[Special] Washington Post: Special Counsel Is Investigating Trump for Possible Obstruction of Justice, Officials Say

By Devlin Barrett, Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima and Sari Horwitz:

The special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election is interviewing senior intelligence officials as part of a widening probe that now includes an examination of whether President Trump attempted to obstruct justice, officials said.

The move by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to investigate Trump’s conduct marks a major turning point in the nearly year-old FBI investigation, which until recently focused on Russian meddling during the presidential campaign and on whether there was any coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Investigators have also been looking for any evidence of possible financial crimes among Trump associates, officials said.

Trump had received private assurances from then-FBI Director James B. Comey starting in January that he was not personally under investigation. Officials say that changed shortly after Comey’s firing.

Five people briefed on the interview requests, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said that Daniel Coats, the current director of national intelligence, Mike Rogers, head of the National Security Agency, and Rogers’s recently departed deputy, Richard Ledgett, agreed to be interviewed by Mueller’s investigators as early as this week. The investigation has been cloaked in secrecy, and it is unclear how many others have been questioned by the FBI.

* * *

The interviews suggest that Mueller sees the question of attempted obstruction of justice as more than just a “he said, he said” dispute between the president and the fired FBI director, an official said.

Investigating Trump for possible crimes is a complicated affair, even if convincing evidence of a crime were found. The Justice Department has long held that it would not be appropriate to indict a sitting president. Instead, experts say, the onus would be on Congress to review any findings of criminal misconduct and then decide whether to initiate impeachment proceedings.

Comey confirmed publicly in congressional testimony on March 20 that the bureau was investigating possible coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russians.

Comey’s statement before the House Intelligence Committee upset Trump, who has repeatedly denied that any coordination with the Russians took place. Trump had wanted Comey to disclose publicly that he was not personally under investigation, but the FBI director refused to do so.

The Full Story (June 14, 2017)

New York Times: ‘Last Night in Sweden’? Trump’s Remark Baffles a Nation

By Sewell Chan:

Swedes reacted with confusion, anger and ridicule on Sunday to a vague remark by President Trump that suggested that something terrible had occurred in their country.

During a campaign-style rally on Saturday in Florida, Mr. Trump issued a sharp if discursive attack on refugee policies in Europe, ticking off a list of places that have been hit by terrorists.

“You look at what’s happening,” he told his supporters. “We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this?”

Not the Swedes.

Nothing particularly nefarious happened in Sweden on Friday — or Saturday, for that matter — and Swedes were left baffled.

“Sweden? Terror attack? What has he been smoking? Questions abound,” Carl Bildt, a former prime minister and foreign minister, wrote on Twitter.

As the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet noted, Twitter users were quick to ridicule Mr. Trump’s remark, with joking references to the Swedish Chef, the “Muppets” character; Swedish meatballs; and Ikea, the furniture giant.

The Full Story (February 19, 2017)

See also: 'Sweden, who would believe this?': Trump Cites Non-Existent Terror Attack by The Guardian.

CNN: Full Transcript [of] President Donald Trump's News Conference

By CNN:

But much of it is not a - the distortion -- and we'll talk about it, you'll be able to ask me questions about it. But we're not going to let it happen, because I'm here again, to take my message straight to the people. As you know, our administration inherited many problems across government and across the economy. To be honest, I inherited a mess. It's a mess. At home and abroad, a mess. Jobs are pouring out of the country; you see what's going on with all of the companies leaving our country, going to Mexico and other places, low pay, low wages, mass instability overseas, no matter where you look. The middle east is a disaster. North Korea - we'll take care of it folks; we're going to take care of it all. I just want to let you know, I inherited a mess.

Beginning on day one, our administration went to work to tackle these challenges. On foreign affairs, we've already begun enormously productive talks with many foreign leaders, much of it you've covered, to move forward towards stability, security and peace in the most troubled regions of the world, which there are many. We have had great conversations with the United Kingdom, and meetings. Israel, Mexico, Japan, China and Canada, really, really productive conversations. I would say far more productive than you would understand.

We've even developed a new council with Canada to promote women's business leaders and entrepreneurs. It's very important to me, very important to my daughter Ivanka. I have directed our defense community headed by our great general, now Secretary Mattis. He's over there now working very hard to submit a plan for the defeat of ISIS, a group that celebrates the murder and torture of innocent people in large sections of the world. It used to be a small group, now it's in large sections of the world.

* * *

I'm here following through on what I pledged to do. That's all I'm doing. I put it out before the American people, got 306 electoral college votes. I wasn't supposed to get 222. They said there's no way to get 222, 230's impossible.

270 which you need, that was laughable. We got 306 because people came out and voted like they've never seen before so that's the way it goes. I guess it was the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan. In other words, the media's trying to attack our administration because they know we are following through on pledges that we made and they're not happy about it for whatever reason.

And - but a lot of people are happy about it. In fact, I'll be in Melbourne, Florida five o'clock on Saturday and I heard - just heard that the crowds are massive that want to be there. I turn on the T.V., open the newspapers and I see stories of chaos. Chaos. Yet it is the exact opposite. This administration is running like a fine- tuned machine, despite the fact that I can't get my cabinet approved.

The Full Story (February 17, 2017)

Talking Points Memo: The 8 Craziest Moments Of Trump’s Impromptu Press Conference

By Allegra Kirkland:

3. “The leaks are absolutely real; the news is fake”

Trump said that the leaks about his private phone calls with the leaders of Mexico and Australia were “illegal” and allowing people to find out “exactly what took place.” Yet he also repeatedly claimed that the news reports based on those leaks is “fake, because so much of the news is fake.”

* * *

6. “I am the least anti-Semitic person that you have seen in your entire life”

Trump accused a Jewish reporter who asked how his administration planned to address anti-Semitic threats of being unfriendly, told him to be “quiet,” and said he found his question “repulsive.”

* * *

8. “Are they friends of yours?”

Questioned by April Ryan, a veteran reporter for American Urban Radio Networks, on whether he would include the Congressional Black Caucus in his plans to revitalize black urban neighborhoods, Trump replied, “Are they friends of yours? Set up the meeting.”

The Full Story (February 16, 2017)

Washington Post: Trump Steps Back From U.S. Commitment to Two-State Israeli-Palestinian Solution

By Anne Gearan and Ruth Eglash:

In his most extensive remarks as president about the chances for peace in the Middle East, Trump said he “could live with” either a separate Palestinian state or a unitary state as a peaceful outcome.

“I want the one that both parties want,” he said.

[Trump says he really wants Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, warns both sides to ‘act reasonably’]

That is a significant departure from past U.S. policy supporting the goal of an independent Palestine. Republican and Democratic presidents have backed a future Palestine on West Bank land that is now under Israeli military occupation. For years, U.S. officials have endorsed “two states for two peoples, living side by side in peace and security” as a matter of course.

“I’d like to see you hold back on settlements for a little bit,” Trump said as he welcomed Netanyahu for their first meeting since the Republican president took office. “We’ll work something out,” he added.

The new U.S. president confidently predicted that he will help broker an end to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“I would like to see a deal be made. I think a deal will be made,” Trump said. “I know that every president would like to. Most of them have not started until late, because they never thought it was possible. And it wasn’t possible, because they didn’t do it.”

The Full Story (February 15, 2017)

[Special] Washington Post: Trump Revealed Highly Classified Information to Russian Foreign Minister and Ambassador

By Greg Miller and Greg Jaffe:

President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said that Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State.

The information Trump relayed had been provided by a U.S. partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U.S. government, officials said.

The partner had not given the United States permission to share the material with Russia, and officials said that Trump’s decision to do so risks cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State. After Trump’s meeting, senior White House officials took steps to contain the damage, placing calls to the CIA and National Security Agency.

“This is code-word information,” said a U.S. official familiar with the matter, using terminology that refers to one of the highest classification levels used by American spy agencies. Trump “revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies.”

The revelation comes as Trump faces rising legal and political pressure on multiple Russia-related fronts. Last week, he fired FBI Director James B. Comey in the midst of a bureau investigation into links between the Trump campaign and Moscow. Trump’s subsequent admission that his decision was driven by “this Russia thing” was seen by critics as attempted obstruction of justice.

The Full Story (May 15, 2017)

Death & Taxes: President Trump Pretended to Know Japanese During Prime Minister’s Visit

By Drew Salisbury:

President Trump greeted the visiting prime minister of Japan by welcoming him to the “Very Famous White House” Friday. It was indeed a historic meeting, but the president may have missed a fair amount of Shinzō Abe’s opening remarks to the press, as several reporters in the room noted it appeared he wasn’t wearing his translation earpiece.

However, as many others pointed out, Trump was nodding along in agreement as if he understood every word.

At some point though — sometime after Prime Minister Abe finished his opening remarks — Trump noticed the earpiece on his dais and realized its purpose.

* * *

CNN confirmed it did not appear Trump was wearing the earpiece during Abe’s speech, and that the president does not in fact speak Japanese, but was following cues from his staffers who were wearing earpieces on when to laugh.

The Full Story (February 10, 2017)

Washington Post: Trump’s Loose Talk About Muslims Gets Weaponized in Court Against Travel Ban

By Fred Barbash and Derek Hawkins:

Throughout Donald Trump’s campaign and now into the first weeks of his presidency, critics suggested that he cool his incendiary rhetoric, that his words matter. His defenders responded that, as Corey Lewandowski said, he was being taken too “literally.” Some, like Vice President Pence, wrote it all off to his “colorful style.” Trump himself recently explained that his rhetoric about Muslims is popular, winning him “standing ovations.”

No one apparently gave him anything like a Miranda warning: Anything he says can and will be used against him in a court of law.

And that’s exactly what’s happening now in the epic court battle over his travel ban, currently blocked by a temporary order set for argument Tuesday before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

The states of Washington and Minnesota, which sued to block Trump’s order, are citing the president’s inflammatory rhetoric as evidence that the government’s claims — that it’s not a ban and not aimed at Muslims — are shams.

In court papers, Washington and Minnesota’s attorneys general have pulled out quotes from speeches, news conferences and interviews as evidence that an executive order the administration argues is neutral was really motivated by animus toward Muslims and a “desire to harm a particular group.”

His words, the two states say in their brief, show “that the President acted in bad faith in an effort to target Muslims.” The courts, they say, “have both the right and duty to examine” Trump’s “true motives.”

The states offer a multitude of exhibits, starting with a December 2015 release from the Trump campaign calling for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”

They cite his August speech advocating screening out people “who believe that Sharia law should supplant American law.”

Another exhibit: His Jan. 27 interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network in which he said he wanted to give priority to Christians in Syria.

They even hauled out Rudolph W. Giuliani’s comment on Fox News that Trump wanted a “Muslim ban” and requested he assemble a commission to show him “the right way to do it legally.”

The Full Story (February 7, 2017)

[Special] New York Times: South Koreans Feel Cheated After U.S. Carrier Miscue

By Choe Sang-Hun:

When news broke less than two weeks ago that the Trump administration was sending the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson to the Korean Peninsula, many South Koreans feared a war with North Korea. Others cheered for Washington, calling the deployment a powerful symbol of its commitment to deterring the North.

On Wednesday, after it was revealed that the carrier strike group was actually thousands of miles away and had been heading in the opposite direction, toward the Indian Ocean, South Koreans felt bewildered, cheated and manipulated by the United States, their country’s most important ally.

“Trump’s lie over the Carl Vinson,” read a headline on the website of the newspaper JoongAng Ilbo on Wednesday. “Xi Jinping and Putin must have had a good jeer over this one.”

“Like North Korea, which is often accused of displaying fake missiles during military parades, is the United States, too, now employing ‘bluffing’ as its North Korea policy?” the article asked.

The episode raised questions about whether major allies of the United States, like South Korea and Japan, had been informed of the carrier’s whereabouts, and whether the misinformation undercut America’s strategy to contain North Korea’s nuclear ambitions by using empty threats.

Compounding their anger over the Carl Vinson episode, many South Koreans were also riled at Mr. Trump for his assertion in a Wall Street Journal interview last week that the Korean Peninsula “used to be a part of China.” Although Korea was often invaded by China and forced to pay tributes to its giant neighbor, many Koreans say the notion that they were once Chinese subjects is egregiously insulting.

“The 50 million South Koreans, as well as many common-sensical people around the world, cannot help but feel embarrassed and shocked,” said Youn Kwan-suk, spokesman of the main opposition Democratic Party, which is leading in voter surveys before the May 9 presidential election.

The Full Story (April 19, 2017)

Fox News: Trump Says Pence to Lead Voter Registration Fraud Probe, Leaves Door Open on Iran Deal Future

By Unattributed Fox News Website Employee: 

On the heels of his administration imposing new sanctions on Iran-tied businesses and individuals in response to recent missile tests, Trump also said Iran has “total disregard” for America and revived his criticism of the 2015 nuclear deal struck by his predecessor. The agreement with other world powers lifted billions in economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for the country curtailing its nuclear weapons program.

Trump called it “the worst deal I’ve ever seen negotiated.”

He said he wasn’t outright opposed to the deal, but claimed that it hasn’t been enforced.

“They’re sending money all over the place and weapons, and you can’t do that,” he said.

Asked whether he’d scrap it, Trump said, “We’ll see what happens.”

He continued, “That deal, I would have lived with it if they said, OK we’re all together now. But it was just the opposite, it’s like they’re emboldened.”

As for the new sanctions, Trump said, “just starting.”

* * *

As for his recent calls to foreign leaders, Trump said he has "respect" for Russian President Vladimir Putin, but that respect does not mean they'll get along.

"I say it’s better to get along with Russia than not,” he said. “And if Russia helps us in the fight against ISIS, which is a major fight, and Islamic terrorism all over the world -- that’s a good thing. … Will I get along with him? I have no idea."

Pressed about Putin's history of violence, Trump said: "There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What do you think? Our country’s so innocent?”

The Full Story (February 5, 2017)

Washington Post: Trump Badgered, Bragged and Abruptly Ended Phone Call With Australian Leader

By Greg Miller & Phillip Rucker:

It should have been one of the most congenial calls for the new commander in chief — a conversation with the leader of Australia, one of America’s staunchest allies, at the end of a triumphant week.

Instead, President Trump blasted Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over a refu­gee agreement and boasted about the magnitude of his electoral college win, according to senior U.S. officials briefed on the Saturday exchange. Then, 25 minutes into what was expected to be an hour-long call, Trump abruptly ended it.

At one point, Trump informed Turnbull that he had spoken with four other world leaders that day — including Russian President Vladi­mir Putin — and that “this was the worst call by far.”

Trump’s behavior suggests that he is capable of subjecting world leaders, including close allies, to a version of the vitriol he frequently employs against political adversaries and news organizations in speeches and on Twitter.

The Full Story (February 2, 2017)

Washington Post: Trump Rants About ‘Fake News’ As He Marks Black History Month

By John Wagner:

President Trump teed off on the media Wednesday during an event held to mark Black History Month, calling CNN “fake news” and once again decrying a false report that he had removed a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval Office.

Trump’s remarks came at the top of what was billed as a “listening session” at which he sat at a conference table in the Roosevelt Room with a group of African Americans, most of whom had played a role in his campaign for president or worked on the transition.

Trump soon turned to a false report by a Time magazine writer that on his Inauguration Day a bust of King had been removed from the Oval Office. Trump and his aides have repeatedly cited the incident as evidence of media bias, despite an immediate acknowledgment of the error and an apology from the reporter.

“Somebody said I took the statue out of my office,” Trump said. “And it turned out that that was fake news. Fake news. The statue is cherished. … It was never even touched, so I think it was a disgrace, but that’s the way the press is. Very unfortunate.”

Trump later said that he didn’t watch CNN, calling the network “fake news.” By contrast, he said, “Fox has treated me very nice.”

Trump also repeated an earlier assessment, first made by White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon, that the media is “the opposition party.”

“A lot of the media actually is the opposition party,” the president said. “They’re so biased, and really it’s a disgrace. Some of the media is fantastic and fair, but so much of the media is opposition party, knowingly saying incorrect things.”

Trump noted he had won the election, suggesting that that was evidence the media might not “have the influence they think.”

“But they really need to straighten out their act,” Trump said. “They’re very dishonest people.”

During the event, Trump also thanked those around the table for helping him exceed his expectations with African American voters.

“If you remember, I wasn’t going to do well with the African American community,” Trump said. “We ended up getting substantially more than candidates who had run in the past years, and now we’re going to take that to new levels.”

Exit polls showed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton overwhelmingly won African American votes over Trump, 89 percent to 8 percent. In 2012, exit polls showed that then-President Barack Obama garnered 93 percent of the black vote compared with Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s 6 percent.

Trump profusely thanked Ben Carson, his pick to run the Department of Housing and Urban Development, for his help during the campaign.

The Full Story (February 1, 2017)

Washington Post: The Trump Team Bizarrely Quibbles With Calling Its Travel Ban a ‘Ban’ — And Then Backs Down

By Aaron Blake:

“It's not a travel ban,” Spicer said, adding: "Because when we use words like 'travel ban,' that misrepresents what it is."

At least, that's what he said Tuesday. On Monday, he used the term himself. At an appearance at George Washington University, he said that “the ban deals with seven countries that the Obama administration had previously identified as needing further travel restrictions.”

He wasn't the only member of the Trump team to embrace the word:

If the ban were announced with a one week notice, the "bad" would rush into our country during that week. A lot of bad "dudes" out there!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2017

Trump also called it a “ban” on Saturday, saying “We're going to have a very, very strict ban, and we're going to have extreme vetting, which we should have had in this country for many years.” And Kellyanne Conway used the b-word Sunday, saying, "This is a ban on travel, prospective travel from countries, trying to prevent terrorists in this country..."

So four times in three days.

The Full Story (January 31, 2017)

Washington Post: The Tale of a Trump Falsehood - How His Voter Fraud Claim Spread Like a Virus

By Jenna Johnson:

he falsehood took root a week ago, when President Trump claimed in a private Jan. 23 meeting with top congressional leaders that between 3 million and 5 million undocumented immigrants illegally voted in November’s election.

From there, the infection spread, strengthened with faulty evidence and scattered anecdotes: A congressman offered his own estimate of 2.4 million illegally registered voters. The White House press secretary misrepresented the findings of a study and suggested, with no evidence, that fraud happens in “big states, very populous states and urban areas.” Other Republicans pointed to an investigation of a small batch of voter registrations in Virginia, convictions for vote-buying in local races in Kentucky and a false statistic about voter turnout in Pennsylvania being suspiciously high in 2012.

Within days, the stray comment at a reception — a variation on a false claim Trump had been making for months — led to the president’s call for an investigation, plans for an executive order and a promise from Vice President Pence to Republicans that the administration would “initiate a full evaluation of voting rolls.”

The voter fraud canard was just one in a rush of falsehoods that poured from Trump and his advisers during his first 10 days in office. There were also claims that the crowd on the Mall for his inauguration was the largest ever (it wasn’t); that readership at the New York Times is falling (not true, the newspaper says); that there is an “unprecedented surge of illegal migrants” (the number has stabilized after decades of growth); and that a newly implemented travel ban is similar to actions that President Barack Obama took in 2011 (it’s not).

The rapid dissemination of such easily refutable claims shows how Trump’s administration will be unlike any other — and how comments rooted in conspiracy theories instead of facts can now become the basis for official government policy.

“I would urge the president to knock this off,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said soon after Trump’s igniting comment. “This is going to erode his ability to govern this country if he does not stop it.”

The Full Story (January 31, 2017)

Politico: Trump Signs Executive Order Requiring That for Every One New Regulation, Two Must Be Revoked

By Nolan D. McCaskill and Matthew Nussbaum:

“If you have a regulation you want, No. 1, we’re not gonna approve it because it’s already been approved probably in 17 different forms,” Trump said. “But if we do, the only way you have a chance is we have to knock out two regulations for every new regulation. So if there’s a new regulation, they have to knock out two.”

The president added that “it goes far beyond that.” “We’re cutting regulations massively for small business — and for large business,” he said. “But they're different. But for small business, and that’s what this is about today.”

The executive order calls for agencies to pinpoint “at least two” current regulations to be repealed for each new proposed regulation. And it says the net incremental cost for fiscal 2017 should “be no greater than zero,” meaning the cost of new regulations should be offset by existing rules that will be rescinded.

The Full Story (January 30, 2017)

Talking Points Memo: Trump [Says] Waterboarding 'Was Just Short Of Torture'

By Caitlin MacNeal:

During an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity that aired Thursday night, President Donald Trump insisted that waterboarding is not a big deal and that it is an effective interrogation technique.

"So, waterboarding used to be used because they said it really wasn’t torture," Trump told Hannity. “It was the one step slightly below torture. That’s why waterboarding…”

Hannity jumped in to say, "That’s why it was legal."

"I mean, torture is real torture, okay?” Trump continued. “Waterboarding is — I’m sure it’s not pleasant, but waterboarding was just short of torture.”

The President added that he has spoken to people who said "absolutely it works."

Legal scholars and diplomats largely agree that waterboarding constitutes torture, and a Senate report on the CIA's use of torture concluded that the techniques were not an effective way to get accurate information from terror suspects.

The Full Story (January 27, 2017)

[Special] Financial Times: Donald Trump in His Own Words

By Lionel Barber, Demetri Sevastopulo and Gillian Tett:

[Financial Times] How ambitious do you want to be with China? Could we see a grand bargain that solves North Korea, takes American troops off the Korean peninsula and really changes the landscape out there?  

[Donald Trump] Well, if China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all I am telling you.

[FT] And do you think you can solve it without China’s help? 

[DT] Totally. 

[FT] One on one? 

[DT] I don’t have to say any more. Totally. 

[FT] Do you start with North Korea and talk about trade, or pivot around? 

[DT] I’m not going to tell you. You know, I am not the United States of the past where we tell you where we are going to hit in the Middle East. Where they say — I used it in the speeches — ‘We will be attacking Mosul in four months’. A month later, ‘We will be attacking Mosul in three months, in two months, in one month’. And why are they talking? There is no reason to talk.

The Full Story (April 2, 2017)

New York Times: It’s No Trump Tower, but White House Has ‘Beautiful’ Phones

By Maggie Haberman:

His mornings, he said, are spent as they were in Trump Tower. He rises before 6 a.m., watches television tuned to a cable channel first in the residence, and later in a small dining room in the West Wing, and looks through the morning newspapers: The New York Times, The New York Post and now The Washington Post.

But his meetings now begin at 9 a.m., earlier than they used to, which significantly curtails his television time. Still, Mr. Trump, who does not read books, is able to end his evenings with plenty of television.

In between, Mr. Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office and has meetings in the West Wing.

“They have a lot of board rooms,” he said of the White House, an apparent reference to the Cabinet Room and the Roosevelt Room.

The White House is the only property that Mr. Trump has slept in that is more famous than one of his own, and he seems in awe. Although he made his name building extravagant, gilded properties, the new president has marveled to aides about the splendor of the White House and the lengths he must walk to retrieve something from a far-flung room.

His preference during the day is to work in the Oval Office. And to stare at it, still. So do his staff members and relatives. “I’ve had people come in; they walk in here and they just want to stare for a long period of time,” Mr. Trump said.

The Full Story (January 25, 2017)

Editor's Note: The headline has been changed to "A Homebody Finds the Ultimate Home Office" since the initial publication of this article.

New York Times: Trump’s Voter Fraud Example? A Troubled Tale With Bernhard Langer

By Glenn Thrush:

Mr. Trump kicked off the meeting, participants said, by retelling his debunked claim that he would have won the popular vote if not for the three million to five million ballots cast by “illegals.” He followed it up with a Twitter post early Wednesday calling for a major investigation into voter fraud.

When one of the Democrats protested, Mr. Trump said he was told a story by “the very famous golfer, Bernhard Langer,” whom he described as a friend, according to three staff members who were in the room for the meeting.

In the emerging Trump era, the story was a memorable example, for the legislators and the country, of how an off-the-cuff yarn — unverifiable and of confusing origin — became a prime policy mover for a president whose fact-gathering owes more to the oral tradition than the written word.

* * *

The anecdote, the aides said, was greeted with silence, and Mr. Trump was prodded to change the subject by Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, and Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas.

Just one problem: Mr. Langer, who lives in Boca Raton, Fla., is a German citizen with permanent residence status in the United States who is, by law, barred from voting, according to Mr. Langer’s daughter Christina.

“He is a citizen of Germany,” she said, when reached on her father’s cellphone. “He is not a friend of President Trump’s, and I don’t know why he would talk about him.”

She said her father was “very busy” and would not be able to answer any questions.

But a senior White House staff member, who was not at the Monday reception but has heard Mr. Trump tell the story, said Mr. Langer saw Mr. Trump in Florida during the Thanksgiving break and told him the story of a friend of Mr. Langer’s who had been blocked from voting.

Either way, the tale left its mark on Mr. Trump, who is known to act on anecdote, and on Wednesday redoubled his efforts to build a border wall and crack down on immigrants crossing the border from Mexico.

The Full Story (January 25, 2017)

Talking Points Memo: Top Ohio Election Official Hits Trump On Plans For National Voter Fraud Probe

By Kristin Salaky:

The top election official in the state of Ohio, Secretary of State Jon Husted (R), knocked President Donald Trump's announcement that he will initiate a probe into voter fraud during the 2016 presidential election, saying Wednesday that he wishes Trump would "take a more constructive point of view" on the issue. 

Husted, who has been accused of voter suppression in the past, told CNN that Ohio conducts investigation into voter fraud every two years and that while he feels it exists, it is rare and that probes should be left to the states. 

"Well, look, this really should be done at the state level," he said. "I don't think that federal involvement is important in this particular matter because the states run the elections. We don't want federal involvement in our elections. We want to keep this in the hands of the states. That's where it should be. I'll be interested to see what the president suggests as far as a review, but we already have one under way." 

He told host Carol Costello that Trump's comments on voter fraud, which have cited debunked statistics, concern him. 

"I've said this in the past, when the president talked about the election being rigged during the election, that's when I came out and I publicly said, 'Look, there's no evidence of that.' It's a bipartisan process in Ohio. I know it's a bipartisan process in other states. The system of elections in America is as good as it's ever been."

The Full Story (January 25, 2017)