They agreed to hold all of the quotes, information, and anecdotes from their on-background conversations for the book, to be published long after Election Day. Clinton campaign staffers could vent and speak frankly about all of their serious problems hidden from the public eye, knowing that Allen and Parnes wouldn’t report it and the public wouldn’t know until after their decision had been made.
Except… this means a reporter for The Hill and a columnist for Roll Call knew that the media narrative was wrong, and didn’t tell anyone.
Killing The O’Reilly Factor
.. If you bring up somebody else’s kids in a debate — several times — you’re a bunch of words that the editors don’t want me to use in this newsletter. (Maybe I’ll turn it into an explicit-lyrics rap. “Call your guests a bunch of pinheads and dimwits, but what the f***’s wrong with you? Kids are off limits!”)
We don’t know if Bill O’Reilly really did treat his employees and coworkers as badly as those five women who settled lawsuits or accepted payouts alleged. But we do know that he had no problem being shamelessly obnoxious, insulting, gratuitously personal, and unfair to his regular guests on camera.
Former CIA chief: Trump’s travel ban hurts American spies — and America
President Trump’s executive order on immigration was ill-conceived, poorly implemented and ill-explained. To be fair, it would have been hard to explain since it was not the product of intelligence and security professionals demanding change, but rather policy, political and ideological personalities close to the president fulfilling a campaign promise to deal with a threat they had overhyped.
.. Paradoxically, they pointed out how the executive order breached faith with those very sources, many of whom they had promised to always protect with the full might of our government and our people. Sources who had risked much, if not all, to keep Americans safe.
..But as a former station chief told me, in the places where intelligence officers operate, rumor, whisper and conspiratorial chatter rule people’s lives. It doesn’t take paranoia to connect the action of the executive order with the hateful, anti-Islamic language of the campaign. In the Middle East, with its honor-based cultures, it’s easier to recruit someone we have been shooting at than it is to recruit someone whose society has been insulted.
Trump’s inability to tolerate critics may be his biggest problem
One thing we can be sure of: At some point Trump will decide Schumer is a “loser” or “the worst” or whatever childish insult comes to mind because Schumer and Trump do not share objectives. As self-evident as it may be, Trump operates in a world in which someone’s worth (whether it is Schumer or Ryan or Russian President Vladimir Putin) is a direct reflection of whether he is saying nice things about Trump.
This may be one reason he relies so heavily on his children; they know better than to insult him or to challenge him in ways that prompt him to lash out. (They are, in a word, enablers.)
.. For a textbook narcissist, there is no objective, ideology, aim or vision other than satisfaction of his own ego. It makes him a sitting duck for flatters — and may make him a very isolated president, very quickly.
.. Now, when Schumer delays the confirmation process or maybe even derails a nominee (perhaps the secretary of state pick, ExxonMobil Chief Executive Rex Tillerson, with the help of dismayed GOP hawks), Trump won’t be whispering sweet nothings to any Democrat. He’ll be flailing away on Twitter, denouncing Schumer & Co. as he does anyone who gets the better of him.
.. Likewise, if, for example, the GOP House refuses to do his bidding on a tariff bill or won’t pass an overstuffed infrastructure bill consisting of tax breaks for billionaire developers, Trump’s newfound affection for Ryan will evaporate as well. He’ll be back to calling Ryan “very weak and ineffective” or “a man who doesn’t know how to win.” His new cordial relationship with Mitt Romney? If Romney starts speaking up about Russia, Trump surely will revert to labeling him a “catastrophe” who was “just trying to stay relevant.”
.. Sooner or later, everyone is bound to be a “loser” or “horrible,” according to Trump. That makes it tricky to sustain ongoing relationships for four years with these people. Unlike on reality TV, he cannot fire Schumer, Ryan or McConnell.
.. If there is a vast majority in both houses for additional sanctions, does Trump declare 90 percent of lawmakers to be “terrible” or “a disaster”? (Maybe he pulls another Trump tactic — gaslighting the press and public, pretending he wasn’t opposed to sanctions.)
How to Know What Donald Trump Really Cares About: Look at What He’s Insulting
First, Mr. Trump likes to identify a couple of chief enemies and attack them until they are no longer threatening enough to interest him. He hurls insults at these foils relentlessly, for sustained periods – weeks or months. Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton have all held Mr. Trump’s attention in this way; nearly one in every three insults in the last two years has been directed at them.
.. Second, there’s a nearly constant stream of insults in the background directed at a wider range of subjects. These insults can be a response to a news event, unfavorable media coverage or criticism, or they can simply be a random thought. These subjects receive short bursts of attention, and inevitably Mr. Trump turns to other things in a day or two. Mr. Trump’s brief feuds with Macy’s, Elizabeth Warren, John McCain and The New Hampshire Union Leader fit this bucket well. The election has not changed this pattern either...Mr. Trump frequently insulted journalists and media organizations even before he was a serious presidential candidate. Early on, Mr. Trump focused on conservative publications and commentators who stood against him: Bill Kristol, George Will, Glenn Beck, Charles Krauthammer, Stuart Stevens. As the campaign progressed and media scrutiny increased, Mr. Trump focused on the larger news organizations and the national press, particularly after coverage critical of him. One particularly big insult campaign began in the days after a New York Times article about his behavior toward women.