Trump World audaciously claims to be 'as transparent as possible'

Last month, while writing a secret health care bill behind closed doors, Senate Republican leaders said they were proud to be part of a "transparent and open" process. They did not appear to be kidding.

And as it turns out, Republican confusion over the meaning of the word "transparency" isn't limited to Capitol Hill. At yesterday's press briefing, a reporter asked Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to explain the "plague of amnesia" affecting Donald Trump's team when it comes to disclosing interactions with Russian nationals. It led to this exchange:

SANDERS: Every single day we do our best to give the most accurate information that we have, and we continue to do that every single day, and have offered to be as transparent as possible with all committees and anyone looking into this matter.

REPORTER: This doesn't suggest to you a pattern of not trying to be transparent?

SANDERS: Not at all. Again, like I said, our goal is to be as transparent as humanly possible.

There was a certain irony to the circumstances: the president's spokesperson made these comments off-camera, because the White House has decided it's occasionally uncomfortable with the public being able to see these press briefings -- which, of course, is the opposite of transparency.

Sanders' claims also follow reports that White House aides, with Donald Trump's personal approval, drafted a misleading statement over the weekend on behalf of Donald Trump Jr. in response to the New York Times' questions about his controversial meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer during the campaign.

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Trump goes backwards, falsely claims Putin preferred Clinton

There's been a steady evolution to the Russia scandal over the course of several months, featuring questions that have incrementally advanced the story. We start with the root question -- "Did Vladimir Putin's government attack the U.S. election?" -- which serves as a foundation for everything that follows.

Did Russian officials attack? Yes. Did they intervene to help put Donald Trump in power? Yes. Was Trump's campaign in communications with Russia during the espionage operation? Yes. Was Trump's campaign willing and eager to cooperate with Russia's scheme? Yes. Will the president or anyone in his operation face any consequences? Stay tuned.

But it's against this backdrop that Trump has a bad habit: he struggles to keep up, at times going backwards to re-ask questions that were answered months ago. Last week, the Republican beneficiary of Russian intervention belittled his own intelligence agencies and insisted "nobody really knows" if Russia was responsible for the attack in the first place.

This week, the president sat down with radical TV preacher Pat Robertson and again tried to raise doubts about a key detail that every honest observer already knows to be true.

He thinks Putin would actually have been happier with Hillary Clinton in the White House because he's building the U.S. military and working to export U.S. energy, which Russia opposes.

"We are the most powerful country in the world and we are getting more and more powerful because I'm a big military person. As an example, if Hillary had won, our military would be decimated. Our energy would be much more expensive. That's what Putin doesn't like about me. And that's why I say, why would he want me? Because from day one I wanted a strong military, he doesn't want to see that," Trump told Robertson.

The president added, "So what I keep hearing about that [Putin] would have rather had Trump, I think probably not."

This is bizarre nonsense, even by Trump standards.

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Wednesday's Mini-Report, 7.12.17

Today's edition of quick hits:

* Look for more on this story on tonight's show: "U.S. intelligence agencies starting in the spring of 2015 detected conversations in which Russian government officials discussed associates of Donald Trump, several months before he declared his candidacy for president, according to current and former U.S. officials."

* This, too: "Investigators at the House and Senate Intelligence committees and the Justice Department are examining whether the Trump campaign's digital operation -- overseen by Jared Kushner -- helped guide Russia's sophisticated voter targeting and fake news attacks on Hillary Clinton in 2016."

* As a matter of legislative procedure, this is very significant: "Senate Republicans have won an argument before the parliamentarian that will allow a House-passed health care reconciliation bill to be taken up and amended in the Senate next week without any obstacle, CQ Roll Call has learned."

* Expect confirmation: "Christopher Wray, President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigations, said Wednesday that he did not consider the probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election to be a "witch hunt," disagreeing with the president's own assessment of the matter."

* This story, involving Mohsen Dehnavi, demands some explanation: "An Iranian cancer researcher who traveled to the US with his family on a valid visa has been sent back to his home country two weeks after Donald Trump's revised travel ban came into force."

* Nearly the size of Delaware: "One of the largest icebergs ever recorded broke off from an ice shelf in Antarctica, British scientists announced Wednesday.... Project MIDAS said there is no evidence to directly link the calving of the iceberg to climate change. However, it is widely accepted that warming ocean and atmospheric temperatures have been a factor in earlier disintegrations of ice shelves elsewhere on the Antarctic Peninsula."

* Worthy activism: "Major internet companies are preparing to launch online protests Wednesday over Republican efforts to roll back Obama-era net neutrality rules, employing a tactic that influenced policy in past years."

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Wednesday's Campaign Round-Up, 7.12.17

Today's installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.

* In Oklahoma yesterday, Democrats won in two state legislative special elections -- one in the state House, the other in the state Senate -- in districts that had been held by Republicans. According to the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee these are the third and fourth times, respectively, that Dem candidates have flipped GOP seats in state legislatures so far this year.

* Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) was sworn in as a member of Congress yesterday, after winning a special election in his Los Angeles district last month. There is now only one congressional vacancy: Utah's Jason Chaffetz resigned two weeks ago.

* The AP reported yesterday on new voting restrictions in New Hampshire, imposed by the state's Republican-led government: "A new law in New Hampshire requires that voters moving to the state within 30 days of an election provide proof that they intend to stay and subjects them to an investigation if they can't provide the proof and want to vote in future elections."

* In Maryland's 2018 gubernatorial race, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is throwing his support to Ben Jealous (D). Jealous, the former head of the NAACP, backed the Vermont senator's presidential campaign last year.

* Speaking of Bernie Sanders, the independent lawmaker has a new book coming out, and he's headed to Iowa to help promote it -- which, naturally, is leading to speculation about the senator's 2020 plans.

* In Oklahoma, former Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is so displeased that Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) is breaking his term-limits pledge that he's threatening to support a primary challenge to the congressman next year.

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