Good morning. Here's the latest on President Trump, Anderson Cooper, Kari Lake, The Onion, Reddit, "Elio," Peter Chernin, and more... |
After President Trump announced the US strikes on Iran Saturday evening, one of his first calls was with Fox's Sean Hannity, who was about to host a special edition of "Hannity." He also hopped on the phone with Barak Ravid of Axios and told him "we had great success tonight. Your Israel is much safer now."
The POTUS call spree continued while Hannity recounted his conversation with Trump on the air. ABC's Jon Karl rang up Trump. NBC's Kristen Welker connected with him too. Trump touted the mission's success, "then noted he had to go because he's about to 'make a speech' about it," Welker tweeted.
For researchers who study the relationship between the president and the press, this is something new — short, quotable and frequent reporter phone calls with POTUS. "This is a marked shift," Factba.se creator Bill Frischling told me. He tracks down every Trump interview for his indispensable database, and he has counted 19 of these quick phoners in June, versus only one formal interview.
CNN's Dana Bash, Fox's Bret Baier and Steve Holland of Reuters have all reached Trump on the phone this month. The WSJ's Josh Dawsey said on Instagram that his "38 second call with the president" on Sunday ended with Trump saying "I hope you're nicer to me than you usually are!"
These calls — usually initiated by the reporters — have become one of Trump's favorite ways to communicate with the press. He gets his talking points across and the reporters get to relay his real-time reactions to news events. It's certainly not a replacement for a pre-planned, taped, transcribed interview — but Trump hasn't participated in any of those lately.
"Trump has always done informal phoners with reporters — his use of his cell phone is well known," Frischling said. "But these types of calls previously, as we understand, were often on background, off-the-record, or interviews where he was responding to a reporter's published or broadcast report — not the primary interview itself."
Frischling prefers transcribed interviews, of course, and there are lots of reasons why everyone else should, too. But as more reporters have figured out Trump's private cell phone number — The Atlantic wrote all about that — the spontaneous POTUS phoner has become a new norm.
>> Skepticism is necessary: Hannity said on air Saturday night that six "bunker buster" bombs were used, evidently relaying what Trump had told him... but then the government said that 12 such bombs were used in the operation.
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Checking in on the MAGA divide |
Hannity, Mark Levin and other MAGA media folks took a huge victory lap over the weekend. "Trump the Peacemaker!" wrote Matt Gaetz, now an OAN host. "Shame on those of you who called him a warmonger," wrote Laura Loomer. Levin slammed the "handful of fake MAGA reprobates" who opposed intervention. But it's more than a handful. CNN's Eric Bradner has more on the divide here.
>> Speaking of which, so far as I can tell, Tucker Carlson has not said anything publicly since the strike. Neither has Elon Musk.
>> While Steve Bannon was vociferously opposed to US involvement in Iran, he reserved his criticism Sunday not for Trump but for Fox News. "The Murdochs don’t put America’s interests first,” he told Semafor. “There needs to be a thorough FARA investigation into Fox’s relationship with a foreign power.”
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Who'll speak hard truths? |
Trump critics are portraying this latest military action as a "war based on a lie." Meantime, "the Fox network's agitation for regime change — and the ease with which the network’s stars say it can be accomplished — is hard to distinguish from its case for toppling Iraq's Saddam Hussein," the FT's Edward Luce asserts.
With intel assessments about Iran — and the condition of the nuclear sites post-strikes — very much in dispute, I want to second the question that CNN's chief national security analyst Jim Sciutto asked over the weekend: "Who around the president will tell him the hard truths if the indicators around the Iran strike turn negative?"
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On air from Tel Aviv and Tehran |
CNN was scheduled to re-air a Fareed Zakaria documentary titled "Why Iran Hates America" on Saturday night. It was preempted by live coverage of the US strike. From a rooftop in Tel Aviv, Anderson Cooper anchored three hours of live coverage before and after Trump's address to the nation.
Weekday anchors like John Berman, Wolf Blitzer and Erin Burnett led CNN's coverage on Sunday. Another distinguishing feature: Becky Anderson anchoring from CNN's Abu Dhabi bureau. Weekday teams were also in on Fox and MSNBC. Last night Cooper demonstrated what it's like to evacuate to a bomb shelter while live on "AC360" with Clarissa Ward and Jeremy Diamond.
>> CNN's Fred Pleitgen continues to report from Tehran. For a behind the scenes peek at the journey, check out his Instagram page.
>> This morning Steve Doocy was live on "Fox & Friends" live from Whiteman, Missouri, home of the B-2 bomber fleet.
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Political notes and quotes |
>> Just now: Press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump "was simply raising a question" about regime change when he wrote on Truth Social, "why wouldn’t there be a Regime change???"
>> Speaking of Truth Social: "It's quite remarkable that the President of the United States owns a social media company where he makes major announcements like, say, the decision to bomb a country," Matt Fuller pointed out. (X)
>> The NYT's Jonah E. Bromwich landed the first post-release interview with Mahmoud Khalil. (NYT)
>> Politico's Hailey Fuchs published an eyebrow-raising story about one of the Florida judges who sided with Trump in the president's case against the Pulitzer Prize board. Ed Artau was "lobbying for a seat on the federal bench," and now he's been nominated for one. (Politico)
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The ultimate gut punch for VOA |
Mass layoffs took effect at the Voice of America and its parent agency, USAGM, on Friday. It was a political victory for Trump and Kari Lake. And according to three VOA journalists who sued to stop it from happening, "it spells the death of 83 years of independent journalism that upholds US ideals of democracy and freedom around the world."
Here's my full story. Lake said the "lean and focused" agency will now employ about 250 people. Over the weekend she reportedly sought to claw back millions from the grantees, like Radio Free Asia, that she tried to defund altogether back in March...
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What it means for VOA Persian |
We wrote last week about dozens of sidelined Farsi language speakers being called into work to resume some VOA broadcasts into Iran. On Friday, some of those Persian language service staffers received layoff notices... But then, according to Steve Herman, "more than a dozen VOA Farsi journalists who were emailed termination notices from Kari Lake on Friday have been ordered to return to work Monday." So what does all this mean for the Persian programming? Unclear...
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The Onion trolls Congress |
Andrew Kirell writes: NYT print edition readers may have noticed something especially striking yesterday morning: A full-page ad for The Onion featuring a spoof editorial mocking and deriding congressional "cowardice." The commentary was well-timed and well-placed as it sat directly opposite the back half of the A1 story on the US striking Iran the night before.
The Onion also published its editorial in a special print edition and physically mailed it to all 535 members of Congress. Some choice headlines: "Democratic Leaders Stand Real Still in Hopes No One Notices Them" and "Congress Passes Blank Bill for Trump to Write Whatever Law He Wants." The Handbasket's Marisa Kabas has the inside story on how it all came together.
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Today CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig is announcing his next book, which has a killer title, "When You Come at the King: Inside DOJ's Pursuit of the President, from Nixon to Trump." It comes out September 16 and is listed online for preorders now.
This is Honig's third book, all with HarperCollins, and it's based on interviews with 30+ direct participants in every major DOJ political case of the past 50 years.
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Wednesday: The Glastonbury Festival begins. Weekend headliners: The 1975, Olivia Rodrigo and Neil Young.
Thursday: The FCC holds an open commission meeting.
Friday: "Squid Game" returns to Netflix for its final season.
Sometime this week: Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's nuptials in Venice.
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