President Donald Trump was well inside his comfort zone today at the Hilton in Washington DC during a speech to the North America’s Building Trades Unions National Legislative Conference.  An epic speech, well worth watching.

For the first time ever a president who actually understand the building, trade and construction industry delivered a speech to the men and women who build America’s highways, roads, bridges, buildings and national infrastructure.   President Trump called out many of the trade union members by name.  Lots of fun:

…The era of economic surrender has come to an end.  It’s come to an end.  We have surrendered as a country to outside interests.  The era of economic victory for our country has just begun.  You will see.. Oh, you will see..

[Transcript] 12:25 P.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT:  I know these people well, you wouldn’t believe it.  I know them too well.  (Applause.)  I know them too well.  They cost me a lot of money.  (Laughter.)  I spent a lot of money, but I love them, and they’re great, and their people are fantastic.  And nobody does it like you people, right?  Nobody.  We talked about that — incredible.  Incredible people.

So it’s great to be back with America’s builders.  (Applause.)  So did you ever think you’d see a President who knows how much concrete and rebar you can lay down in a single day?  Believe me, I know.  I know.  (Applause.)  We’re a nation of builders, and it was about time we had a builder in the White House, right?  (Applause.)  We have a builder.

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Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice only needed to confirm one aspect of the intelligence unmasking story for all of the dots to connect.  She made that confirmation within two minutes of her interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell.

From the MSNBC transcript, emphasis mine:

Susan Rice @00:51 – …”Let me explain how this works.  I was a National Security Adviser, my job is to protect the American people and the security of our country.  That’s the same as the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense and CIA Director.; and every morning, to enable us to do that, we receive – from the intelligence community – a compilation of intelligence reports that the IC, the intelligence community, has selected for us –on a daily basis– to give us the best information as to what’s going on around the world.”

Note, right there.  STOP. No need to go any further.  There it is – Susan Rice is describing the Presidents’ Daily Briefing, aka the “PDB”.  She continues:

“I received those reports, as did other officials, and there were occasions when I would receive a report in which, uh, a ‘U.S Person’ was referred to.  Name, uh, not provided, just ‘U.S. Person’.

And sometimes in that context, in order to understand the importance in the report – and assess it’s significance, it was necessary to find out or request, who that U.S. official was.”

This is the important detail.  Susan Rice was requesting unmasking of U.S. person’s names, which she moments later describes as “U.S. official[s]”, to understand the context and importance for the intelligence being given within the Presidents’ Daily Brief.

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This morning President Trump and Vice-President Pence hosted a town hall on American Business.  The town hall consisted of CEOs and business leaders gathered to discuss infrastructure and the need to reduce regulations in order to help alleviate the restrictions that have plagued businesses.

[TRANSCRIPT] 10:41 A.M. EDT – THE VICE PRESIDENT:  It’s a great privilege to be able to welcome you to the White House.  Thank you so much.  I want to thank everyone involved in the Partnership for New York City — Michael Corbat, Stephen Schwarzman.

It’s an honor to have the leaders that are gathered in the room here with us today.  I know the President is on his way over, and it’s my great privilege this morning to share a few thoughts, in the midst of this important conversation on the topics that you’re covering before I introduce my friend and the 45th President of the United States.

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With a general set of narrative ‘talking points’ in hand President Obama’s Former National Security Adviser, Susan Rice, appeared this morning on MSNBC for an interview with Andrea Mitchell.  This is the ‘We-Have-To-Respond-phase‘,  which necessitates the optic.

Andrea Mitchell is considered a trustworthy ally of the Clinton/Obama political networks; as such, it is not a surprise to see Mitchell selected as the interviewer.  Mitchell’s use of wording carefully guides Susan Rice through the narrow path of self-incrimination by providing plausible deniability for verbal missteps.

You already know the routine.  MSNBC is the favorable proprietary venue. Mitchell plays the role of media-legal-adviser, her client is Susan Rice.  Live interviews are always the greatest risk (see: Evelyn Farkas)  The full interview is below:

However, that said, there are some interesting aspects to the interview:

Susan Rice @00:51 – …”Let me explain how this works.  I was a National Security Adviser, my job is to protect the American people and the security of our country.  That’s the same as the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense and CIA Director.; and every morning, to enable us to do that, we receive – from the intelligence community – a compilation of intelligence reports that the IC, the intelligence community, has selected for us –on a daily basis– to give us the best information as to what’s going on around the world.”

[Note, Susan Rice is describing the PDB]

“I received those reports, as did other officials, and there were occasions when I would receive a report in which, uh, a ‘U.S Person’ was referred to.  Name, uh, not provided, just ‘U.S. Person’.

And sometimes in that context, in order to understand the importance in the report – and assess it’s significance, it was necessary to find out or request, who that U.S. official was.”

OK, so right there, in the very beginning of the forward narrative, Susan Rice is confirming the “unmasking” request(s) which can be pinned upon her, are directly related to her need to understand -on behalf of President Obama- intelligence for the President’s Daily Briefing (the PDB).  This was a previous question now answered.

This is EXPLOSIVE, and here’s why.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Sean Spicer Twitter @PressSec

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

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Fox News, The Daily Mail and Bloomberg News are all reporting the unmaking requests of collected surveillance activity was made by President Obama’s former National Security Adviser Susan Rice.

However, it remains unclear if Rice just made the unmasking requests, or if she herself did the unmasking.  Additionally, reporting by all three media outlets claims the surveillance of the Trump campaign encompassed more than a year.

(Via Fox News) Multiple sources tell Fox News that Susan Rice, former national security adviser under then-President Barack Obama, requested to unmask the names of Trump transition officials caught up in surveillance.

The unmasked names, of people associated with Donald Trump, were then sent to all those at the National Security Council, some at the Defense Department, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and then-CIA Director John Brennan – essentially, the officials at the top, including former Rice deputy Ben Rhodes.

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Despite a ridiculously false narrative of President Trump refusing to discuss Judge Gorsuch with Democrats in advance of his nomination, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11-9 to advance the nomination to the full Senate.

Throughout the last morning of Judiciary Committee statements, several Senators used the talking point that President Trump never consulted their party.  As you can see from this January 24th tweet below, that assertion is demonstrably false:

President Trump met with Senator Dianne Feinstein and Senator Chuck Schumer on January 24th, 2017, to hear their concerns and opinions prior to nominating Judge Gorsuch a week later on January 31st.

Today the judiciary committee voted along party lines.  All 11 Republicans voting for Gorsuch and all 9 Democrats voting against him.   Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is expected to schedule a vote on Thursday to end a Democratic filibuster of Gorsuch, which would require 60 votes.