September 25, 2015

The Best of Social Media, #PopeinDC edition

Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel. That 19^th century adage could be modernized for 2016: if you’re seeking the Republican presidential nomination, don’t screw around with Roger Ailes.
The Fox News honcho wields enormous power over an incredibly influential medium, and he’s not messing around after Donald Trump declared that he’s boycotting the cable channel.

Megyn Kelly’s show opener last night demonstrated Trump’s dilemma. Kelly used a fresh round of polls to make the case that Trump is on the decline, even though the businessman still maintains a significant lead, using language that sounded like it was written expressly to get under his skin. Combined with critical comments by other Fox hosts, the harsher new tone spells real trouble for Trump. Watch Kelly here:

Live by cable news, die by cable news. Trump doesn’t want to actually spend money on advertising. Though a billionaire, he does not necessarily have the liquidity to self-fund massive ad buys even if he wanted to and he’s not raising massive amounts from donors. So Trump’s survival depends on earning free media coverage. This requires him to constantly pick fights and devise ways to stay in the news. Month after month, this strategy becomes more challenging. It requires a higher and higher shock factor. As a result, Trump risks coming across as increasingly desperate.

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Just yesterday, Trump made the following comments:

In a phone call to CNN, he attacked CNN’s own Randi Kaye as an “absolutely terrible” liar.
On Instagram, he called the New York Times’ Jonathan Martin “dishonest” and a “liar” for a story that said “about a third of the seats were unfilled” at one of his South Carolina events.
On Twitter, he slammed Politico over a piece that said he’s stalling in the polls: “@politico, which is not read or respected by many, may be the most dishonest of the media outlets— and that is saying something.”
In a profanity-laced interview with the Daily Mail, Trump called the AP photographer who shot pictures of his South Carolina events a “f***ing thief”: “Tell them they’re a fraud, whoever took it. I just got killed on that thing, and it was just really unfair. It’s goddamn unfair.”

After Trump said their editor should be investigated by the FCC, National Review calls Trump “a preposterous little trust-fund wuss” in a new item: “The man is not really a ‘fighter’ or an ‘alpha male’ or an iron-cored ‘enemy of political correctness.’ He’s a thin-skinned performance artist whose peculiar shtick falls to pieces the moment someone useful elects to return a punch. Look through Trump’s recent Twitter contributions and you will see a wounded man who is always a few harsh phrases and a modicum of bad publicity away from curling up in an oversized sweater and listening to ‘Everybody Hurts’ on repeat.”

Sensing weakness, Rubio finally chooses to meaningfully engage Trump: “He had a really bad debate performance last week,” Rubio of Trump in an interview on Kentucky Sports Radio. “He’s not well-informed on the issues. He really never talks about issues and can’t have more than a 10-second sound bite on any key issue. And so I think he’s kind of been exposed a little bit over the last seven days. And he’s a very touchy and insecure guy. And so that’s how he reacts. And people can see through it.” That came a day after Trump called the senator “overly ambitious and too young.” The Donald also attacked the Florida senator for being “sweaty.”

Will Trump cave? Ailes and Donald spoke again by phone yesterday morning. The network said that the pair will meet next week “to discuss their differences of opinion regarding Fox’s coverage.” Ailes will be joined by senior Fox executives for “a candid meeting about our differences,” Fox said in a statement. But unlike their last talk, Ailes may have more leverage this time.

— A government shutdown feels increasingly unlikely, though it’s still possible.

The Senate will pass a clean spending bill next week that includes money for Planned Parenthood. Mitch McConnell allowed a vote yesterday to cut off funding for the group; his point was to show that backers don’t have the votes. Seven Republicans joined with the Democrats to block it. Next week, after some procedural hurdles are cleared, the upper chamber will vote on what’s called “a clean CR” in Hill parlance.
John Boehner, who badly wants to avoid a shutdown, has come up with a plan he hopes will assuage the right flank. He’s promising to try using the budget reconciliation process to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood. The idea is that this would force President Obama to use his veto pen. He’s also promising votes on other standalone bills to go after the group and restrict abortion rights.
To be sure, there could be a lot of drama in the days ahead. The House Republican Conference is scheduled to meet today at 9 a.m. Leaders will pitch their approach for avoiding a shutdown, which they say Republicans would be blamed for, and gauge the level of pushback they’ll get. House Democrats could always bail Boehner out again if they need to.
Pundit prep: Shuttering the government actually costs more than keeping it open. The White House says the last shutdown, which lasted 16 days, meant 6.6 million days of lost work, $2 billion in back pay for 850,000 federal employees who did no work and 120,000 private-sector jobs gone.

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING:

— China will adopt a cap-and-trade system to limit carbon emissions. “Expanding on a pilot project in seven Chinese cities, the program will impose a nationwide ceiling on emissions from the most carbon-intensive sectors of the Chinese economy and require companies exceeding their quotas to buy permits from those that have sharply reduced emissions,” Steven Mufson reports. “Xi will make the announcement in Washington in a joint statement with President Obama, who has been pressing world leaders to take ambitious steps to slow climate change and submit detailed plans in advance of a Paris climate conference in December. The announcement could provide a bright spot to a summit darkened with disagreements over China’s cyberattacks on U.S. companies, its more restrictive proposed law on nongovernmental organizations, continuing human rights differences, and the apparent construction in progress of four fighter jet runways on disputed islands and reefs in the South China Sea. … China is the world’s biggest emitting nation, accounting for nearly 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.” Here’s a broader curtain-raiser on Xi’s visit.

— Fed chair has health scare while making the case for raising interest rates later this year: The Wall Street Journal says Janet Yellen sounded like “a prosecutor giving a closing argument,” presenting a 40-page speech in a cavernous auditorium at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She included 40 academic citations, 35 footnotes, an appendix and nine graphs projected to an audience of about 1,800 students and professors on a large screen. BUT: “The presentation was momentarily overshadowed when the Fed leader, 69 years old, faltered near the end of the 52-minute presentation, pausing for a long stretch, stumbling over some words and coughing. Michael Ash, the chairman of UMass Amherst’s economics department, approached Ms. Yellen to ask if she was all right and offered to help her off stage as she concluded. Ms. Yellen walked off on her own. The Fed blamed Ms. Yellen’s stumble on feeling dehydrated after a long day and long speech under bright lights.”

— Trump continues to lead the GOP pack in New Hampshire, according to a CNN/WMUR poll. But there’s a new cast of candidates nipping at his heels. He gets 26 percent of those who say they’ll vote in the GOP primary there, compared to 16 percent for Fiorina, 9 percent to Rubio and 8 percent to Carson. Jeb, who polled second in a similar July poll, has dropped to fifth at 7 percent. Scott Walker was third, but has now dropped out of the race. But Trump support is much higher among non-typical primary voters, while he and Fiorina run even among likely primary voters.

— Hillary is very weak in New Hampshire: The same CNN/WMUR poll shows Clinton trailing Bernie Sanders in the Granite State by 16 points, 46 to 30 percent, with 17 percent saying they’d back Joe Biden if he runs. There is a giant gender gap working in Sanders’s favor: 56 percent of male Democrats support him compared to 20 percent for Hillary. Even among women, Sanders leads by 2 points, 39 to 37 percent. See the crosstabs here, but check out how few Democrats see the frontrunner as honest or likeable compared to the other Democrats running:

GET SMART FAST:

Hillary Clinton “greenlighted paperwork that changed her top aide Huma Abedin’s job status to ‘special government employee’ — a classification that allowed Abedin to work for an outside consulting firm and the Clinton Foundation at the same time she was advising Clinton at State,” Politico reports, suggesting that Clinton was more involved than she’s acknowledged.
NSA Director Mike Rogers testified that a foreign official who used a private email server to communicate would present a spying opportunity for the U.S. (AP)
The FBI has arrested “a politically prominent Chinese millionaire, the alleged secret source of foreign money in a campaign finance scandal during the (Bill) Clinton administration, on charges he lied about why he brought more than $4.5 million in cash into the United States over the last two years,” ABC reports.
“Employees of the U.S. Postal Service failed to properly safeguard documents that included the names, addresses and financial information used by its law enforcement arm to monitor the mail of people suspected of criminal activities or for national security purposes, an internal investigation found,” according to the New York Times. (IG report)
A “Ride the Ducks” tour vehicle and a charter bus collided in Seattle, leaving four people dead. An additional 44 people were taken to area hospitals, including 12 who were critically injured.
Fordham has rescinded the honorary degree it gave Bill Cosby.
A Texas high school football coach accused of ordering players to knock down a referee who allegedly hurled racial insults at the team has resigned, per the AP.
Italian archaeologists trying to solve the mystery behind one of the world’s most famous paintings say they had found bits of bone that could have belonged to the “real” Mona Lisa, AFP reports from Florence.
“Archaeologists have unearthed the oldest case of decapitation ever found in the New World,” per National Geographic. “The skull belonged to a young man and was buried in Brazil about 9,000 years old, with severed hands covering its face in a mysterious pose.”

POWER PLAYERS IN THE NEWS:

A close ally of Boehner’s, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), has reached out to potential primary challengers against Rep. Mark Meadows, the tea partier who has been trying to depose the Speaker, according to The Hill. (Scott Wong)
Rubio today will propose tax breaks for companies that give workers paid family leave.
Carly Fiorina has backed the individual mandate. As recently as 2013, she voiced support for requiring every American to purchase health insurance, a position that dogged Mitt Romney through the 2012 primaries. CNN has what appears to be the latest opposition research dump in the face of her surge. Her campaign took it seriously enough to post on Facebook that the idea originated at the Heritage Foundation and that she wants to repeal Obamacare.
The Post’s Fact Checker this morning describes Fiorina’s secretary-to-CEO narrative as “BOGUS.“ Her father was dean of Duke Law School when she was at Stanford. And, while she worked briefly as a secretary between law school and business school, she always intended to attend graduate school for her career. (Michelle Ye Hee Lee)
Fiorina campaigned at a woman’s ultrasound appointment in South Carolina yesterday. (Ben Terris)
Charles Krauthammer calls Ben Carson’s comments about a Muslim as president both “morally outrageous” and “politically poisonous” in his column today.
Joe Biden will headline the Human Rights Campaign’s Oct. 3 gala in Washington.
Elizabeth Warren and Democracy for America will endorse Kamala Harris in the California Senate race today.
Rafael Cruz, Ted’s dad, said, “It is appalling that in a city like Houston, right in the middle of the Bible Belt, we had a homosexual mayor,” referring to thrice-elected Annise Parker. The elder Cruz, an active surrogate for his son’s campaign, then claimed that separation of church and state is “a lie” not in the Constitution. (Video, via Right Wing Watch)
Hillary was described as being 5-foot-5 when she ran in 2008, but many stories this year describe her as 5-foot-7. Jay Matthews explores how this could happen.

POPE-A-PALOOZA, Day Four:

Pope Francis has left Washington for the Big Apple. Traffic wasn’t as bad as everyone expected and his speech to lawmakers in a rare joint meeting of Congress, made in halting English, was moving and very political. Lawmakers pretty much behaved, and Boehner shed some tears. (Rubio apparently did too.)

The pope celebrated Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and Dorothy Day, a “vital and controversial figure on the American left,” as David Weigel explains. Day isn’t a household name, but she had a thick FBI file and called for ovethrowing the “decadent, putrid industrial capitalist system which breeds such suffering in the whited sepulcher of New York.'” In post-speech comments, Bernie Sanders couldn’t have been happier about her name being dropped.

Francis admonished lawmakers to join and accept immigrants who “travel north in search of a better life.” He urged the end of the death penalty, arms trading and said ” “fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family.” But perhaps his most pointed remarks were on climate change, when he stressed the human cause of it, and said Congress has an “important role to play. Now is the time for courageous actions and strategies.” Read the whole speech here.

Watch Francis’ full speech:

Francis addressed the crowd outside on the West Front (and Boehner teared up all over again here):

Today’s schedule: The pope will speak to the United Nations, meet Sept. 11 victims at the 9/11 memorial, ride through Central Park and hold a mass at Madison Square Garden.

WAPO HIGHLIGHTS:

— “Pellets, planes and the frontier: How Mexican heroin cartels are targeting small-town America,” by Todd C. Frankel: “A sophisticated farm-to-arm supply chain is fueling America’s surging heroin appetite, causing heroin to surpass cocaine and meth to become the nation’s No. 1 drug threat for the first time… Mexican cartels have overtaken the U.S. heroin trade, imposing an almost corporate discipline. They grow and process the drug themselves, increasingly replacing their traditional black tar with an innovative high-quality powder with mass market appeal: It can be smoked or snorted by newcomers as well as shot up by hard-core addicts. They have broadened distribution beyond the old big-city heroin centers like Chicago or New York to target unlikely places such as Dayton…considered to be an epicenter of the heroin problem…Crack dealers on street corners have been supplanted by heroin dealers ranging across a far wider landscape…They arrange deals by cellphone and deliver heroin like pizza.”

— “The Iran deal could be multilateralism’s moment. But Congress isn’t ready,” by Karoun Demirjian: “When President Obama hits the U.N. General Assembly next week with initiatives to tackle climate change, solve the Syrian war and address the European refugee crisis, he is expected to try to capitalize on the multilateral spirit the deal created, and apply it to solve other global problems. But in Congress, lawmakers – even those who openly hoped the [Iran] agreement inaugurates a new era of international cooperation – aren’t quite so sure the country is ready to trade the go-it-alone spirit of American exceptionalism for a shared mantle of common cause with the rest of the world.”

SOCIAL MEDIA SPEED READ:

— ZIGNAL VISUAL: Rubio Rising. In the week since the last GOP debate, we’ve seen a steady uptick in interest in Marco Rubio. And a look at the tweets from around the country reflects some of what we’re also seeing in the new polls. And it appears that the Florida senator’s recent rise is coming at the expense of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush

The GIF below from our analytics partners at Zignal Labs shows a day-by-day, state-by-state breakdown of Tweet volume. States where Bush had a majority of Tweets are in blue. Rubio states are in red. The day after last week’s debate, Bush had an advantage in every state, and an overall national Twitter advantage of 40 points over his fellow Floridian. By the end of the day Thursday, those numbers had nearly reversed, and Rubio was receiving more Twitter traffic in nearly every state:

–The best of social media, #PopeinDC edition:

The sunrise over the Capitol as crowds assembled before dawn yesterday was divine:

Senators assembled early to cross the Capitol for the joint address. John Cornyn (R-Texas) snapped this picture of Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) absorbed in his smart phone:

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy snuck a photo right before he and Francis entered the House chamber:

Pope Francis “blessed 2 rosaries very special to me,” wrote Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). “An experience I will never forget!”

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) criticized Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito, both Catholic, for passing up Francis’ speech to Congress. She didn’t mention it, but Clarence Thomas, also Catholic, missed it too.

Bernie Sanders fundraised off Francis’s mention of Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement:

Nancy Pelosi shared images of her meeting with previous popes, including this one of John Paul II from the 1980s:

After departing Washington, Francis headed to New York City. He again rode his trusty Fiat through midtown (talk about good product placement):

CBS caught Trump watching the pope pass Trump Tower.

CNN broadcast live as Francis rode in the Popemobile:

New Yorkers are now experiencing the same kind of Popemania that hit Washington. Witness the pope-themed graffiti:

Pope-themed pizza:

And a lot more costumed animals:

— Non-pope social media of the day:

NASA posted this amazing photo of what remains of a massive star that exploded about 8,000 years ago. The debris is called the Veil Nebula, and it is 110 light-years across. This shows only a fraction of the nebula:

“Some experiences are too much for words,” Lena Dunham wrote on Instagram. The “Girls” star interviewed Hillary for her newsletter, Lenny Letter, and the whole thing will post on Tuesday. To promote the sit-down, they circulated a 1-minute clip in which Dunham asks HRC if she considers herself a feminist. “Yes, absolutely,” she responds. “I’m always a little bit puzzled when any woman of whatever age, but particularly a young woman, says something like, ‘Well, I believe in equal rights but I’m not a feminist.’ Well, a feminist is by definition someone who believes in equal rights! I’m hoping that people will not be afraid to say: That doesn’t mean you hate men!” (Watch here.)

Clinton also talked about rejecting two marriage proposals from Bill before agreeing to marry him. “I was terrified about losing my identity and getting lost in the wake of Bill’s force-of-nature personality,” she said.

Ivanka Trump announced she is pregnant with her third child (watch a short video here):

Donald Trump celebrated the news on Twitter:

Chelsea Clinton, who is friends with Ivanka, drew crowds at Politics & Prose:

The possible first daughter (for the second time) was a hit inside. She asked this young girl, “Can I get a hug?”

Campaign finance rules in 2015 are such a farce. Carly Fiorina nonchalantly signs books while her super PAC’s videographer (who is barred from coordinating with the campaign) records footage, according to a CNN reporter on the scene:

After reading about voters unknowingly being registered as Adarians, an alien species depicted in a Star Wars comic book, Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.) tweeted this:

Ex-Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) posted this photo:

GOOD READS FROM ELSEWHERE:

— Baltimore Sun, “Seventeen years and $2.7 billion in, Pentagon’s high-tech blimps fail to deliver on promise,” by David Williams: “The Army is testing giant high-tech blimps east of Baltimore to assess their ability to provide an early warning if the national capital area were attacked with cruise missiles, drones or other low-flying weapons…the system known as JLENS doesn’t work as envisioned… The blimps have been hobbled by defective software, vulnerability to bad weather and poor reliability… Raytheon Co., the Pentagon’s lead contractor for JLENS, has asserted that the system is ‘proven,’ ‘capable,’ ‘performing well right now’ and ‘ready to deploy today.’ But JLENS is a stark example of what defense specialists call a ‘zombie’ program: costly, ineffectual and seemingly impossible to kill.”

— New York Times, “Republican ‘super PACs’ turn to TV ads for high-stakes primaries,” by Trip Gabriel and Ashley Parker: “A super PAC backing Jeb Bush will spend $37 million on ads through February, money it is forced to spend early because Mr. Bush’s popularity with elite donors has not been matched by support from voters. Rival super PACs and allied groups are also set to run TV ads primarily in early voting states for Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey ($11.4 million), Senator Marco Rubio of Florida ($15 million) and Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana ($5 million), according to a firm that tracks political ad spending. None of those groups plan to attack Mr. Trump any time soon, according to their strategists, for fear of repercussions.”

— People magazine, “From ‘girly-girl’ to fun grandma, the fun Carly Fiorina you don’t know (yet),” by Sandra Sobieraj Westfall: “I love being a girl!” says Fiorina, 61. “I like clothes. I like shoes. I like dressing up.To wit, for the three-hour Republican debate on Sept. 16, Fiorina sported a $755 pair of 3.5-inch Manolo Blahnik heels. And, like women everywhere who have to answer for their pricey shoes, she notes, “I bought them several years ago”…Fiorina, with her husband Frank, has two step-granddaughters – Kara and Morgan, who call her “CiCi.” “I think I’m a pretty fun grandma. They think I’m pretty fun,” says Fiorina… “I hurl myself down water slides and I have done many Halloween costumes. I don’t make them, but we go collect them and they they get to come and pick”…She’s also obsessed with her iphone 6 Plus: “We have emoji orgies on the phone and that amuses me.”

HOT ON THE LEFT

Let’s not bring the pope into the next Hobby Lobby controversy. From the Huffington Post: “Pope Francis made an unscheduled visit Wednesday to the Little Sisters of the Poor, a group of nuns who are petitioning the Supreme Court to take a case that pits religious liberty against the Affordable Care Act and women’s health. The Little Sisters lawsuit could be as big and as controversial as last year’s Hobby Lobby decision. But several news reports on the pope’s visit, including one from the Vatican, seem to misapprehend the nature of the case. It’s not even clear whether the pontiff made the stop with any true understanding of the lawsuit.”

HOT ON THE RIGHT

Kanye West thinks Ben Carson is ‘brilliant.’ From Vanity Fair: In an interview posted yesterday, West said, “When I run for president, I’d prefer not to run against someone. I would be like ‘I want to work with you.’ As soon as I heard Carson speak, I tried for three weeks to get on the phone with him. I was like this is the most brilliant guy. And I think all the people running right now have something that each of the others needs. But the idea of this separation and this gladiator battle takes away from the main focus that the world needs help.” Keep dreaming, Kanye.

DAYBOOK:

— What’s happening today on the campaign trail: Hillary Clinton attends an organizing event in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson and Bobby Jindal speak at the Values Voters Summit in D.C. Later, Trump stops at the Oklahoma State Fair in Oklahoma City. Carly Fiorina campaigns in Davenport and Dubuque, Iowa. Other members of the presidential field are in New Hampshire: Bernie Sanders speaks at a dinner in Portsmouth, Rand Paul campaigns in Manchester, Salem, Henniker and Brookline, and Chris Christie holds a town hall in Nashua. In South Carolina, John Kasich hits events in North Charleston and Hilton Head. Both he and Lindsey Graham have stops in Charleston. (Graham has been criticizing Kasich, who he served with in the House, a lot recently.)

–On the Hill: The House Republican Conference is scheduled to meet in the morning, giving leaders a chance to present their plans for avoiding a government shutdown. The House convenes at 9 a.m., while the Senate convenes at 10:30 a.m.

–At the White House: President Obama and Vice President Biden host China President Xi for an official state visit, including several bilateral meetings and a joint press conference at the White House. First Lady Michelle Obama will take Chinese First Lady Madame Peng Liyuan on a visit to the National Zoo, where they will visit the Panda House and make “a special announcement.” After, President Obama delivers remarks at an Armed Forces Full Honors Retirement Ceremony in honor of Gen. Martin Dempsey in Fort Myer, Va. In the evening, the Obamas host Xi and Madame Peng Liyuan for a state dinner and reception.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I’m in for the long haul,” Jeb Bush said in Bristol, Va. “We have the team and resources to make it to February when the process starts.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE IF YOU LIVE IN D.C.:

— For sunshine lovers, it isn’t a great weekend to be in D.C. Clouds really do want to dominate through about Monday perhaps. We do think breaks in the clouds happen from time to time, with fingers especially crossed for the lunar eclipse Sunday night,” says the Capital Weather Gang.

— Redskins QB Kirk Cousins was rattled in a 32-21 loss to the New York Giants.

— The Baltimore Orioles again beat the Nationals, 5-4, sweeping the series and further reducing the Nats’ playoff chances.

VIDEOS OF THE DAY:

“Oh, yeah! I got a selfie!” said the kid in this video as Francis passed:

Just before Francis entered the House chamber, a woman was caught on a hot mic talking about throwing her shoe:

And finally, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) got some love for his cool socks (click below to watch):

The New Yorker parodies how technology companies overhype their new products. Watch a two-and-a-half minute video here.

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