Today’s edition of quick hits:
* The long-awaited inspector general’s report: “The Justice Department’s watchdog said Thursday that former FBI Director James Comey breached protocol but was not politically motivated in his handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe.”
* It sounds like a prison camp for children: “The Trump administration has selected Tornillo, Texas, for the construction of tents to house the overflow of immigrant children, many of whom have been separated from their parents under a new ‘zero tolerance’ policy, according to three sources familiar with the decision.”
* In related news: “Life inside the biggest licensed child care facility in the nation for children brought into the U.S. illegally looks more like incarceration than temporary shelter.”
* The practices aren’t going unnoticed: “A group of legislators and activists that included several Democratic members of the House of Representatives … staged a sit-in Wednesday outside the headquarters of the Customs and Border Protection agency in Washington, D.C. before moving to block a street at the edge of the White House security perimeter.”
* I have a hunch we haven’t seen the last of that image: “North Korean state television aired video on Thursday from the historic summit between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un that included a surprising moment when the American president saluted a North Korean general.”
* Trump seems to have a habit of echoing the Kremlin’s position: “President Donald Trump told G7 leaders that Crimea is Russian because everyone who lives there speaks Russian, according to two diplomatic sources.” * It’s a shame this may be necessary: “A pair of Senate Democrats introduced a bill Wednesday that would prevent President Donald Trump from unilaterally drawing down the American troop presence on the Korean peninsula — not necessarily because he’s said he will, but because they don’t want to rely on his word that he won’t.” * Arithmetic keeps getting in the president’s way. Take, for example, his claims that he met parents on the campaign trail two years ago who asked him to bring home the remains of Korean War veterans: “Hostilities in the Korean War ended more than 60 years ago, meaning that Trump claims to have been confronted by people who were parents of adults at that point. On its surface that seems unlikely. Given Trump’s proclivity for adding multiple layers of hyperbole to even factually accurate assertions, the safe assumption would be that he took a kernel of truth — there is an effort to repatriate those missing service members — and parlayed that into a story about how he’s delivering for the families of veterans.” 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
