Hey, hope you had a meaningful Memorial Day weekend. This is an unusually long "summer season," with 105 days until Labor Day, so proceed accordingly! Here's the latest on President Trump, Ben Rhodes, X, Dana White, Stephen Colbert, "Obsession," and more... |
Why 'slush fund' has stuck |
Some Trump outrages come and go quickly. But the creation of a $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization fund" is not one of those blink-and-you-missed-it news stories. It's more like the Trump ballroom: An ongoing controversy that distills so much of Trump 2.0 into one sticky story.
In this case, the catchy phrase is "slush fund," which has seen a sudden spike in Google searches ever since the compensation program was announced. Four of Politicon's six most recent YouTube videos have "slush fund" in the title.
"The entire arrangement reeks of self-dealing on a scale impressive even for Trump, an in-plain-sight raiding of the Treasury to reward the President's allies," Ruth Marcus writes in The New Yorker this week.
Marcus highlights the Republican lawmakers who have stepped out to oppose the fund and writes, "It is always a risk to overestimate Congress's courage in the face of Trump's overreach, but this may be the rare moment when it says, Enough."
Chief among those GOPers: Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who has been doing TV hit after TV hit opposing the fund. Last Wednesday, on the same day Fitzpatrick said he'd draft legislation to stop the $$$ giveaway, Trump saw Fox correspondent Jacqui Heinrich, who is engaged to Fitzpatrick, and said, "Her husband votes against me all the time — you better ask him what's with him."
Turns out, Fitzpatrick has some good answers. He told Michael Smerconish that everyone "viewing this through objective eyes knows that it's absurd." And this morning on CNBC's "Squawk Box," he said, "We shouldn't be talking about ballrooms. We shouldn't be talking about DOJ slush funds. That's not what our country wants us to be talking about."
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Critics calling the DOJ's bluff |
The Justice Department has claimed that the $1.776 billion fund is party-blind. Some Trump critics want to put that to the test.
"Former US Capitol riot prosecutors, fired federal officials and journalists who say they were past targets of President Donald Trump's retribution tell CNN they may seek compensation from the Justice Department’s $1.8 billion 'anti-weaponization' fund," CNN's Marshall Cohen and Annie Grayer report in a new piece this morning.
Some of them "have already sent letters to the DOJ outlining their claims, hoping to draw attention to how the president has harnessed government powers in an effort to punish his political opponents. Others are still debating whether filing a request could legitimize a fund they see as brazenly corrupt."
"Mueller, She Wrote" podcaster Allison Gill and independent journalist Scott Stedman have both sent letters requesting compensation. Stedman wrote that "the money will be used to fund investigative reporting into corruption and abuses of power." Former CNN anchor Jim Acosta has also mused, "Shouldn't I be compensated?"
Speaking of weaponizing...
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Heading into the long weekend, Brendan Carr announced the next step in his multi-front Disney drama. The FCC is now seeking public comment on whether "The View" is a "bona fide news interview program," since that's the qualification that allows "The View" to exempt itself from equal-time rules.
The Hill's Dominick Mastrangelo wrote more on the process here. Disney, which says the FCC is threatening the First Amendment, will continue to defend the talk show through this bureaucratic slog...
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A new era in late night TV sorta starts tonight |
"Comics Unleashed" replaced "The Late Show" on the CBS schedule last Friday. But the other late-night network shows were running repeats that night. Today, "Comics Unleashed" will be up against a new episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on ABC. So ratings gurus will be watching to see how much of Stephen Colbert's old audience moves over to Kimmel's show. (NBC's late-night shows are running repeats all this week.)
>> In its previous 12:35 a.m. time slot, "Comics Unleashed" has averaged about 1.1 million viewers this season, per Nielsen #s. The audience will certainly grow in the new 11:35 a.m. time slot. "The Late Show" averaged 2.7 million viewers toward the end of its run, and the finale netted 6.7 million, a weeknight record for Colbert...
>> On the latest episode of the "One Thing" podcast, Michael Ian Black of CNN's "Have I Got News For You" says Allen's show is "a demotion entertainment-wise." It's "fine. It's inoffensive, it's vanilla, and you know, I guess that's what CBS wants. Fine. They can have it."
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