Today’s edition of quick hits:
* There’s reason for skepticism: “On Tuesday, Health and Human Service Secretary Alex Azar told Congress that migrant children taken from their parents are being put in contact with them within 24 hours of their arrival at a facility. He also said that the government tries to make sure the kids communicate with their parents at least twice a week.”
* Things really aren’t going well for Manafort: “U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis denied on Tuesday former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s request to dismiss the case that special counsel Robert Mueller brought against him in Virginia.”
* Reality Winner: “A woman accused of leaking U.S. secrets to a news outlet pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Georgia. Reality Winner, 26, entered her guilty plea after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors that calls for her to serve five years and three months behind bars, news outlets reported. A judge will sentence her later.”
* The yield curve: “You can try to play down a trade war with China. You can brush off the impact of rising oil prices on corporate earnings. But if you’re in the business of making economic predictions, it has become very difficult to disregard an important signal from the bond market.”
* VA: Robert Wilkie, President Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, is a conservative Washington insider… But when he appears Wednesday for his Senate confirmation hearing, Wilkie will draw on a career spent working shoulder to shoulder with polarizing figures in American politics and often defending their most divisive views.”
* A little late: “Tens of thousands of people marched on the British Parliament on Saturday, demanding another vote on Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. They wore T-shirts reading ‘This is what a European looks like’ and waved signs urging ‘Bollocks to Brexit!’”
* Apparently, this isn’t a joke: “Saudi Arabia … is reportedly fielding offers from at least five companies to dig a canal along the Qatari-Saudi border — known as the ‘Salwa Canal’ project — that would turn the peninsula of Qatar into an island.” * I have no reason to doubt the UN’s numbers: “The Trump administration says the United Nations is overestimating the number of Americans in ‘extreme poverty’ by about 18.25 million people, reflecting a stark disagreement about the extent of poverty in the nation and the resources needed to fight it.” * Donald Trump went after Mark Sanford again yesterday, noting the outgoing congressman’s “infamous scandal while he was serving his final term as governor. The only problem was that the president got his geography wrong when belittling Sanford. ‘Tallahassee Trail, it must be a very beautiful place. Unfortunately, he didn’t go there,’ Trump said to the crowd. Trump likely meant the Appalachian Trail.” 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
