CNN's Andrew McCabe skates; Michael Avenatti does NOT. Trump and Bloomberg yell at each other and a Harvard prof warns of a global epidemic

THE DAILY NEWSLETTER - FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2020

Media Winners & Losers

MEDIA WINNER:
Andrew McCabe

Last night, CNN's Jeffrey Toobin was adamant that his colleague Andrew McCabe’s future was now “perilous” given the DOJ's subservience to President Donald Trump's vendettas.

“The president obviously wants Andy McCabe prosecuted and it’s just grotesque,” Toobin said.

The DOJ must have heard Toobin's prayers, because less than 24 hours later, it announced it was dropping the investigation of McCabe. The decision comes after a two-year legal battle had accused McCabe of lying to investigators.

In a statement, McCabe’s counsel declared, “At long last, justice has been done in this matter. We said at the outset of the criminal investigation, almost two years ago, that if the facts and the law determined the result, no charges would be brought.”

The decision from the Justice Department comes at a time of intense scrutiny for Barr's shop, following the shocking announcement that Roger Stone’s proposed sentence would be shortened.

But while Stone is getting some relief from the DOJ, he's not off the hook.

MEDIA LOSER:
Dennis Prager

Dennis Prager, the conservative pundit who runs the highly influential media company PragerU (not a university) has been in the spotlight this week.

Granted, he's always in the spotlight in a particular part of the internet, one in which videos on PragerU have racked up billions of views. But he's been receiving some mainstream scrutiny this week, thanks to a blistering segment from Samantha Bee, who dug into his "weird views" and the influence of PragerU for her TBS show Full Frontal.

Now, a pointed attack from a partisan comedian isn't anything to render Dennis Prager loser of the day. He earned today's honor thanks to comments he made complaining that he's not allowed to use the N-word on his radio show.

"The left has made it impossible to say the N-word any longer,” Prager complained. “That’s disgusting, it’s a farce. It’s the only word that you can’t say in the English language.”

As Bulwark contributor Tim Miller put it: "I soured on the anti-pc movement when I realized that pretty much all roads end up leading to a lament about not being able to say the n word."

The A-Block

Avenatti 2020..?

It felt like just yesterday that Michael Avenatti, the brash lawyer of Stormy Daniels, was the belle of the media ball. He was a loud and omnipresent thorn in Trump's side, swigging martinis at industry parties and issuing soaring predictions on cable news sets. He said in 2018 that Donald Trump Jr. would be arrested by the end of the year. (He was not.)

Avenatti even announced a potential run for president.

Safe to say Avenatti will not be celebrating a presidential victory in 2020. That's because he was convicted Friday of trying to extort.

A jury found him guilty on all counts he was charged with, including extortion and wire fraud. He faces more than 25 years in prison.

AYYYY I'm walking here!!!

Imagine two septuagenarian New Yorkers hanging out of the windows of their apartments across the street screaming at each other.

That's basically what the 2020 political race has devolved into this week, as Billionaire New Yorker 1 (President Donald Trump) continues his war of words with Billionaire New Yorker 2 (Mike Bloomberg).

Just yesterday, Trump tweeted, amongst other petty-isms, that "Mini Mike Bloomberg is a LOSER."

Bloomberg replied by claiming that their mutual friends in NYC all laugh at Trump behind his back.

On Friday, the Bloomberg campaign showed no desire to relent, releasing a video mocking Trump's comments that coronavirus will go away in the spring because of the heat.

Watch that here.

Speaking of coronavirus...

One professor is freaking out. Marc Lipsitch, of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, gave an ominous forecast to the Wall Street Journal on Friday.

“I think it is likely we’ll see a global pandemic,” Lipsitch said in an interview. “If a pandemic happens, 40% to 70% of people world-wide are likely to be infected in the coming year.”

Must-See Clip of the Day

Fred Guttenberg remembers Jaime

A truly heart-wrenching interview capped off today's episode of Morning Joe on MSNBC.

It's Valentine's Day, which is a somber occasion for Fred Guttenberg, who lost his 14-year-old daughter Jaime two years ago in the Parkland school shooting.

Guttenberg has since dedicated his life to curbing gun violence, and appeared for an interview with Mika Brzezinski in which they both came close to tears.

“Today is a day that many people are going to celebrate love. My advice to everybody today is don’t make today a special day about celebrating love,” he said. “Do it every chance you get, tell those who you love how much you love them, look them in the eye as if it could be the very last time, and then promise me you’re going to show up at the polls and vote for Jaime and all the other victims of gun violence.”

Watch the moment here.

Links We Like

Google might just do the unthinkable: pay for news!
- via The Wall Street Journal
Kimberly Ross defines "NeverTrump"
- via ArcDigital
Condé bosses say Radhika Jones isn't going anywhere
- via The Daily Beast
Why is Chris Evans in this photo with Ted Cruz?
- via The Mary Sue

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