Quote of the Day:
“I can honestly say I never had a beer in my life. OK? …Can you imagine if I had? I’d be the worst.”
— President Trump at a White House Rose Garden announcement and subsequent press conference Monday afternoon.
TRUMP GETS SNIPPY: There will not be roses for this female CNN reporter who the White House does not like
“You’ve had enough. You’ve had enough.” — Trump to CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins, who asked if Judge Brett Kavanaugh‘s lies about his high school drinking would get his nomination pulled. Trump replied that he didn’t think Kavanaugh lied — that he had problems with “drink” in high school.
The White House has generally not liked Collins. They recently temporarily banned her from White House press conferences when they thought her questions were too tough.
Trump said something even worse to reporter Cecilia Vega.
Trump called on Vega, and then snidely told the men standing beside him something in a lower voice: “She’s shocked that I picked her.”
ABC News’s Cecilia Vega: “I’m not thinking, Mr. President.”
Trump: “That’s ok, I know you’re not thinking. YOU NEVER DO.”
Vega: “I’m sorry?”
Trump: “It’s OK, go ahead. Go ahead.”
Vega attempted to ask a question on the scope of the FBI investigation regarding Kavanaugh. Trump suggested they discuss trade and the later, Kavanaugh. So she asked if she thought his trade initiative would pass. “I think so,” he replied.
Later on Twitter… she seemed to have a direct message for Trump: “A news conference means you get to ask whatever question you want to ask. #FirstAmendment.”
The Press Reacts…
“Boy that was contentious,” Melissa Francis, Fox News host, Outnumbered, on Monday afternoon.
Rep. Maxine Waters has a q about Kavanaugh’s drinking
“Kavanaugh, so many have come forward describing your abuse of alcohol. I think it is important that the American people know if you have ever sought treatment for alcohol abuse.” — Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).
Confessional: Reporter thankful for sobriety
“It’s my birthday today (aaahhh) but moreover it’s my 2 year anniversary of quitting drinking (yayyy) which was the best decision that I ever made in my now 25 years of existence!” — Eve Peyser, political reporter, VICE News.
The Observer
“What if we cover the entire country with a weighted blanket?” — R. Eric Thomas, staff writer, Elle Mag.
Trump insults Latina reporter
“So today, Trump: -Insulted a Latina reporter to her face, saying she’s ‘never’ thinking -Claimed to have dirt on a Democratic senator -Got the role of trade in the Great Depression entirely wrong -Called the press ‘loco’ because ‘we made a deal with Mexico.'” — Zack Beauchamp, senior reporter, Vox.
Real Politico Magazine Headline
‘Rep. Nunes has stalked Ryan Lizza in Iowa’
“Devin Nunes has a secret, one that his family has gone to great lengths to protect – including stalking @RyanLizza around Iowa and intimidating his sources. The results are like some kind of David Lynch black comedy set in a community of dairy farmers.” — New York Mag’s Olivia Nuzzi, who is dating Esquire and CNN’s Ryan Lizza.
See Ryan Lizza‘s Esquire story here.
Things get scary when someone ‘follows’ Lizza in Iowa
“When I walked in the front door of the mayor’s office, I had noticed a mud-spattered white Yukon parked outside. As I was driving to my next interview, I looked in the rearview mirror and noticed the white Yukon again. I drove aimlessly, crisscrossing streets from one end of town to the other. Everywhere I turned, the white Yukon appeared. I was being followed. When I turned the tables and followed the car back, it raced off. We played cat and mouse like that for more than an hour until I finally got a good glimpse of the driver: It was a middle-aged woman with curly, red hair who had a cell phone stuck to her left ear. The cat-and-mouse game started to feel a little dangerous, so I left town for a couple hours. On my way back into Sibley, the same car passed me on the highway. This time, the chubby man from the Lantern was driving. He smiled and waved.”
He adds this caveat: “Or maybe I’d made a mistake. White SUVs are common. Could I really be sure that was the same guy and the same Yukon? A woman was driving the car earlier; now it was a man. It didn’t make sense. Maybe I was just being paranoid.”
And this: “On my third day in Sibley, I became used to the cars tailing me. In the morning, I was followed by the redhead in the muddy white Yukon. In the afternoon, there was a shift change and I was followed by a different, later-model white Yukon. I stuck a GoPro on my dashboard and left it running whenever I parked my car. When I reviewed the videos, one of the two Yukons could always be seen slowly circling as I ate lunch or interviewed someone.”
What’s Don Jr. up to?
“Donald Trump Jr. to rally for Maine Republicans.” — Donald Trump, Jr., son of President Trump. According to an AP story, he will slum it by speaking Monday night at a Holiday Inn By The Bay in Portland, ME.
TV Notes
Kavanaugh accuser Julie Swetnick‘s boyfriend will speak out on FNC’s “The Angle” with Laura Ingraham Monday night. He has told reporters that she has stalked him and his family post breakup.
A Convo Between a Reporter and a Professor
Andrea DeSanctis, reporter, National Review: “To those ‘conservatives’ who hate Trump so much that they’re cheering as Senate Democrats and the media attack and smear Brett Kavanaugh: That’s not principled conservatism. That’s abandoning your principles because you hate one man.”
Tom Nichols, prof, Naval War College: “To those ‘conservatives’ who are willing to look away from Kavanaugh’s bizarre, evasive, immature, intemperate, weaselly, disrespectful answers to the Senate, that’s not conservative, that’s just tribal loyalty over prudence and principle.
Gossip Roundup
NYP‘s Page Six: Sarah Palin‘s daughter, Willow, gets married. Here.
Splinter: Trump attacks female journos in the Rose Garden. Here.
Daily Mail: CBS’ Gayle King and Oprah Winfrey attend a wedding in Paris that ends in a $1M jewel theft. Here.
National Enquirer: The mag wonders by survey if Rosie O’Donnell should take over for ex-CBS’s Les Moonves‘s wife, Julie Chen, on “The Talk.”
