Much of this week’s news centered on President Donald Trump’s Monday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but the rest of the week sure gave Monday a run for its money. Let’s take a look back at some of the more animated moments.
Let’s just get the Trump-Putin summit mention out of the way up front. Putin gave Trump a soccer ball, which Trump promptly said he’d give to his son, but only after tossing it to first lady Melania Trump. There are only two rules of regifting: (1) You don’t talk about regifting in front of the person who gave you the gift and (2) you don’t throw said gift in front of said gift giver. But that’s fine.
It is generally a fact that chairs provided for public speaking engagements are nearly impossible to sit in. House Speaker Paul Ryan illustrated that during an event this week, days after he publicly pushed back on Trump’s statements casting doubt about the US intelligence community’s findings on Russian election meddling.
Most gestures just amount to a subconscious game of rock, paper, scissors. Sen. Jeff Flake looks like he was playing just rock, paper when he and Sen. Chris Coons introduced a resolution to “reaffirm support for the intelligence community.” Because – with Trump breaking, then un-breaking, then (maybe?) breaking again with his own intelligence chiefs on the Russia meddling front – that’s a thing some people in the government feel the need to do now.
Look who’s back! Former VP Joe Biden (solidly choosing rock, so hopefully you chose paper). In case you missed it, Chris Cillizza and Harry Enten had Biden on top of their ranking of 2020 Democrats.
Sometimes timing is everything. Like the lights going out as President Trump was talking about the intelligence community. “Whoops, they just turned off the lights. That must be the intelligence agencies,” Trump said.
Where my girls at? Right here, marking the 170th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention. 170 years ago, women couldn’t vote for representation in Congress, and now they’re voting in Congress. Women are great. (Note: Author is a woman.)