That’s really the question that should be asked every time Trump or Sarah Sanders or Rudy Giuliani (or any other spokesperson) opens their mouth.
Why are you lying again?
Nicolle Wallace and John Heilemann do a consistent job with this. So does Jake Tapper. More, please.
WaPo:
‘Why can’t we just do it?’: Trump nearly upended summit with abrupt changes
After arriving in Singapore on Sunday, an antsy and bored Trump urged his aides to demand that the meeting with Kim be pushed up by a day — to Monday — and had to be talked out of altering the long-planned and carefully negotiated summit date on the fly, according to two people familiar with preparations for the event.
“We’re here now,” the president said, according to the people. “Why can’t we just do it?”
Trump’s impatience, coupled with a tense staff-level meeting between the two sides on Sunday, left some aides fearful that the entire summit might be in peril.
Trump approached the entire summit as a photo op, and didn’t prepare. That’s why nothing of substance came out of it, except for the stuff he gave away (military readiness, and maybe sanctions). And why you can’t believe a word Trump says about it. Or what he says about anything.
Politico:
Shrinking map boosts Democrats in battle for the Senate
Republicans are still favored to keep their majority, but several Democratic incumbents in red states look likely to survive.
There’s less chatter about prioritizing beating Stabenow, Casey or Brown. Thune called those “sleeper” races.
Republicans are more intensely focused on states that Trump won handily, as well as protecting Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), whom Schumer says is in “huge amounts of trouble.” And Democrats share Republicans' belief that Nelson and Sens. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota remain vulnerable.
Heitkamp said she is “doing well” but views herself as an underdog against Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.).
“Anything other than an uphill climb is wrong. This is a state that identifies pretty heavily Republican,” Heitkamp said.
Republicans still think West Virginia and Montana can turn in their favor despite favorable numbers and dynamics for Manchin and Tester.
Politico:
Pruitt faces revolt in Trump country
Ethanol, not ethics, is prompting Republicans across the Midwest to protest the EPA chief and call for his firing.
Republican politicians and farmers across the Trump-friendly Midwest are pounding EPA chief Scott Pruitt as he tours the region this week — in a revolt that threatens to weaken his already shaky hold on his job.
Pruitt’s troubles with farmers have nothing to do with his never-ending ethics scandals, and instead stem from accusations that he’s weakening an ethanol mandate that provides a lifeline to corn growers in states like Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota and Nebraska. But the furor in the heartland is only adding to Pruitt’s headaches at a time when conservatives like Laura Ingraham are urging President Donald Trump to fire him.
Cook Political:
Governors Overview: Six Months Out
Of the nine seats Democrats must defend, none are in red states, although a couple — Minnesota and Pennsylvania — are in swing states.
The seats Democrats need to be most concerned about are the open seats in Connecticut and Minnesota. It seems counterintuitive that a seat in a solidly blue state like Connecticut would be in play, but the state faces significant financial problems, the city of Hartford was on the brink of bankruptcy last fall until the state bailed it out, and major employers like General Electric are leaving the state. These are all ingredients for a competitive race. The presumptive Democratic nominee is Ned Lamont, a businessman who defeated then-U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman in the Democratic primary in 2006 (Lieberman won the general election as an independent). Lamont made an unsuccessful bid for the gubernatorial nomination in 2010. Republicans have a crowded primary, but they are likely to nominate a political outsider.
Courthouse News Service:
Prosecutors reconstructed more than a dozen pages of shredded documents and obtained hundreds of encrypted messages from President Donald Trump’s embattled personal attorney Michael Cohen, they told a federal judge Friday.
The revelation fell hours after CNN reported that Cohen told his family that he is willing to cooperate with the federal government, a claim attributed to a source familiar with the matter.
“As also previously noted, the contents of a shredding machine were seized on April 9, 2018,” prosecutors wrote this afternoon in a letter to U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood. “The reconstructed documents were produced today, and are approximately 16 pages long.”
Dana Mlbank/WaPo:
This isn’t religion. It’s perversion. It is not the creed of a democratic government or political party but of an authoritarian cult.
The attorney general’s tortured reading of Romans is exactly the strained interpretation that others have used before to justify slavery, segregation, apartheid and Nazism. The same interpretation could be used to justify Joseph Stalin, or Kim Jong Un.
Romans 13 does indeed say to “submit to the authorities,” because they “are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.” But this is in the context of what comes before it (“share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality”) and after (“owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law”) – and, indeed, admonitions to care for the poor and the oppressed that come from Isaiah, Leviticus, Matthew and many more.
Dan Drezner/WaPo:
What does the Trump-Kim summit mean? Not a damn thing.
North Korea and Trump both have a track record of agreeing to things and then not following through.
As a fully paid-up member of the Fraternal Order of Very Serious Foreign Policy Folks, I know I have to opine about this event. It’s hard, though, for three reasons. First, we are already in Hour Twenty of Take-a-Palooza, and I can sense people heading for the exits.
Second, I cannot watch without laughing this bonkers video that the Trump White House showed to Kim to push for a successful summit resolution:
Third, these tweets from Nate Silver caught my eye:
I might not be able to keep a straight face during that White House video, but I think I can answer Silver’s query: In the short run, the summit mildly reduces the chances of a nuclear war. In the long run, it makes no difference whatsoever.