[guest post by Dana]

To all the dads here, a most happy day in honor of you! What a uniquely important role you fill in the lives of your children. And whether those children are small or grown, a dad is always just that. You are invaluable, and always will be as you do your best to steer your kids down the right path, example to them how to take the high road in life, work diligently to train them up in the way they should go, and love them like no other can. You are their safety net until you pass on from this life. Even if that’s when they themselves are middle-aged adults.

And a shout-out to my own dad, who never met a dirt road that didn’t call him to go around the next bend, who not only tried very hard to teach me what an oscilloscope actually does but also taught me to spell it correctly, who taught me how to scuba dive, how to use a sextant (which I still don’t understand), who showed me how to make sukiyaki, who introduced me to the wonders of The Leatherstocking Tales by James Fenimore Cooper, who demonstrated the patience of Job as he tutored me in Mathematics, who always made sure his family had a roof over our head, food on the table, and a warm bed to sleep in, and who instilled in me a work ethic that has never wavered, and reassured me that, at a certain point in life, we all find ourselves struggling in the middle of a dark tunnel, but to be of courage and faith because God will be with us in the middle of that darkness and will be the spark of light to follow and hold onto as we make our way out together. While in no way resembling a traditional “father,” mine is instead a force to simultaneously be reckoned with, hidden from, clung to, and everything in between. In other words, he’s mine, and for that I am eternally grateful.

–Dana

[guest post by Dana]

And yet, President Trump just tweeted this on Friday:

This morning, President Trump’s attorney Jay Sekulow made a stop on the Sunday talk shows. On each show he contradicted President Trump’s claim of being under investigation. According to Sekulow, the President’s tweet was a response to an anonymously sourced report in the Washington Post, which claimed that the President is under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. But if this report is what what Trump was responding to, then why wouldn’t he deny that he was under investigation, rather than confirm the claim? Why would he validate the “lying media” and an anonymously sourced report? After all, President Trump told us that by using social media, he can go around the fake media. And yet, here he is confirming an anonymously sourced report in the “fake media”.

Here is his exchange with Jake Tapper:

“So the president said ‘I am under investigation’ even though he isn’t under investigation?” Tapper asked.

“That response on social media was in response to the Washington Post piece,” Sekulow responded. “It’s that simple. The president is not under investigation.”

“Well, I wish it were that simple but with all due respect, the president said ‘I am being investigated’ in a tweet, and people take his word on that,” Tapper pushed back.

After Sekulow insisted that the tweet was really an attempt to call out the Post for putting out a “fake report, the CNN host shot back that it didn’t appear to do that at all, and in fact, made it appear that Trump was confirming the story.

“But it is confusing because the president said ‘I am being investigated’ and you’re saying that the Washington Post report is wrong, but no one did more to confirm the Washington Post report than the president,” Tapper noted. “I mean, CNN had not confirmed the Washington Post report but then President Trump came out and said, ‘I am being investigated.’”

Trump’s attorney replied by pointing out how big Trump’s social media reach is and that the “simple explanation” is that the president was responding to a story based on anonymous sourcing.

Here is Chuck Todd’s interview with Sekulow on Meet the Press:

Here is John Dickerson’s interview with Sekulow on Face the Nation:

(Question: In this interview, when Sekulow claims that the President is not under investigation, host John Dickerson follows up by asking Sekulow how he knows that. Sekulow responds: “There have been no notifications from the special counsel’s office that the President is under investigation. In fact, to the contrary.” Is there a legal obligation for the President to be officially notified if he were under investigation?)

But Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday may have had the most head-scratching interaction of all:

All of this is a bit confusing – which may actually be the intent. But at the very, very least, it is yet another indicator that Trump needs to stop tweeting if he does not want to continue to undermine his own presidency. He is by far his own worst enemy. And he just keeps on proving it.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana