| | | | | First lady Melania Trump listens Thursday during the annual conference of the Family Online Safety Institute at the Institute of Peace in Washington. Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images | | | With a Cranky Trump, Mike Pence Steps Up: Vice president has been busy traveling the globe, filling in for Trump
She Keeps Receipts: Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez isn't here to play
The OG Statue of Liberty Torch Is Going in a Museum: It was moved Thursday | | | What the White House Is Talking About:
President Donald Trump is presenting the Medal of Freedom to five people, three of them posthumously -- Elvis Presley, Antonin Scalia and Babe Ruth. Two others, Miriam Adelson and Sen. Orrin Hatch, will be present at this afternoon's ceremony. First lady Melania Trump plans to attend, too.
What the White House Press Corps Is Talking About:
A brooding President signals the Robert Mueller investigation might be a) revealing something we have no idea about and b) drawing to a close.
Mueller Time:
Trump has been meeting with his attorneys this week, presumably going over his responses to the special counsel's questions, and prepping for what could be a bombshell drop of information when Mueller and his team finally wrap up their investigation. Trump's temper is apparently on a razor-thin edge, and sources tell CNN the President is in a foul mood and combative.
Julian Assange Facing Charges?
Remember him? Yeah, he's still living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, having sought political asylum there, but recent court filings apparently inadvertently revealed the US government may have made efforts to charge Assange criminally. It's all a little confusing, so reading this piece helps, but since Assange was involved with the WikiLeaks stuff, and there may be a link to the Mueller investigation, it's interesting.
Our Daily Melania:
Melania Trump spoke Thursday at the annual conference for the Family Online Safety Institute, where she gave a rather long speech (for her, it was five minutes) about her feelings on online kindness. She made a big thing about how children need to learn their words have an impact. She again addressed her critics and the "media," who have ridiculed her for taking up the banner of online bullying, likely because of her husband's comments on social media. I've said this before, but why should she be penalized for choosing this topic because of him? And isn't it sort of admirable she's choosing it in the face of something we are all well aware of? I mean, I think she should address the elephant in the room by name, at least once, but in general, it's sort of annoying that people punish her just because of his behavior. As for the "ridicule" she said she faces, the first lady added, "That's ok," she's going to go ahead anyway.
Kellyanne Conway's Husband on Latest "Skullduggery":
George Conway is becoming my favorite administration spouse since Louise Linton. He gave an interview to the Yahoo News podcast "Skullduggery" and during it literally said this about the Trump administration, for which his wife is a prominent member: "I'm watching this thing and you know it's like, the administration is like a s***show in a dumpster fire." 😳
And as to how his wife feels about her husband regularly dropping whoppers aimed at Trump? "I don't think she likes it. But I've told her, I don't like the administration so it's even." Notably, Kellyanne Conway changed her Twitter bio this morning: | | Credit: @KellyannePolls/Twitter
With a Cranky Trump, Mike Pence Steps Up:
The vice president has been busy traveling the globe lately, filling in for the President, who opted out of a trip to Asia, and two Asian summits, both of which Trump attended last year. I think Pence has gotten the better end of the deal, if only because Singapore's Prime Minister proclaimed a specific type of orchid ("with a showy red lip"!) to be named after Pence, which is amazing, IMO. | | Credit: Yong Teck Lim/AFP/Getty Images, @ToluseO/Twitter
Judge Orders White House Must Give Acosta Back His Pass:
In the case CNN filed against Trump and the White House, a federal judge this morning ordered that CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta must be given back his press pass to enter the White House to cover the news "immediately." The ruling was an initial victory for CNN in its lawsuit against Trump and top aides. Read these tweets from Jessica Schneider bottom to top to see how it unfolded: | | Credit: @SchneiderCNN/Twitter
Dogs of Capitol Hill:
Though this idea was born when Business Insider reporter Joe Perticone was at the Independent Journal Review (and he should have trademarked it), Garden & Gun has released a pretty great feature on the dogs of Capitol Hill. The portraits are awesome -- such as the one below of Scobey, the dog of US Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia. I wondered why so many members of Congress have dogs, and take them to work -- but I think it's that old Harry Truman saying, if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog. So maybe when they won their seats, they got dogs. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Anyway, they're cute. (But not as cute as Winnie.) | | Credit: Hannele Lahti for Garden & Gun magazine
#FBF Obama's last Medal of Freedom Ceremony:
Writing about today's event got me thinking about President Barack Obama's final Medal of Freedom ceremony in November 2016 in which he handed out a whopping 21 medals. It was epic. Most of those awarded were celebrities -- I was there covering it for another outlet at the time, and I remember it was basically a who's who of Hollywood and music and sports. I mean Diana Ross was there. And so was Michael Jordan, Tom Hanks, Cicely Tyson, Ellen DeGeneres, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Robert De Niro, Robert Redford, Bill Gates and, yes, Bruce Springsteen, who I swear to god had a moment with me. Or I like to think he did. You decide: | | Credit: @kateglassmanbennett/Instagram
Dress Like the First Lady:
Melania Trump really has a thing for plaid -- especially plaid coats. On Thursday, she wore, by my very unofficial count, her fifth plaid coat in three weeks. That's a lot of coats, and definitely a lot of plaid. If you really liked this one, which she wore to visit the Marines at the Marine Barracks in Washington, then you should jump on it here because it's on sale for 70% off at $298.50. It's from Danish designer Malene Birger. | | | Credit: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images, net-a-porter.com | | What Washington Is Talking About:
CNN has obtained the names of the 17 Democrats who signed a letter they wouldn't back Nancy Pelosi as House speaker; Pelosi welcomed challengers in the most Pelosi way, saying, "Come on in, the water's warm"; Sen. Jeff Flake doesn't have any other Republicans joining his plan to block judicial nominees to protect Robert Mueller's investigation; and Chad Griffin announced he'll step down as president of the Human Rights Campaign in 2019.
What America is Talking About:
The California fire death toll has climbed to 66 statewide, with 631 people reported missing in the Camp Fire alone; Florida's US Senate race is now going to a hand recount; and the Oxford Dictionaries named toxic the word of 2018.
Poll of the Day:
When it comes to how we vote, there's major agreement on a few proposals, according to a Pew poll released Thursday. Automatically updating voter registration when people move and requiring electronic voting machines to print paper backups are both favored by more than 8 in 10 Americans. And 65% are in favor of making Election Day a national holiday, which honestly, I thought would be higher. | | Credit: Pew
Despite the consensus on several of these proposals, CNN's Grace Sparks noted there are still partisan divides. "Republicans are more likely to favor requiring voters to show a government ID while Democrats want automatic voter registration," she said.
She Keeps Receipts:
Washington Examiner reporter Eddie Scarry tweeted out a photo of Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez he said he was sent and wrote her clothes didn't "look like a girl who struggles." It became a glorious meme. Scarry later deleted the tweet, but Ocasio-Cortez tweeted out a screenshot. Guys, the 116th Congress is going to be lit. | | Credit: @ocasio2018/Twitter
Beto O'Rourke's Running:
Literally. Beto O'Rourke basically wrote a short story on Medium (4 minute-long read) about his run to the Lincoln Memorial during this week's snowstorm.
Stormy Daniels Ready to Drop Avenatti if Allegations are True:
Stormy Daniels said Thursday she's reserving judgment on the domestic violence allegations against her attorney, Michael Avenatti, "But if the allegations turn out to be true then I will definitely be seeking new representation because I cannot condone or support someone who is abusive." Daniels made her remarks at Oxford University, where she spoke before the debating society.
🗽The OG Statue of Liberty Torch is Going in a Museum:
The Statue of Liberty National Monument is opening a new $100 million museum in May on Liberty Island. On Thursday, workers moved the original torch and a replica of the face to its new home. | | Credit: Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images
How Facebook Reportedly Used Protesters' Art Against Them:
Facebook and a Republican opposition research firm it worked with were accused in a New York Times story this week of both trying to link anti-Facebook protesters to billionaire mega-donor George Soros, whose been the target of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and flagging protesters' signs as anti-Semitic.
The protesters were from the group Freedom From Facebook, which accuses Facebook of being a monopoly. They held up signs showing Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg as two heads of an octopus, an image used to symbolize monopolies.
The image also has been used as an anti-Semitic symbol (often with exaggerated facial features, a common hate symbol trope, which the group didn't use) and Zuckerberg and Sandberg are both Jewish. According to the story, a Facebook official called the Anti-Defamation League, which condemned the signs as anti-Semitic. I reached out to Freedom From Facebook to hear its reaction. | | Credit: C-SPAN
"Facebook was looking for a way to discredit us so they weaponized false allegations of anti-Semitism to distract from the critique, which they're actually quite afraid of, which is the critique of monopolization," said Matt Stoller, policy director at the Open Markets Institute. "It never crossed our mind that this was anything but a symbol of monopoly."
The octopus has been used in political art for centuries to symbolize overreach. It's been on maps, to depict Russia, Japan and the United States, and it's been used along with a snake to depict monopolies. The most famous example of octopus-as-monopoly is a cartoon by Udo Joseph Keppler about Standard Oil Co., once the largest company in America before the Supreme Court broke it up in 1911. Freedom From Facebook advocates for Facebook to be broken up, with Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp spun off into separate companies. | | Credit: Cornell University Library
Recently, the octopus has been used editorially to represent big tech as a monopoly, for Esquire in February and The Nation in March.
"Nobody alleged (the magazines of) anti-Semitism; they were just like, this was an article on monopoly, because it's obvious that's what it was," Stoller said. | | Credit: The Nation, Esquire
Facebook said it only meant to draw attention to the fact Freedom From Facebook was not a "spontaneous grassroots campaign" (former hedge fund exec David Magerman has given more than $400,000 to the group because he believes Facebook has a "financial disincentive to protect users' data," he told Axios) and called the accusations it had engaged in an anti-Semitic attack "reprehensible and untrue."
Street Art Sighting:
A Pinterest-worthy feel-good quote next to the king of falsely attributed quotes on the internet, Abraham Lincoln, in a pinstripe suit and super-fat knot in his tie, from Los Angeles. | | Credit: @mumma_allen/Instagram
If you spot political street art, tweet me @hunterschwarz, tag me on Instagram @hunterschwarz or email me at coverlinehunter@cnn.com with your sighting so I can feature it in COVER/LINE.
P.S.:
Honestly, mood. Have a good weekend, see you back here Monday. | | | | | | |
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