The Morning Briefing: McCabe Spins on "60 Mins," Race Hoax, and Much, Much More

Good Monday morning.

Here is what’s on the president’s agenda today:

The president delivers remarks to the Venezuelan-American community in Miami, Florida

“Andy’s Office” McCabe makes 60 Minutes debut

When are the jackboots and stormtroopers going to bust into this lying dirtbag’s house in the dead of night to arrest him? He’s accused of lying to the feds, just like Roger Stone and Paul Manafort. Andrew McCabe, whom you might remember from Strzok/Page text message fame for hosting some sort of meeting to scheme up an insurance policy against Trump winning the presidency, went on 60 Minutes last night to pimp out his new book. Remember as you read about the interview or watch the interview that McCabe was fired for lying to the FBI.

McCabe said in the interview that one reason the FBI opened an investigation on Trump and his possible compromise by the RUSSIANS was that Trump asked Comey to drop the Flynn investigation. “Can you give him a break?” Trump asked. 60 Minutes wants you to know that Flynn “pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with the RUSSIANS,” but the agents who interviewed Flynn didn’t think he lied. 60 Minutes leaves that part out. The FBI knew what Flynn had said in his calls with the RUSSIANS (the RUSSIANS being Sergey Kislyak, the then-RUSSIAN ambassador to the U.S.) because all the RUSSIAN diplomats are surveilled. Flynn knew that because he was the former director of national intelligence. So why would they interview Flynn, who didn’t know he was being formally interviewed and did not have a lawyer, about the call? Because they wanted to set up the opportunity to “get” Flynn. McCabe knows that Flynn didn’t lie — he has access to the 302 forms recording the interview and the agents who conducted the interview. McCabe’s either a stupid idiot to believe that Trump’s remarks to Comey about going easy on Flynn indicates that Trump was trying to hide some allegiance to the RUSSIANS or he just wanted some pretense to get rid of Trump. Come on, man.

You can watch the whole McCabe interview here.

Democrats aren’t done wasting your money on the Russia investigation

Ex-FBI official: ‘Crime may have been committed’ by Trump

Former acting FBI director: Rosenstein ‘offered to wear a wire into the White House’

Why would Trump believe the FBI at all? They brought the pee-pee dossier to Trump? Did President Trump say: “I believe Putin” over U.S. intelligence?

Schiff: Evidence of collusion between Trump campaign, Russia ‘pretty compelling’

McCabe says he was fired because he ‘opened a case against’ Trump

Looks like we have another hoax

Two brothers questioned by the Chicago police in connection with the hate crime assault of Empire star Jussie Smollett are cooperating and claim that Mr. Smollett paid them to beat him up a la hate crime-style.

A source close to the investigation confirms to CBS News the brothers told detectives Smollett paid them to participate in the alleged attack on January 29 and that they purchased the rope — which was found around Smollett’s neck — at a nearby hardware store. The source said detectives have evidence to corroborate the sale, something the men’s attorney alluded to Friday night.

So I guess we should prepare for a bunch of apologies from all the people who joined in to condemn the anonymous racist, homophobic MAGA thugs who beat up Smollett, yeah? Yeah?!? Not yet.

Others have yet to retract their original statements or delete their original tweets, including California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris and New Jersey Democratic Sen. Corey Booker. Both are running for the Democratic nomination for president.

Booker was asked about the recent developments in the case and would only say he is waiting for more information before he makes any further statements about the matter.

Oh, he is waiting for more info?!!? Isn’t that what we are all told to do when there is an incident that looks like the responsible party may be in one of the protected groups? We are supposed to wait and not “pre-judge”? You know what I am talking about: “Not all X are terrorists?” Remember how in the Pulse night club shooting, the Feds initially released a sanitized and edited 911 call transcript? “We’re not going to propagate violent rhetoric that comes from other people whether they be here or overseas and to do that would only inflame other people here that might be like-minded,” FBI agent Ronald Hopper said. “There’s no purpose in doing that.”

Of course, in this instance, the caution came from the feds and not the media, but you know the media does this too — like in the Ferguson case. No one wanted to wait before blaming the white police officer and absolving the black victim. How many people know that “hands up, don’t shoot” never happened? Why don’t we all just wait until more information comes out in every case instead of using every case to score political points?

Rest in peace, Pat Caddell

I had the opportunity to work with Pat on several projects. I absolutely adored him. He was a sharp and insightful analyst. Rest in peace, my friend.

Build the wall/emergency declaration roundup

Trump’s allies get set for fierce fight over emergency declaration

California Attorney General Says He Going to Sue Trump over National Emergency

Coons says Trump’s emergency declaration sets “terrible precedent”

Hurd says 1,000 Texas farmers could have land seized to build Trump’s border wall

True. Rush Limbaugh: Spending bill was effort by some Republicans to sabotage Trump

Historical picture of the day: