|
 Photo Illustration by The Daily BeastIn the world of #Resistance Twitter, @GuardianRover was a hero. As a former intelligence operative and Delta Force soldier, the person behind the account used a cartoon secret agent avatar and the alias "Mr. Smith" to share the kind of national security expertise that anxious Democrats crave in the tumultuous Trump era.
When he wasn't meeting with Chinese freedom fighters, chatting up Ukrainian intel sources or working diplomatic security details, Smith tweeted wild claims on Twitter about collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Maybe, he posited, former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page had a tape of Trump promising to lift Russian sanctions in exchange for help with the 2016 election.
Smith regularly urged his followers to "buckle up," hinting at some kind of momentous developments in the Russia investigation just over the horizon. He also frequently claimed it would be various Trump allies' "time in the barrel," promising what he called "barrel time" for the likes of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner or former Trump confidant Roger Stone (who before the election famously tweeted: "it will soon [be] the Podesta's time in the barrel").
Read more at The Daily Beast.
Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here
|
|
 Charles Krupa/ShutterstockThe 2018 midterm elections are less than 100 days away. But get ready: The 2020 presidential contest is already gearing up. And Ohio Gov. John Kasich looks more and more like he's ready to jump into it.
Officially, Kasich is taking a "maybe yes, maybe no" stance. But his strategist, John Weaver, sure is making it sound like Kasich will get to "yes," telling the Washington Post that the Kasich team will "bring a machete to a knife fight" with Trump.
The White House counters that Kasich's machete will go unnoticed because "no one" is "showing up to that fight." Except that Trump is himself drawing spectators to the prospective fight by tweeting about Kasich. And Weaver is very, very good at getting press attention for his candidates (think of John McCain's Straight Talk Express in 2000).
Read more at The Daily Beast.
Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here
|
|
 The American pastor jailed in Turkey on espionage and terrorism-related charges was praised by President Trump on Thursday who called him "a great patriot hostage" -- and said the U.S. would "pay nothing for the release of an innocent man."
|
|
 It's a tricky path.
|
|
 Michael Cohen informed a representative for Stormy Daniels he was willing to strike a deal to buy her silence only after the release of the now-infamous "Access Hollywood" recording where President Donald Trump can be heard talking about grabbing women without their consent, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
|
|
Private Label