President Donald Trump gave an impromptu with the New York Times Washington Correspondent Michael Schmidt at his Mar-A-Lago property Thursday. Alexander Heffner, Host of PBS' "The Open Mind," explains what this interview reveals about the relationship between Trump and the media.
"All forms of media will tank if I'm not there because without me, their ratings are going down the tubes," Trump told the NYTimes. Heffner says the report in the New York Times showcasing a thirty minute conversation with Trump amplifies the president's microphone.
"There is incest in every situation with Trump and the media," said Heffner. "There's incest when you want access." Schmidt reportedly crossed paths with Trump while he was meeting Newsmax founder Chris Ruddy at the Florida resort.
"We have to acknowledge--I think--on part of the media that its important that we use discretion, deliberation, precision in our reporting of this administration," says Heffner.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 500 points higher on Wednesday, following a Midterm election that returned the U.S. House to Democratic Party control. But Samantha Azzarello, global market strategist for JPMorgan ETFS, told Cheddar not to expect an overheated market in the next Congress. "We're not going to have another pop and another overheating of growth in 2019 and 2020," she said.
President Trump announced on Twitter on Wednesday that Jeff Sessions will be resigning and Matthew G. Whitaker, chief of staff to Sessions will be the new Acting AG. President Trump declined to comment on Sessions only an hour before in his post-election presser.
Voters in San Francisco gave overwhelming support on Tuesday to a measure that would tax big tech for the sake of the homeless. And not everyone in the Silicon Valley stronghold is happy.
In a post-election press conference, President Trump vacillated between subdued and combative as he called Tuesday's election ー in which Democrats took control of the House and several pivotal governorships ー a "very close-to-complete victory."
The Democrats may not have gotten quite the blue wave they were hoping for ー but for women in politics, Election Day was an indisputable success. "I think the night was better than you thought it would be going in. I'm seeing something like a pink tsunami, compared to that Democratic blue wave," Bustle senior political correspondent Erin Delmore told Cheddar on Wednesday.
Microsoft will continue to provide technology to U.S. agencies and the military, despite the objections raised by employees over how the products are being used, specifically with regard to immigration and border control. "We will be proactive in using our voice," said Microsoft President Brad Smith, speaking to Cheddar from the 2018 Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal. "We think we'll be more persuasive if we're engaged than if we withdraw."
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The 2018 Midterms may well go down in U.S. history as an election of firsts, with historic wins for Muslims, women, and LGBTQ candidates.
Michigan became the first Midwestern state to fully legalize recreational marijuana on Tuesday ー one of four states with marijuana-related legislation on the ballot in the 2018 midterms. Marijuana was one of the key issues up for review on multiple state ballots on Election Day Tuesday alongside criminal justice reform.
Americans woke up on Wednesday to a different political landscape ー if not the blue wave Democrats had hoped for. On the strength of female candidates and first-time voters, the Democrats successfully flipped the House of Representatives, gaining at least 23 seats, with more than a dozen yet to be called, according to the latest race calls from the Associated Press as of Wednesday morning.
