Top exchange of the weekend
VP MIKE PENCE: "America has the cleanest air and water in the world. We'll continue to use market forces—"
JAKE TAPPER: "That's not true. We don't have the cleanest air and water in the world. We don't."
Tapper is right. This is an instance of Pence repeating a Trump lie -- and getting caught. Here's the full "SOTU" interview...
Chuck Todd to Trump: "Do something" about border camps
NBC's Chuck Todd was dragged on Twitter, particularly by liberal commentators, for not fact-checking Trump more forcefully. But this was a striking exchange, about the new reports of horrific conditions at holding facilities by the border: "Why aren't you doing something?"
"The conditions are terrible," Todd said. Trump said "I agree." So "do something. Do something!" Todd said. What Trump did... was deflect and blame the Democrats, successfully steering the conversation away from his own responsibility... Here's the full "Meet the Press" interview...
"That's the price?"
Todd also questioned Trump about holding Saudi Arabia accountable for the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Trump told Todd that the Middle East is a "vicious, hostile place," and effectively seemed to suggest that because the Saudis do so much business with the United States, there would be no real punishment.
Todd replied, "That's the price? As long as they keep buying you'll overlook some of this behavior?" Trump said that was not true, but then reiterated he did not want to be a "fool" and turn away their business...
>> Jim Sciutto on Twitter: "To restate the facts: Jamal Khashoggi was murdered, dismembered and his body likely dissolved to hide the premeditated crime. US intel has assessed the Saudi Crown prince ordered the operation, yet the Trump admin has missed a legal deadline to assign responsibility."
Axios obtains huge cache of Trump vetting documents
Axios' Jonathan Swan has been on 🔥 as of late. On Sunday, he and colleagues Juliet Bartz, Alayna Treene, and Orion Rummler published nearly 100 internal vetting documents used by the Trump campaign during the transition.
The Axios team obtained vetting documents for John Kelly, Scott Pruitt, John Bolton, David Petraeus, Nikki Haley, Mick Mulvaney, Laura Ingraham, and many others. As the reporters wrote, "The massive trove, and the story behind it, sheds light on the slap-dash way President Trump filled his cabinet and administration, and foreshadowed future scandals that beset his government."
>> Andrew Kaczynski also observes: "Is it for me, or are a lot of these vetting forms clip jobs? Seems very light research for making picks."
Ingraham's controversial remarks flagged
Conservative talker Laura Ingraham, who was one of the people under consideration for White House press secretary, had a litany of controversial statements she has made over the years flagged in her vetting report. "As a result of Ingraham's lengthy career as a radio and television personality, critics have suggested some of her commentary can be 'controversial,'" the document stated. It then went on to list many of them...
Ari was vetted?!
"The RNC vetted some left field contenders," Swan wrote. "Nobody we spoke to, including senior members of the transition, could remember what job Hollywood talent agent Ari Emanuel was vetted for." Here's his vetting document...
WaPo looks at Trump's friendship with Jeanine Pirro
WaPo's Sarah Ellison is out with a deep dive into the relationship between Jeanine Pirro and Trump. The piece, which published Sunday, details how the two have helped each other over the years, and traces Pirro's career back to her days as the district attorney in Westchester County, New York.
There is a lot of info in the story, so I recommend you read the entire article, but there was one detail that caught my eye. Toward the end of the article, Ellison reported that Trump considered hiring Pirro for a top position at the Justice Department, and that Pirro "lobbied hard to get" it. But, Ellison reported, the appointment was blocked by Jeff Sessions. Afterward, Ellison noted that Pirro attacked Sessions on her show.
>> Ethical? I reached out to a Fox News spokesperson to check whether such a move would be in accordance with the network's standards, but I did not hear back...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- The Mueller Report "has been No. 1 on the NYT's paperback nonfiction bestseller list for eight weeks in a row." Now a publisher is turning it into a graphic novel... (CNN)
-- A missing YouTuber's belongings were recovered on the Manhattan bridge... (CNN)
-- Fox reporter Kristina Partsinevelos recalled the anti-media Trump crowd at his re-election kick off rally: "That environment is just so unfortunate..." (Mediate)
Not "exclusive," after all
Remember those reports about MSNBC scoring the "exclusive live broadcasting rights" to the South Carolina Democratic Party's annual convention? Well, CNN and Fox side-stepped the "exclusive" deal — they never agreed to the embargo -- so they aired some of the key 2020 candidate speeches from the SC event. MSNBC had an "exclusive" label on screen for a while, but then took it down...
Media fatigue over assault accusations against Trump?
NYMag's cover story, with Carroll accusing Trump of sexually assaulting her in the 1990's, hits newsstands Monday. And Carroll will he giving multiple interviews about her book, including on CNN's "New Day" Monday morning.
Over the weekend CNN's Sara Murray spoke with Carroll AND the two friends who Carroll says she told about Trump's alleged assault at the time. Both friends, who wished to be anonymous, backed up Carroll's recollection.
On Sunday's "Reliable," Stelter asked if the allegation is getting sufficient attention from the press -- or if, in a strange way, the sheer volume of accusations against Trump lessens their newsworthiness?
Major newspapers ignore on front pages
Carroll's accusation, which Trump denied, was covered Friday evening on cable news. But the next day, on Saturday, Carroll's accusation was kept off the front pages of the major newspapers, including NYT, WaPo, WSJ, and the LA Times.
>> See what the papers ran with instead: Media Matters compiled the various front pages of the newspapers...
Reid unloads
MSNBC's Joy Reid expressed displeasure with the treatment Carroll's story received from the media. "In any other universe, in any other presidency, in any other news cycle, E. Jean Carroll's bombshell revelations against the sitting president of the United States would have been the lead story all week long, as soon as they dropped," Reid said Sunday on her program. Watch that segment via Mediaite...
From Sunday's show: Why are headlines still taking Trump at his word? "We need to talk about the problem with headlines," Brian Stelter said during his live show from L.A. on Sunday. Two and half years into the Trump presidency, "news outlets are still putting Trump's far-fetched and false assertions right in the headlines" without proper fact-checking, he said... citing his recent claims about immigration raids and his comment that he's never met E. Jean Carroll.
Stelter asked: "Why does the president still get the benefit of the doubt when he, on a daily basis, exaggerates and straight-up lies to the public, to the press and about the press?" Video...
Trump speaking on broadcast, but still playing to base
Ron Brownstein made a great point on "Reliable" about Trump's media strategy. This month Trump has been speaking to a "broader audience" through ABC, NBC and Time magazine, Brownstein said, but the prez is still "narrowcasting" with "sectarian" messages meant to stoke his base.
Stelter noted a brand new example: On "Meet the Press," Trump revived his dangerous lie about massive illegal voting in 2016. It sounded like something fit for a Sean Hannity phoner, but it was happening on one of TV's most prestigious programs...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- More from "Reliable:" Stelter discussed the pro-war and anti-war factions on Fox, and Samantha Vinograd urged Trump to turn off the TV... (CNN)
-- "Judith Krantz, whose best-selling romance novels told racy tales of the rich, died of natural causes Saturday, her publicist said. She was 91...." (CNN)
-- The Upshot examines how HBO's "Euphoria" depicts teenagers, versus what the data really tells us... (NYT)
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