“The White House is aggressively investigating several leaks of President Trump’s private schedules, a source of repeated embarrassment to the White House and the president himself,” Politico reports.
“West Wing officials managing the hunt have enlisted the help of the White House IT office, and believe they are making progress in narrowing the search for potential suspects. One Trump official said the culprit is likely a career government employee who works in the White House, not a person appointed by Trump himself, but did not offer specific evidence.”
“Beto O’Rourke is not shying away from the spotlight as President Trump prepares to hold a rally in the El Paso hometown of the former congressman and potential presidential candidate,” the Texas Tribunereports.
“On Monday evening, O’Rourke will lead a march through the city and then speak at a local sports center at 7 p.m. local time — the same time Trump’s rally is set to begin… The events are intended to highlight El Paso’s strength as a binational community — and push back against Trump’s long-sought border wall.”
President Trump’s personal physician said that the president is in “very good health” and should remain so “for the remainder of his presidency and beyond” after Mr. Trump underwent a comprehensive physical examination, the New York Times reports.
“But Dr. Sean Conley, a Navy officer who is the president’s physician and the current director of the White House medical unit, released no details about what a team of 11 specialists had found in the course of a four-hour examination of Mr. Trump.”
Politico: “It’s clear that every moment is a minefield, for both the president and the person he’s trying to woo—something Booker seems to grasp as he makes the media rounds in these early days of his campaign. During his appearance on the syndicated morning radio show ‘The Breakfast Club’ early this month, the conversation turned to his dating life… and the man known for glib speeches in Senate hearing rooms got cagey, all of a sudden.”
“Like it or not, it’s going to keep coming up. The American public is fascinated by bachelorhood, and also eager to see single men married off—hence our keen interest in the dating habits of British royals, and the umpteen-thousand hours produced of ‘The Bachelor.’ As much as the boundaries and definitions of marriage have changed—and over the course of the nation’s history, they’ve changed dramatically—matrimony is still seen as the normal state of a responsible adult. And, under most circumstances, we want our presidents to seem normal, and responsible.”
“Citing concerns about the proliferation of erotic images online and their ‘toxic’ effect on behavior, Arizona lawmakers are pushing to declare pornography a public health crisis,” the Arizona Republic reports.
“Similar measures declaring a crisis have passed in at least 11 states, using similar text from model legislation written by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. The group, formerly known as Morality in Media, contends porn is directly connected to other acts of exploitation.”
Amanda Ripley: “So far, most of the mainstream stories about Trump’s narcissism have been about whether mental health professionals should diagnose him from afar. That’s a worthy debate. But journalists are not psychiatrists. We are not bound by the rules of the American Psychiatric Association. We are bound by a duty to inform the public, without fear, drawing upon any source that may prove useful.”
“At this point, it’s not biased to acknowledge that Trump behaves in ways that most mental health professionals recognize as symptomatic of a larger problem. It’s not unreasonable to ask them to help explain and even predict his behavior. In fact, it may be more biased not to do so.”
“Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), struggling to move past criticism over her Native American heritage claims, will aim for a fresh start on Saturday when she formally launches her 2020 presidential campaign,” Reuters reports.
A Boston Globe editorial: “If Warren can’t stop the slow bleed of bad news now, the presidential candidacy she is expected to launch in Lawrence on Saturday is going to go nowhere fast. To unseat Donald Trump, Democrats need to put up the strongest candidate possible, not another wounded one. A polarizing figure, Warren already faces headwinds that complicate her candidacy.”
“The best thing Warren can do — what she needs to do — is put all the facts about her past in front of voters. The senator needs to search not only her records but her conscience to end the drip-drip-drip of fresh revelations. Only Warren knows how much worse her political travails can get. For the sake of her campaign — and of her party, should she end up winning the nomination— any further revelations must come from her.”VISIT WEBSITE
“Democrats and liberal groups on Friday pointed to a Supreme Court ruling in an abortion case to argue that Justice Brett Kavanaugh would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, focusing their ire on Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who supported Kavanaugh’s nomination last year and faces a tough 2020 reelection,” the Washington Post reports.
“The outcry from the left follows the court’s 5-to-4 vote to block a restrictive Louisiana abortion law… While Democrats hailed the decision, they pointed to Kavanaugh’s dissent as a sign that he is poised to side with conservatives in future rulings on abortion rights.”
President Trump’s campaign has spent nearly $100,000 of donor money to pay legal bills to the firm representing Jared Kushner, ABC Newsreports.
“Low dollar contributions – $200 or less – made up 98.5 percent of the total funds raised by the Trump campaign in the last quarter of 2018, a consistent trend throughout the year… Kushner is a real estate scion who earned more than $1.7 million in income in 2015… His net worth has been estimated at more than $300 million.”
“Rep. Tim Ryan, an Ohio Democrat who has made waves by challenging Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will visit Iowa and New Hampshire in the coming weeks as he considers a presidential run,” BuzzFeed News reports.
“Ryan represents an area where President Donald Trump converted many longtime Democratic voters and he has shown mild interest in a White House bid since 2016. The upcoming travel suggests an escalation as he nears a decision.”
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