THE DAILY NEWSLETTER  - FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2020

With her trademark black humor, Emmy Award–winning MSNBC host Rachel Maddow takes us on a switchback journey around the globe, revealing the greed and incompetence of Big Oil and Gas along the way. Blowout is a call to contain the lion: to stop subsidizing the wealthiest businesses on earth, to fight for transparency, and to check the influence of the world’s most destructive industry and its enablers. 

Listen on audio here!

Media Winners & Losers

MEDIA WINNER:
Geraldo Rivera 

Geraldo Rivera, the iconoclast newsman, proved once again he "calls it as he sees it" when Friday morning he lamented the failings of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani before a live Fox & Friends studio audience.

What made this incisive comment even bolder, is that he called out Trump's personal attorney just minutes after Giuliani himself sat in the very same seat.

"I've known him since he was a newly-appointed U.S. attorney in the Southern District here in New York," Geraldo said mournfully. "Then he became America’s mayor, and we all lived through that trauma with him when he was the most magnificent elected official on earth. To see him kind of deteriorate right before your very eyes... and I love the guy."

Upon hearing Geraldo's candid assessment of Guiliani -- who had just completed yet another hot mess of an interview -- the live studio audience could be heard audibly gasping. Rarely does one witness such soap opera-level drama on an episode of the pro-Trump morning show. But here we are.

That's why he is Mediaite's Winner of the Day.

MEDIA LOSER: 
Joe Rogan

Joe Rogan is media savvy. Hell, he's got one of the biggest audiences in media. But even he might not have forecast that his answer to a simple question -- "Who are you going vote for in the primary?" -- would set off a heated debate about his place in the political landscape.

Rogan backed Bernie Sanders, giving the senator a glowing appraisal on his show. Sanders tweeted out a clip of those comments, in which Rogan deemed the 2020 candidate authentic and consistent.

In response, Rogan's entire history of controversial commentary was dumped out onto Twitter. The podcaster -- who hosted Fear Factor before launching his wildly popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast -- took heat for transphobic comments and racist jokes alike.

One video, in which Rogan jokingly compared black neighborhoods to Planet of the Apes, was particularly bad. The 2013 comments spread throughout Twitter, drawing some outrage. Rogan is unlikely to face any consequences for the comments -- his platform is pretty impervious to such controversy -- but the attention is certainly not a good look.
 

The A-Block

Take Her Out!

ABC News reported Friday morning that they had reviewed audio that “appears to capture President Donald Trump telling associates he wanted the then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch fired."

“Get rid of her!” the voice, said to be of Trump, says in the video. “Get her out tomorrow. I don’t care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. Okay? Do it.”

The recording was made, per ABC’s sources, at a 2018 dinner at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. that included as guests Lev Parnas and Igor FrumanRudy Giuliani’s indicted pals caught up in the Ukraine scandal. Trump has repeatedly claimed not to know Parnas, who in recent interviews has accused the president of ordering their actions in Ukraine. 

The comment from Trump came after Giuliani’s associates told Trump that Yovanovitch was bad-mouthing him. Fruman is believed to have recorded the video, according to ABC.

“The biggest problem there, I think where we need to start is we gotta get rid of the ambassador,” Parnas reportedly told Trump. “She’s basically walking around telling everybody ‘Wait, he’s gonna get impeached, just wait.” Yovanovitch was recalled from her position in April 2019.

Adam Schiff: Does Anything Even Matter Anymore?

The third day of Donald Trump's Senate impeachment trial concluded on a moving and emotional note when House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff gave an impassioned speech against the president's alleged abuse of power throughout the Ukraine scandal.

Schiff's closing remarks lasted almost half an hour, and he argued that Trump's belief in Russian conspiracy theories -- amplified by his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani -- is further proof that "he needs to be removed."

As Schiff wrapped up about the "sad truth" that Trump can't be entrusted with national security or the integrity of America's elections, he concluded by saying "if 'right' doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter how good the Constitution is. It doesn’t matter how brilliant the framers were. Doesn’t matter how good or bad our advocacy in this trial is. Doesn’t matter how well written the oath of impartiality is. If right doesn’t matter, we’re lost."

It was the kind of moment so many on the left side of the spectrum were seeking. You can watch highlights here.


Fox News Anchor Ed Henry... Doing Work

On the other side of the political spectrum, White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham appeared on the often cozy confines of Fox News Friday morning. But newly appointed America's Newsroom anchor Ed Henry did not give her a pass, and instead confronted her on some pretty specific and critical allegations. The focus was the ongoing impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate, and Henry listed a number of examples of malfeasance listed by House Managers.

Henry cited previous testimony of Fiona Hill saying of Trump's controversial dealings with Ukraine "It was improper, it was appropriate," mentioned Col. Alexander Vindman, saying "The call was wrong, had a duty to report it," and Ambassador Bill Taylor saying "there was no good national security reason to hold up the aid. That it was, in his words,  'Wrong.'" Henry finished with "how can you say there was nothing wrong here? "

Grisham pushed back, saying "those people are just giving their opinions." She then dismissed the analysis of these lifelong civil servants, all of whom have led well-respected and scandal-free careers adding "those people also admitted that he didn't do anything wrong and that there was no crime there." Good work Ed.

🍦

Here's a scoop: Sean Hannity is set to interview President Donald Trump for his Super Bowl pre-game interview. Mediaite's Aidan McLaughlin has more...

Must-See Clip of the Day

Giuliani Goes FULL Rudy on the Set of Fox & Friends

Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani appeared on Fox & Friends Friday morning. In the event that anyone thought Giuliani would not return to his signature "hot mess" form of late, the former New York Mayor delivered his trademark performative and wildly confusing conspiracy theories without offering any evidence to support the claims of deep, DEEP corruption involving Ukraine and the Biden's. 

While the interview was mostly a giant train-wreck that would take days for someone to fully digest, diagram, and present on a bulletin board straight from Always Sunny, co-host Brian Kilmeade deserves credit for sporadically challenging Giuliani during the interview.

As Giuliani continued to prattle on in a manner straight from a hackneyed three-camera sitcom, the Fox News hosts very graciously tried, in vain, to get the former mayor to wrap it up. At one point co-host Steve Doocy chided (with his Kansas-bred smile) "We're done!" Rudy eventually took the cue (after the fifth time) which wrapped another bonkers cable news segment. 

Links We Like

The New Yorker's John Cassidy asks if any Republican Senators will "end this charade?"
--via The  New Yorker
Phillip Bump on Fox News circling its wagons around President Trump
 via The Washington Post

Ezra Klein believes Democrats need to target moderates, Republicans don't.
via The New York Times
Ever wonder what a canal filled with watermelon looks like? Well, wonder no more
via Gyfcat
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