#WHCInsider

Behind the scenes of one of the most powerful clubs in America.

White House Lawyer Overheard Discussing Russia Probe at Restaurant in DC

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Photo courtesy Wikipedia.

Ty Cobb, a top attorney on President Donald Trump’s legal defense team, was overheard by reporters at a prominent Washington, DC steakhouse discussing White House strategy dealing with special prosecutor Robert Mueller in his investigation into Russian influence.

Cobb was brought in to oversee the White House’s legal and media response into the Russia probe last July, and was talking openly at BLT Steak with Washington lawyer John Dowd, who has experience in high-profile political cases.  Cobb and Dowd were sitting next to New York Times reporter Ken Vogel, who could clearly hear the conversation.

“The friction escalated in recent days after Mr. Cobb was overheard by a reporter for The New York Times discussing the dispute during a lunchtime conversation at a popular Washington steakhouse. Mr. Cobb was heard talking about a White House lawyer he deemed ‘a McGahn spy’ and saying Mr. McGahn had ‘a couple documents locked in a safe’ that he seemed to suggest he wanted access to,” reported the New York Times.

White House chief of staff John F. Kelly “erupted” and reprimanded Cobb for his indiscretion of discussing sensitive matters loudly in public, according to several people contacted by the New York Times following the incident.

“If you’re sitting, talking with someone at dinner, you need to be careful,” said Rep. Chris Collins, when asked on CNN about public officials audibly discussing official business in a public venue.

Hope Hicks Named White House Communications Director

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James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. Photo courtesy White House.

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that longtime aide Hope Hicks will become the official White House communications director.

Currently the White House director of strategic communications, Hicks has been serving as interim communications director after the firing of Anthony Scaramucci in August.

Hicks has worked for Trump even before his campaign for president, starting as public relations and model for Ivanka Trump’s fashion label.  As Trump started his campaign for president, Hicks joined as campaign press secretary.

There has been significant turnover in the White House press team, with the first communications director, Mike Dubke, leaving last May, followed by Scaramucci serving 10 days in that role. Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer also resigned in July.

Every Former Living U.S. President Launch Joint Campaign for Hurricane Relief Effort

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Photo by Eric Draper, courtesy the White House.

All five living former presidents – Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama – have joined together to launch a campaign urging support for those impacted by Hurricane Harvey.

As stated on the website for the appeal, “Every storm is unique, but a look at Hurricane Harvey’s unprecedented intensity helps explain why the One America Appeal came to life.”

A special account was established to collect donations through the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation, with the goal “to ensure that 100 cents out of every dollar goes to assist hurricane victims.”  The funds collected will go to the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund, focusing on the greater Houston region, along with the Rebuild Texas Fund.

With the onset of Hurricane Irma to reach the Florida coast this weekend, the appeal likely will expand to these victims as well.

You can learn more about the One America Appeal by clicking here.

Breitbart Says Trump’s Afghanistan Speech Was “Disappointment” to His Supporters

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Photo courtesy of Pixabay / Geralt.

On Monday evening, President Donald Trump addressed the nation on live television regarding the country’s mission in Afghanistan.  During the speech, Trump announced he will not pull out U.S. troops and that he is committed to a new strategy to win the longest war in the nation’s history.

The conservative online portal Breitbart News responded by attacking the president’s strategy, saying the approach was a “disappointment” to many of Trump’s supporters.

A piece published after the president’s broadcast stated that “President Trump unveiled his plan for Afghanistan after seven months of deliberation Monday evening, announcing tweaks around the edges of the current strategy instead of a different approach.”

The author went on to say that “the speech was a disappointment to many who had supported his calls during the campaign to end expensive foreign intervention and nation-building.”

On the campaign trail, Trump had frequently criticized military intervention and “nation-building,” and on Monday he acknowledged that his “original instinct was to pull out.”

The Breitbart article commented that “he acknowledged the frustration that Americans felt after 16 years of war without an end in sight.”

The piece follows former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s return to the helm at Breitbart, following his dismissal last week.  On leaving, Bannon said he would “go to war” for the president and his agenda.

In an interview with Bloomberg following his dismissal, Bannon stated “if there’s any confusion out there, let me clear it up: I’m leaving the White House and going to war for Trump against his opponents – on Capitol Hill, in the media and in corporate America.”

Trumps Will Skip Kennedy Center Honors

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Photo courtesy Wikimedia.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will not attend this year’s annual Kennedy Center Honors in December.

According to a White House statement, “The President and First Lady have decided not to participate in this year’s activities to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction.”

Several honorees had said they would boycott the White House reception.  Both dancer Carmen de Lavallade and television producer Norman Lear had announced they would not attend that portion of the celebration.

“In light of the socially decisive and morally caustic narrative that our existing leadership is choosing to engage in, and in keeping with the principles that I and so many others have fought for, I will be declining the invitation to attend the reception at the White House,” de Lavallade said last week, prior to the White House announcement.

In a joint statement, Kennedy Center Chairman David M. Rubenstein and President Deborah F. Rutter said the center “respects the decision made today by the office of the President of the United States.  In choosing not to participate in this year’s Honors activities, the Administration has graciously signaled its respect for the Kennedy Center and ensures the Honors gala remains a deservingly special moment for the Honorees.  We are grateful for this gesture.”

This will be the fourth time a sitting president is not in attendance at the Honors, following Presidents Jimmy Carter in 1979, George H.W. Bush in 1989 and Bill Clinton in 1994.  All three former presidents had attended the annual celebration other years while in office.

Steve Bannon Returns to Breitbart

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Steve Bannon speaking at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. Photo courtesy Wikimedia.

President Donald Trump has been shuffling senior staff at a brisk pace of late, including firing of chief strategist Steve Bannon on Friday.  Following his dismissal, Bannon announced he would be turning to the right-wing online blog he ran since the death of founder Andrew Breitbart in 2012.

“The populist-nationalist movement got a lot stronger today,” said Breitbart editor-in-chief Alex Marlow.  “Breitbart gained an executive chairman with his finger on the pulse of the Trump agenda.”

Only hours after being dismissed by the president, Bannon was already leading an editorial meeting for the online venue.  “We have a duty to the country to be the vanguard of ‘The Movement,’” he reminded staff, according to one person on the call.

Since returning to Breitbart News, the portal has already published stories critical of many current Trump staffers, including criticizing “New York Democrat globalists” in the administration such as first daughter Ivanka Trump, senior advisor Jared Kushner and chief economic advisor Gary Cohn as well as “hawks” like national security advisor H.R. McMaster and his deputy, Dina Powell.

In an interview with the Weekly Standard following his dismissal, Bannon seemed to lay down the line for the next phase of his relationship with the White House.

“The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over,” Bannon said.  “We still have a huge movement, and we will make something of this Trump presidency.  But that presidency is over.  It’ll be something else.  And there’ll be all kinds of fights, and there’ll be good days and bad days.  But that presidency is over.”

Meanwhile, the “War Room” strategy of Bannon’s White House seems to be on pause, with most promises such as countering the rise of China, trade and immigration still unfulfilled.  According to an administration official, Bannon’s white boards he used to map out political strategies were now in storage.

Presidential Aide Hope Hicks Takes On Expanded Communications Role in White House

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James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. Photo courtesy White House.

White House director of strategic communications Hope Hicks is stepping into an expanded role with new responsibilities as the administration searches for its third communications director since January.

Hicks will take on the duties normally assigned to the communications director on an unofficial and temporarily basis.  She will also work with White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on finding a permanent replacement for the communications director role in the administration.

She is one of President Donald Trump’s most trusted aides, having served as press secretary of his presidential campaign in 2015.  Hicks also has close ties to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser.

The communications director role has been vacant since Anthony Scaramucci was fired by newly-appointed White House chief of staff John Kelly only 10 days after joining the administration.  Prior to that, Mike Dubke served in that role for 88 days, with a friend saying he was frustrated with the disorganization within the executive branch.

Trump Tweets, Deletes Cartoon of Train Driving Into CNN Reporter

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Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

President Donald Trump retweeted a cartoon image Tuesday morning showing a train running into a person appearing to represent the cable news network CNN. He soon after deleted his post.

The meme carried the headline: “Fake news can’t stop the Trump train” and pictured a train with Trump’s name on both the front and side hitting a person with a CNN logo covering his face.

Over the weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, a man attending the “Unite the Right” rally supporting neo-Nazis and white supremacists drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters demonstrating peacefully. One woman named Heather Heyer was killed and nearly 20 others injured.

Huckabee Sanders: Televised White House Briefings to Remain ‘For Now’

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Photo courtesy Pixabay.

Last week, new White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders gave tepid support to returning to the tradition that White House press briefings would likely remain on-camera, potentially defusing an issue of contention with the press corps.

“Yeah, I think for now,” she said in an interview with The New York Times. “We’ll see what happens.”

Sanders was promoted to press secretary after her predecessor, Sean Spicer, resigned following the announcement that Anthony Scaramucci would be appointed White House communications director. Less than two weeks later, Scaramucci was fired by incoming chief of staff John Kelly.

She also recently took over the White House press secretary’s Twitter handle from Spicer, which has been handed down to staffers in that role since the Obama administration.

NPR’s Geoff Bennett Moves to White House Beat

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Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

National Public Radio has added a fourth reporter to its White House beat.  Geoff Bennett will be transferring down Pennsylvania Avenue, leaving his current role as a congressional reporter for the network since March.

Senior NPR Washington editor Beth Donovan said that “[j]ust a few months into his return to NPR, Geoff has demonstrated the substantive reach, solid sourcing, and fluidity in stories and two ways demanded daily on the beat.  And, as those of us lucky enough to work alongside Geoff know, he’s done it with the grace and good humor we so need.”

Before returning to NPR on the congressional beat, Bennett had worked as Washington correspondent for NY1 News.  Prior to that, he served as editor of NPR’s Weekend Edition.

NPR’s White House team also includes national political correspondent Mara Liasson and correspondents Scott Horsley and Tamara Keith.