Sarah Huckabee Sanders offered the world an internet sourced doctored video demonstrating CNN's Jim Acosta physically chopping at the arm of a White House intern*. The White House then used that video as an excuse to take away Acosta's press pass.

Acosta was repeating a question that President Trump did not like, however Acosta felt important to get answered. Journalists try to push the President to answer questions at every press conference. It is their job.

Multiple sources have confirmed source video of the actual event, played at normal speed, shows Acosta to be a professional who regarded the intern with respect, while continuing to push the President. The video shared by Sanders is a sham.

Meanwhile, back at the White House, damage control was whimpering and hiding in a corner.

Things became desperate enough to release the Conway.

Be prepared to marvel in Kellyanne's logic free-zone.

From Politico:

"Oh, well, that's not altered, it's sped up. They do it all the time in sports to see if there's actually a first down or touchdown," Conway told host Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday."

"So, I'm going to have to disagree with, I think, the overwrought description of this video being doctored as if we put somebody else's arm in there."

The video in question was tweeted out by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday night in announcing the decision to suspend Acosta's press pass and thus his access to the White House. Acosta and Trump had a tense exchange during a news conference earlier Wednesday, in which Trump called him "a rude, terrible person."

Acosta tried to continue asking a question as a staffer attempted to take the microphone away from him — the point at which, the White House claims, he "puts his hands on" the intern.

Trump hasn't been pleased with Jeff Sessions since the attorney general recused himself from the Russia investigation last year, and this morning he told Hill.TV, "I don't have an attorney general. It's very sad."

Needless to say, Trump, in his usual tantrum style, was blurting out alternative facts that he then had to take back. Later in the morning, he admitted that indeed, he did have an attorney general. According to NBC News:

Speaking to reporters on the White House South Lawn later Wednesday morning, the president acknowledged Sessions' existence — but reiterated how displeased he is with the nation's top law enforcement officer.

"I'm disappointed in the attorney general for numerous reasons. But we have an attorney general. I'm disappointed in the attorney general for many reasons," Trump said...

"I'm so sad over Jeff Sessions because he came to me. He was the first Senator that endorsed me. And he wanted to be Attorney General, and I didn't see it,” he said. Trump also made clear that he thought Sessions performed poorly during his Senate confirmation hearings, saying his answers were "confusing."

Image: by Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link Read the rest

The FCC is only allowed to change existing policies if they can show evidence of some change in facts, so at yesterday's bomb-threat haunted hearing to destroy Net Neutrality, Trump FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and his Republican colleagues made a pro-forma recitation of the reasons justifying his extreme actions. Read the rest

I've not heard of Randy Rainbow until just now, but he is my new YouTube star idol. Read the rest

"Nearly a dozen" White House staffers have told Washington Post reporters that Trump was "demoralized" by press reports that showed a poor turnout for his inauguration and a much larger turnout for the Women's March the next day, and overruled his advisors and aides' advice to let it go -- instead, he ordered press secretary Sean Spicer to tell a series of easily falsifiable lies to the media that misrepresented the turnout for the inauguration. Read the rest