The Briefing
Page 28
Chapter Six: Upshifting the Downshifters
1. “NCBC Planned to Use Trump Audio to Influence Debate, Election,” TMZ, October 12, 2016, http://m.tmz.com/#article/2016/10/12/nbc-trump-tape-billy-bush-plan-election-debate/.
2. David A. Graham, “Donald Trump’s Disastrous Debate,” The Atlantic, October 9, 2016, https://www.theatlantic.com/liveblogs/2016/10/second-presidential-debate-clinton-trump/503495/.
3. Zach Carter, “Karl Rove: Donald Trump Can’t Win,” HuffPost, October 23, 2016, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/karl-rove-donald-trump-cant-win_us_580cb4c1e4b000d0b15727dc.
4. Matt Apuzzo, et al., “Emails Warrant No New Action Against Hillary Clinton, F.B.I. Director Says,” New York Times, November 6, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/07/us/politics/hilary-clinton-male-voters-donald-trump.html.
5. Rachel VanGilder, “Trump holds final rally in Grand Rapids: ‘The election is now,’ ” WOOD-TV, November 7, 2016, http://woodtv.com/2016/11/07/donald-trump-at-devos-place-in-grand-rapids/.
6. “Relive the Trump’s stunning win in under 2 minutes,” CNN, November 9, 2016, video, 1:42, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mYVi7WHyiU.
7. Andrew Prokop, “A top Trump staffer just promised to post video of Hillary Clinton’s election night concession call,” Vox, May 9, 2017, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/9/15596276/trump-scavino-hillary-clinton-concession-call.
Chapter Seven: Baptism by Fire
1. Brett Edkins, “Record 6.8 Million Watched Trump’s Inauguration On Twitter’s Live Stream,” Forbes, January 24, 2017, https://www.forbes.com/sites/brettedkins/2017/01/24/record-6-8-million-watched-trumps-inauguration-on-twitters-live-stream/#37ce0292a296.
2. “CNN Dominates MSNBC During the 45th Presidential Inauguration,” CNN, January 21, 2017, http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2017/01/21/cnn-dominates-msnbc-during-the-45th-presidential-inauguration/.
3. Charles Savage, et al., “Trump’s First Week: Misfires, Crossed Wires, and a Satisfied Smile,” New York Times, January 27, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/us/politics/president-donald-trump-first-week.html.
4. Valerie Richardson, “Outraged critics assume RNC meant Trump, not Jesus, in Christmas reference to ‘new King,’ ” Washington Times, December 26, 2016, https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/26/outraged-critics-assume-rnc-meant-trump-not-jesus-/.
5. Rich Noyes, “Even As Media Whine About Trump, Their Hostile Coverage Shows No Let Up,” NewsBusters, December 12, 2017, https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/rich-noyes/2017/12/12/even-media-whine-about-trump-their-hostile-coverage-shows-no-let.
6. “News Coverage of Donald Trump’s First 100 Days,” Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School, May 18, 2017, https://shorensteincenter.org/news-coverage-donald-trumps-first-100-days/.
7. “Press Briefing by Press Secretary Sean Spicer, February 1, 2017,” The American Presidency Project, Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, accessed April 10, 2018, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=123146.
8. Ben Schreckinger, “ ‘Real News’ Joins the White House Briefing Room,” Politico, February 15, 2017, https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/02/fake-news-gateway-pundit-white-house-trump-briefing-room-214781.
9. Brian Montopoli, “Obama’s ‘Enchanted’ Answer,” CBS News, April 29, 2009, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/obamas-enchanted-answer/.
10. Zeeshan Aleem, “Trump’s assault on CNN and BuzzFeed, explained,” Vox, January 12, 2017, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/12/14240264/trumps-cnn-buzzfeed-dossier.
11. Amy B. Wang, “ABC News apologizes for ‘serious error’ in Trump report and suspends Brian Ross for four weeks,” Washington Post, December 3, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2017/12/03/abc-news-apologizes-for-serious-error-in-trump-report-suspends-brian-ross-for-four-weeks/?utm_term=.24f9f449588b.
12. “Exclusive: Trump presser convinced NSC candidate Harward to decline,” MSNBC, February 17, 2017, video, 2:03, https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/exclusive-trump-presser-convinced-nsc-candidate-harward-to-decline-879994947802.
13. “Press Briefing by Press Secretary Sean Spicer, February 21, 2017,” The American Presidency Project, Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, accessed May 18, 2018, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=123397.
14. Philip Rucker, et al., “After testy call with Trump over border wall, Mexican president shelves plan to visit White House,” Washington Post, February 24, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/after-testy-call-with-trump-over-border-wall-mexicos-president-shelves-plan-to-visit-white-house/2018/02/24/c7ffe9e8-199e-11e8-8b08-027a6ccb38eb_story.html?utm_term=.b6d7acd68ec3.
15. “Press Briefing by Press Secretary Sean Spicer, January 31, 2017,” The American Presidency Project, Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, accessed April 10, 2018, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=123150.
16. Barbara Starr and Ryan Browne, “US tries to ID hundreds of al Qaeda contacts thanks to Yemen raid,” CNN, March 2, 2017, https://www.cnn.com/2017/03/02/politics/yemen-raid-al-qaeda-intelligence-contacts/index.html.
Chapte Eight: Turbulence, Inside and Out
1. Paul Bedard, “53% drop in arrests of illegals at Southwest border crossings, 6-year low,” Washington Examiner, July 7, 2017, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/53-drop-in-arrests-of-illegals-at-southwest-border-crossings-6-year-low.
2. “Times presents ‘news’ that’s just propaganda for Bam,” New York Post, February 27, 2017, https://nypost.com/2017/02/27/times-presents-news-thats-just-propaganda-for-bam/.
3. Liam Stack, “Trump, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough: A Roller-Coaster Relationship,” New York Times, June 29, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/29/business/trump-tweets-mika-brzezinski-joe-scarborough.html.
4. Nicole Lewis, “Pence’s claim that ‘more Americans are working today than ever before in American history,’ ” Washington Post, November 28, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/11/28/pences-claim-that-more-americans-are-working-today-than-ever-before-in-american-history/?utm_term=.31ef7ef06ff1.
5. David Harsanyi, “This Is Why We Can’t Trust Factcheckers, Part Infinity,” The Federalist, November 28, 2017, http://thefederalist.com/2017/11/28/cant-trust-factcheckers-part-infinity/.
6. Jim Drinkard, et al., “AP Fact Check: The audacity of hype,” AP News, February 18, 2017, https://apnews.com/85d259aa4d4e4892be3b225f7b108c39.
7. Scott Wong, et al., “Trump, GOP lawmakers struggle with messaging,” The Hill, July 1, 2017, http://thehill.com/homenews/house/340320-trump-gop-lawmakers-struggle-with-messaging.
8. Tim Hains, “MSNBC’s Chris Matthews Jokes About Wanting Trump To Kill Jared Kushner: ‘One Good Thing Mussolini Did Was Execute His Son-in-Law,’ ” RealClearPolitics, June 30, 2017, https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/06/30/msnbcs_chris_matthews_jokes_about_wanting_trump_to_kill_jared_kushner_mussolini_executed_son-in-law.html.
9. Philip Rucker, et al., “Why some inside the White House see Trump’s media feud as ‘winning,’ ” Washington Post, June 30, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/why-some-inside-the-white-house-see-trumps-media-feud-as-winning/2017/06/30/3ee9ec72-5da5-11e7-a9f6-7c3296387341_story.html?utm_term=.25f1a0530db7.
10. Annie Karni, et al., “Sean Spicer targets own staff in leak crackdown,” Politico, February 26, 2017, https://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/sean-spicer-targets-own-staff-in-leak-crackdown-235413.
11. Michael S. Schmidt, et al., “Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence,” New York Times, February 14, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/us/politics/russia-intelligence-communications-trump.html.
12. Peter Baker, “Citing Recusal, Trump Says He Wouldn’t Have Hired Sessions,” New York Times, July 19, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/us/politics/trump-interview-sessions-russia.html.
Chapter Nine: Memorable Moments, Memes, and Mistakes
1. �
�Full interview: Sean Spicer’s apology,” CNN, April 11, 2017, video, 7:36, https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2017/04/11/sean-spicer-entire-hitler-holocaust-apology-wolf-blitzer-tsr.cnn.
2. “I Was Going to Fire Comey Anyway, Trump Tells Lester Holt in Interview,” NBC News, May 11, 2017, video, 2:34, https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/i-was-going-to-fire-comey-anyway-trump-tells-lester-holt-in-interview-941538371971.
3. Glenn Thrush, et al., “ ‘Looking Like a Liar or a Fool’: What It Means to Work for Trump,” New York Times, May 12, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/us/politics/trump-sean-spicer-sarah-huckabee-sanders.html.
4. David Ferguson, “Why does Steve Bannon make less per year than Omarosa?: White House publishes list of employee salaries,” RawStory, June 30, 2017, https://www.rawstory.com/2017/06/why-does-steve-bannon-make-less-per-year-than-omarosa-white-house-publishes-list-of-employee-salaries/.
5. Joe Concha, “Maddow’s Trump’s tax return reveal delivers 4.1 million viewers for MSNBC,” The Hill, March 16, 2017, http://thehill.com/homenews/media/324417-maddows-trumps-tax-return-reveal-delivers-41-million-viewers-for-msnbc.
6. David Rutz, “Spicer Fires Back at Reporter Over Georgia Runoff Result: ‘It’s a Loss’ for Democrats,” Washington Free Beacon, April 19, 2017, http://freebeacon.com/politics/spicer-fires-back-at-reporter-over-congressional-runoff-race-its-a-loss-for-the-democrats/.
7. John Bowden, “Former WH press secretaries: End live daily press briefings,” The Hill, June 28, 2017, http://thehill.com/homenews/news/339836-ari-fleischer-embargo-white-house-briefing-video-for-use-later.
8. Mike McCurry, et al., “Advice for media and Trump from two former presidential press secretaries,” Columbia Journalism Review, January 5, 2017, https://www.cjr.org/covering_trump/white_house_press_corps_trump.php.
9. Melissa Chan, “ ‘I’m Not Sorry.’ Indian-American Woman on Why She Confronted Sean Spicer in an Apple Store,” Time, March 15, 2017, http://time.com/4699621/sean-spicer-woman-apple-store/.
10. Paul Crookston, “Sean Spicer Encounters Courageous Anti-Fascism at the Mall,” National Review, March 13, 2017, https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/sean-spicer-questioned-harassed-trump-critic-shree-chauhan/.
Chapter Ten: The Way Forward
1. Chris Cillizza, “The White House is trying to kill the daily press briefing,” CNN, July 17, 2017, https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/17/politics/press-briefings/index.html.
2. Lisa de Moraes, “Ryan Lizza Punches Back At Anthony Scaramucci Claims About Profane Interview,” Deadline Hollywood, July 28, 2017, http://deadline.com/2017/07/anthony-scaramucci-interview-reporter-defends-ryan-lizza-cnn-1202138057/.
3. Hugh Son, “Dimon Says Being an American Abroad Is ‘Almost an Embarrassment,’ ” Bloomberg, July 14, 2017, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-14/dimon-says-being-an-american-abroad-is-almost-an-embarrassment.
4. Ali Watkins, et al., “Trump’s leaks crackdown sends chills through national security world,” Politico, July 7, 2017, https://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/07/trumps-leak-vendetta-sends-chills-240274.
5. Todd Shepherd, “Senate Republicans say Trump fighting an ‘avalanche’ of leaks,” Washington Examiner, July 6, 2017, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/senate-republicans-say-trump-fighting-an-avalanche-of-leaks.
6. Jonathan Easley, “Media errors give Trump fresh ammunition,” The Hill, July 4, 2017, http://thehill.com/homenews/media/340564-media-errors-fuel-trump-attacks.
7. Matthew Kelly, Perfectly Yourself: Discovering God’s Dream for You (North Palm Beach, FL: Beacon Publishing, 2017).
INDEX
A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.
60 Minutes, 100
A
ABC, 13, 38, 44, 56, 114, 137, 139, 154, 177, 197, 203
Abedin, Huma, 103, 115, 214–16
Access Hollywood, 99, 101, 108–9
Acosta, Jim, 140, 151, 176, 222
Adams, John, 39
Afghanistan, 52
Air Force One, 188, 194, 226, 237, 254
Air Force Two, 161
al-Assad, Bashar, 194–95
al-Qaeda, 160
Alabama, 114
Alexandria Police Department, 224, 241
Alexandria, VA, 45–46, 51, 120, 163, 250
Alfalfa Club, 159
Ali, Yashar, 225
America’s Cup, 17
American University, 24, 103
American Urban Radio Networks, 218
Antarctica, 26
Apple Store, 223
Apprentice, The, 91
Aquidneck Island, 19
Arizona, 62
Arizona Republic, 169
Asia, Asians, 23, 26, 61, 64
Aslan, Reza, 178
Associated Press, The, 113–15, 128, 137–38, 175, 243–44
Atlanta Falcons, 161
Atlantic, The, 101, 172
Axios, 173
Aykroyd, Dan, 135
B
Bachmann, Michele, 57
Baier, Bret, 72–73, 150
Bannon, Steve, 5, 7, 90, 93–94, 97, 101, 107, 113, 124, 136, 144, 147, 152, 164, 169, 182–83, 194, 217, 236, 239
Barrack, Tom, 131, 133
Barrington, RI, 16–17, 19–20, 119, 121
Barrington River, 16
Bash, Dana, 114
Bedminster, NJ, 97, 191
Belichick, Bill, 47, 202
Benghazi, Libya, 69, 98
Blair, Tony, 50
Blitzer, Wolf, 200, 212
Bloomberg, 173
Boca Beach Club, 29
Bohemian Grove, 63
Bossie, David, 94
Boston, MA, 14, 57
Boulder, CO, 78–79
Breitbart News, 152, 182, 244
Bremberg, Andrew, 123
Brennan, Margaret, 149, 173
Bristol, RI, 120–21
Broaddrick, Juanita, 101
Brokaw, Tom, 38
Brooklyn, NY, 102, 114
Broward County, FL, 113
Brown University, 22
Brzezinski, Mika, 75, 112, 172, 181
Buckley, William F., Jr., 20–21
Burr, Richard, 186
Burton, Dan, 39
Bush, Billy, 99
Bush, George H. W., 10, 21, 23, 72, 200
Bush, George W., 6, 41, 46–47, 53, 84, 125, 145, 182, 222, 246–47
Bush, Jeb, 3, 30, 76
Bush v. Gore, 41
Business Insider, 217
BuzzFeed, 132, 142, 150–51
C
Cain, Herman, 55, 57
California, 63, 77, 150, 168, 196, 206
Capone, Al, 217
Carr, Chris, 93, 105–10
CBS, 38, 100, 137, 147, 154–55, 173, 240
Celebrity Apprentice, The, 30
Chafee, John, 25–26, 35
Chait, Jonathan, 142
Chao, Elaine, 124
China, 8, 49–51, 136, 172, 193
Chinese People’s Liberation Army, 26
Chosin Reservoir, 26
Christie, Chris, 97, 123–24
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 226
Cillizza, Chris, 232–33
Clapper, James, 149–50
Cleveland, OH, 72, 77, 81, 83, 89
Clinton Foundation, 103
Clinton, Hillary, 3, 13, 69, 72, 76, 82, 85, 88–89, 93–95, 97–98, 100–6, 108–9, 113, 115–16, 123, 151, 171, 206, 214, 216
Clinton, William Jefferson, 25, 72, 100–1, 104, 123, 222
CNBC, 77–79, 173
CNN, 3–4, 62, 73, 77, 114, 132–33, 140, 143, 147, 149–51, 160, 173, 176, 178, 200, 209, 212, 222, 232, 236, 240, 242, 244
Cohen, Michael, 150
Cohn, Gary, 5, 194, 217
Colbert, Stephen, 248–49
Collins, Kaitlan, 147, 175
Colorado, 1, 6, 77–78, 108–9, 200, 225
Columbia Journalism Review, 222
Comey, James, 82, 103–4, 148–50, 177, 205–6, 208–9, 212–16
Communist Party of China, 51
Conant, Alex, 214
Connecticut College, 23–25, 27
Conway, Kellyanne, 88, 90–91, 93, 108, 113, 115, 125, 136, 144, 164, 169, 177, 183, 209, 217, 238
Corden, James, 247, 249
Crimea, 186
Criminal Investigation Task Force, 52
Crowley, Candy, 69
Crowley, Monica, 153
Cruz, Ted, 72, 76, 87–88
Cuba, 26, 52
D
Daily Caller, 147
Dawsey, Josh, 240
Dead Poets Society, 20
Deadspin, 13
Dearborn, Rick, 125
Decker, Jon, 173
DeVos, Betsy, 223
DeVos Place Convention Center, 110
Dewey, Thomas, 102
Diman, John Hugh, Father, 18
Dover Air Force Base, 159
Drinkard, Jim, 175
Dubke, Mike, 182
Dunford, Joseph, Jr., 160
DuPont Circle, 44
E
Earnest, Josh, 125, 130, 136, 250
Eastwood, Clint, 47
Eichenwald, Kurt, 205
Emmys, the, 248–49
Entous, Adam, 153
Export-Import Bank of the United States, 3, 8, 239
F
Face the Nation, 54
Facebook, 132, 212
Fairfax County, VA, 113
Farley, Chris, 135
FBI, 82, 103, 148–50, 153, 177, 186–87, 190, 205–6, 208–9, 213–15, 236
Federal Election Commission, 70
Federalist Society, 158
Federalist, The, 178
Fitzwater, Marlin, 130, 200
Fleischer, Ari, 125, 130, 222
Florida, 15, 24, 30, 38–41, 61, 68, 109, 111, 113–14, 117, 193–94
Florida Panhandle, 113
Flowers, Gennifer, 100
Flynn, Michael, 146–47, 152–54, 160, 175, 187–88
Foley, Mark, 38–39
Fort Lauderdale, FL, 39–40
Fox Business, 3, 112, 209
Fox News, 71–72, 77, 102, 112, 133, 139, 150, 153, 173, 209, 240
Fox News Radio, 173