Shoot the Messenger: President Trump is blaming the press as well as leaky intelligence and law enforcement agencies for the downfall of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, whom he fired Monday night.

This morning the president tweeted, “Leaking, and even illegal classified leaking, has been a big problem in Washington for years. Failing @nytimes (and others) must apologize!”

That won’t happen.

Trump said yesterday, “General Flynn is a wonderful man. I think he’s been treated very very unfairly by the media. As I call it the fake media, in many cases. I think it is really a sad thing that he was treated so badly.”

He didn’t say why, if Flynn was treated so unfairly, he was kicked out of the White House.

Flynn had lied to the Vice President and others about his contacts with the Russian ambassador and what they talked about. Trump knew about it for weeks, but didn’t fire Flynn until the story hit the press.

Earlier in the day, Trump went on a Twitter tirade against the “fake news media,” the Obama administration, and Democrats who lost the election. Despite reports that his campaign aides were in contact with Russian intelligence officers, Trump wrote, “This Russian connection non-sense is merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton’s losing campaign.”

He also said, “The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by “intelligence” like candy. Very un-American!”

States of Confusion: The President yesterday publicly broke with long-held American doctrine that peace between Israel and the Palestinians must include the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

Appearing at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said, “I’m looking at two states and one state.” He went on, expressing some indifference, “I like the one that both parties like. I can live with either one.”

Trump also suggested to Netanyahu that the Israelis dial back on building new settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.

Job Creator: Fast-food CEO Andrew Puzder created a job opening in the Trump administration yesterday when he withdrew his name from consideration as Secretary of Labor. Four critical Republicans were going to vote against him, denying Puzder the job.

Puzder’s burger chains were found guilty of labor violations while he fought federal regulations and illegally paid a household employee in cash.

From the Green Room: The Washington Post reports that MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” will no longer book Trump aide Kellyanne Conway because they think she’s an attention seeker who doesn’t know what’s going on. They describe her as “An attention seeker who texts TV producers in a constant effort to get on air, so she can speak for a White House where she actually isn’t in the know.”

The Post reports that host Joe Scarborough told them, “She’s in none of the key meetings.” He said, “She goes out and books herself often. … I don’t even think she’s saying something that she knows to be untrue. She’s just saying things, just to get in front of the TV set and prove her relevance because behind the scenes — behind the scenes, she’s not in these meetings.”

The Shipping News: A Russian spy ship has been seen lurking about 30 miles off the coast of Connecticut, according to the Defense Department. The spy ship Leonov has travelled previously off the southern coast, but this is the farthest north it’s been seen. The Russians have been pushing boundaries. On Friday, a Russian fighter jet buzzed dangerously close to an American destroyer.

The Obit Page: Retired Lt. Gen. Harold Moore, who commanded a battalion against overwhelming opposition by the North Vietnamese in one of the first major battles of the Vietnam war, has died at age 94.

Moore was a Lt. Colonel in November, 1965, when his unit helicoptered into the Ia Drang Valley virtually on top of a North Korean concentration that outnumbered them 12 to 1. The Americans took heavy casualties, but Moore’s discipline and toughness is credited with avoiding a total massacre and forcing the Vietnamese to retreat.

He eventually wrote a book about the battle titled ““We Were Soldiers Once … and Young” that was turned into a movie starring Mel Gibson as Moore.

Moore used to tell his soldiers, “I’ll always be the first person on the battlefield, my boots will be the first boots on it, and I’ll be the last person off. I’ll never leave a body.”

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