Hearing partiality: After FBI Director James Comey confirmed on Monday in a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee that the agency is investigating the Trump administration’s connections to Russia, Republicans showed their bias. By defending the president and former national security adviser Michael Flynn—all while attacking the FBI—“the hearing showed that the Republicans who run the committee can’t be trusted,” writes William Saletan in a breakdown of their arguments and tactics.
“A giant middle finger”: The Trump administration’s new laptop ban—restricting large electronics on direct flights to the U.S. out of 10 countries on eight airlines—is more than just an inconvenience, Daniel Gross writes. It’s the latest in Trump’s “business class warfare,” and insults the very people you would think he would want to keep happy.
An icy temperament: On day two of Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings, law professor Jed Handelsman Shugerman looked to one of the judge’s past dissents, in what’s known as the “frozen trucker” case, and found Gorsuch’s words to be cold and abrasive toward the litigant. It doesn’t indicate the right temperament for the court, Shugerman concludes.
Advice for reporters: In a Friday press conference, a German reporter asked Trump a very direct question about his lies—but Trump got to avoid answering, because it was a part of a multipart question. Will Oremus implores journalists everywhere to please stop giving politicians the right to pick and choose which questions they’d like to address.
For fun: Stop calling everything millennial pink.
Looking forward to more hearings,
Molly
