President Trump’s trip to the South and his critiques of the news media ramped up ahead of Tuesday’s special election to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions as the next senator from Alabama.
Trump fired off missives criticizing multiple reporters during the weekend, first taking aim at two CNN reporters who got a report wrong on what date he and top campaign aides were emailed by a supporter about Wikileaks and calling for them to be fired.
His son, Donald Trump, Jr., said he wasn’t going to hold his breath over any possible punishment to the reporters.
Trump spent Saturday night calling for a Washington Post reporter to be fired over a tweet he sent misrepresenting the size of the crowd at Trump’s Friday rally in Florida.
Trump also visited Jackson, Miss., to celebrate the Civil Rights Movement on Saturday.
The mayor of that town said his city’s progress away from the injustices of the previous century shows progress is possible anywhere.
The Rev. Al Sharpton wasn’t impressed with Trump’s speech, calling it inherently political and attempting to justify his support of Roy Moore.
Following the rally in Mississippi, Trump watched the Army-Navy football game and praised the teams following Army’s 14-13 victory.
He also spent time ripping Democrats for putting the nation’s national security in jeopardy by not doing enough to avoid a government shutdown, instead leaving it all to Republicans.
Trump’s media critiques weren’t finished on Saturday though. The next day, he criticized the media for not spending enough time talking about his accomplishments in office, such as the surging economy.
He later said the “Fake News Media” is a “stain” upon the country.
In between the tweets, Trump found time to fit in a round of golf with Sen. Lindsey Graham in Mar-a-Lago.
Former White House strategist and current Breitbart News chairman Steve Bannon will rally with Moore on the eve of the election Monday.
Trump also recorded a robocall for Moore in Alabama to help him get out the vote.
Moore’s opponent, Democrat Doug Jones, will be getting a boost from some top black lawmakers this week when they head to Alabama to campaign for him. Hollywood celebrities are also boosting Jones ahead of the election.
The senior senator from Alabama, Richard Shelby, said on CNN he didn’t vote for Moore but he still wrote in a Republican for the office and wouldn’t vote for Jones.
Shelby said Moore’s continued candidacy while Sen. Al Franken resigned from the upper chamber is not proof of a higher moral standard among Democrats than Republicans.
Trump’s support for Moore drove a wedge in his party as Rep. Barbara Comstock and Sen. Susan Collins both criticized the support he and the RNC have shown for Moore.
Meanwhile, Moore’s political strategist sought to assure voters he didn’t think there would be an ethics investigation into Moore should he go into office.
The only female member of Alabama’s congressional delegation Terri Sewell said Moore’s election would harken the state back to the days of segregation.
Moore made some headlines in an interview Sunday with an outright denial of the allegations against him, arguing he doesn’t know any of the women who’ve said he molested them.
And, in one last blow to his campaign before the final two days of the race, CNN’s K-File reported Moore said he would be in favor of getting rid of every amendment after the 10th Amendment, which include outlawing slavery and suffrage for all Americans.
Trump reportedly asked Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel to stop using her middle name as a slight to her uncle, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
A crate carrying a pink-haired portrait of Hillary Clinton shutdown a Miami art fair for a brief period Saturday.
In Middle East news, the president of the Palestinian Authority canceled a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence after Trump announced he would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Pence called the decision “unfortunate” but still plans to travel to the region for meetings with other area leaders.
Sen. Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Trump made the right call in recognizing Jerusalem but he did it in the wrong way.
American Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital would speed up the peace process in the Middle East.
Haley also said she’s not interested in becoming Trump’s secretary of state should Rex Tillerson ever leave the role.
In an interesting rebuke of her boss, Haley said all women who have gone public with sexual misconduct allegations deserve to be believed — even the ones who have accused Trump of sexual assault.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott said there doesn’t need to be an investigation into the women who have made sexual assault allegations against Trump.
California Gov. Jerry Brown said the fires tearing through his state would likely continue into the future due to climate change.
Brown said in an interview on 60 Minutes Trump doesn’t believe in global warming because he does not fear the “wrath of God.”
Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke called reports questioning the viability of his helicopter usage a “wild departure from reality.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was quoted in a story calling Trump’s early months in the presidency like a clueless person being asked to perform brain surgery.
California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff said people would have to ignore “rational sense” to believe Trump and his campaign didn’t collude with the Russians due to the chronology of events in the campaign.
Collins said she has written assurances from both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker Paul Ryan that the promises made to her will be in the final tax reform bill and she has no reason to doubt them.
Sen. Bernie Sanders defended the quick resignation of Franken as opposed to the drawn out process Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., is going through because they’re vastly different circumstances.
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin said Franken’s resignation was not a political machination in order to ensure Democrats would have the moral high ground when Moore takes office, should he win.
Democratic Rep. Jim Himes said House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes needs to drop the “distractions” if he wants to regain control of the committee’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Himes also criticized Donald Trump, Jr.’s interview in front of the committee while Republican Rep. Peter King said there was nothing that led him to believe collusion is real.
Tim Scott also teased a sweetener for local and state taxes that may be included in the final conference committee bill on tax reform.
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., called House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s screed against tax reform — calling it “Armageddon” — “almost unhinged.”
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders took a shot at President Obama’s crack that he’s responsible for the economy’s upswing and said it’s only Trump’s responsibility.
First lady Melania Trump put the attention of the White House back on the victims of a rash of hurricanes that hit the country earlier this fall.
