Jennifer Rubin/WaPo:
Multiple former national security experts conjectured that the hang-up specifically was Trump’s deputy national security adviser, KT McFarland, a TV commentator who has not served in government since the Reagan era. Few foreign policy professionals consider her qualified for the job. An experienced former foreign policy official tells me: “Harward insisted on a very reasonable condition, which was naming his own deputy. Now the administration has an even deeper problem: either the next candidate will make the same demand, or he or she will appear to be weak and overly ambitious by accepting conditions Harward turned down.” The official suggested: “The way out of this is to give KT McFarland a nice, sunny embassy — fast.”…
As CNN’s Jake Tapper tweeted, “A friend of Harward’s says he was reluctant to take NSA job [because] the WH seems so chaotic; says Harward called the offer a ‘s––– sandwich.’ ”
Sooner rather than later, we hope that for the country’s sake, Jared Kushner or
Ivanka Trump (or someone else Trump will listen to) will lay it out bluntly: He can have Bannon running roughshod over the administration, or he can be a successful president; he cannot have both.
Pew:
Overall, 39% say they approve of how Trump is handling his job as president, while 56% say they disapprove and 6% do not offer a view. Job ratings for Trump are more negative than for other recent presidents at similar points in their first terms.
By margins of more than two-to-one, larger shares of the public approved than disapproved of the early performance of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. For example, in February 2001 – just a few months after Bush defeated Al Gore, despite narrowly losing the popular vote – 53% approved of how he was handling his job, compared with just 21% who said they disapproved.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/02/after-flynn-will-republicans-finally-stand-up-to-trump.html?mid=twitter_nymag/NY Magazine:
How long will Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and their peers continue to slow-walk or kill any investigations into this morass? Will it take an international crisis involving Russia, Iran, North Korea, ISIS, or who knows who else, as America’s enemies seize their opening to capitalize on the chaos in Washington? Given the GOP leaders’ collaboration with Trump over the past year, we already know they care about party more than country. But circumstances beyond America’s borders may soon force them either to take action or go down with Trump’s ship.
Meanwhile, it looks like Trump is structuring his official press appearances to filter out the toughest questions. Can members of the press oppose this strategy effectively?
Timothy Egan/NY Times:
You just came out of a yearlong coma, and you’re trying to catch up. The unimaginable is real. The Cubs won the World Series. California has been drenched with so much rain that its biggest dam may fail. And in the first month of a new presidency, the leader of the free world has:
Told a stunning and easily disproved lie on his first full day in power. He then sent his spokesman out to repeat that lie, and said the press would “pay a big price” for refusing to do the same. The pattern of taxpayer-financed mendacity continued nearly every day under the new regime, with lies about everything from the murder rate to the weather.
Threatened to “defund” the most populous state in the nation he governs, California, the world’s sixth- largest economy, which contributes more than $350 billion in annual tax money to the federal government. “California is, in many ways, out of control,” he said.
Insisted, with no evidence, that three to five million people had voted illegally — which, if true, would constitute a huge crime, and one of the biggest election scandals ever. When pressed, a top counselor coined a term that came to define the
new administration: “alternative facts.”
The Fix/WaPo has a welcome respite from only interviewing core Trump voters:
‘What the hell is he doing on Twitter and watching cable TV all the time?': Eight independents talk Trump
Across the interviews, independents shared a concern that Trump acts too quickly or erratically. Several also said that even if they did not agree with him, Trump was attempting to fulfill what he promised during the campaign.
(Note: The interviews are qualitative in nature and not statistically representative of all independents as a scientific survey, but they provide a more granular look at the real people behind those commonly cited statistics.)
Here's a closer look at how each of them viewed Trump.
Politico:
Jen Psaki's advice to Spicer and Conway: Stop lying
“It is highly unlikely that press secretary Sean Spicer and presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway loaded their boss up with Red Bull Thursday morning and advised him to become unhinged during the press conference,” she wrote.
Psaki wrote Spicer and Conway need to stop lying and check their facts before telling them to the American people.
Rene Najira/Medium:
To My Most Conservative Friend
Look, I get it. Your formative years happened at a time when things were a little bit different in this country. When you were growing up, gays were not allowed in the military, and they certainly were not allowed to get married. (Or, if they did find a church to marry them, that marriage meant nothing in the eyes of the law.) You also grew up going hunting with dad and pop-pop, and they taught you a love of guns rivaled only by your love of God.
Huffington Post:
HUFFPOLLSTER: Minorities And The Non-College Educated Are Underrepresented At The Ballot Box
A new study delves into the demographic disparities in who votes — and who doesn’t.
Lucia Graves/Guardian:
Not so business-savvy: the CEO in the White House is bad at hiring people
More than anything else this year, polling has shown Americans wanted a “strong leader”. But with the White House staff reportedly in “survival mode” and death watches out for a whole host of leadership figures within the Trump campaign, from Reince Priebus to Sean Spicer and Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s already shown himself to be anything but.