And july ended up being quite busy. I swear they saved this up for when i went on vacation in part of july. In july they lost the deputy chief of staff of the National Security who was a breitbart person named tara doll, then the White House Press secretary sean spicer. Assistant White House Press secretary, michael short, then reince priebus, white house chief of staff, and then they lost White House Communications director number two, anthony scaramucci. And then we rolled into the lazy days of august and in washington nothing happens in august, but in this one, august meant it was time to fire or accept the resignation of the senior director for intelligence of the National Security council as wattnick nobody was sure why he was there in the first place, but he was gone as of august. But in the same day, white house chief strategist steve bannon and a special assistant to the president named julia hahn, and a director of public liaison, the director of the Public Liaison Office at the white house. He was also out. And then the special adviser on regulatory reform, carl icon, he was out that same day. He appears to have Law Enforcement follow him home from that job. Then a week later, sebastian gorka. All gone. I mean, this is just like the people who have knowable titles. Right . All gone. This administration isnt that old. This doesnt show a revolving door. This is like somebody turning the carousel motor up to a hundred miles an hour and people just fling off the thing with force into the night. Right . Of course, thats not counting the nonotice firings of dozens of federal prosecutors and the firing of the acting attorney general and firing of the fbi director. This is all just white house. Last night the New York Times broke the news that on the day Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel to investigate the russia matter, President Trump reportedly lost his mind at the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, because sessions had recused himself from anything related to russia. Quote, when the phone call informing him about the Mueller Appointment ended, White House Counsel Don Mcgahn relayed the news to the president and his aides. Almost immediately mr. Trump lobbied a volley of insults at mr. Sessions. Telling him the attorney general it was his fault they were in the current situation. He did resign. He wrote a Resignation Letter to the president but the president would not september not accept it. Quote, trump ended up rejecting sessions Resignation Letter after senior members of his administration dismissing the ag would create more problems for a president who already fired an fbi director and National Security advisor. So his senior advisers told him that accepting mr. Sessions resignation would only sew more chaos inside the administration. Really . The idea this administration didnt want to let anybody go would attract too much attention. They were afraid of shedding anyone as of may . They took drastic steps even against the president s wishes to stop losing key and high profile staff as of may because that would be too much chaos . Really . They stopped letting people go how does that square with their actual behavior . It doesnt make sense that senior white house advisors wouldnt let the president fire anyone too high profile as of may because in reality as of may they were just Getting Started with the flinging off the people from the carousel into the good night and now it has continued into the fall. The times further reports that President Trump asked again if he could please fire Jeff Sessions in july. And again, the answer was reportedly no. No, that would be too disruptive. Too disruptive to fire somebody in july . Why . Because Jeff Sessions might clog up the outdoor they were using to fire these other people and there might be a pileup . He was going to block the fire exit . Honestly, that explanation for why the president couldnt fire Jeff Sessions when he wanted to honestly makes no sense given the number of people fired from this white house. This situation with the president and the attorney general supposedly having this standoff, it will end weirdly, i can assure you, but something about the way that conflict between the president and the attorney general, something about the way that palace intrigue is being described, is off. When you put it in context against the way the white house was otherwise behaving at the time these supposed conflicts really came to a head. Regardless of Jeff Sessions, today there is one new name to add to the list of people being flung off the carousel in washington. Today we got the resignation of the press secretary to the Vice President. A man named mark lotter. Mike pences press secretary gone as of today. Mike pence lost his chief of staff back in june. Lost his press secretary today. And for all the turmoil in this white house and all of the scandals about various people and quitting and disappearances of these senior staff, Vice President mike pence has been caught out in way more of these scandals than his bland Beltway Press coverage would have you believe. Going back to the first dramatic departure from this white house, going all the way back to mike flynn, right . Mike pence was the head of the transition. This is a letter that he received as head of the transition notifying him in writing about concerns soon to be National Security advisor mike flynn appeared to be on the payroll of foreign governments. In addition to this notification in congress, mike flynns lawyers said they, too, notified the transition in person telling them that flynn was on the payroll of foreign governments. Vice president mike pence was running the transition when all those warnings about mike flynn came in. He nevertheless claims he never heard, no idea. As head of the transition, no idea nobody could have any idea that mike flynn could have been on the payroll of foreign governments. Thats plainly not true. Vice president mike pence also solemnly intoned to the American People, there is no way mike flynn had discussions about russian sanctions during the transition. Despite the fact he said it very solemnly, that was also not true. Vice president mike pence also insisted that there were no contacts at all between the Trump Campaign and russian officials during the campaign. That of course, was not true, either. Vice president mike pence insisted that james comey was fired as fbi director because of age internal process at the department of justice. Had nothing at all to do with the white houses needs or desires, certainly nothing to do about the president s feelings about the russia investigation. Although, thats what mike pence told the American People about the firing of james comey. We now know President Trump gave pence a letter that outlined his rational for wanting to fire james comey the day before the department of justice ever produced their rationale for why the Justice Department might want him fired too. So, mike pences comey firing explanation was not only not true, we can tell based on the timeline that he knew it was not true at the time he said it. But wait, there is more. This week, mike flynns son, mike flynn junior was described by nbc news as being a subject of the investigation by Robert Mueller and the special counsels office. Mike pence has a good run about mike flynn junior, as well. Controversy emerged during the campaign and also during the transition about toxic conspiracy theories that had circulated during the campaign. And controversy around mike flynn junior continuing to depend some of the most odious conspiracy theories from the Campaign Even after a disturbed young man showed up at a d. C. Pizza parlor and started shooting. Mike jr. Was fired from the trump transition. Again mike pence was head of the transition. His explanation for what happened is mike flynn junior wasnt really being fired because he was never actually part of it. That was not true. Mike flynn jr. Was part of the transition. We have evidence for this until in the form that mike flynn jr. Had been happily emailing conspiracy theories to reporters from his official trump transition email address for quite some time before mike pence tried to get away with lying about that too. Mike pence has a real problem in the russia investigation and in some of these white house scandals. Again and again and again mike pence made untrue Public Statements about some of the most controversial elements of the administration and russia scandal specifically. Now, Vice President pence having already lost his chief of staff today he lost his press secretary, Vice President pence has himself hired a highpowered washington d. C. Lawyer to represent him on the trump russia scandal. After the Vice President took the unprecedented step of setting up his own Political Action committee, something no Vice President has done at this point in a new administration ever, after he set up that pact, pac, team pence initially floated the idea that this pac might be used as a fundraising vehicle to raise money to pay for mike pences legal fees in the russia scandal. After they got pushing press inquiries, the Vice President backed off the plans and say the pac wont be used to fund his Legal Defense. We dont know how the Vice President is planning to pay for his legal representation on the russia matter, but hes not a man of trumplevel means. Its figure to be a real issue for him and his family. Its gotta be on their minds. In july, the head of the office of government ethics, walter schaub, left that job in frustration. You probably remember, it was a very high profile resignation. As he left, he warned that one of the things we should watch for at the Government Ethics Office now that he was leaving, he said watch for who the Trump Administration would appoint as his successor. Walter schaub warned us that the administration might try to pass over the most senior person who would have been in line for the job. He said that person is highly qualified and would do an excellent job with the Ethics Office and said it should send red flags for everybody if they bypass that senior person. If they bypass that senior official who is next in line to be the acting director and instead, he warned us watch to see if they instead want to pick this one other particular guy that works at the office. The Trump Administration did that and walter warned should be expected to have a more pliable attitude on ethics towards this white house. That is the guy in charge of the Ethics Office now and hes revised the rules around Legal Defense funds for administration personnel. Under the new interpretation of ethics rules, mike pence and any other white house staffer that needs to fund their Legal Defense will be able to accept unlimited anonymous donations from lobbyists to defray any legal bills that arise out of these white house scandals. Oh, good. What could possibly go wrong . If theres one thing i want lobbyists to be able to anonymously fund, its the Legal Defense for white house officials facing the russia inquiry. Tonight the administration announced that they do not want this to be seen as a change in policy. Im sure they dont. But the outgoing director at the Ethics Office has been banging the drum over this for the last couple of days since they made this change, warning that it really is a turn for the worse. Today for the second time, we learned of a witness being called to testify before one of what we believe are the two grand juries convened by special counsel Robert Mueller. First person to have testified to the grand jury is ren at ahmed shin, soviet born naturalized u. S. Citizen part of the trump tower meeting last june during the campaign. He is known to have ties to Russian Military intelligence. The first person we know who spoken to the mueller grand jury. The second person we now know who has spoken to the mueller grand jury was today. Jason maloney, the spokesperson for Trump Campaign chair Paul Manafort. Its a little bit weird to think about a spokesperson being called to testify before a grand jury, but presumably that reasoning will all become clear in the end. Paul manafort has a real bulls eye on him in terms of what is happening in congress and in terms of the mueller part of it. The top democrat in the Senate Diane Feinstein was asked by reporters why there is such a delay in getting Paul Manafort to come in and give testimony to the Committee Weeks and weeks and weeks after it had been announced he had been asked to come in. She responded by attributing the delay in part to the committees own need to up its game when it comes to investigating complex financial matters. Diane feinstein announced her committee has just hired two new investigative financial staffers to, quote, trace the money. Now that those investigative financial staffers are in place, senator feinstein suggested that that interview with Trump Campaign chairman Paul Manafort might go ahead. What that means for potential liability or money trails, we dont know. Paul manafort is long gone from trump world. He resigned from the Trump Campaign more than a year ago now, but even since theyve been in the white house, we are starting to realize that in trump world, the way this works, theres going to be a lot of people left behind. There are going to be a lot of people involved in lots of interesting things who are long gone by the time we realize what they know and what they might have been up to before they left. When it comes to a scandal, the fact somebody resigned or had been fired is not enough to get their smell off you. The very first guy they shed from the new administration didnt make it four weeks in, mike flynn is still ricochetting around this white house, breaking stuff. For example, in this damning and intriguing new report thats just come out from buzzfeed news. Thats next. Relief. Flonase outperforms the 1 nondrowsy allergy pill. When we breathe in allergens, our bodies react by overproducing 6 key inflammatory substances that cause our symptoms. Flonase helps block 6. Most allergy pills only block one and 6 is greater than 1. With more complete relief you can enjoy every beautiful moment to the fullest. Flonase. 6 is greater than 1 changes everything. When you think of saving money, what comes to mind . Your next getaway . Connecting with family and friends . A big night out . Or maybe your everyday shopping. Whatever it is, aarp member advantages can help save you time and money along the way. So when you get there, you can enjoy it all the more. For less. Surround yourself with savings at aarpadvantages. Com [fbi agent] youre a brave man, your testimony will save lives. Mr. Stevens . This is your new name. This is your new house. And a perfectly inconspicuous suv. You must become invisible. [hero] ill take my chances. Reporters have just published this new report at buzzfeed news. And what theyre reporting in the first instance is a new addition to the exceedingly long list of secret meetings with foreign officials that the Trump Campaign and the trump transition didnt disclose until after that meeting ended up in the press. Buzzfeed today reporting on a previously secret meeting held in january in new york, that involved mike flynn, steve bannon, Jared Kushner, and the king of jordan. Now there is nothing inherently scandalous about the king of jordan. There is nothing inherently scandalous about the members of the president ial Transition Team meeting any foreign leaders. It happens all the time. It is unusual they didnt disclose it. Jared kushner initially left the meeting off his security clearance application and mike flynn left it off his security application. Steve bannon, we dont know about his security application yet, but trust me, were working on it. Beyond the secrecy about this, the fact it has not been disclosed until now, here is another really acute problem about what buzzfeed has just reported. Democrats on the House Oversight and Foreign Affairs committee reported on wednesday morning this week that another thing mike flynn failed to initially disclose was that he was a p