| Supreme Court lawyer and former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal argues that President Donald Trump must be impeached in his new book Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump. The Senate trial started today. The book is available now. |
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|  | MEDIA WINNER:
Bill Hemmer
Filling the spot left open by the departure of longtime anchor Shepard Smith was a potential minefield operation for Fox News. They had to satisfy the audience and show up the critics at the same time.
Judging by the ratings, their selection of new 3pm anchor Bill Hemmer was the right move. His new show debuted with a bang on Monday: 1.8 million total viewers and 269,000 in the advertiser coveted 25-54 demographic. That means Bill Hemmer Reports — the show launched to replace Shep Smith’s hour — not only beat out his time slot rivals on CNN and MSNBC, but also every show in CNN’s primetime lineup.
By comparison, for that 3 p.m. time slot, MSNBC drew 1.01 million viewers, and CNN brought up the rear again with only 867,000.
Hemmer's debut included interviews with both Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale and Bloomberg campaign manager Kevin Sheekey. And even outro music by Notorious B.I.G.
It's fitting, really. That slot was notorious for Smith's counter-programming, often at odds with the opinion shows, and was also a ratings force. It's a big space to fill. There are months of growing into the spot left to do, but day one turned out pretty good for Bill Hemmer. 6.5.0 |
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 | MEDIA LOSER:
Meghan McCain
Talk show co-host and political commentator Meghan McCain is no fan of the New York Times.
Just last week, she battled the paper over an editorial that labeled her the problem for the show, identifying her conservative bent as an issue (while not labeling her co-hosts liberal.)
As Green Room readers know, the New York Times had their own debacle over the weekend, when they offered a fence-straddling endorsement of two candidates from the Democratic primary, resulting in no small amount of blowback. And on that topic, McCain took the paper to task herself on Tuesday.
“Well, I was laughing my ass off when I read this,” McCain said of the endorsement. She went on to trash the paper as "cowardly" and even went so far as to call it a "garbage publication."
Co-hosts Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin quickly took McCain to task over the commentary, of course.
Considering the Times is one of the most important newspapers still in operation, with a newsroom - distinct from the editorial board - that routinely breaks big stories, it's no wonder McCain's co-hosts, and other journalists on social media, found the over-the-top bashing to be ... well, garbage. 6.5.0 |
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Impeachment
The United States Senate on Tuesday, under the gavel of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts, began the impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump.
At the time of this newsletter, proceedings are still underway.
Rep. Adam Schiff
Schiff's opening argument was the essential presentation of the Democratic point of view, presenting not just the rationale for bringing the case, but criticism of the GOP and Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell in particular over the rules and procedures. And he rebuked the Senate as a whole to take seriously the responsibility of impartiality upon each of them.
Rep. Schiff is one of the House impeachment managers, of course, and later in the day had a chance to respond after Trump attorneys offered their own opening arguments. In his response, Schiff called out White House counsel Pat Cipollone for his repeated assertion that the proceedings in the House were not open to Republicans.
“Now, I’m not going to suggest to you that Mr. Cipollone would deliberately make a false statement. I will leave it to Mr. Cipollone to make those allegations against others,” Schiff said. “But I will tell you this. He’s mistaken. He’s mistaken."
"Every Republican on the three investigative committees was allowed to participate in the depositions. An more than that, they got the same time we did," said Schiff.
The Lawyers
Both Cipollone and Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow blasted the House impeachment process in their opening remarks.
“It’s a partisan impeachment that they’ve delivered to your doorstep in an election year. Some of you are upset because you should be in Iowa right now. But instead, we’re here, and they’re not ready to go, and it’s outrageous, it’s outrageous," said Cipollone.
"They’re not here to steal one election, they’re here to steal two elections," he said in the heated remarks.
Well This is Something
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos says his phone was hacked after opening a message from Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.
In fact, analysis, reported by The Guardian, found it “highly probable” the billionaire's phone hacking was "triggered by an infected video file sent from the account of the Saudi heir."
Um. Wow.
Nobody Likes You, Everybody Hates You!
A new interview and documentary saw Hillary Clinton taking a pretty personal shot at Sen. Bernie Sanders this week, saying, among many other things, that "nobody likes him." It's amazing.
And Sanders responded.
Also Clinton said this, which was probably not the smoothest move in the world.
MEDIAITE INTERVIEWS STUART VARNEY
Fox Business Channel host Stuart Varney celebrated 10 years of his show Varney & Co. on Monday, a milestone for the British host (now an American citizen) who started his cable news career with the debut of CNN in 1980.
Mediaite's Aidan McLaughlin spoke with Varney about the milestone, about President Trump, about the economy, and a lot more in an entertaining interview well worth your time. Dig in here. |
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| A Universe of Lies
ABC's Jimmy Kimmel ran a visualization on Monday night that was rather ... illuminating.
The late night host used the date compiled by the Washington Post over the last three years on the total number of lies told by President Trump.
The result?
"More lies than there are visible stars in the night sky," said Kimmel, in a rather impressive visualization.
Watch and be astounded here...
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