Quote of the Day:
“If I reported something even a quarter as explosive as that on air before having it printed on our website, I think the segment would be abruptly ended by @samstein @JFKucinich @NoahSchactman barging onto the[MSNCB] set before commercial break to collectively strangle me to death.”
— Asawin Suebsaeng, reporter, The Daily Beast. He was referring to Vanity Fair‘s Gabe Sherman appearance on MSNBC’s “All In With Chris Hayes” in which he raised the issue that Rupert Murdoch‘s ex, Wendi Deng, could be a Chinese spy. The alleged news was actually first reported by the WSJ in 2018.
A brawl at Trump’s D.C. Hotel has been virtually erased
NOTE TO READERS: Kassam is now telling The Daily Caller that this was a “joke” that never happened. “It is entirely false,” he wrote in an email to The Daily Caller. “It was an inside joke being played out over Twitter.” I reached out to Kassam for further comment on this “joke.” He wrote The Mirror, “The fact that my inside jokes with my friends attract news items is of great amusement to me. I might start doing more of this.”
Nonetheless, the below tweets appeared on Twitter Tuesday night.
Tuesday night: “Trump hotel tonight: @RaheemKassam just punched some creep out in the lobby after he was inappropriately touching girls at the bar. Like FULLY laid them out.” — Sarah Selip, D.C. publicist.
Kassam, global editor-in-chief, HumanEvents, remarked, “True story.”
By Wednesday morning: all tweets had been deleted.
Speaking of Ash Wednesday…
“A conservative activist you all know just texted me this morning asking: “Jack, am I allowed to get ashes while I am stoned off my tits? I am listening to Simply Red and smoking a bong” I said yes #AshWednesday.” — Jack Posobiec, One America News Network.
David Corn spots obscene graffiti about AOC in bathroom stall
“I just spotted obscene anti- @AOC graffiti in a bathroom stall in the Phoenix airport. Yes, really. (Not going to post a photo of it.).” — David Corn, Washington Bureau Chief, Mother Jones. (RELATED: David Corn Congratulates Himself For Not Appearing With Milo Yiannopoulis)
Journo blames his ‘asshole’ cat for his phone charger not working
“At this point in my phone’s terminal illness a charger needs to be inserted at a very particular angle to work. It takes 15 minutes to get right sometimes. One of these asshole cats just delicately reached out a paw and gently moved the charger a millimeter out of place. Rudest.” — Richard Lawson, chief film critic, Vanity Fair. Clearly, Lawson needs to be added to my list of men in journalism with cats.
Trumpland: Trump Turnberry Resort’s Scotland golf course receives top award
“@TrumpTurnberry has just been named the ‘Best Golf Resort in Europe in 2019’! Thank you, @LeadingCourses for awarding our two amazing golf courses, astonishing hotel and top notch facilities.” — Trump Golf, an actual blue-checked Twitter account for the “most globally recognized brand in luxury golf.”
Atlantic writer writes about Bolton’s rep as a ‘dick in Washington’
John Bolton is Trump’s third National Security Adviser.
Bolton’s “appointment was delayed for two reasons, both anatomical. First was the issue of his mustache, a droopy soup-strainer that made Trump initially pass Bolton over because he did not think, according to Steve Bannon in Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury, that ‘he looks the part.'”
A Bolton acquaintance tells national correspondent and Yale lecturer Graeme Wood that Bolton could have moved up faster “if he had just been less of a dick.”
The writer continues, “It’s difficult to exaggerate how hard it is to earn a reputation as a dick in Washington. It’s like being known as a real nerd by fellow scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or as the resident prude by sisters at a nunnery.”
Read the whole piece here.
Daily Mail reporter forgets to pack socks
“It was on hour 12 of this 14 hour FLOTUS pool duty day I realized I forgot to pack socks #poolproblems.” — Emily Goodin, reporter, Daily Mail.
Melania Trump urges press to cover real news
“First Lady Melania Trump jabs at media in remarks on opioid epidemic in Las Vegas: ‘I’d also like to take a moment to challenge the media to cover this very real issue as often as possible…by dedicating the same amount of coverage that you do to idle gossip or trivial stories.'” — Jordyn Phelps, White House reporter, ABC News.
CBS’s Gayle King gets props for R. Kelly interview
“This is wild. @GayleKing is again teaching a master’s class in interviewing. She remains so calm and focused while @rkelly loses it.” — Yamiche Alcindor, White House correspondent, PBSNewsHour. He pleads for his “fucking life.”
Bloomberg reporter is relieved his boss isn’t running for prez
“Staffers at @Bloomberg are breathing a BIG sigh of relief now that the company’s owner has decided not to run in 2020. One journalist put it this way: ‘Nobody was looking forward to having to figure out how to cover the campaign, and politics in general, with Mike as a candidate.'” — Brian Stelter, CNN.
Journo allegedly had weird neighbor who may have had sex with cat
“When I was little my cousins and I had a weird neighbor on our street that we heard had sex with her cat. We didn’t know what sex was, but we were a hundred percent sure it happened.” — Pardes Seleh, writes for Mediaite, previously worked for Fox News.
Gossip Roundup
Are things going as well for ex-President Trump aide Steve Bannon as he thinks they are? These Politico Brussels writers think not. They write all about his”stuttering European adventure.” Here.
Trump’s old nickname for Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, is pretty raw. Here.
Billionaire WaPo Publisher Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez are back in the news. See what secret act they did lately. Here.
Adult film star Stormy Daniels is trying her hand at standup comedy. Um??!! Here.
Opinion: The weirdest part of Jane Mayer‘s Fox News profile involves ex-FNCer Kimberly Guilfoyle. Here.
Reading List
Text me when you get home — a woman’s mantra. Here