The &#8220;democracy is on the ballot&#8221; line is a weak argument to use against former President Donald Trump, according to a former top GOP official who served in his administration.
Reince Priebus, a Republican National Committee chairman who became Trump&#8217;s first chief of staff, rejected the <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/11/03/democracy-is-on-the-ballot-bidens-warning" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mantra</a> embraced by President Joe Biden during a TV appearance on Sunday.
&#8220;I just don&#8217;t buy this democracy on the ballot and &#8230; all of this nonsense about Trump,&#8221; he said <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week-transcript-12-3-23-white-house-nsc/story?id=105333629" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on ABC&#8217;s &#8220;This Week</a>.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Former RNC chair <a href="https://twitter.com/Reince?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Reince</a> rejects warnings from Democrats about potential Trump-Biden rematch in 2024. 
“How they can claim on one hand democracy is on the ballot and sit there with a historically weak candidate is unbelievable.” <a href="https://t.co/SP7oSL0KUx">https://t.co/SP7oSL0KUx</a> <a href="https://t.co/N7NP62ket0">pic.twitter.com/N7NP62ket0</a>
&mdash; This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1731391776290660575?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 3, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Pressed to explain his view, Priebus referred to Biden&#8217;s <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/newsom-biden-share-weak-polling-numbers-not-presidents-biggest-vulnerability" target="_blank" rel="noopener">weak poll numbers</a> ahead of a possible 2024 rematch against Trump, who is facing his own challenges — particularly with a bevy of criminal and civil cases — even as he maintains GOP frontrunner status.
&#8220;If democracy was on the ballot, the Democrats wouldn&#8217;t be sitting there with a candidate with the worst numbers since they&#8217;ve been taking polling,&#8221; he said.
Priebus asserted that Trump and former President Barack Obama also faced some &#8220;bad&#8221; poll numbers, but remained popular within their own parties. By comparison, Priebus noted, Biden is &#8220;in the tank&#8221; with fellow Democrats.
&#8220;How they can claim on one hand democracy is on the ballot and sit there with a historically weak candidate is unbelievable,&#8221; Priebus added.
Biden made headlines last year when he <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/11/03/remarks-by-president-biden-on-standing-up-for-democracy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declared</a> that &#8220;democracy is on the ballot&#8221; ahead of the midterm elections, hearkening back to the U.S. Capitol breach on January 6, 2021, and challenges to the 2020 election results by Trump and his allies. He has echoed that sentiment more recently in <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/09/19/biden-addresses-age-running-2024-democracy-at-stake" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reference</a> to his own re-election effort while casting his bid as a fight against &#8220;Trump and his MAGA Republicans.&#8221;
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, another panelist on &#8220;This Week,&#8221; suggested the strategy could be sufficient to defeat Trump.
&#8220;There are enough independent and swing voters who are concerned about democracy being on the ballot,&#8221; she said.
Donna Brazile, a former head of the Democratic National Committee, argued that Biden would do well to keep contrasting himself to Trump.
&#8220;I&#8217;m glad that they&#8217;ve pivoted towards talking about Donald Trump and the future he has painted for all of us as Americans. I hope they continue to draw sharp lines because Joe Biden will need that,&#8221; she said.
But Priebus contended that making the focus about Trump is a &#8220;big problem&#8221; for the Biden team because there are a number of other candidates still in the mix.

Reince Priebus

Priebus Rejects ‘Democracy On The Ballot’ Attack on Trump

Priebus Rejects 'Democracy On The Ballot' Attack on Trump

2024 Election

Donald Trump

Joe Biden

Politics

U.S.

President Trump woke in a feisty mode on Friday, firing out an angry tweet just a day after former FBI director James Comey&#8217;s confidential memos were leaked.
Trump said his former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn&#8217;s life has been &#8220;totally destroyed&#8221; while &#8220;shadey&#8221; Comey can &#8220;Leak and Lie&#8221; and make &#8220;lots of money from a third rate book.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
So General Michael Flynn&#8217;s life can be totally destroyed while Shadey James Comey can Leak and Lie and make lots of money from a third rate book (that should never have been written). Is that really the way life in America is supposed to work? I don&#8217;t think so!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/987278269765517312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 20, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Comey is on a TV and talk tour to sell his book, &#8220;A Higher Loyalty.&#8221;
Flynn pled guilty last December to charges of making false statements to the FBI. Those statements involved his communications with Russia as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller&#8217;s probe into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Flynn was fired on Feb. 13, 2017, &#8220;after White House officials said he had misled them about his Russian contacts during the transition period by saying that he had not discussed sanctions,&#8221; the Associated Press reported.
<blockquote>
The following day, according to a separate memo, Comey says Trump cleared the Oval Office of other officials, encouraged him to let go of the investigation into Flynn and called him a good guy. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and is now cooperating with Mueller&#8217;s investigation.
The memos reveal that days before Flynn&#8217;s firing, then-White House chief of staff Reince Priebus asked Comey if Flynn&#8217;s communications were being monitored under a secret surveillance warrant.
&#8220;Do you have a FISA order on Mike Flynn?&#8221; Priebus asked Comey, according to the memos, referring to an order under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Comey said he &#8220;paused for a few seconds and then said that I would answer here, but that this illustrated the kind of question that had to be asked and answered through established channels.&#8221;
Comey&#8217;s response is redacted on the unclassified memos.
</blockquote>
Trump also fired out a fiery tweet at midnight, accusing Comey of leaking classified information.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
James Comey Memos just out and show clearly that there was NO COLLUSION and NO OBSTRUCTION. Also, he leaked classified information. WOW! Will the Witch Hunt continue?
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/987173366401585155?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 20, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>

Trump Fuming Mad: Comey Can ‘Leak And Lie And Make Lots Of Money From A Third Rate Book’

James Comey

Michael Flynn

An explosive new book claims that now-former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe set up a meeting with the White House which was leaked shortly after and was used to the start the &#8220;obstructive&#8221; narrative in the media and quite possibly in Special Counsel Robert Mueller&#8217;s investigation.
McCabe requested to meet privately with then-White House chief of staff Reince Priebus in February 2017 so that he could tell Priebus that everything in a New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/us/politics/russia-intelligence-communications-trump.html">article</a> titled, &#8220;Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence,&#8221; was &#8220;bulls***.&#8221; <a href="http://thefederalist.com/2018/01/29/new-book-mccabe-initiated-white-house-meeting-that-led-to-leak/">The Federalist</a> reports:
<blockquote>
McCabe claimed to want Priebus to know the FBI&#8217;s perspective that this story was not true. Priebus pointed to the televisions that were going non-stop on the story. He asked if the FBI could say publicly what he had just told him. McCabe said he&#8217;d have to check, according to the book.
McCabe reportedly called back and said he couldn&#8217;t do anything about it. Then-FBI director James Comey reportedly called later and also said he couldn&#8217;t do anything, but did offer to brief the Senate Intelligence Committee on the matter later that week, suggesting they&#8217;d spill the beans publicly.
</blockquote>
Then, according to Howard Kurtz&#8217;s new book &#8220;Media Madness&#8221;:
<blockquote>
Now, a week later, CNN was airing a breaking news story naming Priebus. According to &#8216;multiple U.S. officials,&#8217; the network said, &#8216;the FBI rejected a White House request to publicly knock down media reports about communications between Donald Trump&#8217;s associates and Russians known to U.S. intelligence.&#8217;
Priebus was stunned by the implication that he was pressuring law enforcement. Had he been set up? Why was the FBI leaking this information when one of its top officials had initiated the conversation?
</blockquote>
The CNN report was authored by five different &#8220;reporters&#8221; including Evan Perez, who has <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/10/28/report-reveals-cnns-close-ties-to-trump-smearing-firm-fusion-gps/">deep ties</a> to Fusion GPS, and Manu Raju, who <a href="http://thefederalist.com/2017/12/08/18-questions-cnn-needs-to-answer-after-getting-busted-for-fake-news/">botched</a> a bombshell report on Donald Trump Jr. communicating with WikiLeaks. <a href="http://The direct communications between the White House and the FBI were unusual because of decade-old restrictions on such contacts. Such a request from the White House is a violation of procedures that limit communications with the FBI on pending investigations.">CNN</a> reported:
<blockquote>
The direct communications between the White House and the FBI were unusual because of decade-old restrictions on such contacts. Such a request from the White House is a violation of procedures that limit communications with the FBI on pending investigations.
</blockquote>
The Federalist&#8217;s Mollie Hemingway noted how this story was a solid example of how anti-Trump government officials might have planted stories in the media &#8220;to overly compliant journalists and other members of the &#8216;resistance,'&#8221; which led to the media&#8217;s &#8220;Russia collusion&#8221; and &#8220;obstruction&#8221; narratives.

Andrew McCabe Set Up Meeting That Leaked To CNN Which Led To ‘Obstruction’ Narrative, New Book Claims

Andrew McCabe

Had things gone south for the Trump campaign following the release of the &#8220;Access Hollywood&#8221; tape, then-vice presidential candidate Mike Pence and GOP chairman Reince Priebus had a plan to quickly replace Donald Trump on the Republican ticket, The Atlantic reported Tuesday.
According to writer McKay Coppins, who has written at length about Pence for The Atlantic and for a forthcoming book, Pence approached the Republican National Committee almost immediately after a tape aired featuring Trump instructing &#8220;Access Hollywood&#8221; host Billy Bush on the finer points of modern courtship. He reportedly told Priebus that he was &#8220;ready to replace&#8221; Trump should the need arise.
Unfortunately for Pence, it never did. Trump&#8217;s image, already that of a well-known playboy who had womanized within society circles in Manhattan, didn&#8217;t suffer markedly from the revelation. It turns out, everyone was familiar with Trump&#8217;s branding, and the &#8220;Access Hollywood&#8221; tapes, while bawdy, weren&#8217;t much of a surprise.
Although promised, further tapes that were supposed to depict the then-candidate using racial slurs and other inflammatory language never emerged.
There was, according to Coppins, also the tiny matter of getting Trump to exit the campaign. At one point, the Atlantic says, a group of billionaires considered amassing funds to &#8220;pay Trump off,&#8221; but abandoned their efforts when confronted with an $800 million figure.
But for some in the GOP, the story is a tale of &#8220;what might have been.&#8221; According to Coppins, had Pence taken the reins that late in the game, party leaders were planning on recruiting former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as his running mate. Republicans, of course, have been desperately trying to entice Rice back into the political game for some time, but she&#8217;s resisted taking the plunge, focusing instead on academic pursuits.

Vice President Mike Pence And GOP Chair Reince Priebus Had A ‘Plan B’ To Replace Trump During Campaign

Condoleezza Rice

Mike Pence

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is featured on TIME magazine&#8217;s latest cover; &#8220;GENERAL JOHN KELLY &#8211; TRUMP&#8217;S LAST BEST HOPE.&#8221; Kelly recently replaced Reince Priebus for the position.
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TIME&#8217;s Michael Duffy, the magazine&#8217;s deputy editor, joins five other writers in composing a roughly 3000-word article ostensibly examining the White House&#8217;s switch from Reince Priebus to John Kelly.
Duffy hypes &#8220;daily chaos&#8221; in the White House, forwarding a narrative pushed by news media outlets such as <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/12/politics/trump-white-house-mood/index.html">CNN</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/31/opinion/chaotic-weeks-at-the-white-house.html">The New York Times</a>, <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/31/kelly-scaramucci-trump-chaos-241183">Politico</a>, and <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/three-months-chaos-grips-donald-trumps-white-house">MSNBC</a>; he frames left-wing and Democrat-aligned news media consensus as reflective of reality.
Unnamed sources allegedly describe the &#8220;mood&#8221; in the White House as &#8220;at rock bottom.&#8221;
Kelly was selected by Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster to move to the White House to save the nation from President Donald Trump, suggests Duffy:
<blockquote>
The deep bonds and know-how of that team may have already done the nation a great service. This summer, as the threats from North Korea increased while confusion dominated in the White House, the generals quietly launched a mission of their own. Mattis, McMaster and Dunford (as well as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson) were concerned enough about the conduct of foreign policy to work together to convince a skeptical Kelly to become chief of staff. Their argument: unless someone else takes over, this White House cannot handle a real crisis. Which means that when Trump asked Kelly for the third time to be his chief of staff, it wasn&#8217;t just a job offer. It was a call of duty.
</blockquote>
Kelly&#8217;s &#8220;influence&#8221; may be damaged by Trump&#8217;s praise of him, alleges Duffy, framing presidential praise as somehow politically toxic.
Duffy frames Democrats as necessary to avoid a global financial crisis with respect to increasing the debt ceiling:
<blockquote>
The extended but failed Republican campaign to repeal Obamacare left the GOP with only 12 legislative days to manage the ritual of raising the debt ceiling by Sept. 29 and passing a budget by Sept. 30. The betting is against them: many GOP lawmakers will likely oppose both measures, which means House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate leader Mitch McConnell will have to rely on the mercy of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to keep the troops paid, the Social Security checks coming and the Treasury borrowing. Failure to do so could plunge the U.S. and global economies into a tailspin.
</blockquote>
Duffy makes many claims about internal White House operations without evidence, presenting himself as connected to internal White House goings on.
H/T <a href="https://www.axios.com/john-kelly-is-the-last-best-hope-for-trump-2471319782.html">Axios</a>.

Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k">Twitter</a>.

Trump’s New Chief Of Staff Makes The Cover Of TIME

John Kelly

Media

Media Bias

Time Magazine

Trump Administration

It seems ages ago, but in reality, it has only been a little over six months since Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office to Donald J. Trump. His first term is not even a year old, but he is on the third big change in his White House.
First President Trump hired Reince Priebus to be his chief of staff but began undermining Priebus&#8217; authority out of the gate. Virtually any member of the senior White House staff could bypass Priebus and go straight to the president. Many of them did. On more than one occasion, staff provided the president with online articles that were not true. They caused the president to go off on various tangents.
Then the president hired Anthony Scaramucci to shake up the communications team. That led to Sean Spicer&#8217;s departure as press secretary and then Priebus&#8217; departure. Multiple press reports have noted the president, contrary to his reputation, really does not like to fire people. Instead, he prefers to make their lives miserable so they take a hint and quit. Scaramucci&#8217;s role was to make Priebus&#8217; life difficult, and he excelled at that.
But Scaramucci overstepped his bounds with a ridiculous tirade to a reporter. That led to his departure as Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly moved in to the chief of staff&#8217;s office, marking the third big change.
Kelly is a completely different creature than Priebus or Scaramucci. He is not a slick New Yorker behaving obnoxiously. Nor is he a party man loyally serving a president to benefit his party. Kelly was a Marine general. He respects the chain of command and, in large part, is a chain of command. He can instill fear and impose discipline. He is what President Trump needs.
No one should kid himself. Donald Trump is 71 years old. He is not going to give up old habits or bad habits. But he does have the potential to moderate them with direction from someone he respects. He clearly respects Gen. Kelly. No one should expect the president to give up his Twitter habit, but perhaps we can expect him not to cause himself so many self-inflicted wounds via Twitter. Perhaps we will no longer see him undermine the entire White House message of the day through a careless tweet.
To be sure, the president&#8217;s Twitter habit can be a great asset. He can force the media to alter the news of the day via 140 characters on Twitter. He can shape the White House message and bypass major media outlets to reach millions of Americans. But, to quote Spider-Man&#8217;s uncle Ben, with great power comes great responsibility. President Trump has used his Twitter powers recklessly and irresponsibly. Perhaps Kelly can focus the president on using Twitter to steer and push along a compelling White House message.
Kelly is imposing a chain of command that even the president&#8217;s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner understand they must adhere to. The general wants to vet information before it gets to the president. He wants to make sure it is true and make sure it is focused. He does not want a distracted president.
Many on the left and an increasing number of people in the center and on the right have already written off the Trump administration. More than one pundit has declared it over, some before it even began. They forget history. Every administration has a rocky start. Every president must develop sea legs as part of his on-the-job training. This president is no different. This presidency is extraordinarily unusual in American history, and we can be sure the mistakes made will be unique. But we should be careful writing off an administration because of our own views of the president.
We are six months into a four-year presidential term. Judges are being added to the judicial branch. Regulations are being promulgated. Decisions are being made. One writes off the Trump presidency at one&#8217;s peril. Like it or not, Donald Trump is president and will be so tomorrow, the next day and the day after that &#8212; and the year after next, as well.
To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2017 CREATORS.COM

ERICKSON: Trump v.1.3

Anthony Scaramucci

Oh, poor Mooch. 
Never before in the history of this great republic has a White House official so imploded &#8212; never. To bring the whole debacle into perspective, Anthony Scaramucci was fired two weeks before he was even supposed to start work in the West Wing!
And the man known as &#8220;The Mooch&#8221; went up in flames &#8212; not a dumpster fire or even a house fire, but the kind of blaze you get when a junkyard full of tires burns. He blazed onto the scene, tossed a kiss to the press corps after a colorful press conference, then went on a profanity-laced tirade with a reporter in which he hammered some of his soon-to-be co-workers.
In just 10 days, The Mooch was canned. But just when you think it couldn&#8217;t get any worse, it does &#8212; a lot worse. 
Over the weekend, Scary Moochy was duped by a prankster masquerading as former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, whose ouster Scaramucci had helped orchestrate &#8212; and whom he called a &#8220;paranoiac&#8221; (which we&#8217;re pretty sure isn&#8217;t even a word).
The fake Priebus emailed Scaramucci&#8217;s official account using a mail.com account on Saturday, the day after Priebus&#8217; resignation was announced, CNN reported.
&#8220;I had promised myself I would leave my hands mud free,&#8221; the prankster wrote as Priebus, &#8220;but after reading your tweet today which stated how; &#8216;soon we will learn who in the media who has class, and who hasn&#8217;t&#8217;, has pushed me to this. That tweet was breathtakingly hypocritical, even for you. At no stage have you acted in a way that&#8217;s even remotely classy, yet you believe that&#8217;s the standard by which everyone should behave towards you? General Kelly will do a fine job. I&#8217;ll even admit he will do a better job than me. But the way in which that transition has come about has been diabolical. And hurtful. I don&#8217;t expect a reply.&#8221;
But Scaramucci did indeed reply, saying &#8220;You know what you did. We all do. Even today. But rest assured we were prepared. A Man would apologize.&#8221;
The fake Priebus wrote back: &#8220;I can&#8217;t believe you are questioning my ethics! The so called &#8216;Mooch&#8217;, who can&#8217;t even manage his first week in the White House without leaving upset in his wake. I have nothing to apologize for.&#8221;
Then The Mooch went all literary in another reply. &#8220;Read Shakespeare. Particularly Othello. You are right there. My family is fine by the way and will thrive. I know what you did. No more replies from me.&#8221;
CNN said the email prankster &#8220;tweets under the name @SINON_REBORN, where he posts his pranks, and describes himself as a &#8216;lazy anarchist.'&#8221; The pranskter duped several other Trump officials &#8212; but none of them were in the midst of a career implosion like The Mooch.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Reince (me) giving <a href="https://twitter.com/Scaramucci">@Scaramucci</a> something to think about. He never replied haha <a href="https://t.co/hutjACmogR">pic.twitter.com/hutjACmogR</a>
&#8212; EMAIL PRANKSTER (@SINON_REBORN) <a href="https://twitter.com/SINON_REBORN/status/892208409973579776">August 1, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I think what I said to <a href="https://twitter.com/Scaramucci">@Scaramucci</a> when I was playing the part of <a href="https://twitter.com/Reince">@Reince</a> was actually quite an accurate summary of his behaviour <a href="https://t.co/9dPyNwYvUX">pic.twitter.com/9dPyNwYvUX</a>
&#8212; EMAIL PRANKSTER (@SINON_REBORN) <a href="https://twitter.com/SINON_REBORN/status/892104227878690816">July 31, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>

BAD DAY: Scaramucci Duped By Prankster Pretending To Be Reince Priebus

Stephen Bannon &#8220;is not a good person,&#8221; said Dana Loesch on Friday, during her eponymous radio show.
Loesch expressed her dislike of the president&#8217;s chief strategist, whom she worked with in her former role as an employee of Breitbart.
White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci&#8217;s <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/ryan-lizza/anthony-scaramucci-called-me-to-unload-about-white-house-leakers-reince-priebus-and-steve-bannon">recent criticisms of Bannon</a> were apt, suggested Loesch:
<blockquote>
When I read what Anthony Scaramucci said about Steve Bannon&#8217;s self-pleasuring, because I know Steve Bannon, unless he&#8217;s taking yoga he&#8217;s not that flexible; although I wouldn&#8217;t put it past him to have ribs removed.
Anthony Scaramucci endeared himself to me a little bit, when I read that. It&#8217;s very difficult to read people go after someone that you know is not a good person and they take them to the woodshed; it&#8217;s really hard not to want to be best friends with that person.
</blockquote>
Bannon &#8220;fights like a chick&#8221; and lacks &#8220;good character,&#8221; added Loesch:
<blockquote>
Now this was my favorite part of [Scaramucci&#8217;s comments to Ryan Lizza], and just so there are some people who don&#8217;t know, I&#8217;ve known Steve Bannon longer than people have been aware of him, and I do not like him. I don&#8217;t like him personally, and I do not like him professionally, and I do not think he is of good character.
Bannon kind of fights like a chick. He keeps it all down low, and he does really nasty stuff behind the scenes so that he can look pristine and pure out in the public &#8230; so he can act completely innocent publicly.
</blockquote>
Listen to Loesch&#8217;s commentary below:

<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/98Vqa0W4Ltw" width="640"></iframe></div>

Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k">Twitter</a>.

Loesch: Bannon ‘Not A Good Person’; ‘Fights Like A Chick’

Dana Loesch

Steve Bannon

White House

Well, you leave to grab lunch for 10 minutes, you miss an entire news cycle.
On Friday, President Trump unceremoniously announced via Twitter that his embattled Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, had been ousted from his administration in favor of General John Kelly, the current Department of Homeland Security head. Trump tweeted:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a Great American&#8230;.
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/891038014314598400">July 28, 2017</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8230;and a Great Leader. John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my Administration
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/891039237319143424">July 28, 2017</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I would like to thank Reince Priebus for his service and dedication to his country. We accomplished a lot together and I am proud of him!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/891040645581873152">July 28, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
Priebus had been rumored to be not long for Trumpworld for months; he was seen by many Trump insiders as an establishment lackey not loyal to Trump rather than the Republican infrastructure. His cadre inside the administration has been steadily pared away with the dismissal of figures from Deputy Chief of Staff Katie Walsh to Director of Communications Sean Spicer. Early on, it appeared that his main rival within the administration would be White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon; by the end, Reince and Bannon were allies against the Jared/Ivanka wing.
Priebus, for his part, says that he wasn&#8217;t notified by tweet of his firing; he supposedly resigned yesterday. That would make sense considering that new Director of Communications Anthony Scaramucci called Priebus a &#8220;paranoid schizophrenic&#8221; in an on-the-record interview and openly implied that Priebus was a leaker. The New York Times even reported that Trump enjoyed watching Scaramucci castrate Priebus publicly; the president enjoys some ritual humiliation along with his firings, as former FBI director James Comey learned.
But if Priebus resigned yesterday, why did he fly with Trump on Air Force One to Long Island, and then make his lonely way to a separate motorcade as he deplaned back in Washington, D.C.?
Oh, the drama.
Will Kelly really take charge? According to Jonathan Swan&#8217;s source at Axios, &#8220;[Kelly] was given full authority. Everyone goes through him.&#8221; So Scaramucci&#8217;s ambitions have been quashed, at least to a certain extent. For now.
But this could presage a significant move to the Left from Trump. He has now ousted or alienated many of his main Republican mainstays: Priebus, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and even Bannon. That leaves Trump with generals and Democrats in key positions throughout his administration.
The biggest question of all: who will Trump dismiss next week? And who, in the end will get the rose? And can any of us safely eat lunch ever again without incessantly refreshing Twitter?

REINCE AND REPEAT: Priebus Dumped As Chief Of Staff

After President Trump seemed to be righting the ship of state three weeks ago, the wheels have come off of late. This week began with Jared Kushner offering a convincing explanation for his minor connections with Russian figures, but ended with a resounding legislative defeat on Obamacare repeal and replacement, open questions about the durability of Attorney General Jeff Session, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
So, everything is going swimmingly.
Rhetoric: Trump&#8217;s rhetoric this week was egregious in its own right &#8211; he spent the week wildly tweeting about Jeff Sessions&#8217; supposed disloyalty and unwillingness to target Hillary Clinton, then told the Wall Street Journal the same thing, then sent out surrogates to do the same. Yet Sessions remains. Meanwhile, the Senate attempted to pass something, anything &#8211; but Trump&#8217;s closing argument was that his attorney general was a poophead. So that wasn&#8217;t great. Trump also spent some time this week attacking the &#8220;Amazon Washington Post&#8221; and fulminating over the election in front of Boy Scouts. This was his worst week of rhetoric &#8211; and his wasn&#8217;t even the worst rhetoric from the administration. That title went to Scaramucci, who first called reporter Ryan Lizza to suggest that Reince Priebus was a paranoid schizophrenic and that Bannon wanted to &#8220;suck his own c***,&#8221; then went on national television to deny that he had ever implied that Reince was a leaker. Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer must be on a beach in Zihuatenejo somewhere sipping a beer and thinking how lucky he is not to be working with Scaramucci, who seems to be a refugee from a local theater production of American Psycho.
Policy: The only good policy move this week &#8211; refusal to force the military to accommodate transgenderism &#8211; was done in the most clumsy possible way, through tweetstorm. That led to a predictable backlash that could have been avoided simply by allowing Defense Secretary Mattis to lead the way with a rational and well-modulated critique of Obama&#8217;s social engineering. Instead, Trump took a good cause and dirtied it in a Michael Scott-level awkward attempt to distract from his Sessions-fight; the Pentagon still has not articulated an actual policy on the issue. Meanwhile, Trump offered nothing beyond vague platitudes about the Senate health care efforts.
The In-Between: We&#8217;ve heard from Bannon this week that he wants to raise taxes, even as Republicans try to put together a tax restructuring package. We&#8217;ve heard from the White House that Trump might attempt to veto a veto-proof set of Russian sanctions. We&#8217;ve heard that Bannon wants to treat Google and Facebook as public utilities. Ugh.
There were no brights spots this week. Were there a grade lower than F, Trump would have earned it. Do better, Mr. President.
This Week&#8217;s Grade: F
Four Week Running Average: D (1.1)
Total Average: C- (1.88)

Grading Trump, Week 27

Jeff Sessions

Rex Tillerson

The Trump White House has turned into a daily soap opera, with the latest episode involving tensions between Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci. Who will win in this latest White House soap opera?
Here are five things you need to know about the fight between Scaramucci and Priebus.
1. The feud came to light with a <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/19065/scaramucci-implied-reince-leaked-his-financial-aaron-bandler">tweet</a> from Scaramucci implying that Priebus had leaked his financial disclosures. &#8220;In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony. I will be contacting @FBI and the @TheJusticeDept #swamp @Reince45,&#8221; Scaramucci wrote in a since-deleted tweet. People naturally took this to mean that Scaramucci was blaming Priebus for the leaks. Scaramucci <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/the-real-story-behind-moochs-war-on-reince/article/2009009#">tweeted later</a> that he was simply trying to give &#8220;public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks.&#8221;
Scaramucci later <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/19053/scaramucci-cnn-if-reince-wants-explain-hes-not-james-barrett">said</a> in a statement, &#8220;When I put out a tweet and I put Reince&#8217;s name in a tweet, they all make the assumption that it&#8217;s him because journalists know who the leakers are. So if Reince wants to explain he&#8217;s not a leaker, let him do that.&#8221;
2. Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker says that Scaramucci trashed Priebus to him and was confident that he would step down soon. Here&#8217;s the relevant portion of <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/ryan-lizza/anthony-scaramucci-called-me-to-unload-about-white-house-leakers-reince-priebus-and-steve-bannon">Lizza&#8217;s piece</a>, after Scaramucci grew agitated that Lizza had heard about his dinner with Donald and Melania Trump, Fox News executive Bill Shine and Sean Hannity:
<blockquote>
I asked him why it was so important for the dinner to be kept a secret. Surely, I said, it would become public at some point. &#8220;I&#8217;ve asked people not to leak things for a period of time and give me a honeymoon period,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They won&#8217;t do it.&#8221; He was getting more and more worked up, and he eventually convinced himself that Priebus was my source.
&#8220;They&#8217;ll all be fired by me,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I fired one guy the other day. I have three to four people I&#8217;ll fire tomorrow. I&#8217;ll get to the person who leaked that to you. Reince Priebus &#8212; if you want to leak something &#8212; he&#8217;ll be asked to resign very shortly.&#8221; The issue, he said, was that he believed Priebus had been worried about the dinner because he hadn&#8217;t been invited. &#8220;Reince is a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,&#8221; Scaramucci said. He channelled Priebus as he spoke: &#8220; &#8216;Oh, Bill Shine is coming in. Let me leak the fucking thing and see if I can cock-block these people the way I cock-blocked Scaramucci for six months.&#8217; &#8221; (Priebus did not respond to a request for comment.)
</blockquote>
That would give some serious credence to this tweet:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Tensions between Scaramucci and Priebus are raw as ever, I&#8217;m told tonight. There&#8217;s a reason Mooch tagged Reince on FBI leak tweet.
&#8212; Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) <a href="https://twitter.com/PhilipRucker/status/890412792456544259">July 27, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
3. The Scaramucci-Priebus feud stems from Priebus being involved in blocking Scaramucci from a White House job early on in the Trump administration. According to <a href="http://time.com/4877141/donald-trump-anthony-scaramucci-reince-priebus-jeff-sessions/">Time</a>, Priebus was concerned that Scaramucci &#8220;would leak to reporters with whom he has relationships through his role in GOP finance circles.&#8221; Unsurprisingly, <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/18863/5-things-you-need-know-about-anthony-scaramucci-aaron-bandler">Priebus was among the people</a> opposed to Scaramucci being brought on as the White House communications director. 
4. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner may have brought Scaramucci on board for the specific purpose of firing Priebus. 
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
FWIW, heard days ago liberal Jared/Ivanka brought on Mooch to harm/oust Bannon/Priebus. FWIW. <a href="https://t.co/rrfuPTCAKE">https://t.co/rrfuPTCAKE</a>
&#8212; Mollie (@MZHemingway) <a href="https://twitter.com/MZHemingway/status/890678899402825728">July 27, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
This would be in line with <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/12/15958638/white-house-juciest-leaks-trump-jr-kushner-priebus">earlier reports</a> about how Ivanka and her husband have been among the people pushing for Trump to fire Priebus. The two were also among those who had pushed for Trump to hire Scaramucci for the position of communications director over the objections of Priebus.
5. Priebus may have lost this fight. 
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
BREAKING (CNN): Sources close to Trump say that he is &#8220;done with&#8221; his Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, but hasn&#8217;t decided whether to fire him
&#8212; Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) <a href="https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/890604807500828672">July 27, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
In fact, according to <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/with-trumps-green-light-scaramucci-declares-total-war-on-reince-priebus">The Daily Beast</a>, Trump has no problem with Scaramucci going after Priebus, yet he &#8220;has no interest in personally firing Priebus at this time, preferring to delegate abuse of his own chief of staff &#8212; who Trump has been frustrated with for months &#8212; to his new comms czar.&#8221;
<a href="https://twitter.com/bandlersbanter">Follow Aaron Bandler on Twitter.</a>

5 Things You Need To Know About The Fight Between Scaramucci And Reince

President Trump&#8217;s new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, unleashed a fiery tweet on Wednesday evening that seemed to imply that his financial disclosures were leaked by White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.
There&#8217;s just one rather large problem: there was no leak.
It all started from <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/26/scaramucci-trump-skybridge-profits-241006">a Politico report</a> about Scaramucci&#8217;s financial disclosure forms, which prompted Scaramucci to fire off a since-deleted tweet that <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/27/anthony-scaramucci-felony-public-disclosures-fbi-reince-priebus-241012">read</a>, &#8220;In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony. I will be contacting @FBI and the @TheJusticeDept #swamp @Reince45.&#8221;
But there couldn&#8217;t have been a leak because Scaramucci&#8217;s financial disclosures were already available to the public, as the author of the Politico report, Lorraine Woellert, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/us/politics/scaramucci-priebus-leaks.html">explained</a> on Twitter:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Wow, sorry I slept through all the fun! FWIW, Mr <a href="https://twitter.com/Scaramucci">@</a><a href="https://twitter.com/Scaramucci">Scaramucci</a>&#8216;s Form 278e is publicly available from ExIm. Just ask. <a href="https://t.co/Io2ed5IEuj">https://t.co/Io2ed5IEuj</a>
&#8212; Lorraine (@Woellert) <a href="https://twitter.com/Woellert/status/890485330540982272">July 27, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
In other words, all Woellert had to do was request the form since Scaramucci had to file the forms as part of his employment with the Export-Import Bank prior to taking the communications director position. This was not a leak by any stretch of the imagination.
Scaramucci tried to save face with this:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Wrong! Tweet was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks. <a href="https://twitter.com/Reince45">@Reince45</a> <a href="https://t.co/AB0reseuX1">pic.twitter.com/AB0reseuX1</a>
&#8212; Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) <a href="https://twitter.com/Scaramucci/status/890433477337915393">July 27, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
Scaramucci also denounced the leaks against Trump on <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/27/politics/anthony-scaramucci-reince-priebus/index.html">CNN&#8217;s New Day</a>:
<blockquote>
&#8220;It&#8217;s absolutely, completely and totally reprehensible,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And as you know from the Italian expression: The fish stinks from the head down. But I can tell you two fish that don&#8217;t stink, and that&#8217;s me and the President.&#8221;
&#8220;I don&#8217;t like the activity going on in the White House,&#8221; Scaramucci added. &#8220;I don&#8217;t like what they&#8217;re doing to my friend. I don&#8217;t like what they&#8217;re doing to the President of the United States or their fellow colleagues in the West Wing.&#8221;
</blockquote>
This episode is reflective of <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/the-real-story-behind-moochs-war-on-reince/article/2009009#">the ongoing feud between Scaramucci and Priebus</a>, adding to the recent dysfunction within the Trump administration.
<a href="https://twitter.com/bandlersbanter">Follow Aaron Bandler on Twitter.</a>

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