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(Bloomberg) President Donald Trump renewed his attacks on the media early Sunday, hours after news that his campaign paid $50,000 in late June to the law firm later revealed to be representing Donald Trump Jr. in the matter of a meeting during 2016 with a Russian lawyer to seek damaging information on Hillary Clinton.

With all of its phony unnamed sources & highly slanted & even fraudulent reporting, #Fake News is DISTORTING DEMOCRACY in our country, Trump told his almost 40 million Twitter followers.

Separately, a new ABC/Washington Post poll released Sunday showed Trumps approval rating at the six-month mark of his term at 36 percent, down six points from a survey taken after his first 100 days. The previous president closest to that level after six months into his term was Gerald Ford, at 39 percent, in February 1975.

About 63 percent of those polled said it was inappropriate for Trumps son, son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign manager Paul Manafort to have met with a Russian lawyer offering information on Clinton. Six in 10 also think Russia tried to influence the campaign, and among those who say so, 67 percent think Trump aides helped, similar to results in April.

Trump thanked former campaign adviser Michael Caputo in a tweet for saying so powerfully that there was no Russian collusion in our winning campaign. Caputo testified to the House Intelligence Committee on Friday as part of an investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. election.

The president also defended his son, tweeting that Hillary Clinton can illegally get the questions to the Debate & delete 33,000 emails but my son Don is being scorned by the Fake News Media?

The president has been at at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, since Friday evening and plans to spend part of Sunday watching the U.S. Womens Open golf tournament for a third day before returning to Washington.

The ABC poll was conducted by landline and mobile phone July 10-13, in English and Spanish, among a random sample of 1,001 adults. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ros Krasny in Washington at rkrasny1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Craig Gordon at cgordon39@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann, Ros Krasny

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Trump says media distorting democracy in morning Twitter post - The Denver Post

PISCATAWAY TOWNSHIP, N.J. President Trump defended his son Donald Trump Jr., contrasting his Russia meeting with Hillary Clinton's deleted emails, and accused the news media of DISTORTING DEMOCRACY in a series of angry statements issued early Sunday.

Tweeting from his private golf club in Bedminster, N.J., wherehe is spending the weekend, Trump lashed out at the media for coverage ofthe disclosure thathis oldestson and namesake held a meeting last year with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer who offered damaging information about Clinton, his campaign opponent.

Trump tweeted, HillaryClinton can illegally get the questions to the Debate & delete 33,000 emails but my son Don is being scorned by the Fake News Media?

Trump was referringto emails Clinton deleted from her private server as secretary of state, as well as to hercampaign being providedan early look at a question in a primary debate against Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The debate controversy surfaced only because of an illegal hack of Democratic emails, which U.S. intelligence agencies have concludedwas orchestrated by Russia, and the emails' subsequent release on WikiLeaks.

What you need to know about Donald Trump Jr.'s ties to Russia. (Thomas Johnson/The Washington Post)

In another tweet Sunday morning, Trump accused the news media of phony unnamed sources & highly slanted & even fraudulent reporting. He said the "#Fake News, the president'sterm for news outlets whose aggressive reporting he does not like, is DISTORTING DEMOCRACY in our country!

Trump also thanked a former campaign adviser, Michael Caputo, for his testimony Friday before the House Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russian meddling in the U.S. election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

Caputo told reporters thathe testified in a closed session fornearly four hours and told House investigators, I had no contact with Russians and I never heard of anyone in the Trump campaign talking with Russians.

Trump tweeted, Thank you to former campaign adviser Michael Caputo for saying so powerfully that there was no Russian collusion in our winning campaign.

Caputo worked on the Trump campaign as a communications adviser throughout the Republican primary season but left the team in June 2016 as the general election got underway. He has long ties to Russia, having livedin the country in the 1990s andworking in 2000 as a contractor with the Russian conglomerate Gazprom Media to improve Putin's image in the United States.

Trump has been staying in Bedminster at his Trump National Golf Club since returning from Paris on Friday evening.

The president has been watchingthe U.S. Women's Open, tweeting five times over the weekend about his attendance at the golf tournament. Hespent much of Saturday in an enclosed viewing area, watching the golfers on television and entertaining spectators by flashing a thumbs up or posing for photos.

On Sunday morning, Trump boasted that hissupporters far out-numbered the protesters at the golf club.

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Trump defends his son drawing a contrast with Clinton and says media are 'distorting democracy' - Washington Post

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Sunday, July 16, 2017, 2:23 PM

In the morning on Sunday, the President was up early and tweeting from his golf course in New Jersey, clearly thinking once again that on weekends, idle hands on social media are the devil's workshop. Here was one of his tweets:

"With all of its phony unnamed sources & highly slanted & even fraudulent reporting, ?#Fake News is DISTORTING DEMOCRACY in our country!"

Well, somebody is sure doing that these days.

But there were no unnamed sources relevant this week to reporting about Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with Russians, nothing slanted in the legitimate questions raised about a meeting that apparently had enough Russians attending to form a pickup basketball team; nothing fraudulent about the facts of this particular story. So with this story, nothing was distorted, certainly not democracy.

Ten busted in $125M Medicare, Medicaid scheme in Brooklyn, Queens

But there is democracy at work in this country. It is the kind that is still supposed to inspire us all. It is the kind that is supposed to give us the standing with the rest of the world that we've always had, and not just because of a proud, free press acting like a free press even under unprecedented attack, from a President who believes he's the one under attack, and with good reason.

You want to see and hear our democracy? All you have to do is watch the current fight against the Republican Party's shameful attack on Medicaid with its bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, and all the falsehoods fronting that bill, starting with the ones told this past week by Vice President Mike Pence. These people continue to act as if being able to declare victory in health care matters and that serving their own agenda is more important than the people they were elected to serve.

These are the "Pretty Little Liars" of American governance, just not pretty or little. Just all grown up, and very much in power.

Here is what Pence said the other day, with a straight face, as he addressed Sen. Mitch McConnell's health care bill, once again put on hold, this time because of Sen. John McCain's surgery:

President Trump tweets support for 'innocent' Donald Jr.

"Let me be clear: President Trump and I believe the Senate health care bill strengthens and secures Medicaid for the neediest in our society."

Pence must believe that the 80% of Republicans who continue to blindly support everything this administration does and everything its representatives say really are rank suckers. Even he can't possibly believe that this Senate's health care bill "strengthens and secures" Medicaid for this country's most at-risk citizens. Not only is what Pence said untrue, it's demonstrably untrue.

But you know how this goes: These people think they can say anything, in broad daylight, and get away with it, at least in their America, the one where people believe what they want to believe. Don't believe the Congressional Budget Office, that is the pushback coming out of the White House. Don't believe all the American governors who have stood up and spoken out against this bill. Believe us.

You appropriately keep returning to the Marx Brothers for wisdom on subjects like these. Consider the movie "Duck Soup," in which Chico Marx's character Chicolini says, "Who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?"

GOP leaders postpone health bill as McCain suffers blood clot

No one, not at any point in this process, has suggested that the ACA doesn't need improvements. No one in his or her right mind would suggest that the costs of Medicaid in this country aren't a runaway fiscal train. But it is another demonstrable Republican lie that Barack Obama's vision for affordable health care in America has been a failure. No. It is McConnell's plan that is a failure, even before it comes to a vote. Now career hacks like Sen. Ted Cruz actually try to make it worse. It's why big insurance companies called out Cruz this week, and showed more courage in the process than the majority of a Republican Senate.

Somehow, though, you're supposed to think it's the Congressional Budget Office that is more fake news. Why? Because the CBO offers inconvenient truths, righteously and honestly projecting that this Senate bill will cut Medicaid by 25% over the next 10 years, and more than that over the next 20, and leave 20 million or more without health care if it becomes law.

It is not just governors who call out McConnell's bill for the clear and present danger that it is, by the way. It is a great Senator out of Connecticut, Chris Murphy, who fights tirelessly against this bill on the floor of the Senate and everywhere else. Murphy is as much the voice of democracy as anybody we have. Not distorting democracy. Ennobling it.

"In the most powerful, affluent country in the world, no one should die or go bankrupt because they got sick," Murphy told me Saturday. "The Republican health care plan threatens to do both I'm fighting this bill with every ounce I've got."

LUPICA: McConnell is currently one of Washington's most dangerous

Don't believe guys who think they're running Duck Soup America. Don't believe them. Believe Chris Murphy

The rest is here:
LUPICA: Democracy can be seen and heard in the fight against the GOP's health care bill - New York Daily News

Sophy Ridge, Sky News Presenter

Political journalists are having a field day. At a time when Parliament is usually slowing down ahead of the summer recess, a constant feed of news, leaks and gossip is fuelling the Westminster machine.

For members of the press, this is like chomping on a steak after months of starvation.

The pre-election Theresa May regime was the most controlled media environment that I can remember during 10 years as a Westminster journalist. Access was closely guarded by the Prime Minister's two territorial Chiefs of Staff and press officers were too frightened to step out of line.

While Theresa May was riding high in the polls, her Cabinet were muted and obedient. Success commands loyalty.

To get a sense of how much has changed, just look at this weekend's Sunday Times story about comments Chancellor Philip Hammond allegedly made in Cabinet about public sector workers being overpaid.

Usually what happens in Cabinet stays in Cabinet, but political editor Tim Shipman was told about the alleged remarks by five different sources. FIVE. Just let that sink in.

In my opinion, leaks get a bad rap and are actually a sign of a functioning democracy. Rather than policy being decided behind closed doors and only carefully filtered out to the public after being stripped of any controversy or nuance, it's much better for us to know the truth about what our elected representatives do and think.

As a result the Government losing its majority in last month's election is leading to a more open form of politics - and that's not the only reason the result might be good for democracy.

With the authority of No 10 and the Prime Minister diminished, this truly is a backbencher's parliament.

We have already seen concrete examples of lowly MPs shaping government policy, such as Labour's Stella Creasy on abortion access for women travelling from Northern Ireland.

Without the cushion of a comfortable majority, Theresa May was forced to make concessions or face losing a crucial parliamentary vote. Plans to axe free school meals and hold a vote on fox hunting have also been scrapped.

With Brexit looming, there will be many, many more battles to come with backbench MPs invigorated by their new importance.

The controlling forces of No 10 will always be wary of chaos.

But a Government forced to listen, compromise and consider other viewpoints - particularly when it is open to full media scrutiny - is a good thing for our democracy. We should welcome it.

Previously on Sky Views: Greg Milam - Why case of Charlie Gard resonates in US

Read the original:
Sky Views: Leaks and chaos are good for democracy - Sky News

When judges handle these cases, they increasingly divide along party lines. Consider the litigation over North Carolinas law. A Republican-appointed federal judge upheld it, and then three Democratic-appointed judges struck down key parts. Before Mr. Trump appointed a conservative judge, Neil Gorsuch, to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, the short-handed court divided 4-4 along party lines on whether to stay the appeals court ruling. The court then denied review, but in an unusual statement Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. explained that the denial was on technical grounds, not on the merits. Taking this cue, North Carolina is already at work on a new voter ID law. There is every reason to believe that courts will continue dividing along party lines in these cases and that Republican-dominated courts are unlikely to save voters from new efforts to make it harder to register and to vote.

On top of these domestic problems, there is the external threat. According to a report by the F.B.I., the C.I.A. and the N.S.A., Russia engaged in a concerted effort to undermine the election process in 2016 by leaking stolen documents, hacking voting systems and disseminating fake news. Attempted Russian cyberattacks on voter databases were widespread, with hacking hitting systems in up to 39 states. According to a report in Time magazine, hackers successfully changed voter data in a county database in one state, although the database was corrected before the election.

By 2020, cyberattacks could try to alter or erase voter registration databases, bring down our power grids or transportation infrastructure, or do something else to interfere with actual voting on Election Day. The next hacks could include malicious, false information interspersed with accurate stolen files; public confidence in the fairness of our electoral process could decrease further, even if the hacks are unsuccessful, as incendiary and unsupported claims about voter fraud, cheating and altered vote totals spread via social media.

The courts cannot save us from any of this. Nor can we expect leadership from the executive branch, Congress or polarized state legislatures. The president has caused confidence in our election system to deteriorate with his outrageous claims about voter fraud and his Election Integrity commission. Mr. Trumps Justice Department has already made inquiries into whether states can do more to purge inactive voters from voter lists.

Meanwhile, House Republicans are moving to abolish the United States Election Assistance Commission, a bipartisan federal agency that serves as a clearinghouse for information about best voting practices and certifies the security of voting machines. Does that sound like a good idea right now?

Faced with this vacuum, nongovernmental organizations need to take the lead on fostering cooperation across various levels of government and among political parties. The efforts of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration (a bipartisan group President Barack Obama appointed to study problems with the 2012 elections), the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Bipartisan Policy Center and others show that this kind of work can be effective. Led by Pew, red as well as blue states have adopted online voter registration and voluntarily cooperated to clean voter rolls in a way that is careful enough to avoid inadvertent disenfranchisement.

The next urgent area of cooperation must be election cybersecurity. Faced with a serious, imminent threat, Democrats and Republicans should have every reason to work together. Unfortunately, Pew has announced plans to cease its work in election administration at this crucial time, and it is not clear who can step up to take its place.

The future is scary. Public confidence in the fairness of the election process is already largely driven by who wins and who loses. State and local election officials need to overcome partisanship and resistance in areas where they can cooperate, and we need to support organizations that foster that. It may not sound sexy, but our democracy is counting on them.

Richard L. Hasen is a professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of The Voting Wars: From Florida 2000 to the Next Election Meltdown.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter.

A version of this op-ed appears in print on July 16, 2017, on Page SR4 of the New York edition with the headline: Dont Let Our Democracy Collapse.

Original post:
Don't Let Our Democracy Collapse - New York Times