Sean Spicer Blames Michael Flynn Disaster on Obama Administration

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

• According to Sean Spicer, the Obama administration is to blame for Michael Flynn. “[Flynn’s] clearance was last reissued by the Obama administration in 2016 with full knowledge of his activities that occurred in 2015,” Spicer said during today’s press briefing. “All of that clearance was made during the Obama administration,” he added. On the record, I’d like to add that the Obama administration is also responsible for my cat’s tooth loss, the deflating balloon in my living room, and the fact that I’ve never finished War and Peace. [TPM]
• Former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page says that he’s been “the victim of one of the most horrendous civil rights violations in recent US election history.” [The Hill]
• Donald Trump has changed his mind and agreed not to exit NAFTA. “I decided rather than terminating NAFTA, which would be a pretty big, you know, shock to the system, we will renegotiate,” he told reporters. Sure. [CNN]
• On Friday, the President will likely sign an executive order that will allow for more offshore drilling. [The Hill]
• This morning Paul Ryan defended the high-risk pools included in the House GOP’s new health care proposal, offering his home state Wisconsin’s high-risk pools as evidence of their success. Prior to the implementation of Obamacare, Wisconsin had a state-run high-risk pool that, according to Ryan, “was pretty actually darned good.” That’s not exactly true. The plans offered by the state were twice the cost of private insurance, and “didn’t actually cover an individual’s pre-existing condition for the first six months of enrollment.” [Politico]
• “[Sebastian] Gorka is, how do you say in English—a peddler of snake oil.” [Buzzfeed]
• Here’s a nice rundown of what the White House’s tax plan does and does not do. The long and the short of it is: if you’re very rich, then it’s very good for you. [Washington Post]
• Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin can’t guarantee that the tax plan won’t raise taxes on the middle class. [ABC]
• Elizabeth Warren says that she’s “troubled” by former President Obama’s $400,000 in speaker fees from Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald. [Real Clear Politics]
• Ivanka, Ivanka, Ivanka! [ThinkProgress]
• Jared, Jared, Jared! [New York Times]

Here are some tweets that the president was allowed to publish:

This has been Barf Bag.