Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Still waiting for those Trump tweets: “The Dow plunged more than 1,000 points just before the final bell clanged Thursday. It represented a full market correction, defined as a 10 percent drop from its 52-week high. The S&P 500 also dropped 3.7 percent to a new low for the week.”
* Everything they said for years was a lie: “Republicans are pouring government stimulus into a steadily strengthening economy, adding economic fuel at a moment when unemployment is at a 16-year low and wages are beginning to rise, a combination that is stoking fears of higher inflation and ballooning budget deficits.”
* He’s quite a congressman: “House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) has weighed whether it would be possible to bring Chief Justice John Roberts to ‘testify’ before Congress as part of his investigation into political malfeasance at the Department of Justice.”
* Trump says a lot of things that aren’t true: “A range of data shows Trump’s crackdown on MS-13 has had a discernible impact. But there’s nothing showing that ‘thousands and thousands’ of the gang’s members have been deported or imprisoned since the president took office.”
* His Ex-Im Bank nomination failed, and this is apparently the fallback gig: “Scott Garrett, a former Republican lawmaker known for criticizing what he considered government overreach by Wall Street regulators, has landed a senior role at the Securities and Exchange Commission.” * The war on science continues: “The political fight over global warming has extended to science education in recent years as several states have attempted to weaken or block new teaching standards that included information about climate science. But only in Idaho has the state legislature stripped all mentions of human-caused climate change from statewide science guidelines while leaving the rest of the standards intact.” * The lawmaker in question is a married Republican: “The Utah House of Representatives was investigating Thursday whether a lawmaker who abruptly resigned used a state-issued cellphone and hotel room paid for with taxpayer money to arrange trysts with a prostitute.” 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
