Today’s edition of quick hits:
* An exciting opportunity: “In a year that began with President Donald Trump threatening to use his nuclear button against Kim Jong Un, the historic peace deal announced Friday between North and South Korea is all the more extraordinary.”
* A wasted opportunity: “The House Intelligence Committee on Friday released the final full report on its controversial investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, detailing work that led Republicans to conclude there was no evidence of collusion with the Trump campaign.”
* Remember Natalia Veselnitskaya from the Trump Tower meeting in 2016? “[N]ewly released emails show that in at least one instance two years earlier, [she] worked hand in glove with Russia’s chief legal office to thwart a Justice Department civil fraud case against a well-connected Russian firm. Ms. Veselnitskaya also appears to have recanted her earlier denials of Russian government ties. During an interview to be broadcast Friday by NBC News, she acknowledged that she was not merely a private lawyer but a source of information for a top Kremlin official, Yuri Y. Chaika, the prosecutor general.”
* This story seems to have some legs: “Furor grew on Capitol Hill on Friday over Speaker Paul Ryan’s decision to oust the chaplain of the House of Representatives, with Democrats and others supportive of the Jesuit priest demanding further answers regarding the speaker’s motivation.”
* It genuinely amazes me that a notorious Twitter troll will be an ambassador to a major country: “The Senate voted Thursday to confirm Richard Grenell — a Republican commentator, operative and former aide to new national security adviser John Bolton — as the next ambassador to Germany, despite objections from Democrats that his past epithets about prominent female politicians made him unfit for the job.” * It was a misguided case anyway: “A federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit filed by Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman for President Trump, that tried to narrow the authority of the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.” * I wonder what Trump’s lawyers would say: “President Donald Trump had such ‘a great time’ giving an untamed, 30-minute interview to ‘Fox and Friends’ on Thursday that he wants to do it again, on a monthly basis.” 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
