The President Is 'Opposed' to Domestic Violence and 'Everyone Knows That' 

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Here’s all the shit we couldn’t cover today:

• It has taken the president eight excruciating days to publicly express that he is “opposed” to domestic violence, accusations of which have recently prompted multiple White House staffers to resign. Trump, who just this past weekend was musing on Twitter about the plight of the “falsely accused,” said: “I am totally opposed to domestic violence of any kind everyone knows that and it almost wouldn’t even have to be said.” Incredible! [The Guardian]
• In this week’s episode of “Members of Trump’s Cabinet Spend Your Money Instead of Theirs,” a top aide to Veterans Affairs Secretary David J. Shulkin altered records to support the taxpayer funding of a 10-day European trip for Shulkin’s wife. [Washington Post]
• Here’s an insane quote from Scott Pruitt, responding to critiques of his now-infamous first class plane ticket from D.C. to New York: “We live in a very toxic environment politically, particularly around issues of the environment.” Pruitt, who has been working very hard to make the actual environment more toxic, essentially argued that he has to do unpopular and wasteful things to physically protect himself from the consequences of his unpopular and wasteful decisions. Someone please wade through this for me, I just cannot. [NBC]
• Speaking of wasteful decisions, that military parade’s gonna cost $30 million. [New York Times]
• Trump’s de facto science advisor is a former Peter Thiel staffer with a degree in political science. Close enough, am I right? [Scientific American]
• “We believe it would be much better for GOP to win,” Wikileaks head Julian Assange said in a 2015 Twitter DM. [The Intercept]

Here are some tweets the President was allowed to publish:

This has been Barf Bag.