Today’s edition of quick hits:
* This was supposed to be an event about taxes: “President Donald Trump touted the urgency of tougher security measures along the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday, as he claimed that women ‘are being raped at numbers never seen before’ while an immigrant caravan was heading toward the U.S.”
* This just got more complicated: “President Trump said Thursday that he did not know that his personal attorney paid adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 days before the presidential election to prevent her from publicly accusing Trump of having an affair.”
* Look for more on this on tonight’s show: “At least five officials at the Environmental Protection Agency, four of them high-ranking, were reassigned or demoted, or requested new jobs in the past year after they raised concerns about the spending and management of the agency’s administrator, Scott Pruitt.”
* Him again? “In his latest round of anti-FBI shenanigans, House Intel Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) is threatening legal action against the Justice Department for refusing to show him unredacted versions of materials documenting the launch of the FBI’s Russia probe.”
* Rep. John Duncan Jr: “A Republican congressman from Tennessee may have improperly converted more than $100,000 from his campaign committee and leadership political action committee into personal use over the past decade, according to an independent ethics office that asked the House Ethics Committee to review the matter.” * A Trump administration official will actually get something right: “America’s top doctor has urged more Americans to start carrying an overdose antidote to help fight back against the nation’s spiraling opioid crisis. In remarks set for Thursday, Surgeon General Jerome Adams will say he wants people at risk of overdosing, as well as their friends and family, to start carrying the naloxone antidote and learn how to use it to save lives.” * Some good news out of south Florida: “Seven weeks after a gunman opened fire on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., wounding 17 people and killing 17 others, the last survivor has been released from the hospital and is recovering at home.” Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
