Rick Aspan

Communications pro, sports fanatic (without enough championships to show for it), and (some say) overall good guy.

[Isaac Saul @Ike_Saul]

I haven't seen anyone tracking all of the alleged (or open) Trump corruption, self-dealing, and quid pro quos in one place. For the last 15 months, I've been tracking every single tip+story I can find and organizing it. Today, I published a 6,000 word piece with every example.

[Sarah Longwell @SarahLongwell25]

To be fair, Trump has always been more of a musicals guy….

[Rick Aspan @rickaspan]

@ratlpolicy @KenGardner11 But “the people” don’t support this war. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Rick Aspan @rickaspan]

@JeffAgrest Any new developments regarding CHSN availability on YouTube TV?

[Paul Rieckhoff🇺🇸🇺🇦 @PaulRieckhoff]

Just think about this.

If you posted that, would you still have a job tomorrow?

If someone who worked with you posted that, would they still have a job tomorrow?

Never normalize this. Never accept it. Never excuse it.

Trump shouldn’t have a job tomorrow because of this alone.

Our children are watching.

There’s no excusing this (and so many other things) from the President of the United States.

And every politician—from either or no party— that hasn’t called for him to be impeachment already is a coward.

And history will judge you as a coward.

The can’t be ignored. And silence is complicity.

[David Folkenflik @davidfolkenflik]

Last night, Bezos' Amazon CEO joined Trumps at WH to watch Prime documentary on Melania (for which she was paid lion's share of $40m licensing fee).

Today, WaPo foreign staffers sent Bezos a joint plea to sustain international bureaus and coverage amid rumblings of deep cuts.

[Rick Aspan @rickaspan]

The first three didn’t work out so ya gotta try a new approach. 🤷

[Mark Potash @MarkPotash]

Steelers' last four coaching hires:

Chuck Noll — 37 years old
Bill Cowher — 35
Mike Tomlin — 35
Mike McCarthy — 62

[Rick Aspan @rickaspan]

@LeighGiangreco Springfield coverage. Viewers are impacted heavily by state legislature and governor office yet it’s mostly ignored in local news coverage these days.

[Rick Aspan @rickaspan]

No…Congress is responsible. Both parties own it. Stop promoting this party warfare.

[Ken Gardner @KenGardner11]

Absolutely positively Democrats are responsible for the shutdown. They are the ones who are refusing to vote for funds to keep it open.

Don't overthink it. This isn't about which side you are rooting for or whether you think the shutdown is good or bad.

[Rick Aspan @rickaspan]

@KenGardner11 Stop with the “hate the media” stuff. It contributes to—not helps with—the problems we face.

[Rick Aspan @rickaspan]

@SalVetriDFS 50

[Gene Sperling @genebsperling]

For anyone who spends even a split second taking even 1% of the Administration’s explanation for firing the BLS commissioner seriously, read the words of Bill Beach, the former Trump-appointed BLS commissioner:

“These numbers are constructed by hundreds of people. They’re finalized by about 40 people. These 40 people are very professional people who have served under Republicans and Democrats.
And the commissioner does not see these numbers until the Wednesday prior to the release on Friday. By that time, the numbers are completely set into the IT system. They have been programmed. They are simply reported to the commissioner, so the commissioner can on Thursday brief the president’s economic team.

The commissioner doesn’t have any hand or any influence or any way of even knowing the data until they’re completely done. That’s true of the unemployment rate. That’s true of the jobs numbers.”

[Sam Stein @samstein]

If you read one article this morning about the GOP bill, make it this from @CitizenCohn who travelled to Salisbury, North Carolina to understand what a $1 trillion Medicaid cut would actually mean for people dependent on the program.

https://t.co/oImPs5p9FR

[Jonah Goldberg @JonahDispatch]

This is awesome.

[Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski]

Trump has absolutely no clue what the Declaration of Independence is or what it says.

[Brit Hume @brithume]

Very much worth reading, from someone who wanted to support major trade adjustments.

[David French @DavidAFrench]

This is so well done. A very practical explanation of the problems with unilaterally launching a trade war.

[Frank J. Fleming @IMAO_]

We just won an election on the fact prices were too high and now I have all these MAGA people arguing, “The problem with America is everything is too cheap.” I feel like I’m going insane.

[Conor Friedersdorf @conor64]

American businesses are suffering because the Trump Administration antagonized Canada and in return they got absolutely nothing of value to Americans. Just needlessly making us worse off in order to indulge one man's desire to treat them with contempt.

[Noor Al 📈 @NoorAlTrades]

Is this real? I can't believe it.

These are forward flight bookings from Canada to the US.

This might be the single craziest thing I've ever seen.