The Conversation -- May 13, 2024

New York Times reporters are liveblogging the Manhattan criminal trial of Donald Trump: ~~~

Maggie Haberman: “Trump has entered the room, wearing a blue-and-white striped tie, and Senator J.D. Vance and Eric Trump trailing him, among others.”

Jonah Bromwich: “Also with him are Boris Ephsteyn, his legal adviser; Alina Habba, one of the lawyers from his civil fraud trial; Representative Nicole Malliotakis; Senator Tommy Tuberville; and the Iowa and Alabama attorneys general. This is the biggest entourage we’ve seen him with so far.... Susan Hoffinger, the head of investigations at the Manhattan district attorney's office, will handle the questioning [of Michael Cohen] for the prosecution and has been preparing for months.... Hoffinger starts by asking Cohen about his background, and he mentions he’s a descendant of Holocaust survivors. He says he 'really didn’t want to be a lawyer,' but that his family is filled with them.... Cohen says that he came into Trump’s circle by purchasing Trump properties. Then, he says, Trump himself offered him an opportunity to work at the Trump Organization 'as his special counsel.'”

Haberman: “Susan Hoffinger, the prosecutor, asks Cohen if Trump paid him for early legal work he did at a Trump building, Trump World Tower. 'No, ma’am,' he replies.... Michael Cohen is now testifying that he went to meet with Trump on a bill about another matter.... Trump asked if Cohen was happy at his 'sleepy old firm,' and Cohen ultimately went to work for Trump. The bill was never paid. Trump told Cohen that he would only report to him.”

Bromwich: “Michael Cohen begins to describe the projects he began to undertake for Trump, saying that they were 'exciting' to him.”

Jesse McKinley : “It was whatever he wanted,' Michael Cohen says when asked to describe his duties at the Trump Organization. Cohen leans into the word 'he.'”

Haberman: “Susan Hoffinger, the prosecutor, is eliciting testimony from Cohen that he didn’t work in the general counsel’s office at the Trump Organization -- he worked directly with Trump.... Michael Cohen is now describing talking to Trump every single day, multiple times a day, before the 2016 election. It was either in person or by cell phone, Cohen testifies.... Michael Cohen is now testifying that he 're-negotiated' certain bills Trump felt were too high. This testimony is significant to the case: it shows Cohen directly interacting with Trump on money, and Trump focused on what he paid and received.... Michael Cohen is now testifying about threatening lawsuits against people while he worked for Trump. One was a Miss USA contestant. In other cases, Cohen said, he would be antagonistic to reporters, warning them that Trump would sue them over specific stories.”

Bromwich: “Susan Hoffinger ... asks if Michael Cohen interacted frequently with the press. Prosecutors are seeking to emphasize how much Trump cared about what was written about him, even before he ran for president. Hoffinger asks if Cohen worked to “minimize negative stories” and enhance positive ones about Trump. That’s the crux of the conspiracy that prosecutors say Cohen, Trump, and The National Enquirer entered into during the election: suppressing negative stories about Trump to aid his chances as a candidate.”

Haberman: “Susan Hoffinger ... has Cohen recount conversations with Trump in which he explained why he didn’t use email. 'He would comment that emails are like written papers. He knows too many people who have gone down as a direct result of having emails that prosecutors can use in a case,' he recalled.”

Jonathan Swan: “Hoffinger used Cohen to testify how Trump didn’t like leaving a written record of what he was doing, because, in Cohen’s telling, he didn’t want his words to get him into legal trouble. This helps prepare the jury for a gap in the prosecution’s case: that they need to rely on Cohen’s word — and not a written record, like an email — to prove that Trump himself was involved in the falsification of business records.”

Haberman: “Michael Cohen says he lied to people on Trump’s behalf. Susan Hoffinger, the prosecutor, asks him about being called Trump’s 'fixer.' 'It’s fair,' Cohen replies.”

McKinley: “Cohen is describing a remarkably servile attitude towards Trump. 'The only thing that was on my mind was to accomplish the task, to make him happy,' he says.... Cohen says he had more than 30,000 contacts in his phone.”

Haberman: “Cohen explains that part of the reason there were so many contacts is because Trump agreed to have his own contacts synced onto Cohen’s phone for ease.”

Bromwich: “Michael Cohen is now describing his relationship with David Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer, who was the first witness at this trial. Pecker testified that he, Cohen and Trump entered into a secret plan to suppress negative stories about Trump in 2015. Cohen will likely echo that testimony. Already, he has corroborated some of what Pecker said about when he first met Cohen. Cohen says he sometimes contacted Pecker using the encrypted application Signal — one of the small pieces of corroboration.”

Haberman: “Michael Cohen is now describing how Trump would try to get a 'good story,' a phrase Trump himself often uses about coverage, including by making a charitable donation and having articles written about it.... Michael Cohen is now explaining that he wasn’t going to be a part of the 2016 presidential campaign — he was 'just going to be a surrogate,' he says. This is the first in what is likely to be a series of humiliations by Trump that Cohen is expected to testify to.... Michael Cohen says he still did some activities on behalf of the campaign, like putting together a so-called 'diversity' coalition, which he’s describing here. He was also given a campaign email address, he says.... Susan Hoffinger, the prosecutor, asks Michael Cohen if he ever talked to Trump about whether he was concerned that negative personal stories would come forward. Cohen describes a conversation before the presidential campaign kickoff, quoting Trump saying, 'You know that when this comes out, meaning the announcement, just be prepared, there’s going to be a lot of women coming forward.'” [Emphasis added.]

Bromwich: “Michael Cohen has now testified that he, Trump and David Pecker..., entered into a plot to suppress negative stories about Trump. He says Pecker 'would be able to help us to know in advance what was coming out' and try to stop it from doing so. This is the conspiracy that prosecutors allege Trump participated in — one of the potential crimes that transforms the charges Trump is facing into felonies.”

Haberman: “The Enquirer also helped promote negative stories about Trump's G.O.P. primary rivals. Cohen is now describing them. Some of the smears were directed at Marco Rubio, the Florida senator who is currently a top contender to be Trump's running mate.”

Bromwich: “Cohen says that he 'immediately showed' such material to Trump, who would greet it with praise like 'fantastic, unbelievable.'”

Haberman: “Michael Cohen is now laying out the first catch-and-kill story that he worked on with The National Enquirer. We heard about this in previous testimony. It was about an allegation by a doorman at a Trump building that Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock. Cohen is describing telling Trump about it.... Michael Cohen is now describing seeking 'credit' with Trump for 'accomplishing the task' of making sure the doorman's story stayed dead. Seeking the head-pat from Trump was a big part of Cohen's daily existence.”

Bromwich: “I didn’t expect this aspect of Cohen’s testimony — his motivation to keep Trump involved at all times. By painting it as a matter of self-interest, the prosecution makes Cohen more believable. He’s not just pointing the finger at Trump. He’s explaining why he himself would have wanted to keep Trump in the loop.... Michael Cohen has now moved on to the second catch-and-kill deal, which involved Karen McDougal, who said she had an affair with Trump. Cohen says he mentioned McDougal to Trump, and his response was: 'She’s really beautiful.' Cohen says he warned Trump that McDougal was shopping her story, and Trump told him to 'make sure it doesn’t get released.'... Michael Cohen is asked how he monitored the progress of the deal with Karen McDougal, and says he did so by text, phone and the app Signal. The prosecutor doesn’t dwell on it, but that short list of three is essentially code to these jurors, who have heard from other witnesses, especially David Pecker, just how much of a pest Cohen made himself during that period in 2016.” [Emphasis added.]

Haberman: “... Cohen is being walked through his text messages with Dylan Howard, the editor of The National Enquirer, about Karen McDougal.”

Bromwich: “'I’ve got this locked down for you,' Howard tells Cohen of the McDougal story. 'I won’t let it out of my grasp.'.. Cohen just said that Pecker had told him the agreement with McDougal was 'bulletproof.' That is exactly the same word that Pecker told the jury that he had used with Cohen. And how did Trump greet the news that the agreement had been made? 'Fantastic,' Cohen says.”

Haberman: “Cohen is now recalling David Pecker applying pressure to get reimbursed for paying off Karen McDougal. 'It was too much money for him to hide from the C.E.O. of the parent company,' he says. He adds that he had several conversations with Trump about that fact.”

Bromwich: “Pecker 'insisted' on being paid back, Cohen says. The publisher even met with Cohen at his favorite Italian restaurant to press the point. 'He expressed his anger that I need to get this money back,' Cohen says. Trump, Cohen says, kept insisting he would 'take care of it.' But he didn’t.... Michael Cohen is saying that David Pecker intimated that he had known Trump for years and had essentially compiled a dossier on him, which he would use if need be. Cohen says he was worried that if Pecker were to remain angry at Trump, he might let some potentially damaging stories out of the bag as he was competing for a new position....

“Michael Cohen has now begun speaking about having recorded Trump directing him to pay David Pecker back in cash. As a reminder, the jury has heard this recording. It fits in nicely with Cohen’s narrative that he was often updating Trump on the progress of the Karen McDougal hush-money deal — on the recording, Cohen only has to mention Pecker’s name and it seems as if Trump knows that he’s referring to that deal. Cohen claims that this was the only conversation with Trump that he ever taped, and that he did it so that Pecker could hear that Trump planned to pay him back, thus retaining Pecker’s loyalty.... We again hear Trump ask about financing and then advising Cohen to 'pay in cash.'...

“Michael Cohen has almost finished describing the recording, beat by beat. He says that when he insisted that David Pecker be paid, he made reference to Pecker's dossier on Trump.”

Bromwich: [After a break,] “Michael Cohen says that the recording he made of himself talking to Trump cuts off because a bank employee called him and he 'must have believed' the call was important. But Cohen says he continued to speak to Trump about the hush-money deal with Karen McDougal after the recording ended. This is another piece of evidence that Trump’s lawyers have sought to delve into, questioning why the call ended abruptly and seeming to suggest that Cohen may have manipulated evidence....

“Jurors are hearing Michael Cohen testify that he — and everybody — at the Trump Organization spoke to Allen Weisselberg, then the company's chief financial officer, about financial transactions. Weisselberg, currently in jail, was involved in coordinating the repayments to Cohen after Cohen paid hush money to Stormy Daniels. We may not hear from him at this trial. Prosecutors have tried to submit evidence showing he is still loyal to Trump, to suggest a reason to the jury why he isn’t testifying. But this morning, as we reported, the judge rejected that evidence....

“[Cohen] says Weisselberg told him not to go through the Trump Organization [to pay Stormy Daniels] — linking the payment to Trump's company would defeat the purpose — but to come up with other more creative ways to pay.... We are now delving into the details of the complex set of financial transactions that Michael Cohen originally planned to use to reimburse David Pecker for the payment to Karen McDougal. But he would never pay Pecker, as the jury has been reminded, and instead these steps eventually led to Cohen's payment to Stormy Daniels.”

“Michael Cohen is now explaining that after all that, David Pecker called him and told him that Trump would not have to pay him.... Pecker’s explanation for his change of heart was that the McDougal deal had ended up being good for his company after all, Cohen says. But the jury has heard what they may find to be a more convincing alternative explanation from Pecker himself: During his own testimony, Pecker said that he had spoken to his general counsel and decided that he did not want to be repaid — the implication being he was worried about committing a crime.”

Haberman: “Michael Cohen is now talking about being in London when the 'Access Hollywood' tape came out shortly before the election. He says he got an email from Steve Bannon, who was the C.E.O. of the Trump campaign at the time. Cohen is looking at an email exchange about the tape that was forwarded to him by Bannon. Top campaign officials including the press secretary Hope Hicks, the campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and the deputy campaign manager David Bossie were also on it.... Part of the purpose here is making clear that Cohen is who the campaign staff members went to when they needed to address an issue related to a woman alleging misconduct by Trump.... Michael Cohen says Trump described the language heard on the 'Access Hollywood' tape as 'locker room talk,' and that Trump suggested that descriptor came from his wife, Melania.”

Bromwich: “Trump, Cohen says, directed him to reach out to his contacts in the news media. And immediately, we see evidence of Cohen texting Chris Cuomo, then a CNN anchor.”

Swan: “The final text we see in this series is Cuomo telling Cohen that it will be 'too late' if he waits until Tuesday to defend Trump on TV. Cohen was in London. Cuomo says of Trump: 'He is dying right now.'”

Bromwich: “Stormy Daniels’s name comes up for the first time, as Michael Cohen is questioned about the 'Access Hollywood' tape.... Michael Cohen says he spoke directly to Trump about Stormy Daniels early on, after learning she was shopping her story.... Cohen says Trump told him not only that he knew her, but that he had met her at a golf tournament. Trump, Cohen says, told him that Daniels liked him and that women preferred him even over football stars, like those who were at the tournament.”

Swan: “The language seen in these Cohen conversations [in texts with Keith Davidson -- Karen McDougal & Stormy Daniels' attorney -- and Dylan Howard, then the editor of The National Enquirer,] is very opaque and very mob-like. The hush money is described a 'business opportunity.'... Michael Cohen says that Trump explicitly told him they needed to do whatever they could to suppress Stormy Daniels's story until at least after the election, because it wouldn’t matter at that point.”

Bromwich: “Michael Cohen says that Trump, upon learning that Stormy Daniels was shopping her story, was very angry with Cohen, calling it a 'total disaster' and saying 'women are going to hate me.' Cohen says he responded that he had no control over Daniels’s story. 'Just take care of it,' he says Trump told him.”

Swan: “Michael Cohen says that Trump explicitly told him they needed to do whatever they could to suppress Stormy Daniels's story until at least after the election, because it wouldn’t matter at that point.”

Haberman: “Cohen also recalls asking Trump how Melania Trump might take everything that was happening. He describes Trump's reply as follows: 'He goes, “How long do you think I'll be on the market for? Not long.’” He wasn’t thinking about Melania. This was all about the campaign.'”

McKinley: “Cohen says Trump also said of Daniels's allegation: 'Guys may think its cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign.'”

Alan Feuer: “Michael Cohen’s description of Trump expressing fear that the Stormy Daniels story could poison him with female voters is a potentially important, but uncorroborated, piece of testimony. It’s the first time during the trial that a witness has attributed concerns about the scandal upending to the election directly to Trump.” [Lunch break.]

Bromwich: “Susan Hoffinger, the prosecutor..., shows [Michael Cohen] a series of emails with Keith Davidson, who was Daniels’s lawyer in 2016. Davidson ... says in the email ... that he just wanted to be paid. Cohen responded that it was the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur.... Cohen ... says that the correspondence represented that 'we were losing control over the settlement of this agreement in order to prevent' Daniels’s story from coming out. He says that loss of control was a 'direct result of my failure to wire funds.'... Michael Cohen says that he believed that at this point in the narrative, just weeks before the 2016 election, he could no longer delay making the payment to Stormy Daniels.”

Haberman: “Michael Cohen is now describing Trump telling him that his friends had advised him to just pay Stormy Daniels the hush money, and reminded him that he was a billionaire. 'Just do it,' Cohen recounts Trump saying.”

Bromwich: “Cohen is directly tying Trump to the hush-money payment right now, corroborating the testimony of others, including Keith Davidson and Hope Hicks, who both suggested that Cohen would never had made the payment without Trump’s authorization. Cohen is now talking about Weisselberg helping him to think through how to make the payment.”

Christobek: “Prosecutors are showing Cohen the same emails and bank paperwork they showed to [banker Gary] Farro on the witness stand. Farro previously testified about Cohen’s urgency to open up an account for Essential Consultants L.L.C., which was ultimately used to pay the hush money to Stormy Daniels.”

Swan: “Trump, who had been sleeping, wakes up, leans over, taps his lawyer Todd Blanche and whispers something in his ear.”

Bromwich: “Michael Cohen says he then decided that he would pay the money, and that Allen Weisselberg said, 'I’ll make sure you get paid back.' Cohen says he alerted Trump to that decision and that Trump was appreciative, saying 'good, good.' And he says that Trump, too, told him he’d be repaid.... 'I was doing everything that I could and more in order to protect my boss, which was something I had done for a long time,' Cohen says. But he adds that he would not, of his own volition, lay out $130,000 for a hush-money payment on someone else’s behalf, indicating, again, that he was expecting to be repaid. The charges against Trump concern the repayment to Cohen.... After Michael Cohen decided to pay Stormy Daniels himself, we are seeing, he launched into a blitz of phone calls with both Keith Davidson and David Pecker.... This documentary evidence ... suggests, with incredible vividness given that it is simply metadata, the frenzy that Cohen was experiencing as he sought to suppress the Daniels story and pay her the hush money.” Emphasis added.]

Susanne Craig: “This is moving quickly. Most of the questions from Susan Hoffinger, the prosecutor, are intended to elicit 'yes' or 'no' responses, and she is largely limiting Michael Cohen’s testimony to corroborating that of others and establishing his direct conversations with Trump.”

Christobek: “Cohen says that he laid out the Daniels deal for Trump because 'everything required Mr. Trump’s sign-off.'”

Bromwich: “We are now seeing that Michael Cohen had a five-minute call with Trump on Oct. 28, 2016. Cohen says that on that call, having signed the non-disclosure agreement, he told Trump that the Stormy Daniels 'matter is completely under control and locked down.' Even testifying at this trial, Cohen still speaks cryptically when recounting his conversations with Trump. He didn’t say Daniels, just called it the matter.... We are now seeing voluminous records of phone calls between Michael Cohen and Hope Hicks after the article about Karen McDougal came out. If anything, these records make Hicks look as if she underplayed the amount that she was speaking to Cohen and his involvement in the campaign....

“We are now seeing one of Michael Cohen’s telephonic rampages in documentary evidence that shows he spoke to Keith Davidson, who was the lawyer for Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, after the story about McDougal being paid off was published. Cohen says that he suspected Davidson or people in his camp of leaking and that he was very angry. He also says that Trump himself was angry. The defense objected to the question that prompted that testimony as leading, but too slowly, and the jury heard what Cohen had to say about Trump before the judge sustained the objection.”

Haberman: “We’ve moved on in testimony to Trump winning the presidential election. SUsan Hoffinger, the prosecutor, asks Michael Cohen if he still had a role at the Trump Organization after Trump won. Cohen says no, 'because my service was no longer necessary.' He says he turned down the role of 'assistant general counsel' in the White House. Hoffinger asks Cohen if he was disappointed that the job of chief of staff wasn't offered to him. Cohen says he didn’t want it, but wanted his name to have been included in the conversation. This is meant to inoculate him on cross-examination, when Trump’s lawyer inevitably says that Cohen was simply disgruntled about not getting a job.”

Bromwich: “After Michael Cohen describes having wanted a position as a personal lawyer to the new president, which he didn’t get, he begins to describe not having received a significant bonus. What prosecutors are leading into, in short, is that Cohen was very angry and disgruntled in late 2016.... Cohen, describing his anger at seeing his bonus cut by two-thirds, almost sounds angry all over again. 'I didn’t expect more,' he says of his bonus that year, 2016. 'But I certainly didn’t expect less.'... Cohen says he took his fury out on Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, and that Weisselberg told him that he’d be taken care of after the holidays.”

Haberman: “Michael Cohen is now ... describing his notes with Allen Weisselberg..., working out what he was being paid for another matter, and how he would be reimbursed for it.”

Swan: “Michael Cohen is explaining why he was owed $180,000, instead of simply $130,000 for the hush money. He says that he was owed $50,000 — an amount he admits was exaggerated — to pay a firm called Red Finch for 'tech services.'”

Bromwich: “Allen Weisselberg then doubled the $180,000 to $360,000. Weisselberg, Cohen says, expected that he would lose half of that money because it would be taxed as income, and was making him whole, even after taxes.”

Haberman: “Michael Cohen testifies that Trump, as president-elect, was busy with meetings around time. Yet he and Allen Weisselberg went into Trump’s 26th floor office to discuss the reimbursement plan, he says.” [Testimony ends for the day.]

Marie's Favorite Sentence of the Day (maybe of the Week, but it's only Monday!): I’m sure Medieval Sam will be able to find a 'precedent' for upholding white supremacy in some Pictish runes carved in a rock by Eldritch priests, found in the basement of the British Museum. -- Akhilleus, in today's Comments

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Two trials being held a block away from each other: ~~~

~~~ Witness for the Prosecution. Stephen Collinson of CNN: This week, Michael Cohen “will be the star witness for prosecutors trying to prove Trump illegally falsified business records after paying off adult film actress Stormy Daniels as part of an alleged election interference scheme in 2016.... His appearance [in court] will mark the zenith of a bitter personal feud between two brash New Yorkers obsessed with betrayal and revenge.” ~~~

~~~ Tracey Tully & Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: Sen. Robert “Menendez, a Democrat, is to go on trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan [on Monday], charged with taking part in an elaborate, yearslong bribery scheme. It will be his second corruption trial in seven years, but unlike the first, which ended in a hung jury, there is a volatile and surprising new element: charges against Mr. Menendez’s wife.... The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York has depicted Mr. Menendez and his wife as collaborators who took bribes in exchange for the senator’s willingness to steer weapons and government aid to Egypt, prop up a friend’s halal meat monopoly and meddle in criminal investigations involving allies.... The senator’s lawyers appear to be preparing a defense that pins much of the blame on his wife.” ~~~

     ~~~ Here's an updated story by the same writers, same subject, different URL. And here's a CNN story on Bribable Bob.

Léonie Chao-Fong of the Guardian: “Katie Britt, the Republican US senator from Alabama best known for delivering a widely ridiculed State of the Union [rebuttal] speech in March, marked the run-up to Mother’s Day on Sunday by introducing a bill to create a federal database to collect data on pregnant people.... Although Britt’s communications director said the site would not collect data on pregnant people..., the bill states that users can take an assessment through the website and provide consent to use the user’s contact information' which government officials may use 'to conduct outreach via phone or email to follow up with users on additional resources that would be helpful for the users to review'.... The ... act proposes to establish an online government database ... listing resources related to pregnancy..., except for those that provide abortion-related services.” Thanks to Jj for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race

Nate Cohn of the New York Times: “Donald J. Trump leads President Biden in five crucial battleground states, a new set of polls shows, as a yearning for change and discontent over the economy and the war in Gaza among young, Black and Hispanic voters threaten to unravel the president’s Democratic coalition. The surveys by The New York Times, Siena College and The Philadelphia Inquirer found that Mr. Trump was ahead among registered voters in a head-to-head matchup against Mr. Biden in five of six key states: Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and Pennsylvania. Mr. Biden led among registered voters in only one battleground state, Wisconsin.”

I'm guessing the Times got plenty of criticism for its plain-vanilla coverage of Trump's speech at his New Jersey rally. After linking Michael Gold's initial NYT report yesterday, in which Gold described Trump's remarks as  "largely repeating" his standard criticisms of President Biden, I read Marianne Levine's Washington Post report, where she led with the personal attacks, coarse language and vulgar expressions used by Trump and his supporters. So I linked that, too. The difference was not lost on monoloco, who commented on it in yesterday's thread. So now we get this:

Michael Gold of the New York Times: “In an extended riff at his rally on Saturday in New Jersey..., Donald J. Trump returned to a reference that has become a staple of his stump speech, comparing migrants to Hannibal Lecter, the fictional serial killer and cannibal from 'The Silence of the Lambs.'...” After describing the fictional Hannibal as a “wonderful man and “the late, great Hannibal Lecter,” Trump segued into a riff on “unvetted immigrants” who “are destroying our country” and will doom it unless Trump is elected president*.

Meet Trump's Personnel Manager. What would a second Trump administration look like? Well, Trump is planning to hire his former body man John McEntee to implement his 2025 personnel policies: i.e., firing "deep-state" bureaucrats & hiring Trump toadies. McEntee was goose-stepped out of the White House in 2018 when his security clearance was denied, reportedly because he was under investigation for financial crimes. Immediately after his ousting, the Trump campaign hired him, and Trump brought him back to the White House in early 2020 as head of personnel. His job then was to ID & remove officials insufficiently loyal to Trump. Now, he's an advisor on the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, the detailed plan to turn the federal government into an operation that serves only the president*. He also runs a dating service for wingers. On a video for the dating service, he boated that he carries a wad of movie-prop $5 bills to give to panhandlers in the hopes that's they'll be arrested later when they try to pass the counterfeit cash. What a fun guy! Thanks to RAS for the lead.

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Kristi, the Movie:

     ~~~ The original film, "We Bought a Zoo," sounds a bit more upbeat, in a heartrending, tearjerker kind of way.

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Israel/Palestine, et al.

CNN's live updates of developments Monday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: “At least 360,000 people have fled Rafah ahead of Israel's planned invasion of the city, the UN says. Top US officials have repeated stark warnings against a Rafah invasion, predicting that a major ground offensive would lead to widespread civilian casualties. More than 35,000 people have already been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the Health Ministry. In northern Gaza, people are trying to flee intense shelling and gunfire that have targeted the Jabalya refugee camp, where Israel is trying to stop Hamas from regrouping in an area that Israel previously said it controlled. Almost half of the agricultural land in Gaza has been destroyed, and recovery could take years, an expert studying satellite images told CNN.”

Josh Boak of the AP: “Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday delivered some of the Biden administration’s strongest public criticism yet of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, saying Israeli tactics have meant 'a horrible loss of life of innocent civilians' but failed to neutralize Hamas leaders and fighters and could drive a lasting insurgency. In a pair of TV interviews, Blinken underscored that the United States believes Israeli forces should 'get out of Gaza,' but also is waiting to see credible plans from Israel for security and governance in the territory after the war.”

Your child is having a temper tantrum. You (a) take remedial action; or (b) wait to see if he comes up with a plan to behave better. Marie: Maybe this isn't a valid analogy, but I'm having trouble seeing Blinken's logic -- although I sort of get it. There does need to be a post-war plan, and Israel's back-of-the-napkin plan isn't a sustainable one.

Russia. Anna Chernova, et al., of CNN: "Russian President Vladimir Putin has replaced his defense minister and a long-time close ally Sergei Shoigu with an economist, a major reshuffle of military leadership.... Andrey Belousov, a civilian who served as former first deputy prime minister and specializes in economics, was appointed to the top defense post, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday. Peskov tried to downplay the move, but the reshuffle comes amid speculation about infighting at the highest echelons of power. Just last month, one of Shoigu’s long-time protégés at the defense ministry was arrested and charged with corruption. Shoigu was 'relieved' of his position by presidential decree, Peskov said, but he will remain an influential part of Putin’s administration as secretary of Russia’s Security Council, replacing Nikolai Patrushev, a former head of the Federal Security Service (FSB), who would 'transfer to another job.'”

The Conversation -- May 12, 2024

Jennifer Bahney of Mediaite on Trump's New Jersey rally: “... the event featured some truly bizarre moments....

'Silence of the Lambs. Has anyone ever seen The Silence of the Lambs?' Trump asked the crowd.The late, great Hannibal Lecter is a wonderful man. He oftentimes would have a friend for dinner. Remember the last scene? “Excuse me. I’m about to have a friend for dinner,” as this poor doctor walked by. “I’m about to have a friend for dinner.” But Hannibal Lecter. Congratulations. The late, great Hannibal Lecter.'” There's more. MB: As you no doubt know, Hannibal Lecter is not a wonderful man. He's a fictional cannibal who likes his human liver with a side of fava beans & a nice chianti. Trump is insane.

Léonie Chao-Fong of the Guardian: “Katie Britt, the Republican US senator from Alabama best known for delivering a widely ridiculed State of the Union [rebuttal] speech in March, marked the run-up to Mother’s Day on Sunday by introducing a bill to create a federal database to collect data on pregnant people.... Although Britt’s communications director said the site would not collect data on pregnant people..., the bill states that users can take an assessment through the website and provide consent to use the user’s contact information' which government officials may use 'to conduct outreach via phone or email to follow up with users on additional resources that would be helpful for the users to review'.... The ... act proposes to establish an online government database ... listing resources related to pregnancy..., except for those that provide abortion-related services.” Thanks to Jj for the link.

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Luke Broadwater of the New York Times & Paul Kiel of ProPublica: “As [House] Republicans have pressed their [impeachment] case against [President] Biden, Democrats on the Oversight panel — including an unusually large crop of freshman — have matched them sound bite for sound bite and stunt for political stunt, establishing themselves as feisty defenders of the president.... Back in January 2023, they selected seven freshmen to sit on the Oversight panel, the most of any committee. The group included lawyers with debate experience and members who had a sense for how to communicate in a way that could catch fire on social media and break through the noise of a highly polarized environment.” Among them Dan Goldman (N.Y.), Robert Garcia (Calif.), Jared Moscowitz (Fla.) and Jasmine Crockett (Texas). Leading the effort are Jamie Raskin (Md.) & Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) ~~~

    ~~~ Here Rep. Rep. Garcia channeled his inner "Real Housewife." And Crockett expressed concern last fall about boxes full of national secrets Donald Trump left in a public bathroom (or "shitter," as Rep. Crockett described it) in Mar-a-Lardo:

The only years anybody's ever seen [of Donald Trump's tax returns] showed he didn’t pay any federal income tax. -- Hillary Clinton, September 2016 presidential debate

That makes me smart. -- Donald Trump, response

I think he ripped off the tax system. -- Walter Schwidetzky, law professor & partnership taxation expert ~~~

~~~ Donald Trump, Super Tax Cheat. Russ Buettner of the New York Times & Paul Kiel of ProPublica: “... Donald J. Trump used a dubious accounting maneuver to claim improper tax breaks* from his troubled Chicago tower, according to an Internal Revenue Service inquiry uncovered by The New York Times and ProPublica. Losing a yearslong audit battle over the claim could mean a tax bill of more than $100 million.... [The project was] a vast money loser. But ... Mr. Trump ... wrote off the same losses twice.... [In his] tax return for 2008..., he claimed that his investment in the condo-hotel tower met the tax code definition of 'worthless,' [and] report[ed] losses as high as $651 million for the year.... But in 2010..., he shifted the company that owned the tower into a new partnership.... Then he used the shift as justification to declare $168 million in additional losses over the next decade.... The Times and ProPublica, in consultation with tax experts, calculated that the revision sought by the I.R.S. would create a new tax bill of more than $100 million, plus interest and potential penalties.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     * The link above is to the ProPublica article. The same New York Times article is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ What if you built a store nobody could get to? MB: In yesterday' Comments, Patrick pointed out this tidbit from the story: “... some 70,000 square feet of retail space [in the Chicago skyscraper] remained vacant because it had been designed without access to foot or vehicle traffic.”

Marie: As we know all too well, Donald Trump is currently on trial for creating false records when he (allegedly!) tried to disguise hush-money payments to a porn star as "legal services pursuant to a retainer agreement" paid to Michael Cohen. So how surprising is this?: ~~~

     ~~~ More (Alleged!) Fake "Legal Services." M.L. Nestel of the Raw Story: "Donald Trump's election campaign has been hit with a sex discrimination lawsuit involving fresh accusations that his lawyers violated federal law by attempting to hide settlement payments to women accusers. The Federal Election Commission must investigate whether the campaign illegally attempted to hide settlement payments by routing them through third parties, according to a complaint filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). The allegations of wrongdoing, first reported by The Daily Beast, stem from former Trump campaign employee AJ Delgado who gave a sworn declaration in her pending lawsuit against Trump that she was cut loose based on pregnancy discrimination. Delgado, a former Trump 2016 campaign aide, had grabbed widespread attention by accusing longtime Trump aide Jason Miller of engaging in 'a cycle of sexual coercion, rape, sexual assault, abuse, battery, sexual harassment, and sex trafficking.'"

Presidential Race

Marie: I don't do polls much, but every once in a while, a Reality Chek is in order: ~~~

     ~~~ Steve M.: "... there's a notable disparity between the poll numbers for President Biden and the numbers for vulnerable Democratic senators. In the Real Clear Polling average, Biden trails Donald Trump by 1.2 points in a two-candidate race. Trump's lead is small, but Biden hasn't led since October. What's worse, Biden trails in every swing state -- Trump leads by 5 in Arizona, by 3.8 in Georgia, by 1.2 in Michigan, by 4.5 in Nevada, by 5.4 in North Carolina, by 1.8 in Pennsylvania, and by .5 in Wisconsin. If these numbers are accurate and were to hold up in November, Trump would win a popular-vote squeaker, but he'd win the Electoral College easily." Steve goes on to report the numbers for various Senate Democrats.

Samantha Waldenberg of CNN: “President Joe Biden on Saturday called Donald Trump 'clearly unhinged.'... 'It’s clear that … when he lost in 2020, something snapped in him,' Biden told supporters just outside Seattle at a private fundraiser Saturday, according to reporters in the room. 'He’s not only obsessed with losing in 2020, he’s clearly unhinged....'”

Michael Gold of the New York Times: On Saturday, Donald Trump held “a rally on the beach in Wildwood, N.J., where he largely repeated the same criticisms of President Biden that have characterized his stump speech in recent months.... Though New Jersey has voted for Democratic presidential candidates in every election since 1992, and Mr. Trump lost the state by double-digit margins in both 2016 and 2020, he insisted that he could win there in November.” ~~~

     ~~~ Sideshow Barker. Marianne LeVine of the Washington Post: “Donald Trump on Saturday ... [spoke] at a large rally on the Jersey Shore filled with personal attacks, coarse language and vulgar expressions from the former president and his supporters.... [The rally] included many of the same polarizing features ... that critics have voiced alarm over, including attacks on undocumented immigrants, who he accused of staging an 'invasion,' as he vowed to 'stop the plunder, rape, slaughter and destruction of the American suburbs, cities and towns.' He sharply derided his domestic critics and opponents, claiming 'the enemies from within are more dangerous to me than the enemies on the outside' the country. He praised the six Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. And he engaged in meandering asides, including about conversations he has had with celebrities or world leaders.... He spoke surrounded by a roller coaster and Ferris wheel....” Politico's report is here.

Daniel Dale & Kristen Holmes of CNN: "... Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that his criminal trial in Manhattan has prevented him from campaigning in key swing states.... But a review of his activities over the trial’s first four weeks shows that he has done little campaign travel, and held few public campaign events, on days off from court. Instead, he has spent most of his 12 court-free days out of voters’ view at his properties in New York, New Jersey and Florida.”

Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan  of the New York Times: “Paul Manafort, the longtime Republican strategist and chairman of Donald J. Trump’s 2016 campaign, who had assumed an unpaid role advising party officials on the nominating convention, stepped aside on Saturday after questions arose about his involvement in the convention’s planning process. Mr. Manafort’s move came after The New York Times reported that he had been on the ground in Milwaukee last week for planning meetings for the convention, as well as a Washington Post story that said he was involved in work connected to foreign officials and businesses.... Mr. Manafort helped stave off efforts to thwart Mr. Trump’s nomination at the 2016 convention, went to prison for various financial crimes and was pardoned by Mr. Trump.”

The New York Times' live updates of developments in U.S. college campus protests are here.

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Georgia Election Fraud -- It's Real! Carl Gibson of AlterNet: "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that [Brian] Pritchard was removed from his role as ... vice chairman of the Georgia Republican Party ... after a whopping 86% of the Georgia GOP's state committee supported a motion to oust him. The vote to officially remove Pritchard came after he refused to step down amid revelations that he voted on nine separate occasions despite ... [being] on probation for felony check forgery."

Ohio. Another GOP Senate Candidate with a Fake "Origins" Story. Jonathan Weisman, et al.,  of the New York Times: Bernie Moreno “is running for the Senate as an immigrant who made good, reaching out to Ohio voters with a stirring, only-in-America bootstraps story: arriving as a child from Colombia, taking a risk on a struggling business, and then turning it into a smashing success and himself into a millionaire 100 times over.... 'We came here with absolutely nothing — we came here legally — but we came here, nine of us in a two-bedroom apartment,' Mr. Moreno said in 2023, in what became his signature pitch. His father 'had to leave everything behind,,' he has said.... But there is much more that Mr. Moreno does not say about his background, his upbringing and his very powerful present-day ties in the country where he was born. Mr. Moreno was born into a rich and politically connected family in Bogotá, a city that it never completely left behind, where some members continue to enjoy great wealth and status.” Read on.

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Israel/Palestine, et al. CNN's live updates of developments Sunday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: “At least 300,000 people have fled the southern Gazan city of Rafah ahead of an Israeli ground offensive, the UN says. In a statement on social media, UNRWA said the 'forced and inhumane displacement of Palestinians continues.' There is growing alarm over the humanitarian situation in Rafah, with the UN saying it could run out of food aid as early as Sunday. Israel's military says it is enabling the flow of aid into the territory. Fighting is raging in other parts of Gaza too. The Israeli military is operating in Jabalya, northern Gaza, as part of efforts to stop Hamas regrouping. Israel earlier this year said it had dismantled Hamas's command structure in northern Gaza. US President Joe Biden said there would be a 'ceasefire tomorrow' if Hamas would release the hostages held in Gaza. Hamas said Israel's rejection of a ceasefire plan submitted at negotiations this week in Cairo sent talks back to 'square one.'” ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Sunday are here.

The Conversation -- May 11, 2024

The only years anybody's ever seen [of Donald Trump's tax returns] showed he didn’t pay any federal income tax. -- Hillary Clinton, September 2016 presidential debate

That makes me smart. -- Donald Trump, response

I think he ripped off the tax system. -- Walter Schwidetzky, law professor & partnership taxation expert ~~~

~~~ Donald Trump, Super Tax Cheat. Russ Buettner  of the New York Times & Paul Kiel of ProPublica: “... Donald J. Trump used a dubious accounting maneuver to claim improper tax breaks* from his troubled Chicago tower, according to an Internal Revenue Service inquiry uncovered by The New York Times and ProPublica. Losing a yearslong audit battle over the claim could mean a tax bill of more than $100 million.... [The project was] a vast money loser. But ... Mr. Trump ... wrote off the same losses twice.... [In his] tax return for 2008..., he claimed that his investment in the condo-hotel tower met the tax code definition of 'worthless,' [and] report[ed] losses as high as $651 million for the year.... But in 2010..., he shifted the company that owned the tower into a new partnership.... Then he used the shift as justification to declare $168 million in additional losses over the next decade.... The Times and ProPublica, in consultation with tax experts, calculated that the revision sought by the I.R.S. would create a new tax bill of more than $100 million, plus interest and potential penalties.” ~~~

     * The link above is to the ProPublica article. The same New York Times article is here.

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Yesterday we learned that some House Republicans want to impeach President Biden because he has said he would withhold some military aid to Israel if Israeli forces carry out Netanyahu's plan to make a massive attack on the Gaza city of Rafah. Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) has said he has drawn up articles of impeachment. So ~~~

~~~ Impeach Reagan! And Bush I! And Ford! and Ike! Peter Baker of the New York Times: President Ronald “Reagan used the power of American arms several times to influence Israeli war policy, at different points ordering warplanes and cluster munitions to be delayed or withheld.... Dwight D. Eisenhower threatened economic sanctions and an aid cutoff to force Israel to withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula after it invaded Egypt in 1956. Gerald R. Ford warned that he would re-evaluate the entire relationship in 1975 over what he considered Israel’s recalcitrance during peace talks with Egypt. George H.W. Bush postponed $10 billion in loan guarantees in 1991 in a dispute over settlements in the West Bank.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Kevin Freking of the AP: "The independent office that reviews allegations against House members found probable cause that Rep. Troy Nehls [R] of Texas converted campaign funds to personal use, triggering an investigation by the House Ethics Committee, a new disclosure revealed Friday. The recommendation and the full report from the Office of Congressional Ethics were both released Friday, as required under the law.... The office said Nehls declined to cooperate with its investigation.... Nehls, a second-term Republican lawmaker, was a county sheriff for eight years before serving in the House. He’s a staunch Donald Trump supporter who attended this year’s State of the Union address wearing a T-shirt decorated with Trump’s mugshot."

The Trials of Trump & the Trump Mob, Ctd.

Jesse McKinley & Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: “In a startling precursor to what could be the most explosive testimony in Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial, the judge on Friday told prosecutors that he was personally asking that a key witness [-- Michael Cohen --] stop speaking out against the former president.... 'That comes from the bench,' Justice [Juan] Merchan said.... [During Friday's proceedings, prosecutors] prepared for Mr. Cohen’s arrival by calling a round of custodial witnesses, whose testimony allowed the prosecutors to introduce important documents, phone logs, and text and email messages — much of it relevant to Mr. Cohen.... Between the riveting testimony of the porn star, Stormy Daniels, and Mr. Cohen’s looming appearance, Friday’s session was a moment of calm, the eye of the storm that is the first criminal trial of an American president.” The AP's report is here.

New York Times reporters liveblogged developments yesterday in what may be The Last Criminal Trial of Donald Trump. You can read many of their entries in yesterday's Conversation. Links to transcripts of court proceedings, via the courts, up to & including Thursday, May 9, are here. Links to exhibits are here.

Dan Mangan of CNBC: "A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the criminal contempt of Congress conviction of former Trump White House senior aide Steve Bannon for refusing to testify and provide documents to the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.... The ruling by a three-judge panel on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit makes it more likely that Bannon will soon have to begin serving a sentence of four months in jail for his conviction of two counts of contempt." (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times report is here.

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: “Rudolph W. Giuliani was suspended by WABC radio on Friday and his daily talk show was abruptly canceled after the station said he violated its policy by trying to discuss discredited claims about the 2020 presidential election on air. John Catsimatidis, the billionaire Republican businessman who owns the station, said he had made the decision after Mr. Giuliani refused to avoid the topic despite repeated warnings.... Mr. Giuliani’s removal from WABC, one of his only current sources of income, is almost certain to add to the mounting legal and financial woes that have engulfed him in the years since. The suspension will deny him one of his last mainstream public platforms.... In a statement, he called WABC’s policies 'a clear violation of free speech.'... 'Obviously I was never informed on such a policy, and even if there was one, it was violated so often that it couldn’t be taken seriously,' he wrote.” The Guardian's report is here. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See his commentary below.

     ~~~ Marie: “A clear violation of free speech.” Really? Once again, it is not possible to know whether Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor, is completely ignorant of the law or is just pretending to be. Within limits, the First Amendment prohibits government entities from curbing speech; it does not prohibit individuals or corporations from refusing to provide platforms for speakers.

Presidential Race

Michael Gold of the New York Times: “Barron Trump..., Donald J. Trump’s youngest son who has stayed out of the spotlight since his father entered politics, will not serve as one of Florida’s delegates to the Republican National Convention, the office of Melania Trump announced on Friday. In a statement released two days after Barron, 18, was selected to be an at-large delegate by the Florida Republican Party, Mrs. Trump’s office said that Barron was 'honored' to be chosen but that he 'regretfully declines to participate due to prior commitments.'” A BBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ MEANWHILE, NBC News reports that Donald Trump told Telemundo yesterday that he was "all for" Barron's new role as GOP convention delegate. "'He’s pretty young, I will say. He’s 17,' Trump said.... 'But if they can do that, I’m all for it.'... [Barron] turned 18 in March." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yes, but what about me? While Don & Melanie may be at odds over critical child-rearing practices, Melanie's decision to pull the boy from the Florida delegation puts a serious strain on me: Yesterday, I announced an update of Reality Chex Policy re: Barron: since he had entered the political realm, it was okay to bash him. Now I don't know whether or not to pick on the kid. He is a legal adult, even if his own father doesn't know it. However, if the young man is going to remain a schoolboy and not become a political player, then I suppose we ought to leave him to his studies.

No, Trump Is Not the Teflon Don. Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: “In the folk wisdom of recent American politics, Donald Trump is a figure of herculean invulnerability to traditional scandal.... Let’s look at the situation as it stands. Despite his best efforts, Trump has not been able to summon the grass-roots activity that signals political strength. There are no febrile crowds demanding justice for him at the courthouse door, no mob poised to wreak havoc in his name — not that he didn’t try to make one appear. And the broader public does not appear to have a problem with either the trial or the prospect of jail time for the former president.... On Tuesday, nearly 22 percent of Republican primary voters in Indiana pulled the proverbial lever for Nikki Haley, who left the race in March.... It is bad, for his political prospects, that Trump is on trial. It hurts him, with voters, to face allegations of criminal wrongdoing and sexual misconduct in a court of law.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Everybody's Picking on Clarence & Ginni. Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: “Justice Clarence Thomas denounced on Friday 'the nastiness and the lies' that have shadowed him in recent years as public scrutiny has mounted over his wife’s efforts to subvert the 2020 election and luxury gifts he has accepted from billionaire friends. 'My wife and I, the last two or three years, just the nastiness and the lies,' said Justice Thomas, who did not specify what he was referring to in addressing a full ballroom of lawyers and judges gathered for a judicial conference in Alabama. 'There’s certainly been a lot of negativity in our lives, my wife and I, over the last few years, but we choose not to focus on it.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, shame on me! It turns out all these reports about Thomas' many corrupt acts were out fault. Why, even the Pulitzer committee is in on it. Seriously, Thomas' reaction to reports & commentary exposing his corruption is typical: it was not his crimes that were egregious; it was the reports and criticism of his crimes. Remember, this is how Thomas got on the Supreme Court: pretending he was the victim, not the criminal. Nothing has changed.

Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "Police moved in to disband several pro-Palestinian student encampments on US campuses on Friday morning as the tumult over protests against academic ties with Israel stemming from the war in Gaza continued to roil academia. Tent encampments at the University of Pennsylvania, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Arizona, Tucson, were all dismantled in early morning raids that saw cordons of police sweep in and clear the makeshift protest settlements. In Tucson teargas was used, and demonstrators responded by throwing bottles at officers."

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Virginia. Nicole Chavez of CNN: “School board members in Virginia’s Shenandoah County voted early Friday to restore the names of two schools that previously honored Confederate leaders – four years after those names had been removed. The 5-1 vote came after hours of public comment during a meeting that began Thursday evening from people speaking on both sides of the issue.... The schools had been named after Confederate Gens. Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby.” (Also linked yesterday.)

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Israel/Palestine, et al.

CNN's live updates of developments Saturday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: “Israel's military on Saturday ordered the immediate evacuation of several more neighborhoods in Rafah, where it has been stepping up operations ahead of an anticipated ground offensive. At least 110,000 people have already fled. The Biden administration said Friday it is 'reasonable to assess' that US weapons have been used by Israeli forces in Gaza in ways that are inconsistent with international humanitarian law – but the highly anticipated report stopped short of officially saying Israel violated the law. Also on Friday, the White House said a CNN report on alleged systematic abuse at an Israeli prison was 'deeply concerning' and that the US is reaching out to Israeli officials for answers. CNN spoke to three Israeli whistleblowers who revealed how prisoners are blindfolded, handcuffed and forced to wear diapers. Elsewhere, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution calling on the Security Council to reconsider Palestinian membership in the UN, a significant but ultimately symbolic move that the US is expected to veto.”

Philip Nieto of Mediaite: “Hillary Clinton faced criticism after she slammed student protesters by claiming young people 'don’t know very much' about the Middle East. On Thursday, the former secretary of state joined Morning Joe where she shared her views on the nationwide student protests over U.S. support for Israel amid the war in Gaza. She noted that young people are ignorant of Middle Eastern history but also 'many areas of the world, including in our own country.'... Her comments drew criticism from the left who accused Clinton of having 'overwhelming contempt' for 'anyone who isn’t her.' Others slammed Clinton for lacking 'basic humanity' regarding the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Hillary Clinton has burdered herself with two Achilles' heels. One of them is telling impolitic truths. Not only does she think she is better than the rest of us, she says so. And the inconvenient truth is that she's right, at least most of the time. She was right in 1992 to suggest that she was too accomplished to stay home and bake cookies. She was right about "the vast right-wing conspiracy" in 1998. She was right in 2008 when she said the civil rights movement would not have advanced as it did without Lyndon Johnson. She was right in 2016 to slam Trump supporters as "deplorables." And in 2024 she's right about Americans not knowing much about Middle East history -- or at least not nearly as much as she knows. I suppose if she were a man, she might have got away with remarks like these.

But then there's her other Achilles' heel: she thinks that because she is better, brighter, more accomplished that most of the rest of us, she is also above abiding by the rules that govern us. So insider trading in cattle futures was okay if she did it. Whitewatergate was okay. Travelgate was okay. The dodgy Clinton Foundation is okay. The private computer server was okay. And that combination of acting as if you're better than everyone else and then saying so, too, just doesn't work for most politicians. Or most people.