TheDC Morning

TheDC Morning: Trump pretends he’s running for president … again

Jamie Weinstein Senior Writer
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1.) Trump pretends he’s running for president … again — ABC has an exclusive interview with Donald Trump where they pretend to believe Trump is really considering a 2016 presidential run. TheDC’s Jeff Poor reports: 

“One of the most outspoken figures on the question of President Barack Obama’s eligibility to be president during the last presidential election cycle was real estate mogul Donald Trump. In a five-minute interview aired on Sunday’s ‘This Week with George Stephanopoulos’ on ABC with Jon Karl, Trump revisited the birth certificate question, but this time he trained his sights on Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s eligibility. ‘Why does that make me not serious?’ Trump asked. ‘I think that resonated with a lot of people… I have no idea [if he was born in the United States]. I don’t know, was there a birth certificate? You tell me. You know some people say it was not his birth certificate. I’m saying I don’t know. Nobody knows and you don’t know, Jonathan. You’re a smart guy. You don’t know either.'”

Just what the GOP needs as a presidential candidate: Someone unwilling to let go of the birther conspiracy. But in fairness to Trump, we can’t be 100% certain the sun exists or that John Boehner is a human and not an orange. But let’s be real: Trump is not running for president. He pulled this stunt in 2000 and in 2012. TheDC Morning refuses to play into the ruse until Trump proves it is not a ruse.

2.) Gohmert vs. Will  — Two conservatives squared off in a not-so-fierce battle Sunday. TheDC’s Jeff Poor reports: 

“On Sunday’s ‘This Week with George Stephanopoulos’ on ABC, Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert and Washington Post columnist George Will debated the merits of the congressional Republicans using the budget process to attack Obamacare. Gohmert first reacted to President Barack Obama’s suggestion the GOP was unified in trying to prevent people from getting health care in his remarks on Friday. ‘That’s a false narrative,’ Gohmert said. ‘He said that we’re trying to keep people from having health care. That’s just not true. That is an absolute blatant lie. We are not trying to keep anybody from getting health care and whether or not they have insurance under an exchange or not does not prevent people from getting health care.’ But Will said although it may be false, this was a battle the Republican can’t win because the president will control the narrative.”

3.) College waste? — Some schools spend money on professors. Some spend it on making their logo look less phallic. TheDC’s Eric Owens reports:

“When Karen L. Gould took over as president of Brooklyn College in 2009, one of her first acts was to suck $107,000 from some mysterious, unacknowledged source in order to beget a new logo. Gould and others believed the old logo looked too much like a giant penis, reports the New York Post. The old logo was the silhouette of the City University of New York-affiliated school’s iconic La Guardia Hall clock tower. Gould, a scholar of French-Canadian literature by training, became the school’s first female president in June 2009. A couple months later, Brooklyn College contracted with Neustadt Creative Marketing, a Baltimore-based firm, to design a new, non-phallic logo and remake the school website.”

4.) The shrinkage effect — Political pro tip: The more pictures of your private parts you send to random people on the Internet, the less people will want to donate to your campaign. TheDC’s Patrick Howley reports:

“Campaign finance records show that Democrat Anthony Weiner’s New York City mayoral campaign is bleeding cash while donations are becoming much harder to come by. Weiner raised an average of $16,434 per day in the first 50 days of his campaign, according to the New York Daily News, totaling more than $820,000. But between the day his latest scandal broke on July 23 and August 5, Weiner raised only $1,897 per day, for a total of just more than $24,000.”

5.) Tweet of Yesterday — Kyle Conley: Jose Canseco is going out with a model, so never give up hope, you guys.

6.) Today in North Korean News — BREAKING: “Kim Jong Un Visits Construction Site of Munsu Wading Pool”

VIDEO:  WaPo columnist says ‘dangerous’ Putin sees weakness in Obama

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