* Philip Bump created a helpful timeline of events surrounding Don Jr’s meeting with Veselnitskaya. He updated it after the release of the email exchange with Goldstone today, and also added video of a speech the Trump Sr. made on June 7th (four days after the initial email and two days before the meeting occurred).
At about the 7:00 minute mark:
I am going to give a major speech on probably Monday of next week and we’re going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons. I think you’re going to find it very informative and very, very interesting.
Sounds like he was expecting some hot info, doesn’t it?
* Steve Benen recounts all the times Trump told us during the campaign that the Obama administration’s military offensive in Mosul was “a total disaster.” After 6 months in office, the president approved some minor tweaks, but has basically implemented the same strategy. It will come as no surprise that he now wants to take credit for its success.
We have made tremendous progress against ISIS – more in the past 6 months than in the years since ISIS became a major threat. The victory in Mosul, a city where ISIS once proclaimed its so-called ‘caliphate,’ signals that its days in Iraq and Syria are numbered. We will continue to seek the total destruction of ISIS.
* Ari Berman tells us about the voter suppressors and conspiracy theorists who have been put in charge of Trump’s “election integrity” commission. Yesterday another notorious figure was added: J. Christian Adams.
The latest addition to the commission is J. Christian Adams, who served alongside von Spakovsky in the Bush Justice Department. Their boss, Bradley Schlozman, said he wanted to “ “gerrymander all of those crazy libs right out of the [voting] section.” Adams was “exhibit A” for the improper hiring and rampant politicization that occurred during the Bush years, according to former voting-section chief Joe Rich.
Today Adams is best known as the leading figure behind the New Black Panther Party conspiracy theory. He accused the Obama administration of “a hostility in the voting section and in the Civil Rights Division to bringing cases on behalf of white victims for the benefit of national racial minorities.” Since he left DOJ, Adams has been suing states and counties to force them to purge their voting rolls, as Mother Jones reported—a preview of the types of suppressive tactics the Trump DOJ is prepping and the commission will no doubt recommend in its report.
* It’s clear that McConnell doesn’t want Senators to go home again on recess to hear from their constituents about Republican plans on health care.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced Tuesday that he is canceling half of Congress’ annual month-long August recess, keeping lawmakers in town to finish their drawn-out and so far unsuccessful effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act and tackle other pressing matters.
* Finally, yesterday I wrote about why Trump’s nostalgia voters have no problem with the president’s embrace of Putin. I mentioned that Franklin Graham had traveled to Russia in 2015 and reiterated the alignment of Putin’s Russia with his own take on Christian values.
It wasn’t until yesterday that I saw this tweet Graham sent out in April 2016. But think about this timeline: On March 20, 2017, James Comey testified that the FBI was investigating Russia’s attempt to influence our election and whether or not the Trump campaign had coordinated with them. Two weeks later, Graham decided to brag about meeting with Putin during that trip in 2015. Personally, I find that appalling.
I was in Russia in 2015 and met with President Vladimir @PutinRF_Eng. pic.twitter.com/zGcxu7mYnA
— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) April 4, 2017
