Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Justice Department: “President Trump said Monday that he has no plans to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, whose future at the Justice Department has been steeped in drama, relaying that the two had a ‘good talk’ while traveling together on Air Force One to an event in Florida.”
* North Korea: “Secretary of State Mike Pompeo touted his visit to North Korea this weekend as a victory, highlighting Kim Jong Un’s supposed concession of inviting inspectors to a defunct nuclear testing site. This was met with the equivalent of an eye roll from many experts.”
* Haiti: “An earthquake hit northern Haiti late on Saturday, killing at least 12 people and sparking an overnight scramble to help towns in the impoverished Caribbean country battered by the shockwave.”
* Be afraid: “A landmark report from the United Nations’ scientific panel on climate change paints a far more dire picture of the immediate consequences of climate change than previously thought and says that avoiding the damage requires transforming the world economy at a speed and scale that has ‘no documented historic precedent.’”
* A fascinating report on Peter Smith: “A veteran Republican operative and opposition researcher solicited and raised at least $100,000 from donors as part of an effort to obtain what he believed to be emails stolen from Hillary Clinton, activities that remain of intense interest to federal investigators working for special counsel Robert Mueller’s office and on Capitol Hill.” * An expensive stunt: it cost American taxpayers at least $325,000 last year for Vice President Mike Pence to briefly go to an Indianapolis Colts and then leave before kickoff because some players hurt his feelings. * Noted without comment: “Hope Hicks, the former White House communications director, will be joining Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox as chief communications officer, the company announced Monday. Hicks becomes the latest in a long line of people who have moved between Fox and the White House.” 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
