‘Wire tapping’ and 11 other words and phrases Trump has tweeted in quotes

“The President used the word ‘wiretaps’ in quotes to mean, broadly, surveillance and other activities,” Spicer said on Monday. Evidence of an Obama wiretap — using the narrow definition of a wiretap — hasn’t been found by the House or Senate intelligence committees.

It turns out that Trump uses quotes a lot in his tweets. Here are some other words and phrases that the President may have been using broadly on Twitter since his inauguration. And, of course, in every instance, it’s entirely possible that he was quoting someone else without it being immediately clear.

The word “play” actually has many different meanings. In this case, the President probably wasn’t using it to refer to “amorous flirtation.”

“Ran over”

Trump has advocated for friendlier relations with Russia, although he has said he would stand up to world leaders better than his predecessor.

“Witch hunt”

The President isn’t really into threading his tweets, so this came at the end of a four-part tweet about the integrity of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who admitted to meeting the Russian ambassador last year, but is also not a witch. Questioning by Democrats and others about those meetings, according to this tweet, was a figurative witch hunt, as opposed to the literal witch hunts of the colonial era.

“Rigged”

Even though he’s a Republican, Trump kept up on the election of the Democratic National Committee chairman. Tom Perez beat out Bernie Sanders-backed Rep. Keith Ellison, and the President pulled out one of his favorite words to express how he felt about it. He clearly meant that the election was stacked against Ellison, but according to the dictionary, could also have meant “to fit out with rigging.”

“Leakers”

Trump, like almost anyone in a position of power, is not a fan of leaked information. In this tweet, he quoted the colloquial term for someone who gives out (information) surreptitiously.

“Sources”

It is no secret that the President doesn’t have the best relationship with the news media. In this tweet, he seems to be dismissing the people — known as “sources” — who provide information to journalists for stories. See also: “leakers.”

“Intelligence”

Just to recap: Trump doesn’t like leaked information. He tweeted this during a period when intelligence leaks stirred up questions about officials from his campaign and their interactions with the Russians. What a sick burn, though — calling the intelligence of the intelligence community into question by putting the word “intelligence” in quotes. A lot of nuance in those quote marks.

“Evil”

In this case, it’s totally understandable for Trump to use quotes around the word “evil.” Evil can mean a lot of different things to different people. And, generally speaking, getting “evil” out of the country is probably something anyone could get on board with.

“Bad” and “dudes”

Like “evil,” “bad” is another word that means different things to everyone. And in talking about his initial travel ban, Trump left the definition wide open. As far as “dudes” goes, maybe Trump just doesn’t use the word frequently. Honestly, no one should really be using the word “dudes” seriously unless they are living in California or the year 1989.

“Carnage”

For all we know, the President was quoting his own Inauguration speech on this tweet. The most commonly used definition of carnage is “great and usually bloody slaughter or injury.” More than 700 people were murdered in Chicago last year, so whatever definition of carnage you go with, and however you feel about “(sending) in the Feds,” the President has at least identified a huge problem that needs fixing.

They want President to stick to leading the country

But there’s one tweet that several assembled Trump voters — who expressed varying degrees of enthusiasm for the President — could agree on.

According to many of his supporters, Trump was wrong about “Saturday Night Live” being unwatchable and Alec Baldwin’s impersonation not being good.

“He has no sense of humor,” one tweeted.

“Humor at its best,” another said.

“Alec Baldwin did a fabulous job!”

Trump has more than 27 million followers on his personal Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump. Another 16 million people follow his official presidential account, @POTUS.

To some, including Trump himself, Twitter offers a chance to bypass media that they see as biased or dishonest — and an opportunity for the country’s leader to engage with the masses in the moment.

“I feel it’s a great way to reach out to your constituents and create a give-and-take, because people obviously respond to his tweets, retweet the tweets,” said Ilene Wood of Emmaus, Pennsylvania. “In general, I’m in favor of it.”

Emma Leach, who became a die-hard fan of then-candidate Trump after attending a campaign rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, says Trump’s use of Twitter energizes younger people, such as herself.

A few years ago, Leach said, she could have asked a friend what Obama did in office that day, and she wouldn’t have known.

“But today she’ll know what Trump tweeted or what Trump did or what executive order happened,” Leach said. “She’s involved now.”

Of the Trump voters that CNN spoke with in eastern Pennsylvania, two months into Trump’s term, most didn’t mind that the President uses such an unorthodox method of communication.

“It’s like a modern-day constituent letter,” Leach said. “They’re tweeting at their president, they’re voicing their opinion, and they’re more politically involved.”

But the immediacy is a double-edged sword.

“In some situations, that’s an excellent thing because he’s able to get the word out very quickly and perhaps get reactions and responses back,” said Wood. “But at the same time, it creates a possibility of engaging your mouth before you’ve engaged your brain.”

Scott McCommons of Altoona, is a lifelong Democrat who crossed party lines to vote for Trump and follows Trump on Twitter.

“I think he rants and raves. He doesn’t think about it,” said McCommons, who said his opinion of Trump has changed for the worse, in large part because of his tweeting. “I think he can do a lot better things with his time.”

McCommons said he now regrets his vote, going so far as to tweet at Trump, “Your twitter rants are out of control – I voted for you to make America great again, run the country sir!”

It’s not Twitter, It’s the topic

It’s a common theme among these Trump supporters: they wish the President would stick to the theme of leading the country.

“He needs to tone it down and forget about Snoop Dogg, forget about Arnold Schwarzenegger. We don’t really care about them, do we?” said Ray Starner, who always wanted to see a businessman lead the country. Now, Starner said he would prefer to see Trump focus on jobs, health care and uniting the country.

Also taking a toll on Trump’s base? Baseless accusations.

Several supporters expressed disappointment at Trump for tweeting before he has all the facts, including his tweet, “How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during this sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!”

Mark Hanna is a former law enforcement officer who follows the news, but not all of Trump’s tweets. When he saw media reports about the wire tapping accusations, he said: “Even if he felt that way, I don’t think he should have tweeted it.”

Trump’s tweets offer some insight into the President’s thinking and the man himself, and his use of social media can even supplement mainstream media.

Checking Twitter became a regular part of McCommon’s day, he said. “It used to be my favorite thing to do in the morning because I wanted to see what he had to say. I wanted to see if it matched up with what I heard on TV, from the news media, from his press conferences, to see if he was being honest.”

While supporters might not trust everything the President tweets, they generally have faith in Trump himself.

It was just last Thanksgiving that Hanna heard of Twitter for the first time. By the evening’s end, his son had set up a Twitter account for him.

“My first tweet was to Donald Trump, at the dinner table. I said ‘Congratulations on winning the election, and I’m looking forward to you leading our country,'” Hanna said.

It’s a sentiment he still holds.

“The good far outweighs the bad to me,” Hanna said. “I’m thinking Trump 2020.”

Calls grow for Nunes to step aside in Russia probe

“The Chair of the House Intelligence has a serious responsibility to the Congress and to the country,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement to CNN Monday evening. “Chairman Nunes’ discredited behavior has tarnished that office. (House) Speaker (Paul) Ryan must insist that Chairman Nunes at least recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation immediately. That leadership is long overdue.”

Her request came a little more than an hour after Rep. Adam Schiff, the committee’s top Democrat, requested Nunes’ recusal.

“We’ve reached the point, after the events of this week, where it would be very difficult to maintain the credibility of the investigation if the chairman did not recuse himself from matters involving either the Trump campaign or the Trump transition team of which he was a member,” Schiff told CNN on Monday.

“The questions are profound enough that I think we need to move past it, and ideally that would mean the chairman ought to recuse himself, not only from the investigation involving potential coordination or collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, but also any oversight of minimization issues affecting the Trump transition since he was a member of that Trump transition team.”

Nunes, however, told CNN Tuesday morning he was “moving forward” with the investigation.

Pelosi and Schiff’s requests Monday followed a meeting of the Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, a panel typically seen as more above the political fray than other committees in the House. Two sources on the committee told CNN the panel has scrapped all meetings this week amid the partisan rancor.

Ryan still supports Nunes, spokeswoman AshLee Strong said Monday, and will not ask him to recuse himself.

“Speaker Ryan has full confidence that Chairman Nunes is conducting a thorough, fair, and credible investigation,” Strong said.

The request for recusal marks a critical split between Schiff and Nunes, who had worked closely on the House investigation into ties between top aides to the campaign of President Donald Trump and Russian officials.

It comes just hours after CNN reported that Nunes visited the White House grounds one day before going to the President with evidence that his transition aides’ communications were picked up in surveillance by US intelligence.

“This is not a recommendation I make lightly, as the chairman and I have worked together well for several years; and I take this step with the knowledge of the solemn responsibility we have on the Intelligence Committee to provide oversight on all intelligence matters, not just to conduct the investigation,” Schiff said Monday.

Nunes defended his handling of the investigation as well as his relationship to the White House during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Monday.

“The Congress has not been given this information, these documents, and that’s the problem,” Nunes said on CNN’s “The Situation Room,” explaining why he went to the White House. “This is Executive Branch.”

Rep. Joaquin Castro, in an interview Monday evening with CNN’s Erin Burnett on “OutFront,” echoed Schiff’s call.

“Actions taken by the chairman have compromised the investigation,” Castro said. “Chairman Nunes at this point should recuse himself from this investigation.”

He said Nunes, who was a member of Trump’s transition team, was too invested in Trump’s political agenda, and acting in a partisan way.

“I understand that for members of Congress, there is of course an inclination to help a President who’s of your party,” Castro said. “You simply can’t do that. … You have to be able to separate yourself from that.”

Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain — two frequent critics of the Trump administration and Russia — joined in criticism of Nunes Tuesday morning, though they stopped short of calling for the chairman to recuse himself.

Graham told NBC’s “Today” show that Nunes “has to repair the damage,” though he added that “the House is off track and probably can’t get back on track.”

“If he’s not willing to tell the Democrats and the Republicans on the committee who he met with and what he was told, he has lost his ability to lead,” Graham said, “and the Democrats on the committee are becoming prosecutors.”

And McCain said Nunes needs to provide more answers.

“I think there needs to be a lot of explaining to do. I’ve been around for quite a while and I’ve never heard of any such thing,” the Arizona Republican said on CBS’s “This Morning,” referring to Nunes’ White House visit. “Obviously, in a committee like an intelligence committee, you got to have bipartisanship otherwise the committee loses credibility. And so there’s so much out there that needs to be explained by the chairman.”

This story has been updated to include breaking news.

CNN’s Deirdre Walsh, Manu Raju, David Wright and Eugene Scott contributed to this report.

Trump reportedly won’t throw out 1st pitch

Tim DanielsFeatured ColumnistMarch 28, 2017

United States President Donald Trump declined an invitation from the Washington Nationals to throw the ceremonial first pitch before the team’s Opening Day game against the Miami Marlins next Monday.

Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post confirmed the news. CBS Sports MLB reported the decision was due to a scheduling conflict.

Earlier Tuesday, Anna Palmer, Jake Sherman and Daniel Lippman of Politico received confirmation from correspondent Luke Russert that Trump was “in talks” to take the mound and possibly spend an inning in the MASN announcing booth during the contest.

The tradition of American presidents throwing the first pitch dates back to William Howard Taft, who appeared at Griffith Stadium for the Washington Senators on Opening Day in 1910.

Various chief executives from both political parties have taken part in the act ever since, with perhaps the most famous instance coming from George W. Bush at the 2001 World Series in New York City following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

Trump has met some resistance within baseball following his inauguration in January, though.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post passed along comments Baltimore Orioles executive vice president John Angelos—the son of team owner Peter Angelos—made about the president and the first pitch during an appearance on the B-More Opinionated podcast:   

Ultimately that decision is with the ownership group as to what major politicians and political figures and societal figures they want to invite. I know that the administration has taken a lot of criticism for its controversial positions; I think more so perhaps for statements made both during the campaign and since the administration came in concerning things that are considered to be problematic from a race, ethnicity, religious, gender, disability [standpoint]. People in those communities have been spoken about very negatively by a candidate and now president.

You’re asking my personal opinion; I think it’s really incumbent upon any individual who leads the country to step away from those types of statements, to apologize for those statements and retract them. And then to turn the page, and then to move forward in embracing their community, all parts of that community. Until that happens, it wouldn’t be my preference to have the president come throw a pitch. But that’s up to the ownership as to what they would like to do there.

Both the White House and the Nationals organization declined to comment on the situation, according to ESPN.com.

In February, Trump also decided not to fill out a March Madness basketball bracket with ESPN.            

Trump strips climate change rules

The order represents a clear difference between how Trump and former President Barack Obama view the role the United States plays in combating climate change, and dramatically alters the government’s approach to rising sea levels and temperatures — two impacts of climate change.

Trump said during the signing that the order will “eliminate federal overreach” and “start a new era of production and job creation.”

“My action today is latest in steps to grow American jobs,” Trump added, saying his order is “ending the theft of prosperity.”

A White House official briefed on the plan said Monday the administration believes the government can both “serve the environment and increase energy independence at the same time” by urging the EPA for focus on what the administration believes is its core mission: Clean air and clean water.

More important than regulating climate change, the official said, is protecting American jobs.

“It is an issue that deserves attention,” the official said of climate change. “But I think the President has been very clear that he is not going to pursue climate change policies that put the US economy at risk. It is very simple.”

Tuesday’s order initiates a review of the Clean Power Plan, rescinds the moratorium on coal mining on US federal lands and urges federal agencies to “identify all regulations, all rules, all policies … that serve as obstacles and impediments to American energy independence,” the official said.

Specifically, the order rescinds at least six Obama-era executive orders aimed at curbing climate change and regulating carbon emissions, including Obama’s November 2013 executive order instructing the federal government to prepare for the impact of climate change and the September 2016 presidential memorandum that outlined the “growing threat to national security” that climate change poses.

“The previous administration devalued workers by their policies,” the official said. “We are saying we can do both. We can protect the environment and provide people with work.”

The White House official went on to argue that the best way to protect the environment is to have a strong economy, noting that countries like India and China do less to protect the environment.

“To the extent that the economy is strong and growing and you have prosperity, that is the best way to protect the environment,” the official said.

The executive order also represents the greatest fears climate change advocates had when Trump was elected in November 2016.

“These actions are an assault on American values and they endanger the health, safety and prosperity of every American,” Tom Steyer, the president of NexGen Climate, said in a statement. “Trump is deliberately destroying programs that create jobs and safeguards that protect our air and water, all for the sake of allowing corporate polluters to profit at our expense.”

Andrew Steer, CEO of the World Resources Institute, said that the executive order shows Trump is “failing a test of leadership to protect Americans’ health, the environment and economy.”

Some environmental advocates have already said they plan to take legal action against the Trump administration.

But as much as Democrats and climate advocates will decry it, Trump’s executive order follows the President’s past comments about climate change. Though Trump told The New York Times during the election that he has an “open mind” about confronting climate change, he also once called it a hoax.

“The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive,” Trump tweeted in November 2012.

“I will also cancel all wasteful climate change spending from Obama/Clinton,” Trump said in October 2016.
On Tuesday, ahead of the signing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer declined to say whether Trump still believes climate change is a hoax.

“He does not believe … that there is a binary choice between job creation, economic growth and caring about the environment,” Spicer said. “That’s what we should be focusing on.”

The changes, the official said, do not mean the Trump administration will not look to protect the environment any longer, the official said, but when pressed about the human impact on climate change and Trump’s beliefs, the official was reluctant to say whether all government officials in the Trump White House believe humans cause climate change.

“I think there are plenty of rules on the books already. We will continue to enforce that provide for clean air and clean water. And that is what we are going to do,” the official said. “The President has been very clear that he wants the EPA to stick to that basic core mission that Congress set out for it.”

The changes also reflect the view of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who routinely sued the organization he now leads during his time as the Attorney General of Oklahoma. In an interview with CNBC earlier this month, Pruitt argued incorrectly that carbon dioxide isn’t the “primary contributor” to climate change, a comment that goes against most scientific research.

This executive order is also an attempt by the Trump administration to make good on its promise to bring more coal jobs back. The official said that Obama’s regulations “were not helpful” to the coal industry and these reversals are the President honoring “a pledge he made to the coal industry.”

“We are going to put our coal miners back to work,” Trump said at a March 2017 event in Kentucky. “They have not been treated well, but they’re going to be treated well now.”

He added: “The miners are coming back.”

On Tuesday at the EPA, Trump welcomed a group of miners that attended the signing and said the order was “putting an end to the war on coal.”

It is unclear whether Trump’s order will actually bring back coal jobs, in part, because of market forces like the rise of clean energy that are already putting pressure on the coal industry.

Robert Murray, the CEO of Murray Energy, told CNN in January that coal employment “can’t be brought back to where it was before the election of Barack Obama” because of market pressure.

This story has been updated.

CNN’s Jeremy Diamond contributed to this report.

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