS WORKS - Steve Holland and Jeff Mason: “The anger behind Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday had been building for months, but a turning point came when Comey refused to preview for top Trump aides his planned testimony to a Senate panel, White House officials said. Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had wanted a heads-up from Comey about what he would say at a May 3 hearing about his handling of an investigation into former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. When Comey refused, Trump and his aides considered that an act of insubordination and it was one of the catalysts to Trump’s decision this week to fire the FBI director, the officials said.” [Reuters]
Good god: “In the weeks before President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, a federal investigation into potential collusion between Trump associates and the Russian government was heating up, as Mr. Comey became increasingly occupied with the probe. Mr. Comey started receiving daily instead of weekly updates on the investigation, beginning at least three weeks ago, according to people with knowledge of the matter and the progress of the Federal Bureau of Investigation probe. Mr. Comey was concerned by information showing possible evidence of collusion, according to these people.” [WSJ’s Shane Harris and Carol E. Lee]
Because optics is what’s morally reprehensible here: “Rosenstein threatened to resign after the narrative emerging from the White House on Tuesday evening cast him as a prime mover of the decision to fire Comey and that the president acted only on his recommendation, said the person close to the White House, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.” [WaPo]
FBI AGENTS: DON’T PUT THIS ON US, MAN - Ryan J. Reilly and Jessica Schulberg: “In justifying President Donald Trump’s firing of James Comey, the White House claimed that federal agents had lost faith in their former FBI director. But the current acting head of the bureau told members of Congress on Thursday that simply isn’t true. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the deputy White House press secretary, claimed at a press conference on Wednesday that ‘the rank and file of the FBI had lost confidence in their director.’ She said the White House heard from ‘countless members’ of the bureau who didn’t have confidence in Comey, and that Trump was very concerned about morale there. But asked by Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) on Thursday whether FBI employees had in fact lost faith in Comey, acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe was frank. ‘No sir, that is not accurate,’ McCabe said. Comey ‘enjoyed broad support within the FBI, and still does to this day,’ McCabe said.” [HuffPost]
Like HuffPost Hill? Then order Eliot’s book, The Beltway Bible: A Totally Serious A-Z Guide To Our No-Good, Corrupt, Incompetent, Terrible, Depressing, and Sometimes Hilarious Government
Does somebody keep forwarding you this newsletter? Get your own copy. It’s free! Sign up here. Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to eliot@huffpost.com. Follow us on Twitter - @HuffPostHill
TRUMP NOT MEDDLING WITH INVESTIGATION, SAYS GUY WHO GOT PROMOTION BECAUSE OF SAID MEDDLING - Matt Zapotosky and Karoun Demirjian: “Acting FBI director Andrew McCabe vowed Thursday that he would tell the Senate Intelligence Committee if the White House tried to interfere with the bureau’s probe of possible coordination between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election — though he asserted that there had ‘been no effort to impede our investigation to date.’ … As the hearing was underway, Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), the committee leaders, suddenly stepped out to meet privately with Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who drafted the memo that Trump used as a rationale to fire Comey. Burr said they had requested the meeting before Comey’s departure to discuss how to deconflict their own probe from that of the FBI.” [WaPo]
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is not sleeping at conferences, but protectively closing his eyes, his spokesperson says. We congratulate Kellyanne Conway on finding a side gig.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA - It’s even better than Congress defunding ACORN for the bazillionth time. Sam Levine “President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to establish a commission to investigate voter fraud. The move, which ABC News first reported, comes months after Trump claimed he would have won the popular vote had it not been for voter fraud. He has claimed that between 3 million and 5 million people voted illegally in last year’s presidential election. There is no evidence to support his claim. Several investigations, including multiple post-election audits, have found that while voter fraud does sometimes happen, it is extremely rare. The commission...will be chaired by Vice President Mike Pence.” [HuffPost]
WE’RE NEVER SEEING TRUMP’S TAX RETURNS - We have a better chance of seeing his voter fraud report. Marina Fang: “In an interview conducted last week and published Thursday, Trump told The Economist he doubted that he would release his tax returns and insisted that only reporters are concerned about the issue, despite large public protests demanding Trump release them. ‘Nobody cares about my tax return except for the reporters,’ he said. ‘Oh, at some point I’ll release them. Maybe I’ll release them after I’m finished because I’m very proud of them, actually. I did a good job.’ ‘I might release them after I’m out of office,’ he added, after White House communications official Hope Hicks interrupted to say, ‘Once the audit is over.’” [HuffPost]
SPICER ON THE WAY OUT? - Congratulations to Corey Lewandowski on soon expanding his lobbying shop to include crisis communications. Tara Palmeri and Hadas Gold: “Press secretary Sean Spicer’s absence from the briefing room on Wednesday comes at a tenuous time, as President Donald Trump has asked senior advisers for weeks if he needs to change the face of his administration, several White House officials and outside advisers to the president said. Trump was pleased with deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ performance on Friday, when she first filled in for Spicer on camera during the midday briefing, three White House aides said, adding that he has talked about grooming her for Spicer’s more visible role. They said the press team’s much-criticized handling of Trump’s decision Tuesday to fire FBI Director James Comey may have further made the case to Trump that Sanders should take over the podium.” [Politico]
It’s increasingly obvious that all the president ever does is hate-watch TV.
FORMER REP FOUND GUILTY ON FRAUD CHARGES - We can’t wait for Corrine Brown and Michael Flynn’s 2028 joint speaking tour. Rema Rahman: “A judge has found former Rep. Corrine Brown guilty of fraudulently taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from a bogus charity following an indictment on federal corruption charges. She was found guilty of 18 out of 22 counts that include conspiracy involving the fraudulent charity, concealing income on financial filings submitted to the House and filing false tax returns, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Jacksonville. A sentencing date has yet to be scheduled. Brown, a Florida Democrat, had come under scrutiny for her connection to a group called One Door for Education, which billed itself as a charity to help underprivileged children but had never registered as a nonprofit.” [Roll Call]
TRUMP SAYS HE KNOWS EVERYTHING ABOUT HEALTH CARE… Zeke J. Miller: “’In a short period of time I understood everything there was to know about health care. And we did the right negotiating, and actually it’s a very interesting subject, [Trump said].’” [Time]
...THEN PROVES HE DOESN’T - The Economist: ‘”Insurance is, you’re 20 years old, you just graduated from college, and you start paying $15 a month for the rest of your life and by the time you’re 70, and you really need it, you’re still paying the same amount and that’s really insurance, [Trump said]’” [The Economist]
BECAUSE YOU’VE READ THIS FAR - Here’s a dog looking dignified in the snow.
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF JUST CAN’T GET OVER IT - We’re still waiting for a cork board, thumbtacks and red-string number to be placed in the Map Room depicting how Trump’s inaugural actually was the highest-attended ever. John Bowden: “President Trump is planning on hanging a map displaying his 2016 Electoral College victory in the White House, according to a report. One America News Network White House reporter spotted the framed map being carried through the White House by a Trump staffer. ‘Spotted: A map to be hung somewhere in the West Wing,’ the reporter tweeted. Trump has often brought up his election victory over Hillary Clinton in the months since he took office. In April, the Washington Post’s White House bureau chief reported that Trump had asked the Post to run the election map on the front page of their newspaper.” [The Hill]
COMFORT FOOD
- Neil DeGrasse Tyson talking about the universe while eating hot wings.
- A really fast and — let’s call a spade a spade here — super high history of everything.
- Relax with this live feed from the ISS.
TWITTERAMA
@HunterDK: “Our leaders are so STUPID. We need someone SMART.”
”Hello, we are Russian news agency. Can we come in?”
”OK, but no pictures.”
@GMPaiella: My safe word is “gabagool”
@lizzeohreally: I’d like to thank pollen and the news cycle for the really charming way I look this week.
Got something to add? Send tips/quotes/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to Eliot Nelson (eliot@huffpost.com)