The Morning Briefing: Mysterious Trump Jr. Calls Revealed and Much, Much More

Good Friday morning.

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

The President meets to discuss fighting human trafficking on the southern border
President Trump has lunch with the Secretary of State
The President and Mrs. Trump depart Washington, D.C., en route to Palm Beach, FL

Mysterious Trump Jr. calls revealed. Schiff narrative go BOOM.

Part of the crazy RUSSIA collusion conspiracy theory that Democrats like Rep. Adam Schiff peddled to partnered media outlets is that Donald Trump Jr. briefed his father on the phone before and after the infamous Trump Tower-RUSSIANS meeting during the 2016 presidential campaign. Everyone has maintained that the President did not know about the meetings, but Schiff has been snorting and quacking on cable news that there were calls to a blocked number(s) and those numbers were the President! BOOM. POW. GOTCHA. TREASON. Quack.

Not today, Satan, not today. That narrative has melted away now.

The Senate Intelligence Committee obtained phone records showing Donald Trump Jr. did not speak with his father from a blocked telephone number in the days before the infamous Trump Tower meeting in June 2016.

The finding, first reported by CNN, undercuts Democrats’ theory Trump Jr. might have told his father in those phone calls about the Trump Tower meeting, which was held June 9, 2016, with a group of Russians who had offered dirt on Hillary Clinton.

Democrats led by California Rep. Adam Schiff long theorized the phone calls were between father and son and that they could have discussed the meeting.

“We wanted to get the phone records to determine, was Donald Trump talking to his son about this meeting,” Schiff told CNN in November 2018.

“It’s an obvious investigative step, but one the Republicans were unwilling to take because they were afraid of where the evidence might lead.”

Oh yeah, really afraid. The blocked phone numbers were from Trump Jr. business associates not Trump Sr.

Just to remind you, the meeting in the Trump Tower in June 2016 was ~~a set up~~ between Trump Jr., Manafort and son-in-law Kushner from the Trump squad and salacious and unverified dossier patron Fusion GPS clients Natalia Veselnitskaya and RUSSIAN lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin. So, totally an organic meeting and in no way a set up from anti-Trump hired gun Fusion GPS.

US to withdraw from RUSSIA treaty

With all of the hype about RUSSIA-collusion coming from the irrelevant Never Trumpers and Democrats, when will we see the fruits of this purported unholy relationship? Remember, crazy people are saying that Putin has dirt on Trump, Putin owns Trump, Putin controls Trump but, in practice, I’m not seeing how these claims can be true. When is RUSSIA going to get the big payoff for “owning” Trump and giving him the election? Well, it won’t be with this latest news that “the U.S. will withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia on Friday, CNN reports.”

Two US officials and multiple diplomatic sources familiar with the matter told CNN Thursday that Pompeo would pull out of the arms treaty that the Trump administration accuse Moscow of violating since 2014.

The European Union has also accused Russia of violating the treaty.

This reported move from Pompeo follows him saying on December 4 that the U.S. would leave the INF in 60 days if Russia continued to violate it.

President Trump signaled earlier in the fall that he would pursue withdrawal.

It doesn’t look like the RUSSIANS are controlling Trump to me.

!NOTACRISIS! at the border

Customs and Border Protection agents announced yesterday they made the largest fentanyl bust in US history.

Officers at the Port of Nogales in Arizona arrested Juan Antonio Torres-Barraza and charged him with two counts of possession with intent to distribute for allegedly attempting to enter the U.S. with a combined 650 pounds of methamphetamine and fentanyl, worth nearly $4.6 million dollars.

Nearly 254 pounds of fentanyl was seized, with a value of around $3.5 million.

“I want to express my gratitude to the CBP officers involved in this case and Nogales personnel who selflessly perform their duties with dedication, vigilance, and professional even during a funding hiatus,” said Nogales Area Port Director Michael Humphries. “Opioids pose a real danger to our local communities and are having fatal consequences across our nation. This past weekend, our CBP officers were able to stop an enormous amount of these deadly narcotics from hitting our streets.”

#Resistance media outlet ABC News wants you to know that this massive drug bust contradicts President Trump because the drug bust was made a point of entry rather then across the wall-less border. “They don’t come in through the portals, they come in between the portals where you have no barrier,” Trump said, referring to the drug trade in early January. The Port of Nogales is considered a “portal.”

I’m sure malefactors are only bringing drugs, and sex-trafficked humans through ports of entry. Of course.

Picture of the day:

Ice and water flows over the brink of the Horseshoe Falls in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada Thursday, Jan. 31, 2019. (Tara Walton/The Canadian Press via AP)

Other morsels:

Trump claims intel chiefs said they were ‘totally misquoted’ in reports saying they contradicted him

I think this story is going to disappear soon. Assault reported by ‘Empire’ actor condemned by family as ‘hate crime’

AWFUL. Rep. Ilhan Omar targets Israel again, compares Jewish state to US South during segregation

Over 20 dead in U.S. polar vortex, frostbite amputations feared

Cory Booker Preparing To Run For President: Report

Feds lack digital proof alleged NSA hoarder opened classified docs

Twitter removes thousands of fake accounts tied to Russia, Iran, Venezeula

Yes, people care about this. House Democrats Announce Public Hearings Focused on ‘Presidential Tax Returns’

ICE set up a fake university. Hundreds enrolled, not realizing it was a sting operation.

9-9-9 Herman Cain on “fairly large list” of potential nominees for Federal Reserve Board

Sheldon Adelson donates $500G to defense fund for targets of Mueller probe: report