The news came in bursts of 140 characters or less this weekend as President Trump’s tweets — mainly focused around his ongoing feud with the media — dominated headlines.
Trump started off his Saturday morning questioning why some states are refusing to comply in full with his voter fraud commission’s request for data. The commission has asked for different types of data from the voters rolls in all 50 states and about half of them have refused to comply in full.
From there, it was an all-out blitz against the media.
First, Trump brought his feud with Morning Joe co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski to its third day by slamming the show again in a tweet.
Trump then expressed his relief that CNN “has finally been exposed” as “garbage journalism.”
At an event for veterans in Washington, D.C. Saturday night, Trump made waves by taking some time to slam the “fake media” for trying to “convince” Republicans and other allies to get him to stop tweeting. He also reprised his old catchphrase from The Apprentice to tout a bill that would make it easier for the Department of Veterans Affairs to tell bad employees “you’re fired.”
Trump added on Sunday the “dishonest media” would not keep him from accomplishing his goals while in office and tweeted a video of the rally that took place Saturday night.
Trump would tweet a video on Sunday of himself clotheslining WWE owner Vince McMahon with CNN’s logo superimposed over McMahon’s head.
That last tweet raised the ire of Democrats, including a California contingent in Congress, who claimed Trump was inciting his supporters to violence against reporters.
The Committee to Protect Journalists even felt the need to weigh in with a statement that condemned Trump for the video he tweeted.
Famous journalists weighed in on the war of words as well.
Legendary journalist Carl Bernstein said reporters needed to come up with a different way of reporting to confront Trump’s “malignant” presidency.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper said feuding with journalists does nothing for the troops or the United States, and then spent much of the weekend retweeting photos of service members.
Fox News host Sean Hannity chimed in to note his displeasure with the whole feud between Trump and Morning Joe. Hannity, who has traded barbs with Scarborough on a number of occasions, said he’s close to going “there” on the MSNBC hosts.
A Morning Joe producer also made sure to tell Trump that, despite his statements, the show’s ratings are better than ever.
Republican lawmakers also had some thoughts about Trump’s Twitter habit.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who’s working on getting some centrist changes to the Senate healthcare bill done, said Trump’s tweets are distracting Washington from the job at hand.
Sen. Ben Sasse added it appeared Trump is trying to “weaponize distrust” with his tweets critiquing the media.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich added Trump’s coarseness is not helping lawmakers get their jobs done and move closer to a deal on vital legislation such as healthcare.
Trump also gave new life to an amendment proposed by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, when he suggested repealing Obamacare without a replacement now and then forming a replacement system later. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seems to be sticking to repeal and replace.
In policy circles, healthcare was the top issue on this holiday weekend.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price is becoming well-acquainted with the Sunday show circuit, appearing this weekend to hit out at the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis that 22 million fewer Americans would no longer have health insurance by 2026 when compared to current law. He said those projections are significantly off.
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin said Democrats don’t plan on jumping in to help Republicans sort out their healthcare impasse unless repealing the Affordable Care Act is taken off the table.
Kasich slammed the bill on the table now as “anemic” and claimed it would “starve” Medicaid while forcing governors into difficult decisions.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee took time to raise the idea of going back to a plan the GOP had in December 2015: Repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act in full and go step-by-step to replace the system over time.
The White House also touted Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly’s plan to increase airport security around the world with new standards that will be unrolled over time. Tom Bossert, a White House homeland security adviser, called this the best opportunity for improvement in airport security since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The White House was forced to beat back a report Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are at odds after a story reported the two are “walled off” from one another.
Pence also got some back up from the American people in a poll that showed most people agree with his policy of not being in a place where alcohol is served without his wife and his refusal to meet alone with women without someone else present. Many Americans agreed with him, according to a Morning Consult poll.
President Obama popped back up in the news this weekend, particularly after he claimed Trump’s decision to withdrawal from the Paris Agreement meant there is a “temporary absence” of leadership from the United States on the world stage.
Obama is also behind a reworking of the Democratic Party, but he wants to try and keep his involvement out of the news, according to a report.
In foreign affairs, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov predicted a dire future for NATO, saying the alliance is “doomed to fail.” According to experts, Russia’s foreign policy is centered around destroying NATO.
The Russians also raised some eyebrows by conducting war games with China, but a top Russian diplomat mocked the United States and other countries for being worried about the exercise.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller added an investigator who used to work for U.S. attorney Preet Bhara to his team looking into whether the Trump team colluded with the Russian government during the election. Trump fired Bhara from his position after asking him to stay on earlier this year.
Gov. Chris Christie ruffled some New Jersey feathers by spending the weekend at his island beach house on a state park that Christie ordered shut down due to budgetary constraints. He said people who had a problem with it could run for governor to use the residence.
And in a fitting way to end this wrap-up, Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate who earned a sliver of votes but millions of dollars in donations during the election, claimed she had a “critical role” in the 2016 election. Many Democrats blame Stein for taking votes away from Hillary Clinton and handing the presidency to Trump.
