COLBERT: ‘YAY!’ After President Trump referred to Stephen Colbert as “a no-talent guy,”
■ Melissa McCarthy transforms into Sean Spicer for tomorrow’s Saturday Night Live (video).
UNFAMILIAR WITH PHRASE ‘LET US GET BACK TO YOU.’ Trump is suggesting he may cancel his team’s media briefings, tweeting: “It is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!”
■ Washington Post: A timeline of all the White House’s conflicting explanations for ex-FBI Director Comey’s firing.
■ But by social media standards, it wasn’t nearly as big a deal as other Trump flashpoints.
■ Mary Schmich: Trump’s presidency has given new life to the dictionary—or at least its Twitter account.
TRUMP’S THREAT. The president tweeted this morning: “Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations.”
■ New York Times: In a private meeting, Trump demanded Comey’s loyalty—and Comey dodged.
■ The Hill: “Some form of Trump tapes exist.”
■ ProPublica: Previously unreported misjudgments by FBI agents played a crucial role in Comey’s decisions.
■ Lawfare editor-in-chief: Trump’s deputy attorney general must now resign.
■ Michael Gerson in the Washington Post: Trump’s pick to head the FBI could trigger a constitutional crisis.
■ The Onion: “Constitution Rapidly Ages Another 100 Years From Stress Of Repeated Crises.”
BIG ASTERISK. The president’s lawyers say his last 10 years of tax returns do not reflect “any income of any type from Russian sources”—with some exceptions.
■ Under fire, Trump’s son-in-law’s family’s company backs out of Chinese pitches.
■ McSweeney’s dark humor: “Winners and losers of the recent nuclear holocaust.”
■ Trump says Democrats “should have won“ the election.
GOVERNOR BOOED. Bruce Rauner got what he called “negative feedback” during the graduation ceremony yesterday at beleaguered Chicago State University.
■ A suburban high school district is under investigation for kickbacks in a multi-million-dollar deal to buy hundreds of computers, monitors and printers.
■ Tennessee has become the first state in the nation to make community college free for all adults.
■ Coming to Amazon’s Echo/Alexa ecosystem: Ads.
LOCAL TV NEWS’ PROBLEM. The Columbia Journalism Review foresees the prospect of “a newspaper-like collapse.”
■ “A future without local newspapers is by now a familiar prospect.”
FUNNY, BECAUSE HE SEEMS COMFY WITH HOLES. Mayor Emanuel insists he’s “never, ever … golfed.”
■ A tennis player with autism likes “beating the men.”
■ California beachgoers got a loudspeaker warning from a sheriff’s deputy in a helicopter: “You are paddleboarding next to approximately 15 great white sharks.” (With video taken from the chopper.)
CORRECTIONS. Yesterday’s emailed edition of Chicago Public Square suffered from a missing article (thanks, faithful and sharp-eyed reader Mike Braden), an incorrect link to a story (fixed on the Square website) and an outdated link for our advertiser, BizPics (corrected below).
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