7. The United States’ failures to rein in Putin’s Russia don’t only start in 2016. They apparently go back 10 years
— An agent for the Russian government worked at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow for a decade. She was detected and fired in 2017.
— She was working for the Secret Service for a decade before she came under suspicion in 2016 during a security sweep. She still had access to sensitive data including the schedules of former presidents and vice presidents and their spouses, including Hillary Clinton.
6. For an administration that everyone claims doesn’t care about Russian interference, they sure are putting on a convincing show
— FBI Director Christopher Wray and multiple other Trump officials joined the press briefing to explain all the things they were doing to combat Russian interference in elections. Obama’s “cyber czar” is claiming that the Trump team is only building on their success, and that success saw claims the entire 2016 election was “hacked”
— Trump held another campaign rally where he referenced the “Russian hoax,” so the media has decided they are just going to pretend they think the “Russian hoax” refers to election meddling. No one truly believes this.
5. CNN’s Jim Acosta demanded that White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders say his magic words about the media
— Acosta tried to get Sanders to repeat after him and declare the American media is not the “enemy of the people,” she was having none of this mess.
— Another embarrassing performance by Acosta was topped off by him storming out of the room and firing off a pathetic tweet.
4. As the media frets about threats that never materialize, someone else wants to kill Congressman Steve Scalise over immigration
— 63-year-old Carlos Banyon left a threatening voicemail for Scalise over immigration that said, “Hey listen, this message is for you and the people that sent you there. You are taking ours, we are taking yours. Anytime, anywhere. We know where they are. We are not going to feed them sandwiches, we are going to feed them lead. Make no mistake you will pay. Ojo por ojo, diente por diente (Spanish for “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth). That is our law and we are the majority. Have a good day.”
— After a group of Republicans were hunted over politics on a baseball field in 2017, over healthcare, you would think the media would stop demonizing Republicans they disagree with. Instead, they are being accused of torturing children for supporting the enforcement of immigration law.
3. Alabama, the team and the state, is prepared to dominate college football
— Earlier this week, Nick Saban received another contract extension. This week, he received another pre-season #1 ranking from his fellow coaches.
— Auburn would not be left out as they cracked the top 10 and are poised to make a run at the SEC West again.
2. One of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s shady lobbying deals included Alabama’s Bellafonte plant
— Franklin Haney made a deal with Cohen where he agreed to pay $10 million to the president’s then-personal attorney helped him obtain a $5 billion dollar loan from the federal government. He never got the loan and Haney denies the deal.
— There’s no allegation the developer of the plant did anything wrong, and there is no blanket federal ban on success fees being included in contracts for Washington lobbyists (which Cohen was not), but this does not reflect well on Cohen at all.
1. Some sunshine for Trump: Rasmussen has him over 50 percent, five points better than Obama was at this point
— The latest numbers are the highest numbers in almost two months, and pretty amazing considering all the stuff that has been going on and how negatively it is all covered.
— Amazingly, another poll has the GOP up 10 points with Hispanics AFTER all the gnashing of teeth over American border policy.
