Happy Thursday. A Bloomberg reporter posted that he found an LBJ inauguration matchbook on K Street, and I have SO many questions. Here’s the photo to prove it. Anyway, this has been a bizarre week in news, so let’s get the ball rolling, shall we?: - Stormy Daniels is back on the stand in former President Trump’s hush money trial. Trump’s lawyer has been cross-examining her.
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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) attempt to oust Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) markedly failed. One of her colleagues thinks she went “off the deep end.”
- Peacock has picked up a new iteration of “The Office.” But to be clear, it’s not a reboot or a spinoff.
I’m Cate Martel with a quick recap of the morning and what’s coming up. Send tips, commentary, feedback and cookie recipes to cmartel@digital-staging.thehill.com. Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Sign up here. |
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This testimony is making me feel uncomfy: |
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Adult film star Stormy Daniels is back on the stand today, testifying in former President Trump’s hush money trial. Trump’s lawyer has been cross-examining her, and it’s been … interesting to say the least. Check out these back-and-forth excerpts below: 🗨️Today’s live blog from the courtroom |
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➤ SOME EXCERPTS FROM STORMY DANIELS’S CROSS-EXAMINATION: |
MSNBC’s Katie Phang posted several exchanges between Daniels and Trump attorney Susan Necheles.
On Daniels’s line of work: “NECHELES: ‘You have a lot of experience making phony stories about sex.’
DANIELS: ‘Wow. That’s not how I would put it. The sex in the films is very much real, just like what happened to me in that room [with Trump].’” (Full X post) Another excerpt: “NECHELES: You memorize these fictional stories and repeating them?
DANIELS: The scripts, not the sex. ‘Pretty sure we all know how to do that.’ NECHELES: And now there is a story you are telling about President Trump?
DANIELS: ‘If that story was untrue, I would’ve written it to be a lot better.’ ‘I didn’t have to write this one.’
DANIELS: ‘I didn’t make millions of dollars, and I didn’t write this story.’” (Full X post)
Lol. Oh.: “DANIELS: If someone can make fun of me, I can make fun of them. NECHELES: ‘What did you mean when you said orange turd’? DANIELS: ‘Oh I absolutely meant Mr. Trump’” (Full X post)
Read more excerpts between Necheles and Daniels |
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The Hill’s Zach Schonfeld and Ella Lee held an “ask me anything” on Reddit yesterday, answering reader questions about the trial. Check it out |
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Welp, she gave it the old college try:
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The House resoundingly voted “no” on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) attempt to boot Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) from the leadership role.
The vote: The House voted 359-43-7 to dismiss her motion to vacate. More than three-quarters of House Democrats voted to keep Johnson in power, and only 11 conservative Republicans voted to take the gavel away.
📽️Watch Greene get booed on the House floor
Keep in mind: This outcome was expected.
Read more: ‘GOP, Dems show rare unity in killing Greene motion’
A GOP rep. thinks Greene went ‘off the deep end’: Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) told reporters on Wednesday that he thinks “Moscow Marjorie has clearly gone off the deep end, maybe the result of a space laser.”
Greene’s reaction: “All the scary bad things they all told you would happen if I called the motion to vacate didn’t happen,” she posted on X. Read her full post |
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➤ ARE THINGS AWKWARD WITH JOHNSON NOW?:
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For what it’s worth, Johnson says he doesn’t hold grudges.
Johnson told with “Fox and Friends”: “I don’t hold grudges. I’ve got to work with everybody. I told her last night before she left the floor, let’s move on, Marjorie.” |
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Ted Cruz the rabble-rouser? NAAAHHHH:
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is known in Washington for being a conservative agitator, ruffling feathers and causing headaches and hold-ups for colleagues who do not agree with him on a given policy. Well, Cruz has become *the* negotiator in the battle to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). And The Hill’s Al Weaver reports that his colleagues find it very funny.
How Cruz ended up in this spot: “Cruz, the top Republican on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, has been tasked with completing the deal on the FAA that would reauthorize the program for five years. So after more than a decade of giving leadership headaches and accruing seniority, he’s been put in what has been unfamiliar territory by negotiating what lawmakers have described as a complex package.”
So good: “Multiple senators told The Hill that Cruz has been on the receiving end of numerous jokes from colleagues during weekly Senate GOP luncheons each of the past two weeks. Most members have given him high marks for his work on the FAA, but can’t help themselves as Cruz tries to keep the bill on track to pass ahead of Friday’s midnight deadline and keep unrelated amendments out of a final bill.” 😂
Lol: “Cruz told The Hill that during Wednesday’s lunch, one moderate member ‘was having great joy giving me grief’ at the ongoing battle to keep the FAA push on the rails as lawmakers. ‘I just laughed and said, ‘I’m not even going to fight back,’’ Cruz said in a brief interview.” This is one of my favorite reads this week: ‘GOP senators amused as Ted Cruz seeks to move bill: “The foot’s on the other hand”’ |
➤ WHERE THE FAA BILL STANDS:
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Senators have until midnight Friday to reauthorize the FAA. The House passed a one-week extension and left town. Senators are vying to include their amendments and unrelated priorities, which has slowed down the process.
Virginia Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Democrats, have said they will hold up the one-week extension unless there’s a vote to their amendment to eliminate adding five new round-trip flights to Reagan Washington National Airport. |
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Welcome to politics, Barron. You’re going to hate it here.: |
Former President Trump’s youngest son, Barron Trump, will serve as a Florida delegate for this year’s Republican National Convention. Barron Trump is 18 years old, and this will mark his first foray into politics. (The Hill) |
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🍷 Celebrate: Today is National Moscato Day! 📺 It’s not a spinoff or a reboot, but it’s ‘The Office?’: Variety reports that Peacock has picked up a new iteration of “The Office.” This show will take place at a dying Midwestern newspaper.
👑 Yer a duke, Harry: Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, attended the Invictus Games Foundation’s 10th anniversary celebration at St. Paul’s Cathedral on Wednesday. Two of the late Princess Diana’s siblings attended, but King Charles III and Prince William didn’t attend. HuffPost reports that Harry and Charles will *not* be meeting during this trip.
🐶 Well, I can tell you the answer is NOT Kristi Noem’s dog, Cricket: Bloomberg’s Justin Sink posted a photo of a Jeopardy question about the Bidens’ dog who “has gained notoriety.” |
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The House is out. The Senate is in. President Biden and Vice President Harris are in Washington. (all times Eastern) |
- This morning: The Hill’s Cancer Summit. The conversations were fascinating. 💻 Watch
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1 p.m.: The Senate holds a cloture vote. 📆Today’s agenda
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4:15 p.m.: Biden, Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff welcome the Las Vegas Aces to the White House to celebrate their victory in the 2023 WNBA Finals. 💻 Livestream
- 5:10 p.m.: Biden leaves for San Francisco.
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9 p.m.: NewsNation is airing a special edition of “Dan Abrams Live” on the “Crisis on the Border.”
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