Can you hear me now, comrade?

From Vox:

President Donald Trump has spoken regularly on an unsecured personal cellphone with his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani — and experts say it’s possible that Russia knows more about their efforts to compel Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden than congressional investigators do.

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Someone is trying to make Lindsey Graham jealous!

From James Downie at the Washington Post (opinion):

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) showcasing the “typical shell game” of Republicans on impeachment: Eliminate the importance of the “quid pro quo,” muddy the waters of the president’s motive and distort the impeachment process itself. Since then, the senator from Louisiana has taken his pro-Trump spin to a new level: repeating Russian disinformation without a care.

On Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” Kennedy began his interview with host Chuck Todd with a mea culpa for recently misstating that Ukraine, not Russia, hacked Democratic National Committee computers in 2016. One would think such embarrassment would lead one to be more cautious in his claims about Russia, Ukraine and the 2016 election. Not so with Kennedy.

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“If the nesting doll fits…”

From NBC News:

Hillary Clinton says she believes that the Russians have “got their eye on somebody who’s currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate.”

In a recent interview, Clinton didn’t mention Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii by name, but said she believes one candidate is “the favorite of the Russians.” Asked if the former secretary of state was referring to Gabbard, Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said, “If the nesting doll fits…”

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Flop Go the Weasels

From The New York Times:

For 24 hours last week, Trey Gowdy, the former South Carolina congressman best known for leading congressional investigations of Hillary Clinton, was the new face of President Trump’s outside legal defense and a symbol of a streamlined effort to respond to a fast-moving impeachment inquiry.

A day later, the arrangement fell apart, with lobbying rules prohibiting Mr. Gowdy from starting until January, possibly after the inquiry is over. Now, according to two people familiar with events, Mr. Gowdy is never expected to join the team. And Trump advisers are back to square one, searching for a different lawyer.

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Hogwash out of Oshkosh

From David Boddinger at SPLINTER:

Chuck Todd, the normally insufferable host of NBC News’ Meet the Press, has appeared increasingly uncomfortable over the past few days with the talking heads who appear on his show to repeat GOP talking points about Donald Trump.

…snip…

But something happened on Sunday to trigger Todd, and that something was Republican Sen. Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, which rhymes. Johnson appeared on NBC acting like a combative, right-wing lunatic, and spewing pro-Trump conspiracy theories that sounded like they came straight from Fox News, Breitbart, or even InfoWars.

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Lock Her Up!

From CBS News:

Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and a top White House adviser, sent hundreds of emails about government business from a personal email account last year, CBS News confirms.

The emails were sent to White House aides, Cabinet members and Ivanka Trump’s assistants, many in violation of public records rules, The Washington Post first reported Monday.

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RICO Suave

From THINK PROGRESS:

During an interview on Sunday’s edition of This Week, Jay Sekulow — one of President Trump’s lawyers — admitted he was wrong last year when he claimed Trump “wasn’t involved” in dictating a misleading statement for his son about the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between his campaign and Kremlin-connected Russians who offered political dirt on Hillary Clinton.

 

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Banana Republicans

From THE HILL:

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) compared President Trump‘s consideration of a plan to strip half a dozen former national security and intelligence officials of their security clearances to “a banana republic kind of thing.”

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