Trump Airs Russia Probe Grievances in Joint Press Conference with Norway's Prime Minister

Earlier today, President Trump and Norwegian Prime Minister, Erna Solberg, held a joint press conference at the White House. Most viewers suspected that Trump would hold a lengthy briefing and build on his immigration comments from Tuesday, but he did not.  Trump only took two questions from American reporters. One from the Washington Examiner who asked about the Border Wall, and the other was from Fox News Correspondent John Roberts who asked about the possibility of a sit-down interview with Robert Mueller. 

Amid reports that special counsel Robert Mueller will soon seek to question President Trump as part of his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, Trump called such an interview “unlikely.”

Roberts asked the president if he would be open to meeting with the special counsel and, if so, whether he would set conditions for the interview.

Without actually answering the question, Trump responded by insisting that “there has been no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians or Trump and Russians.” He proceeded to say the words “no collusion” several more times, bringing up Hillary Clinton, and insisting that the Russia investigation is “a Democratic hoax” designed to deflect their 2016 White House loss.

“We’ll see what happens,” Trump said, regarding a potential interview with Mueller. “When they have no collusion and nobody’s found collusion at any level, it seems unlikely that you’d have an interview.”

Bill’s Analysis of ‘Fire and Fury’

Author Michael Wolff's controversial new exposé, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" is set to debut at the top of The New York Times’ bestseller list. 

The book, which details President Trump's campaign, transition and first several months in office, according to the author and several unnamed sources has sold over 1 million copies in four days, according to Wolff. 

Now, Bill knows a lot about the Trump campaign. He interviewed Trump many times and reported on him almost every day leading up to the election. The book opens up saying that Donald Trump didn’t want to win the election. This seems very unlikely because the day before the election he campaigned in 5 different locations. Is this what someone who doesn’t want to become president would do? Not likely. So right off the bat, it’s clear to see that this book is full of falsities. 

When you’re writing a book, people will tell you all kinds of stories and give you all sorts of information, but it’s up to you, as an author, to sort out fact from fiction. That didn’t happen in this book. You can’t just say, “somebody told me.” The source has to be identified. 

Bill said that he knew from the first 5 pages of “Fire and Fury,” that he wasn’t going learn anything from this book. When we requested the author to come on the “No Spin News” for an interview he didn’t respond. Wolff has given tons of other interviews to other media outlets because they won’t bring any kind of skepticism to the interview. The reason Wolff wouldn’t come on the No Spin News with Bill is because Wolff knows that he wouldn’t stand a chance during Bill’s questioning.

Border Apprehensions Plunge in Trump's First Year

On Tuesday, it was announced by the Department of Homeland Security that there has been a 40 percent drop in the number of border apprehensions from 2017 compared to 2016. 

The number of illegal immigrants apprehended at the southwest border in 2017 hit a 45-year low, but the Department of Homeland Security warned the numbers cannot continue to decrease without changes to long-standing immigration policy.

In 2017, Border Patrol apprehended 351,084 illegal immigrants. From October to December 2017, the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2018—total apprehensions at the Southwest border were 83,568. Of those, 11,234 were unaccompanied children. December 2017, hit an annual high with the number of apprehensions at 40,513. 

In 2016, Border Patrol apprehended 614,739 illegal immigrants. In December 2016 (under President Obama), there were 58,412 apprehensions. 

While there were more apprehensions in 2016 than 2017, there were more deportations in 2017.  ICE deported 226,119 illegal immigrants in 2017. In 2016, ICE deported 81,603 illegal immigrants.

The Trump Administration has vowed to step up immigration enforcement by hiring more agents, putting more undocumented immigrants behind bars and deporting them at a faster rate. The first year of Trump's presidency shows this is much tougher than it sounds. 

One possible reason: Immigration courts are still grappling with a significant backlog, and the administration is looking for more detention space. 

Trump's plan to build a "big, beautiful wall" at the U.S.-Mexico border was a cornerstone of his campaign. And he's sticking to his guns, as he recently made clear. Last week officials revealed their plan for securing the border, which puts an $18 billion price tag on 722 miles of wall construction. But so far, the administration has had a hard time getting Congress to hand over that much money and it's unlikely Congress will go along easily with the administration's full request. 

Still, there's been some significant headway. Bit by bit, officials are acquiring more land in the area. They've been testing eight prototypes built along the border.

Robert De Niro Slams Trump as an 'Idiot' and a 'Fool' in Awards Gala Speech

While introducing Meryl Streep at the National Board of Review gala, actor Robert De Niro used his time onstage to go on a profanity-laced rant about President Trump.

The 74-year-old actor is no stranger to having meltdowns over Trump, such as the time he ranted about how dangerous the president is, or about his desire to punch Trump in the face simply because he doesn’t like the way Trump talks.

On Tuesday night, De Niro was back for more, bringing up Trump yet again, as obsessed celebrities are bound to do. 

“Today the world is suffering from the real Donald Trump. Come on. You know. What are we talking about? This f****** idiot is the president. It’s the Emperor’s New Clothes – the guy is a f****** fool,” according to a transcript of the speech obtained by the New York Times.

De Niro went on to accuse Trump of infringing on First Amendment rights because he criticizes the mainstream media. “Our baby-in-chief … I call him – has put the press under siege, trying to discredit it through outrageous attacks and lies.” 

De Niro’s accusation over Trump is strange, considering the actor was not outraged when President Barack Obama used the Espionage Act as an excuse to put people in jail who gave journalists information. But you should expect that from Hollywood hypocrites.

Mail Time!

• “Bill, do you ever go crazy over all the nonsense you read and view every day and hear from political talking heads? What do you do to keep an objective opinion and keep an honest interest in converting the nonsense into real truth?”
  

• “Bill, I don't know what I'd do without the podcast. I simply do not turn on my TV anymore. I listen to your broadcast and know I'm getting the most important stories of the day with no spin. I purchased The Day the World Went Nuclear and Hitler's Last Days for my daughter's fifth grade class. She reports they are checked out more than any of the books they have in the classroom.” 

• “Even though I loathe Twitter, I started to follow you just to see pictures of Holly the corgi and hear her insightful comments. By the way, I love being a PM, your analysis is always spot on.”

Word of the Day: Churlish