THE DAILY NEWSLETTER - THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2022

Media Winners & Losers

MEDIA WINNER:
Dwight Garner

There have been numerous brutal beatdowns in history. Muhammad Ali’s eighth round knockout of George Foreman at 1974’s “Rumble in the Jungle.” Judge Maya Guerra Gamble stomping on Alex Jones’ antics during his recent defamation trial in Austin.

We can now add New York Times book critic Dwight Garner’s review of Jared Kushner’s new book, Breaking History: A White House Memoir, to that list.

Garner wrecked Kushner for penning an "earnest and soulless” memoir, and that’s actually one of the kinder comments to be found in the absolutely savage review.

The ex-president’s son-in-law “looks like a mannequin, and he writes like one,” presenting a bizarro-world interpretation of the “chaos” of the Trump presidency in order to tout his “boyish tinkering” with various policy issues, which Garner mocks along with Kushner’s Secret Service code name of “mechanic.”

Not only was the review hilarious -- like when it compared reading the book to "watching a cat lick a dog’s eye goo" -- but it gained a significant amount of attention for being utterly ruthless.

Garner had absolutely no time for Kushner's self-praise and complete lack of accountability, instead calling the simpering accolades potential "cries for help.”

Breaking History is a book without any clear audience, Garner notes, “not enough red meat for the MAGA crowd” and the subject matter “more thoroughly and reliably covered elsewhere” for the political wonks; its author is “a pair of dimples without a demographic.”

Make some popcorn and check out more of the schadenfreudelicious review here.

MEDIA LOSER:
Kim Iversen

Kim Iversen, a former co-host of The Hill’s web program Rising, told Russell Brand that she left the show because she was excluded from an interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Iversen, a vocal vaccine skeptic, has been branded as a "conspiracy theorist" by fellow staffers at The Hill, likely explaining her absence during the July interview.

Iversen was essentially deemed too off base about the pandemic to interview the chief White House medical adviser.

Rising co-host Robby Soave and Newsweek deputy opinion editor Batya Ungar-Sargon conducted the 20-minute interview with Fauci instead, prompting Iversen to complain about it on Twitter.

In a July tweet, Iversen explained that she wanted to be a part of the interview, adding that it was “a shame I wasn’t able to be there to get the answers we all deserve.”

While speaking withBrand this week, Iversen opened up about the departure, confirming it was over the Fauci interview.

“I’m not really 100% certain exactly how it went down. I don’t know if it was Anthony Fauci’s team that said ‘We don’t wanna be interviewed by that Kim chick’ or if it was The Hill that protected Fauci from me and said, you know, we’re just not gonna even present, um, me to Fauci thinking that then the Fauci team would maybe back out or maybe I would ask too difficult of questions and put him on the spot, or I’m not 100% certain,” she told Brand.

Although Iversen hit at The Hill for censorship, it's likely the outlet just didn't want a vaccine skeptic promoting conspiracy theories while interviewing the nation’s top infectious disease expert.

The A-Block

Weisselberg pleas guilty

Allen Weisselberg, the CFO of the Trump Organization, has pled guilty to 15 felony counts of tax fraud in connection with his work for the company.

Weisselberg’s plea confirms previous reports that he was going to withdraw his previous not-guilty plea relating to the tax fraud case he faced in New York.

Weisselberg, who faces a sentence of 5 months in jail with 5 years probation, has also agreed to testify in the upcoming trial against the Trump Organization.

The decision to testify was made as part of a plea deal that contains no provision relating to cooperating against Trump.

CNN’s Brianna Keilar and John Berman spoke to investigative journalist David Cay Johnston about the deal on Thursday -- prior to Weisselberg's guilty plea. 

Johnston explained that the plea deal “could be very, very troubling” for Trump’s family, as, “ultimately this case, at least in theory, could lead to the dissolution of the Trump Organization as a corporation.”

He added that this would require Trump “to hold his properties in his own name, which exposes him to a lot more liability in other matters.”

Johnston added that this is the outcome New York Attorney General Letitia James is “likely” to seek with her civil investigation into the Trump Organization. He further explained that if Weisselberg pleads guilty -- which he has since done -- he’ll be legally compelled to answer questions or risk being held in contempt of court.


In Other News...

Trump Reportedly Mulling Whether to Release Video of FBI Raid – Potentially Showing Faces of Agents Searching Mar-a-Lago

Ari Melber Plays Old Footage of Fox News Hosts Telling People to Comply with Police: ‘Trump Was Given Months to Comply’ Before FBI Raid

What You Need to Know About the Hearing on Whether to Unseal the Affidavit for Mar-a-Lago Search Warrant

Liz Cheney Drops Audio of Concession Call to Opponent, Who Said She Only Received ‘Two-Second’ Voicemail

Bush CIA Director Agrees Republicans Hold Most ‘Nihilistic’ and ‘Dangerous’ Ideology Ever Seen

RATINGS: MSNBC’s Alex Wagner Debuts With 2 Million Viewers

Must See Clip

'Is Gates the informant?'

Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-FL) GOP primary opponent, Mark Lombardo, dropped a scathing new ad this week suggesting Gaetz is the FBI informant that led to the FBI raid on Donald Trump’s Florida estate last week.

“When Donald Trump really endorses someone, he goes big. You’ve seen none of that for lying Matt Gaetz,” the ad’s narrator begins.

“What does Trump know? Is Gates the informant?” the narrator then asks, going on to note, "Gates hired Jeffrey Epstein’s attorney."

Watch the blistering ad here.

Links We Like

- Bess Levin, Vanity Fair
Why didn't Trump just give back those documents?
- Maggie Haberman, New York Times - Marisa Meltzer, GQ - Los Angeles Times Editorial Board
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