He appears to believe that he is engaged in some explicit or implicit quid pro quo with the Department of Justice: He doesn't fire Jeff Sessions, or demand prosecution of his political enemies, or whatever it is he imagines doing with his "absolute right to do what I want to do," so long as they treat him and his associates "fairly," which likely means protecting him from Mueller's investigation. Here, Trump offers insight into his own thinking. "For purposes of hopefully thinking I'm going to be treated fairly, I've stayed uninvolved with this particular matter," he says. Read Trump's phrasing carefully: "I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department." It's a statement that speaks both to Trump's yearning for authoritarian power and his misunderstanding of the system in which he actually operates.Īnd it's followed by something yet scarier. But for purposes of hopefully thinking I'm going to be treated fairly, I've stayed uninvolved with this particular matter. TRUMP: What I've done is, I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department. Should they reopen that email investigation? Trump: "I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department" It is scarier to believe that Trump is delusional, that he has persuaded himself that Democrats have said things they've never said, that his base has strengthened when it has actually weakened, that it's really his opponents under investigation for collusion, that his campaign has been cleared of wrongdoing when the circumstantial case for collusion has only grown stronger.īut that is far from the end of the interview. It would be comforting, on some level, to believe that Trump is simply lying, that he is trying to convince us of what he knows to be untrue. It speaks to Trump's habits of mind, to the sycophantic sources from which he prefers to get his news, that he heard something Feinstein said and has come to believe she has absolved him - yet misses the actual thing she said that threatens him. The Judiciary Committee has an investigation going as well and it involves obstruction of justice and I think what we're beginning to see is the putting together of a case of obstruction of justice. "It has become increasingly clear that even his base is not immune to the downward pressure," CNN concluded. Trump's numbers have fallen by 8 points among Republicans, by 9 points among voters over 50, by 10 points among whites with no college, by 17 points among white evangelicals. It looked at the change in Trump's approval ratings from February to November among the demographic groups that formed the core of Trump's electoral coalition - in every group, there'd been substantial declines. The fact that Trump has lost the greatest number of supporters in red states is perhaps the clearest indication yet that he is losing ground among some form of his base, if you think of his base as those who voted for him in November.ĬNN took a different angle on the same question and also found slippage among Trump's base. And it's down 8 points in states Clinton carried by at least 10 points. In states that were decided by 10 points or less in November, it's down only 13 points. In states where Trump won by at least 10 points, his net approval rating is down 18 percentage points, on average, compared to his margin last November. Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower “We had a good laugh.Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit The vice president also revealed that the story was mentioned in a recent conversation he shared with the president. at an Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Papua New Guinea.Īsked by reporters Saturday about the veracity of the report, Pence said he and the president enjoyed “a very close” and “a very strong” relationship, according to a pool report. Pence was in Singapore on Thursday for the multinational East Asia Summit, where he and National Security Adviser John Bolton talked briefly with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. “POTUS would need to talk to them about why they didn’t provide us with a quote from him.” “FACT CHECK: Emailed with and spoke with first deputy Hogan Gidley, who is quoted,” Haberman wrote online. Haberman said she corresponded with Sanders via email ahead of the story’s publication, and pointed to a quote from White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley that is featured in the story. Maggie Haberman, a White House correspondent for the Times and a co-author of the story (who is also a former POLITICO reporter), disputed the president’s account in a tweet Saturday. So that’s why they don’t like calling me for a quote.” The president added: “You know what the quote would be? Mike Pence is 100 percent.
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