Monday 5/6/19: Joe diGenova, Washington Post's Jacob Bogage, The Hill's Saagar Enjeti and Peter Baker
8am – A INTERVIEW – SAAGAR ENJETI – Chief Washington Correspondent & Host at The Hill – discussed the latest political/WH news: Mark Morgan for ICE, N. Korea, etc
IRAN: US Deploying Carrier, Bombers to Middle East in Warning to Iran
Saagar Enjeti @esaagar 11h11 hours ago: NEW from @AmbJohnBolton: US is deploying carrier strike group to Middle East in response to “a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” from Iran
U.S. sending Iran a ‘clear and unmistakable message.’ The U.S. is sending the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the Middle East in order “to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime,” National Security Adviser John Bolton announced Sunday night. Bolton said the deployment was in response to “a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” on the part of Tehran, but did not elaborate. “[A]ny attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force,” Bolton said. “The United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime, but we are fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or regular Iranian forces.”
MARK MORGAN TO HEAD ICE: Trump: Morgan Will Head US Immigration Enforcement Agency. Trump has named Mark Morgan, a career FBI official and the former head of Border Patrol during the last few months of the Obama administration, as the new director of ICE.
Saagar Enjeti @esaagar 18h18 hours ago: Mark Morgan was head of Border Patrol under Obama. He chose to come forward publicly in support of POTUS during the border crisis and has been a vocal defender of his since
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 18h18 hours ago: I am pleased to inform all of those that believe in a strong, fair and sound Immigration Policy that Mark Morgan will be joining the Trump Administration as the head of our hard working men and women of ICE. Mark is a true believer and American Patriot. He will do a great job!
NORTH KOREA: North Korea’s missile launches Saturday “didn’t present a threat to the United States” and its allies, nor did it derail the Trump administration’s attempts to reach a denuclearization deal, according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. In an appearance on ABC’s “This Week”, Pompeo stressed that the missiles were short-range and therefore did not violate the agreed to a moratorium on missile launches.
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump May 4: Anything in this very interesting world is possible, but I believe that Kim Jong Un fully realizes the great economic potential of North Korea, & will do nothing to interfere or end it. He also knows that I am with him & does not want to break his promise to me. Deal will happen!
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the U.S. “will exhaust every diplomatic opportunity there is” for North Korea denuclearization: “It would be the best outcome for the world”
DE BLASIO 2020: De Blasio expected to announce 2020 presidential run next week: sources.
Saagar Enjeti Retweeted: Bill de Blasio Expected to Throw His Hat Into 2020 Ring. Remember When He Threw a Groundhog to Its Death?
8am – B/C INTERVIEW – PETER BAKER – New York Times White House Correspondent and author of new edition of his 2017 biography, “Obama: The Call of History”
BOOK: Obama Took 2016 Election as ‘Personal Insult,’ Blamed Hillary’s ‘Soulless, Scripted Campaign’ (The Hill) — Former President Obama viewed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s 2016 loss to President Trump as a “personal insult” and a defeat of his own legacy, according to new updates to a 2017 book. Updates to New York Times correspondent Peter Baker’s history of the Obama presidency, “Obama: The Call of History,” published by the Daily Mail, detail how the president was overcome with anger in the days following Clinton’s defeat to Trump, which Obama saw as a result of her inability to translate his policy successes into a winnable message. “Obama may not have been on the ballot, but it was hard not to see the vote as a ‘personal insult,’ as he had called it on the campaign trail,” Baker writes, according to Fox News. “This stings,” Obama said after the election, according to Baker. “This hurts.” Struggling with the results of the election, Obama found himself thinking that the American people “simply could not have decided to replace him with a buffoonish showman whose calling cards had been repeated bankruptcies, serial marriages and racist dog whistles,” Baker continued. “I’ve got the economy set up well for him. No facts. No consequences. They can just have a cartoon,” he told one aide after the election, according to the book. Baker wrote that Obama directed much blame at his former secretary of State, who the former president thought ran a “soulless” campaign. “No one forced her to take hundreds of thousands of dollars from Goldman Sachs and other pillars of Wall Street for speeches,” Baker writes, according to the Mail. “No one forced her to run a scripted, soulless campaign that tested eighty-five slogans before coming up with ‘Stronger Together.’ “
8am – D/E RUSSIA CONSPIRACY FALLOUT:
SHOULD MUELLER TESTIFY:
Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) says Mueller Agrees to Tentatively Testify Before House on May 15… THEN WALKS IT BACK
TWEET: TRUMP Says Mueller Shouldn’t Testify
CNN ANCHOR LOSES IT: CNN’s Alisyn Camerota lets her anti-Trump bias fly in wake of Mueller report: ‘Sorry if I sound like they’ve broken my spirit’
Comey defends FBI’s investigation in response to NYT ‘spying’ report. In a lengthy interview with a Los Angeles radio station, Charles Feldman mentioned the New York Times report and asked Comey about Trump supporters’ reaction to it.
PAPADOPOULOS’ SPY WAS LIKELY CIA: Reporter won’t say if ‘sexy blonde’ who targeted Papadopoulos worked for FBI. A reporter who exposed how the FBI sent a blond bombshell to question a Trump campaign about suspected collusion with Russia won’t say if she’s actually a G-woman — fueling suspicion the woman may work for the CIA or another spy agency. During an interview on CNN, New York Times reporter Adam Goldman didn’t answer directly when asked if the woman, who called herself Azra Turk, was “an FBI agent.” “I’m just, what I’m gonna, I’m just gonna leave it at right now as a government investigator,” Goldman stammered.