WTF Just Happened Today

Thursday, June 13, 2019

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1/ Trump admitted that he'd "want to hear" from foreign governments with damaging information about his political opponents. Trump claimed "there isn't anything wrong with listening" to a foreign government if they contacted him and said "we have information on your opponent." Trump also rejected the notion that accepting damaging information from a foreign government would constitute election interference, saying "It's not an interference, they have information – I think I'd take it." FBI Director Christopher Wray during congressional testimony last month told lawmakers that "the FBI would want to know about" any foreign election meddling. Trump, however, said he might alert the FBI "if I thought there was something wrong," but then said "The FBI director is wrong, because frankly it doesn't happen like that in life." (ABC News / Associated Press / NBC News / New York Times / Bloomberg)

• Putin: Relations between Moscow and Washington "are going downhill, they are getting worse and worse." (Reuters)

2/ Nancy Pelosi: "Everybody in the country should be totally appalled" by Trump's comments and that he "gave us evidence once again he does not know right from wrong." Pelosi added that Trump is giving Russia "the green light" to again interfere in the presidential election. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, meanwhile, called Trump's remarks "disgraceful" and "shocking," saying that "it's as if the president had learned absolutely nothing in the past two years" from Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. (Washington Post / Associated Press / ABC News / CNBC / CNN / Wall Street Journal)

• More than a dozen 2020 Democratic presidential candidates rebuked Trump after he admitted he would consider taking information on his political opponents from a foreign government. Many renewed calls for impeachment while also voicing new concerns about the security of American elections. (Washington Post)

3/ Trump tried to defend and recast his comments about accepting information about his rivals from foreign governments, tweeting that he talks to foreign leaders every day and asking: "Should I immediately call the FBI about these calls and meetings? How ridiculous!" Trump then argued that his comments were take...

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