69 percent of Americans believe that Trump should not fire Mueller. Nice!
BY PRIYANKA ARIBINDI, BRIAN BEUTLER
& CROOKED MEDIA
Tuesday, April 10, 2018 | Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg started his first day of testimony on Capitol Hill before the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees, where he was asked about privacy, competition, and data security in the wake of abuses by the data firm Cambridge Analytica. From Brian Beutler: A well-conducted Senate hearing on Facebook should address three topics: data security and user privacy, antitrust, and the umbrella issues of who controls information and power in a democracy. Senators in the hearing were by and large only interested in the first issue, and most had a very weak grasp on it. About an hour in, Mark Zuckerberg seemed to relax a bit and find his groove, because he realized most Senators don’t understand the Internet, and are uninterested in forcing him to make major changes. That said, here are some highlights! • Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) asked Zuckerberg the first good question of the day, well into the hearing, about whether Facebook is a monopoly. Zuckerberg responded, “It certainly doesn’t feel that way to me." Tell that to MySpace. • Soon after, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) asked Zuckerberg to reveal which Washington, D.C. hotel he was staying at to highlight concerns about personal privacy. (Zuck did not say. Maybe it’s the Trump hotel?) • He confirmed that members of Facebook’s team had been interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. | RAIDERS OF THE LAST SHARK | We have learned a lot in the past 24 hours about the FBI’s raid on Michael Cohen’s office, home, and hotel room. During the raid, the FBI reportedly sought records about payments from Cohen, Trump’s lawyer, to adult film star Stormy Daniels and Playboy playmate Karen McDougal, as well as records pertaining to David Pecker, the publisher of The National Enquirer. Cohen broke his silence telling CNN’s Don Lemon “I would be lying to you if I told [you] that I am not [worried]." No shit. Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein personally approved the raid, and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman—a Jeff Sessions appointee who donated to Trump’s 2016 campaign—recused himself from the Cohen investigation. Trump is going to LOVE both of these facts—just kidding, according to CNN, he’s reportedly considering firing Rosenstein. This whole episode has intensified fears that Trump could move to fire Mueller. According to a new report from the New York Times, Trump wanted to fire Mueller over false reports of new subpoenas back in December. His own friends think he could lose it any minute: One Republican source told Vanity Fair: “I could see him having a total meltdown and saying, ‘Fuck it, I’m firing all of them.” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders did little to calm these fears when she asserted that Trump “believes he has the power” to fire Mueller today. Naturally, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell still refuses to protect Mueller. Tuesday afternoon he said "I haven’t seen clear indication yet that we need to pass something to keep him from being removed because I don’t think that’s going to happen.” The President is publicly mulling it over, his press secretary says he has the power to do it, eight White House sources told the Times Trump wanted Mueller gone in December, but sure, Mitch, no need. Pathetic. A new Quinnipiac poll says 69 percent of Americans believe that Trump should not fire Mueller. Nice! Even a majority of Republicans (55 percent) agree. | | |
It’s day two on the job for Trump’s new National Security Adviser John Bolton, and he’s cleaning house. NSC spokesman Michael Anton and Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert resigned. And Bolton is reportedly already clashing with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. China’s President Xi Jinping urged “dialogue rather than confrontation” in the face of rising tensions between China and the U.S. over tariffs and trade. Trump responded by praising his “enlightenment.” Robert Mueller is investigating a $150,000 payment from a Ukrainian businessman to the Trump Foundation during the campaign, in September 2015, for a 20 minute video appearance to a conference in Kiev. The contribution, solicited by Michael Cohen (of course), was unearthed in Mueller’s subpoena of Trump Organization documents. Russia has vetoed a United Nations resolution proposed by the U.S. to set up an independent probe to investigate the use of chemical weapons in Syria. U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley was pissed. Since the Trump administration took over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, it has not recorded any enforcement action whatsoever. Acting director Mick Mulvaney has recommended that Congress scale back the bureau's power, but it seems like he’s taking care of that pretty well on his own. Trump canceled his trip to the eighth Summit of the Americas in order to monitor the situation in Syria. Vice President Mike Pence is going in his place, giving him the perfect cover to continue his remarkable track record of being totally out of the fucking loop about everything.
The EPA axed a career staffer who approved an internal report that undermined Administrator Scott Pruitt’s claims that his expensive security detail is necessary.
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Pod Save The People was live from National Geographic headquarters in D.C., where they discussed race and science, MLK, women in STEM, and more with two Nat Geo explorers. Listen → | | |
Today is Equal Pay Day, or approximately how far into a new year on average a woman has to keep working to earn the same amount a man would have earned the previous year. But this date isn’t one size fits all—according to CNBC, “For African-American women, Equal Pay Day won't be recognized until August 7th. For Native American and Latina women...September 7th and November 1st. (Equal Pay Day for Asian American and Pacific Islander women was marked on February 22, but gaps persist between subgroups.)” From Priyanka: Hey Brian, how does that raise sound now? From Brian: This is extortion. | A new New York Times report on professional cheerleaders across the NFL, NBA, and NHL has revealed that groping and sexual harassment by fans has become “part of the job.” One former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader detailed how the team instructed her to respond to such harassment: “We were told what to say… To be sweet, not rude… Because if it’s not for the fans, we wouldn’t be here—that’s how we were supposed to think of this.” GROSS.
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