Monday 4 June 2018

Melania to Attend First Official Event in 24 Days: FLOTUS is expected to be at  White House event tonight

Monday, June 4, 2018
Tiffany Trump, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump leave the White House on Friday to accompany President Trump to Camp David for the weekend. Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Trump Says He Could Pardon Himself: He also says he doesn't need to because he didn't do anything wrong

Melania to Attend First Official Event in 24 Days: FLOTUS is expected to be at White House event tonight

The New MAGA-Free Kanye is a Hit: His music is topping digital charts

Kate Bennett is off. Her section will return next week.

Hunter Schwarz

What Washington is Talking About:
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Colorado baker who refused to bake a cake for a same-sex couple, Senate Majority Leader McConnell joined other Repubs in opposing Trump's tariffs, and Repub Sen. Bob Corker said he's considering measures to "push back on the President using authorities in ways never intended and that are damaging to our country and our allies."

What America is Talking About:
The Warriors are now up two games over the Cavs, and an off-duty FBI agent accidentally shot someone at a Denver bar after doing a backflip.

Poll of the Day:
Gallup is out with a look at what Americans consider morally acceptable vs. morally wrong. Out of the 21 topics pollsters asked about, birth control was considered moral by the largest margin, 91%, while polygamy, cloning humans and having an affair ranked at the bottom. Gay or lesbian relations are viewed as moral by 67%, smoking marijuana by 65% and abortion by 43%.
Credit: Gallup

Trump Could Pardon Himself, Not That He Would Need to, Trump Says:
In a pair of tweets this morning, Trump 1) claimed he's done nothing wrong but has the right to pardon himself and 2) that the appointment of the special counsel (he spelled it "councel" at first but corrected it 54 minutes later) is unconstitutional, but again he claimed he's done nothing wrong. Did he mention he's done nothing wrong?

Melania's First Official Event in 24 Days:
The first lady is expected to attend a White House event tonight for Gold Star families, Kate reports. It will be her first official event since May 10, but will be closed to press. Melania will not be traveling with the President this weekend to Canada for the G7 summit, nor to the summit with Kim Jong Un in Singapore next week.

Trump-Kim Meeting is Back On:
Speaking of, the off-again, on-again summit is back on, scheduled for a week from tomorrow. ICYMI on Friday in the Oval Office, North Korea's Kim Yong Chol delivered a letter from Kim to Trump in a comically large envelope. Trump told the press the letter was "very interesting" before acknowledging he hadn't actually read it yet. 
Credit: @Scavino45/Twitter

Bill Clinton Says He Couldn't be Elected Today, Handled Lewinsky Well:
Clinton said he doesn't like the name-calling and rhetoric of politics under Trump. He couldn't be elected to any office today because "I just don't like embarrassing people. My mother would have whipped me for five days in a row when I was a little boy if I spent all my time badmouthing people like this," Clinton said in an interview with NBC. He also said he "did the right thing" during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Facebook Gave Device Makers More of Our Personal Data Than we Previously Knew:
Facebook began giving personal data to at least 60 device makers including Apple, Samsung and Microsoft, over the past decade, even before the Facebook smartphone app was a big thing, per NYT. These device makers also had access to users' friends data. Rep. David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Dem, tweeted, "Sure looks like Zuckerberg lied to Congress about whether users have 'complete control' over who sees our data on Facebook" and called for an investigation.

MSD Grads Wear Orange:
Stoneman Douglas High held commencement for the class of 2018 on Sunday. Jimmy Fallon made a surprise appearance and thanked students for their courage and bravery, and some students and teachers wore orange, a color symbolizing #NeverAgain. David Hogg tweeted out this photo of an orange graduation cap with a $1.05 price tag.
Credit: @davidhog111/Twitter

March For Our Lives today announced a Road To Change tour of 50 cites across the US, and a Florida tour of every congressional district.

The New Kanye is a Hit:
The new Kanye, now with less MAGA, currently has the No. 1 album on the iTunes Store, and the top three songs on Spotify's United States Top 50 chart ("All Mine," "Ghost Town," and "Yikes"). There was a point yesterday when he had the seven top songs.

West admitted in an interview with Big Boy that he "completely redid the album after TMZ" and said he took a bar off the album because "it was just too sensitive."
Credit: BigBoyTV/YouTube

Puerto Rico Demonstration Highlights Death Count:
Rows of empty shoes and a sign reading "4,645," the number estimated to be within the range of those who have died from Hurricane Maria -- as outlined in a Harvard study released last week -- were placed outside the Capitol building in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Friday. The Puerto Rican government also updated its official estimated death count from 64 to at least 1,400.
Credit: Xavier Garcia/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Street Art Sighting:
Plastic Jesus made this Missing Melania sign to mark her ongoing public absence. The phone number at the bottom is to the White House switchboard, and David Dennison is one of Trump's pseudonyms, used in documents about the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, by the way. He made it available to download on his site, and it's been spotted out in the wild.
Credit: @plasticjesus/Instagram

If you spot political street art, tweet me @hunterschwarz, tag me on Instagram @hunterschwarz, or email me at coverlinehunter@cnn.com with your sighting so I can feature it in COVER/LINE.

P.S.:
Taylor Swift commemorated Pride Month at her Chicago show Saturday. "This is a month where I think we need to celebrate how far we've come, but I think we also need to acknowledge how far we have left to go," she said before performing "Delicate." "May we end up in a world where everyone can live and love equally and no one has to be afraid to all say how they feel." You can watch video of her full speech here.
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COVER/LINE is where politics meets pop culture. From CNN's Hunter Schwarz and Kate Bennett, this daily newsletter is the must-read lunch date in Washington and beyond.

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