Up, Up and Oy Vey!

(CNN) President Trump’s fierce warning to North Korea was improvised in the moment, not part of a scripted statement that he prepared to deliver Tuesday, according to three people with knowledge of the remarks.

Trump has long been bothered by North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un’s threats against the United States and has privately vented about a powerful United States response to the rogue nation. His statement on Tuesday, flanked by top White House aides and his new chief of staff Gen. John Kelly, mimics those private remarks, a source said.

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” Trump said during a meeting on opioids from his golf club in New Jersey. “They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen … he has been very threatening beyond a normal state. They will be met with fire, fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before.”

Two questions, kids. First, would anyone else put money on that quote being penned by Stephen Miller, and second, did anyone else immediately think of this:

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That’s the way the cookie bumbles

From BBC:

 

US President Donald Trump has said he would be “honoured” to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in the right circumstances.

“If it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, I would – absolutely. I would be honoured to do it,” he told news organisation Bloomberg on Monday.

The previous day he described Mr Kim as a “pretty smart cookie”.

The comments come amid escalating tensions over North Korea’s nuclear programme.

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Who’s Your Caddy?

 

From INDEPENDENT:

Donald Trump was back on his West Palm Beach golf course in Florida on Friday, as North Korea’s military threatened to go to war with the United States, if provoked.

…snip…

The President was spotted at Trump International Golf Club at around on Good Friday morning, marking what is thought to be the President’s 18th day spent on one of his golf courses since entering the White House exactly 12 weeks ago.

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Harry Reid Has Lunch

From TALKING POINTS MEMO:

By a vote of 71-26 this afternoon, the Senate ratified the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), exceeding the two-thirds majority required for passage.

The vote brings to an end a long, winding and at times hostile debate over the arms agreement, which enjoyed broad support among one-time GOP influence peddlers, but was held up for much of the lame-duck session by several Republican senators who raised a series of procedural and policy objections to the treaty.

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl led the opposition, and at times appeared to have rounded up the 34 votes he would have needed to block START. Kyl made a name for himself in the GOP in 1999 when he shocked American and international diplomats and handily blocked President Clinton’s Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

This time, his efforts fell well short.

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GOP? More Like PMS

From David Corn at POLITICS DAILY:

John McCain & Lindsey Graham: The Mean Girls of the U.S. Senate

I have a theory about human social evolution: life doesn’t progress much after high school. This week, I can thank John McCain and Lindsey Graham for providing empirical data that supports this hypothesis.

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Capitol Theater, With a Capital Tea

From POLITICO:

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) called Democrats’ push to force through an arms control treaty and an omnibus spending bill right before Christmas “sacrilegious,” and warned he’d draw the process out to wage his objections.

“We shouldn’t be jamming a major arms control treaty up against Christmas; it’s sacrilegious and disrespectful,” he told POLITICO. “What’s going on here is just wrong. This is the most sacred holiday for Christians. They did the same thing last year – they kept everybody here until [Christmas Eve] to force something down everybody’s throat. I think Americans are sick of this.”

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Uh-oh, Chimpy, now you’ve gone and made him mad!

From The Washington Post:

In his first few months after leaving office, former vice president Richard B. Cheney threw himself into public combat against the “far left” agenda of the new commander in chief. More private reflections, as his memoir takes shape in slashing longhand on legal pads, have opened a second front against Cheney’s White House partner of eight years, George W. Bush.

Cheney’s disappointment with the former president surfaced recently in one of the informal conversations he is holding to discuss the book with authors, diplomats, policy experts and past colleagues.

…snip…

“In the second term, he felt Bush was moving away from him,” said a participant in the recent gathering, describing Cheney’s reply. “He said Bush was shackled by the public reaction and the criticism he took. Bush was more malleable to that. The implication was that Bush had gone soft on him, or rather Bush had hardened against Cheney’s advice. […]”

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Oh look! Deadeye Dick has even scared Pickles, Jenna, and not-Jenna!

Mission Accomplished!

From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton arrived in the United States Wednesday morning after a dramatic 20-hour visit to North Korea, in which he won the freedom of two American journalists, opened a diplomatic channel to North Korea’s reclusive government and dined with the North’s ailing leader, Kim Jong-il.

The private plane carrying Mr. Clinton and the journalists, Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, landed at 5:50 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, just outside Los Angeles.

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