* Eileen Sullivan, Matt Apuzzo, and Maggie Haberman report that Rudy Giuliani’s Fox meltdown had about all the careful planning behind it you’d expect:
As of a few hours before Mr. Giuliani went on television, his revelations were not part of a wider strategy, beyond whatever conversations Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Trump had, two people close to the president’s team said. One noted that Mr. Hannity seemed surprised when Mr. Giuliani made the statement and did not immediately follow up. Some of Mr. Trump’s allies were frustrated that they, once again, had no advance warning of the new narrative, making it more difficult to discuss it adequately as surrogates on television.
Yeah, it’s tough defending the president when you can’t keep track of which lies you’re supposed to acknowledge and which ones you’re supposed to pretend never happened.
* Here’s Giuliani’s latest nonsense on Robert Mueller’s investigators and their demand for a sit-down interview with Trump:
“What they’re really trying to do is trap him into perjury, and we’re not suckers.”
But the thing about a perjury trap is that you can’t fall into it unless you’re willing to commit perjury.
* Brian Schwartz reports that as Mueller investigates the collusion question, he’s focused intently on the relationship between former Trump aide Rick Gates and Trump buddy Roger Stone. And don’t forget that Gates is cooperating.
* A new Monmouth University poll finds Democrats have an 8 point lead on the generic ballot, and the GOP tax law is still under water. Also, Mitch McConnell boasts an enviable 10 percent approval rating.
* Steve Vladeck and Benjamin Wittes explain the legal issues around the possibility of Robert Mueller subpoenaing the president’s testimony.
* Glenn Kessler examines another big Sean Hannity claim about the Deep State, i.e., his charges of leaking against former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, finding that they “fall apart.”
* Jonathan Chait deconstructs Giuliani’s description of federal agents as “stormtroopers” showing that for today’s GOP, respect for law enforcement extends only to the point where it functions as an instrument of their own reactionary power.
* Aaron Williams and Armand Emamdjomeh have a super-cool data visualization about race and diversity on the American landscape.
Update: The original version of this post cited an NBC report about Michael Cohen that has since been withdrawn. We removed the reference to that report.