This Infrastructure Week, like the many Infrastructure Weeks that came before it, was a particularly bad week for President @realDonaldTrump.
Trump, who considers himself one of the greatest builders in the history of the world, saw his favorite talking point completely collapse.
For more than a year, he has insisted that claims of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election were a "hoax"—preferring to take the word of Vladimir Putin over the US intelligence community.
But, on Friday, that argument became unsustainable.
In an eight-count indictment that charged 13 Russian nationals with conspiring to help elect him, Special Counsel Robert Mueller spelled out—in black and white—just how illegitimate Trump's presidency really is.
And, despite Trump's unfounded claim of vindication, that's unlikely to be the last shoe to drop.
Morning lineup:
Meet the Press: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT); Sen. James Lankford (R-OK); Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie; Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Students Jaclyn Corin, Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, Cameron Kasky & Alex Wind; Roundtable: TBA.
Face The Nation: Sen. Christopher Coons (D-DE); Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC); Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC); Clinton Campaign Manager John Podesta; Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ); Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA); Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL); Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA).
This Week: Former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson; Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R); Former FBI Agent Brad Garrett; Roundtable: TBA.
Fox News Sunday: Radio Host Rush Limbaugh; Mark Kelly (Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence); Roundtable: Michael Needham (Heritage Action for America), Julie Pace (Associated Press), Former Press Secretary to VP Pence Marc Lotter & Charles Lane (Washington Post).
State of the Union: Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA); Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R); Roundtable: Former South Carolina State Rep. Bakari Sellers (D), Republican Strategist Amanda Carpenter, Former South Carolina Lt. Gov. André Bauer (R) & Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D).
Evening lineup:
60 Minutes will feature: an interview with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (preview); and, a follow-up report on a focus group of voters conducted by Oprah Winfrey last year (preview).
Late night shows:
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Monday-Friday: Pre-empted.
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Monday: Unpresidential Day Special; Tuesday: Actor Taylor Kitsch; Wednesday: Rapper/Actor Ludacris; Thursday: Actress Lupita Nyong'o.
Elsewhere...
Sean Hannity (briefly) promoted an insane theory about President Obama's portrait.
Fox News host Sean Hannity on Tuesday removed an article from his radio show's website that claimed the official portrait of former President Barack Obama contained secret images of sperm.
"Controversy surrounding Kehinde Wiley's wildly non-traditional portrait of the Commander-in-Chief broke out within minutes of its unveiling," the article, written by "Hannity staff," asserted, "with industry insiders claiming the artist secretly inserted his trademark technique — concealing images of sperm within his paintings."
Hours after the article's deletion, Hannity said in a statement provided to TPM by a Fox News representative: "Earlier today my web staff posted content that was not reviewed by me before publication. It does not reflect my voice and message and, therefore, I had it taken down."
Dan Lavoie, a staffer for New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, flagged that the baseless conspiracy had earlier appeared on the message board website 4Chan — by now a well-known hub for alt-right and white nationalist chatter.
Meanwhile...
Laura Ingraham could barely refrain from calling LeBron James and Kevin Durant n*ggers.
Conservative Fox News host Laura Ingraham is taking heat Friday after calling out LeBron James and Kevin Durant for some anti-Trump remarks the pair made in a recent interview, saying the basketball players were "ignorant" and should leave politics to other people.
"Must they run their mouths like that? Unfortunately a lot of kids and some adults take these ignorant comments seriously," said Ingraham on Thursday evening. "This is what happens when you attempt to leave high school a year early to join the NBA, and it's always unwise to seek political advice from someone who get paid $100 million a year to bounce a ball."
In a video also released Thursday, James and Durant were unsparing toward the commander-in-chief, with James saying Trump doesn't "give a f– about the people."
"You're great players; no one voted for you," Ingraham continued. "Millions elected Trump to be their coach. So keep the political commentary to yourself, or as someone once said, 'shut up and dribble.'"
And, finally…
Greg Gutfield argued that the best way to prevent school shootings is to train kids in hand-to-hand combat.
Gutfeld suggested during The Five today [Thursday] that children should be trained in hand-to-hand combat so that they could fend off a would-be attacker.
The utterance occurred during a discussion with Juan Williams and Kimberly Guilfoyle on the Florida shooting and what may have led to the tragedy, including Williams singling out video games, before Gutfeld chimed in.
"Society is changing. You have to teach them how to respond," he said, before referring to kids as "soft targets."
"You have to be rational about it, which means hardening soft targets through drills and training," he said. "Learning combat. Learning hand-to-hand combat. This works, by the way, for terror, if there's a terror attack, and it works for school shootings."
Gutfeld asked "How do you improve upon this rationally? Well, you train them. That simple."
The stupid... it hurts.
– Trix