Rand Paul got testy with Savannah Guthrie and refused to elaborate a position on reproductive rights, echoing the sentiments on his campaign website, a 1950s pamphlet on female hygiene titled “You’re A Young Lady Now.” Bobby Moynihan is presumably putting the final touches on his SNL skit, “Chris Christie yells at bright-eyed young children,” after a teacher confronted the New Jersey governor about his manners. And John McCain met with a group of Arizona Cardinal cheerleaders, reminding us that “really old politicians posing with cheerleaders” is one of our favorite political photo-ops, second-only to “well-coiffed politician in yellow hard hat.” This is HUFFPOST HILL for Wednesday, April 8th, 2015:
WHITE HOUSE WEIGHS IN ON WALTER SCOTT SHOOTING - Jen Bendery: "White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday that the video of a South Carolina police officer fatally shooting an unarmed black man was 'awfully hard to watch' and underscores why police should wear body cameras. During his daily briefing, Earnest said he wasn't sure if President Barack Obama has seen the video, which shows Officer Michael Slager shooting 50-year-old Walter Scott eight times as Scott runs away. It seemed as though Slager would be cleared of any wrongdoing until a video surfaced showing Scott apparently unarmed and Slager planting a Taser near his body after he shot him. Slager had radioed following the shooting that Scott stole his Taser. Slager has since been fired and charged with murder, and the FBI is investigating. Earnest noted what a huge difference it has made having video evidence in Scott's case. Before the video was discovered, local news reports sourced their version of events to information from police, the attorney for the officer, "witnesses" and police statements. Many of those claims turned out to be false." [HuffPost]
The news report you'd read if Walter Scott's murder wasn't caught on camera.
WALTER SCOTT RANDSPLAINED- "Because we report crime so much in our news, we don't often see the policeman who is going next door and helping the little old lady whose heat is turned off, or bringing food to someone." Paul told Wolf Blitzer just now. "In this particular instance, I hope justice does occur but I hope we don't paint it with such a broad brush that we draw conclusions that may not be accurate."
TOM COTTON: BOMBING IRAN WOULD ONLY TAKE 'SEVERAL DAYS' - [Tom Cotton hikes up tool belt, spits, "Yep, see, yer problem rightch'yer is them centrifuges. Shouldn't take me more than a couple o' days what with a few targeted F-16 sorties...yep." Spits again]. Igor Bobic: "Eliminating Iran's nuclear facilities with U.S. missile strikes would take a matter of days, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said in a radio interview Tuesday. 'Even if military action were required -- and we certainly should have kept the credible threat of military force on the table throughout which always improves diplomacy -- the president is trying to make you think it would be 150,000 heavy mechanized troops on the ground in the Middle East again as we saw in Iraq. That's simply not the case,' Cotton told Tony Perkins on the Family Research Council's Washington Watch program, according to CNN… Far from preventing Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, [former Defense Secretary Leon] Panetta said [in 2011], an attack could actually motivate it to accelerate the enrichment process deeper underground and 'we would have an escalation that would take place that would not only involve many lives, but I think could consume the Middle East in a confrontation and a conflict that we would regret.'" [HuffPost]
It's on in Nevada: "Catherine Cortez Masto, the preferred Democratic successor of retiring Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, will run for the minority leader’s seat. 'Catherine Cortez Masto fights to protect Nevada’s seniors, children, women, consumers, and homeowners,' her new Senate website states. 'She did it as a prosecutor. She did it as Nevada’s Attorney General. Now she wants to bring her fight to the U.S. Senate.' The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee endorsed Masto soon after her announcement on Wednesday, calling her “the strongest candidate to keep this Senate seat in Democratic hands.” Reid had already endorsed Masto, the former Nevada attorney general, just hours after his March 27 retirement announcement." [Roll Call]
WaPo looks at the Democrats' and Republicans' most loyal constituencies.
DAILY DELANEY DOWNER - Missouri state Rep. Rick Brattin (R) introduced HB 813 in February with zero co-sponsors. The bill has not been referred to a committee, no hearing has been scheduled and there are no plans to take it up before the Missouri House of Representatives adjourns for the year in May. And yet HB 813 is one of the most notorious pieces of legislation in America right now. Behold the power of hating people on food stamps.
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RAND PAUL SHUSHES ANOTHER LADY - Stand with Rand: A Car in Every Garage, A Chicken in Every Pot That Suddenly Reanimates, Develops the Ability to Talk, and Proceeds to Mansplain Why the Central Reserve System is Dysfunctional. NBC News: “Rand Paul has again stepped into controversy over a contentious interview with a prominent female television correspondent who he said was conducting the interview in an unfair way. In an interview with the TODAY Show, Paul sparred with anchor Savannah Guthrie, instructing her to ‘let me explain instead of talking over me, OK?’ The clash came as Guthrie noted Paul's shifting positions on the threat caused by Iran and America's role in doling out foreign aid to countries including Israel...The testy back-and-forth had echoes of Paul's February flap with CNBC anchor Kelly Evans, who asked him about corporate tax holidays. Paul ‘shushed’ Evans and advised her to ‘calm down a bit here.’” [NBC News]
Mr. Paul, if you're nasty: "On Monday, the day before he officially announced his 2016 presidential campaign, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) made a couple of small but revealing changes to his Twitter account. First, he jettisoned his longtime handle -- @SenRandPaul -- and became simply @RandPaul. And second, where the politician had formerly identified himself as 'Sen. Rand Paul' on the social media platform, as of Monday he was back to his previous professional moniker -- 'Dr. Rand Paul.' The apparent attempt to distance himself from the political arena was at least a little bit dubious. Paul is a presidential candidate, after all." [HuffPost's Scott Conroy]
Rand Paul has lady issues and needs to find a way to shut that whole thing down quick: "Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a newly declared Republican presidential candidate, is dodging a central question about abortion: What exceptions, if any, should be made if the procedure were to be banned? In an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, Paul would not say where, in his view, a pregnant woman's rights begin and those of the fetus end. 'The thing is about abortion - and about a lot of things - is that I think people get tied up in all these details of, sort of, you're this or this or that, or you're hard and fast (on) one thing or the other,' Paul said." [AP's Philip Elliott]
@SenJohnMcCain: Good seeing the @AZCardinals cheerleaders @FOX10Phoenix this morning! #gocards
ANTI-LGBT DISCRIMINATION RULES KICK IN FOR FEDERAL CONTRACTORS - We didn't realize federal contractors had time to discriminate against LGBT colleagues and applicants, what with all that griping about their federal counterparts. Jen Bendery: "For the first time, companies that have contracts with the federal government are now prohibited from firing or discriminating against employees based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, thanks to an executive order that takes effect Wednesday. President Barack Obama signed the order in June 2014 banning workplace discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees of federal contractors and the federal government. The administration took the last six months to provide rules to contractors, and to give companies time to put processes in place. The change affects 24,000 companies employing roughly 28 million workers, or about one-fifth of the nation's workforce...It is still legal in 29 states to harass someone at work or fire them for being LGBT. Democrats in Congress have tried to remedy that with the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which passed the Senate in 2013 but went nowhere in the House. They are likely to put forward a more comprehensive bill this year, banning LGBT discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, federal programs and education." [HuffPost]
LOIS CAPPS RETIRING - Laura Barron-Lopez: "Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) announced Wednesday she won’t seek re-election in 2016. Capps, 77, first ran for Congress in a special election in 1998 to replace her husband, Walter Capps, who had died of a heart attack shortly into his first term. She didn’t get into specifics on the reasoning behind her retirement, but said in a video she released to announce her retirement that it was a 'hard decision to make.'…Had she run, Capps would have likely faced other Democrats for her seat, which represents Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties. Capps' daughter Laura is also a possible contender to replace her mother. Laura Capp recently moved back to Santa Barbara with her husband, further stoking speculation that she might run in 2016. Actor Chris Mitchum, the son of actor Robert Mitchum, is reportedly mulling a possible bid on the Republican side. He has run for the seat twice previously. " [HuffPost]
TIMEOUT TIME FOR CHRIS CHRISTIE - Sara Bondioli: "A kindergarten teacher doesn't think New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) is doing a very good job of teaching by example. At a town hall Monday, Cheryl Meyer told the governor 'that she'd had trouble explaining to her students why it was fine for the man who holds the highest office in the state to use words like 'shut up' and 'idiot' when they can't,' The Associated Press reported. 'How do you defend that?' she asked, advising the potential 2016 presidential contender that it wouldn't play well on a national stage. ..'There are some people who just believe that if you're a public figure, that they're allowed to be rude -- that they can say anything to you and because you're a public figure, you have to respond politely because that's the rule. I don't see it that way,' the governor responded, according to Bloomberg. 'Sometimes I just want to do it,' Christie continued. The governor said later that he's 'trying to get better every day,' but he won't be a politician who only says things people want to hear." [HuffPost]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here's the hottest new musical instrument: a baby.
Not unlike that MADtv cast member who ran for city comptroller: "Gary Kroeger, a former cast member of NBC's 'Saturday Night Live,' launched a bid for Congress in Iowa on Monday. According to the WCF Courier, Kroeger, now an advertising executive, announced his political plans in a speech at the Oster Regent Theatre in Cedar Falls, Iowa. 'I am not a political insider with a message for the people. I am from the people with a message for the insiders,' Kroeger said, according to the Courier...Kroeger, a Democrat, is best known for portraying Donny Osmond on SNL, with now-"Veep" actress Julia Louis-Deyfus playing Marie Osmond. Kroeger was on the show for three years. In an interview with the Sioux City Journal ahead of SNL's 40th anniversary special earlier this year, Kroeger said the show was just a small part of his life." [HuffPost]
COMFORT FOOD
- Dogplays piano horribly, still bows.
- Because the zeitgeist really needs "Golden Girls" LEGOs.
- A guide to all 456 deaths in "Game of Thrones."
TWITTERAMA
@timothypmurphy: I'm not saying Andrew Jarecki killed all those people but if he did, making a documentary about someone else doing it would be a great move.
@PykeA: it's just been brought to my attn that i am much louder than i realized, so IN THE INTEREST OF HONESTY I HAVE SWITCHED TO ALLCAPS TWEETING
@BenjySarlin: Remember meerkat
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