;)
The Commentariat -- September 24, 2019
Afternoon Update:
Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Tuesday that the House would begin a formal impeachment inquiry of President Trump, opening a fresh chapter of confrontation in response to startling allegations that the president sought to enlist a foreign power for his own political gain. 'The actions taken to date by the president have seriously violated the Constitution,' she said after emerging from a meeting of House Democrats in the basement of the Capitol. Mr. Trump, she said, 'must be held accountable. No one is above the law.' The announcement was a stunning development that unfolded after months of caution by House Democrats...." (This is an update of a story linked earlier this afternoon.) The Washington Post story is here. The Guardian's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Heidi Przybyla & Adam Edelman of NBC News have a report Pelosi's speech here. The report at the linked page also includes Trump's tweeted responses, which center around "Witch Hunt garbage." At least he reflects how seriously he takes the importance of this Constitutional moment. BTW, Przybyla said on MSNBC that Trump & Pelosi had a phone conversation earlier today, and Trump tried to get Pelosi to "make a deal" with him re: impeachment.
Michael Isikoff of Yahoo! News: "Even as the House is ramping up its investigation into the Trump administration's dealings with Ukraine, the Senate Intelligence Committee is conducting its own inquiry and is seeking an interview with the whistleblower who filed the initial complaint with the intelligence community's inspector general, according to a letter obtained by Yahoo News. A letter seeking to question the still-anonymous whistleblower was sent Tuesday to Andrew Bakaj, the lawyer who represents the official. It was signed by committee chair Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. -- signifying that the panel is pursuing the politically explosive issue on a bipartisan basis.... It was not immediately clear whether the White House will agree to let the official be questioned."
Wow! Zachary Basu of Axios: "The Senate voted via unanimous consent on Tuesday on a resolution calling for the Trump administration to release to the Senate Intelligence Committee a whistleblower complaint that allegedly involves President Trump and Ukraine.... The resolution is non-binding, but it's a rare show of bipartisanship on an issue that threatens to spark an official impeachment proceeding in the House. The House will vote on a similar resolution on Wednesday."
Kate Sullivan & Sarah Mucha of CNN: "Former Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday if ... Donald Trump does not cooperate with Congress, he would leave lawmakers with 'no choice' but to start impeachment proceedings. 'It is time for this administration stop stonewalling and provide the Congress with all the facts it needs, including a copy of the formal complaint made by the whistleblower. And it's time for the Congress to fully investigate the conduct of this President,' Biden said. The Democratic presidential candidate said if Trump 'does not comply with such a request from the Congress, if he continues to obstruct Congress, and flaunt the law, Donald Trump will leave Congress, in my view, no choice but to initiate impeachment. That would be a tragedy, but a tragedy of his own making,' he said, speaking from Wilmington, Delaware."
Axios: "The intelligence community whistleblower behind the complaint reportedly linked to President Trump and Ukraine has requested to speak to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, according to the chairs of both panels.* Senate Intelligence Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) 'told reporters that the whistleblower's counsel has also reached out' to his committee, per the New York Times' Catie Edmondson."
* Mrs. McC: The chair of the Senate Intel Committee is Republican Richard Burr (NC), & the report does not name Burr or really specify that he confirmed receipt of the whistleblower's request. (Photos accompanying the post are of Warner & Schiff.)
We have been informed by the whistleblower's counsel that their client would like to speak to our committee and has requested guidance from the Acting DNI as to how to do so. We're in touch with counsel and look forward to the whistleblower's testimony as soon as this week. -- Rep. Adam Schiff, Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, in a tweet this afternoon
@2:23 pm ET Nancy Pelosi just said she'd be making an announcement at 5 pm ET today regarding impeachment. ~~~
~~~ Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said President Trump is making 'lawlessness a virtue' on Tuesday ahead of an expected statement on where she stands on an impeachment inquiry."
~~~ Update. Adam Edelman of NBC News: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who for months resisted efforts to launch impeach proceedings against ... Donald Trump, will announce later Tuesday that she now backs a formal inquiry, according to two Democratic sources close to her. Pelosi's change of heart comes as dozens of House Democrats -- now totaling more than two-thirds of the caucus -- have come out in support of an impeachment inquiry in the wake of reports that Trump may have withheld aid to Ukraine to pressure officials there to investigate the son of political rival Joe Biden."
Brian Beutler of Crooked: "It took the utter corruption of American foreign policy and a brazen assault on the public's right to a free and fair election for Democratic leaders and other reluctant factions of the party to reconsider their opposition to impeaching President Trump.... One of the few Democrats who recognized that taking impeachment off the table would create an unacceptable level of moral hazard was Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). She warned, 'If Donald Trump can do all that he tried to do to impede an investigation into his own wrongdoing and an attack by a foreign government,' and Congress takes no action, 'then it gives license to the next president, and the next president, and the next president to do the same thing.' The only thing her analysis missed is that Congress's inaction also gave Donald Trump license to commit the same crimes all over again.... And that is exactly what happened.... We should encourage and applaud the Democrats now joining the fight, but we should also reflect on what it means that they are poised to impeach Trump for engaging in the same kind of wrongdoing they were once content to let slide. Trump won't be the last president to commit impeachable offenses, but he should be the last one given carte blanche to do so until the foundations of the republic begin to tremble."
I am currently at the United Nations representing our Country, but have authorized the release tomorrow of the complete, fully declassified and unredacted transcript of my phone conversation with President Zelensky of Ukraine. You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call. No pressure and, unlike Joe Biden and his son, NO quid pro quo! This is nothing more than a continuation of the Greatest and most Destructive Witch Hunt of all time! -- Donald Trump, in two tweets this afternoon
~~~ The Guardian is liveblogging impeachment developments. The liveblog includes this:
Very solid #Dem House leadership source just confirmed to me that @SpeakerPelosi will announce a formal impeachment inquiry this afternoon and imply that she herself favors impeachment of @realDonaldTrump. -- Howard Fineman, in a tweet
~~~ Charles Pierce of Esquire: "This has to be the beginning of the end. The House Democrats, slower than molasses up until this point, suddenly have been transformed into quick drying cement around the president*'s ankles.... The Ukraine business has shifted something in the political tectonics. The slippage has begun in earnest, on one side of the aisle, anyway. On the other side, there are clues within the [Washington] Post stories that folks are feeling the ground shift under their feet as well.... Despite Republican enabling and Democratic timidity, the hour of the Founders has come around again. There is no place left for anyone to hide, no clever dodge left to employ, nothing left to kick down the road. History accepts no alibis." Thanks to MAG for links to several of Pierce's posts.
Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "President Trump said Tuesday that he held up American aid to Ukraine ... because European countries have not paid their fair share to support the country, and pointed to the fact that the money was eventually released as evidence that he had done nothing wrong.... He also said that a groundswell for his impeachment among Democratic lawmakers amounted to a new 'witch hunt.' 'I'm leading in the polls and they have no idea how to stop me,' Mr. Trump said, though the president trails the leading Democratic candidates in most polls. 'The only way they can try is through impeachment.'... Mr. Trump also noted that the funds allocated for Ukraine 'were fully paid,' although he did not mention the fact that his administration acted only after the delay became public through news media leaks, and under bipartisan pressure from Congress. And he suggested that a transcript of his July 25 phone call with Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, whose release many Democrats have insisted on, would become public. Mr. Trump repeated his assertion that the transcript would exonerate him." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Note that it's-Europe's-fault is a different "explanation" from the "corruption" excuse Trump gave yesterday. ~~~
~~~ Update: Aaron Rupar of Vox: "... Donald Trump's rationale for why he withheld congressionally approved aid to Ukraine changed overnight. On Monday, Trump told reporters that his decision to withhold aid to Ukraine -- a decision seemingly at the heart of a whistleblower complaint roiling Washington -- was over his concerns to ensure that the country's new government was doing everything possible to root out corruption. But asked a similar question on Tuesday, Trump's talking point suddenly changed to his frustrations about European countries not spending enough on foreign aid. 'My complaint has always been, and I'd withhold again, and I'll continue to withhold until such time as Europe and other nations contribute to Ukraine, because they're not doing it,' Trump told reporters, ahead of his speech to the United Nations General Assembly." ~~~
~~~ "Trump: I'd Like to Withdraw My Guilty Plea and Change to 'Not Guilty.'" Jonathan Chait: "In Trump's defense, he and his allies were easily lured into admitting all their guilt because, for several months on end, nobody cared about it. Now that Democrats care enough to potentially impeach him, they are hastily constructing post hoc defenses." Chait covers some of the other defenses Trump's backers are testing. "The [Steve] Doocy defense is that it's not extortion unless you explicitly told the shopkeeper you'd break his legs unless he paid protection money.... Byron York[, t]he Washington Examiner columnist and self-appointed amateur Trump defense attorney argues... [Chait paraphrase], How can you impeach the guy if he might have committed other crimes we don't know about? And by the way, we don't know about them because he's hiding the evidence."
~~~ Betsy Klein of CNN: "... Donald Trump admitted Monday that he delayed aid to Ukraine ahead of a call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, when he pushed the leader to look into potential rival Joe Biden and his son's work, giving the excuse that he was waiting for European nations to contribute their fair share of aid and claiming there was 'never any quid pro quo.' 'As far as withholding funds, those funds were paid. They were fully paid. But my complaint has always been, and I'd withhold again and I'll continue to withhold until such time as Europe and other nations contribute to Ukraine because they're not doing it,' Trump said Tuesday as he arrived at the United Nations ahead of his speech to the General Assembly.... There is no evidence of wrongdoing by either Joe or Hunter Biden."
My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man. -- President John F. Kennedy, inaugural address, 1963 (thanks to Nancy Pelosi for the reminder) ~~~
~~~ Anne Gearan & Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "President Trump leveled one of his harshest critiques of globalism on Tuesday at the U.N. General Assembly, promoting the 'America First' approach that has defined his presidency on issues of defense, trade and immigration before a body built on multilateral cooperation. Trump read the address in a somber monotone, rarely punctuating words or pausing for emphasis.... He also took a hard line against Iran ... and vowed to 'stop Iran's path toward nuclear weapons.' 'All nations have a duty to act. No responsible government should subsidize Iran's blood lust,' Trump said." NPR's story is here. ~~~
~~~ BOR-ing! Dan Mangan of CNBC: "... Donald Trump's United Nations speech was a snooze -- at least for Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. The 81-year-old Ross took a nap -- a very long nap -- as his boss addressed the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday. Television footage of Ross showed the wealthy businessman sleeping soundly as Trump talked about a possible trade deal with China -- which is part of the Commerce chief's portfolio -- and the U.S. stance on Iran. Ross had his eyes firmly closed for as long as 15 minutes, video suggested, as Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave the impression of listening intently to Trump."
David Gilbert of Vice: "The New York Times says that the White House was aware of a threat to the safety of one of its journalists working in Egypt, but did nothing to stop it, forcing the newspaper to ask Ireland for help getting him to safety. 'Two years ago, we got a call from a U.S. government official warning us of the imminent arrest of a New York Times reporter based in Egypt named Declan Walsh,' Times' publisher AG Sulzberger said ... on Monday.... 'We learned the official was passing along this warning without the knowledge or permission of the Trump administration. Rather than trying to stop the Egyptian government or assist the reporter, the official believed, the Trump administration intended to sit on the information and let the arrest be carried out.... Unable to count on our own government to prevent the arrest or help free Declan if he were imprisoned, we turned to his native country, Ireland, for help,' Sulzberger wrote. Within an hour, Irish diplomats had taken Walsh from his house and escorted him to the airport before Egyptian forces could detain him.... The revelations from the Times came within hours of Trump meeting with the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at the UN General Assembly. Trump, who last month reportedly called Sisi 'my favorite dictator' once again praised the Egyptian leader, and said he was 'not concerned' about protests that broke out in Egypt over the weekend." ~~~
~~~ Matt Yglesias of Vox: "The conceptual link between the misconduct Sulzberger alleges and the president is very clear -- Trump has denounced the free press as 'fake news' and 'enemies of the people' and somehow managed to look at America's decades-long pattern of turning a blind eye to human rights abuses by our Middle Eastern allies and made policy even blinder. But the specific facts Sulzberger describes don't directly implicate the president or any other top officials beyond the embassy in Cairo. It's the classic case of a situation for which a rigorous oversight investigation is necessary. Congress should find out if this is a case of rogue officials misreading signals from the top, or if it's genuinely the case that the secretary of state, the president, or other top officials have instructed embassies to stop going to bat for the rights of American journalists abroad." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I'd like to know why the Times held back this startling story for two years. Was it to make the world safer for its journalists? That would be a very good reason, but why is it okay to tell the story now? The newspaper still has reporters in dangerous countries around the world.
Hahahahaha. Bienvenido a los Estados Unidos, Amigos. Thanks to Akhilleus (see his commentary below) & digby for this:
Trump visited the US border this week & said rock climbers tested his wall & agreed it cannot be climbed. But Mexicans have turned Trump's wall into a tourist attraction & are playing a game to see who can climb it the fastest, no ladders or ropes needed. The record is 45 seconds pic.twitter.com/2Xr4rolKk2
— Stone 🥶 (@stonecold2050) September 22, 2019
Isn't That Special. AP: "Fox News has apologized for a guest who called environmental activist Greta Thunberg mentally ill, and said he would never appear on the network again. Michael Knowles of "'he Daily Wir'" made the comment Monday during a segment on a Fox evening newscast, also saying Thunberg was being exploited by her parents and the left wing. Fox had no comment Tuesday about its own prime-time host, Laura Ingraham, who likened Thunberg to a murderous child cult leader from a Stephen King short story." Emphasis added.
~~~~~~~~~~
Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Got a very late start this morning, so I added quite a bit below after 9 am ET.
"Treason, Bribery, or Other High Crimes," Ctd.
** Karoun Demirjian, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump told his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to hold back almost $400 million in military aid for Ukraine at least a week before a phone call in which Trump is said to have pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate the son of former vice president Joe Biden, according to three senior administration officials. Officials at the Office of Management and Budget relayed Trump's order to the State Department and the Pentagon during an interagency meeting in mid-July, according to officials.... They explained that the president had 'concerns' and wanted to analyze whether the money needed to be spent. Administration officials were instructed to tell lawmakers that the delays were part of an 'interagency process' but to give them no additional information -- a pattern that continued for nearly two months, until the White House released the funds on the night of Sept. 11.... Republican senators on the Senate Appropriations Committee said Sept. 12 that ... the White House decided to release the aid after Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) threatened to freeze $5 billion in Pentagon funding for next year unless the money for 2019 was distributed." CNN's story is here. ~~~
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "In speaking with reporters while in New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly, Mr. Trump was in a combative mood on Monday..., at one point even casually saying that if Republicans had done what Mr. Biden had done, 'they'd be getting the electric chair right now.' Mr. Trump scored his lawyer's rambling and confusing appearance on a CNN show on last week night like a boxing match. 'Rudy Giuliani took Fredo to the cleaners,' he said, using a derogatory nickname for the show's host, Chris Cuomo. And the president excoriated reporters in the room with him. 'You are crooked as hell,' he charged.... Some critics said it did not even matter if Mr. Trump explicitly linked the two issues in the call; simply using the power and prestige of his office to lean on a foreign leader for help in a domestic political contest by itself could justify impeachment, they said. And suspending the aid, they said, appeared to be a corrupt exercise of presidential power to benefit himself, whether he mentioned it to Mr. Zelensky or not."
~~~ Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times match the WashPo's reporting that Trump told Mulvaney to hold aid to Ukraine. Plus this: "... Speaker Nancy Pelosi summoned the leaders of six House committees involved in investigations of the president to meet on Tuesday, telling the lawmakers to come without aides. Afterward, she planned to convene a special meeting of the Democratic caucus to discuss impeachment. Their decisions could have grave implications for Mr. Trump's presidency. A growing number of House Democrats said on Monday that the new revelations all but demanded the move. They warned that a decision by the Trump administration not to hand over documents about a matter of urgent national security would leave the House with no choice but to initiate full-bore impeachment proceedings. At the same time, they said, any material that corroborated news reports about Mr. Trump's actions could lead to the same outcome.... Seven freshman House Democrats with military and national security experience -- most of whom have been reluctant to call for impeachment -- spoke out Monday night in a strongly worded opinion article in The Washington Post.... 'It is clear that the sitting president of the United States placed his own personal interests above the national security interests of the United States,' said Representative Angie Craig of Minnesota, who flipped a Republican seat last fall." ~~~
~~~ Rachel Bade & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been quietly sounding out top allies and lawmakers about whether the time has come to impeach President Trump, a major development as several moderate House Democrats resistant to impeachment suddenly endorsed the extraordinary step of trying to oust the president. Pelosi, according to multiple senior House Democrats and congressional aides, has been gauging the mood of her caucus members about whether they believe that allegations that Trump pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate a political foe are a tipping point. She was making calls as late as Monday night, and many leadership aides who once thought Trump's impeachment was unlikely now say they think it's almost inevitable." The Raw Story summarizes the Post's reporting here. ~~~
~~~ Heather Caygle, et al., of Politico report on House Democrats' "seismic change" as Pelosi & others in the House leadership contemplate impeachment & the number of members now favoring impeachment grows.
Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "Because [some in House leadership] do not seem to realize the cost of the choice to do nothing, less-than-nothing, or worse-than-nothing in response to Donald Trump's acts of corruption and criminality: It's not just that his past bad acts go unpunished, but that future bad acts are expressly encouraged.... To do nothing in the face of repeated lawlessness is to court yet more lawlessness in the future.... This is the argument Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez deployed this past weekend.... When Corey Lewandowski puts on a clinic about contempt of Congress and nothing is done by the only body capable of doing something, that sends a powerful signal that all such future contempt will be welcome and effective. And when Robert Mueller says plainly and unequivocally that the next election is already in the process of being stolen, and nobody acts to secure it, that sends a powerful signal that all such interference is welcome and effective.... If the American public is befuddled, it's because a House majority failed to utilize the only power in its arsenal: that of sober and sustained investigation and public education." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Former Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman (D-NY) pointed out on MSNBC yesterday that when the House (where she was then a member) began impeachment proceedings against Richard Nixon, no House Republicans were on board. But as the proceedings continued, numerous Republicans joined the Democrats. Seven Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee voted with Democrats to approve three of the five proposed articles of impeachment against Nixon.
I don't think it really matters ... whether the president explicitly told the Ukrainians that they wouldn't get their security aid if they didn't interfere in the 2020 elections. There is an implicit threat in every demand that a United States president makes of a foreign power.... That foreign country knows that if they don't do it, there are likely to be consequences. -- Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)
Murphy, who spoke with Zelensky during an early September visit to Ukraine, said Monday that the Ukrainian president 'directly' expressed concerns at their meeting that 'the aid that was being cut off to Ukraine by the president was a consequence' of his unwillingness to launch an investigation into the Bidens. -- WashPo story by Karoun Demirjian & others, linked above ~~~
~~~ Burgess Everett of Politico: "Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is requesting that the Republican Senate conduct hearings and issue a subpoena to the Trump administration in response to a whistleblower complaint about ... Donald Trump's alleged request that Ukraine investigate one of his political opponents. In a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday morning, the New York Democrat said the Senate should hold hearings regarding any connection between delayed aid to Ukraine and Trump's reported request that the country probe the son of former Vice President Joe Biden...." (Also linked yesterday.)
Donald's Famous Recipe for Boiling Frog. Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Remember when Donald Trump dangled the secretary of state job in front of Mitt Romney? They dined at a restaurant inside Trump Tower, and Romney pretended to be so enchanted with his host that he munched on frogs legs & afterwards described Trump's conversation as "enlightening, and interesting and engaging." But those frogs legs were first boiled a la Donald's Famous Recipe, & soon Mitt found out that while Donald might have had him for dinner, he also had him for lunch, rhetorically speaking. He never intended to give Romney a top job in his "administration"; the purpose of the dinner was to humiliate Romney, who had been a leading never-Trumper. Since that time, Donald has been having us for lunch, too, and oftentimes his Famous Boiling Frog is on the menu. "The premise [of the Boiling Frog fable] is that if a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if the frog is put in tepid water which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death." Well, again today we are being treated to the Donald's Famous Recipe:
Trump Keeps Expanding His Admissions re: Ukraine. Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "President Trump on Monday defended his efforts to urge the Ukrainian president to investigate a leading political rival for corruption, arguing that the United States should not give money to a government that tolerates it.... Speaking to reporters at the United Nations headquarters in New York, Mr. Trump declined to address questions about whether he temporarily withheld $391 million in military aid to Kiev as part of an effort to push the government to comply with his demands for an investigation into Mr. Biden and his family. But Mr. Trump appeared to argue that such an action would not be inappropriate. 'If you don't talk about corruption, why would you give money to a country that you think is corrupt?' he said.... 'What Biden did is a disgrace. What his son did is a disgrace,' Mr. Trump said. Between events at the United Nations complex, Mr. Trump also tweeted an attack against his accusers as 'stone cold Crooked.' And he implied that an unnamed intelligence community whistle-blower who filed a secret complaint about his behavior, based in part on his dealings with Ukraine, might be a traitor: 'Is he on our Country's side,' Mr. Trump wrote. 'Where does he come from.'" Here's the Hill's story. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump is well-past the place where he started -- calling the whole story "fake news" -- & now into admitting he discussed Biden on the phone call in which -- however obliquely -- he tried to twist Zelensky's arm to investigate the Bidens by holding back aid to Ukraine. This is a pattern with Trump & his apologists: deny, hedge, admit, defend (with a phony excuse) & accuse others. And gradually, many people who were shocked by the initial news story, which Trump denied, are assauged by the assertions that the shocking thing Trump did was "perfectly nice," as he puts it, and Joe Biden isn't. ~~~
~~~ Update. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... on Monday, Trump appeared to inch ever closer to admitting the underlying allegation raised by that same whistleblower." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Jonathan Chait: "Trump 'speaks in code,' as his former fixer, Michael Cohen, testified. He avoids direct corrupt offers, but makes his intentions plain. As he revealingly told a reporter, 'I did not make a statement that "you have to do this or I'm not going to give you aid." I wouldn't do that....' The code is Trump's plausible deniability. But in several comments, he has translated it, eliminating that deniability.[Sunday], a reporter asked Trump if he had mentioned the name of Joe Biden or his son in his phone call with Ukraine's president. Trump did not answer directly but did make it clear that 'corruption' was his code word for his demand to investigate Biden. He also made clear that he connected the Biden investigation to aid for Ukraine:... 'Well, I don't even want to mention it, but certainly I'd have every right to. I'd have every right to. If there's corruption, and we're paying lots of money to a country, we don't want a country we're giving massive aid to to be corrupting our system, and we don't want it to be corrupt in any way.'... Also Sunday, Trump told reporters his conversation was 'largely' devoted to the subject of 'corruption' -- i.e., Biden[.]... And in remarks to reporters [Monday], he reaffirmed his belief that it is proper to withhold aid from Ukraine to compel the country to investigate Biden (again expressed through the code of 'corruption')[.]"
~~~ Thomas Elfrink of the Washington Post: "Hours after appearing to confirm that he had discussed former vice president Joe Biden and his son with Ukraine's president in an exchange at the center of a whistleblower complaint, President Trump took to Twitter on Sunday night to insist again that he had done nothing wrong on a 'nice' call with the foreign leader and to slam his Democratic rival. The tweets came after a full day of attacks against the Democratic presidential nominee by Trump administration officials and allies who demanded investigations of Biden and his son Hunter despite a lack of evidence of wrongdoing.... Trump repeated those claims on Sunday night, again without any evidence, writing, 'Sleepy Joe Biden, on the other hand, forced a tough prosecutor out from investigating his son's company by threat of not giving big dollars to Ukraine.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
Washington Post Editors: "PRESIDENT TRUMP is right about Ukraine in one respect: For many years, the country's politics have been dominated by a complex and ugly struggle over corruption.... An underdog movement of civil society activists, journalists and liberal legislators, with the sporadic support of Western governments, has battled oligarchs -- many with connections to Russia or to organized crime -- and the compromised government officials who protect them.... Wha Mr. Trump does not explain is that he and his lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, have sided with the bad guys in this struggle: the Russians, the oligarchs and the compromised officials. The false stories they tell about Joe Biden and other U.S. Democrats result from this misguided alliance. Mr. Giuliani has a record of doing business with Ukrainians close to Russia and to former president Viktor Yanukovych, a stooge of Russian President Vladimir Putin who, after being ousted by a popular uprising in 2014, was accused of looting millions of dollars.... By demanding that he investigate the 'corruption' of Mr. Biden and Mr. Leshchenko, Mr. Trump and Mr. Giuliani of course are trying, dishonestly, to damage a potential opponent of Mr. Trump in the 2020 presidential election. But in the process, they also are advancing the agenda of those in Ukraine who seek to defend corrupt oligarchs and block genuine reform." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The editors remind me of the comeuppance of Miss Jean Brodie. At about 5:50 min. in, Miss Brodie (Maggie Smith) & Sandy (Pamela Franklin) begin talking about the death of one of Miss Brodie's other pupils, Mary McGregor, who went off the fight with her brother in the Spanish rebellion. Miss Brodie commends Mary for dying "a heroine ... for a cause." But -- much to Miss Brodie's surprise -- Sandy tells her, "Her brother is fighting for the other side.... Mary was headed for the wrong army." Trump & Giuliani, of course, know perfectly well they're in cahoots with the "other side'" Sandy says later to Miss Brodie, "You are dangerous & unwholesome & children should not be exposed to you." It's what any sensible person would say about Trump. (BTW, the character of Miss Mackay -- who appears in the earliest scene of this clip) is played by Celia Johnson, whose most famous role was decades earlier as the central character in the film "Brief Encounter," a romantic drama.
Jonathan Chait: "The anticlimactic denouement of the Mueller report ... [gave] President Trump ... an almost intoxicating sense of impunity, a realization that his attempts to cultivate Russia as an ally, and largely successful efforts to gain control of the Justice Department, gave him carte blanche to plan his next crime. In June, he announced on television that he would accept dirt on his opponent from a foreign government if offered it again. He dispatched his lawyer to Ukraine to deliver the message that he demanded an investigation of his leading Democratic rival, and that he would use the powers of his office to leverage this end. It is primarily because Trump is indicating his war on democratic norms will not end that Congress is barreling toward impeachment right now at astonishing speed.... [What] seems ... likely now is a prospect that had appeared remote just days ago: The House of Representatives will hold impeachment proceedings for ... Donald Trump."
Natasha Bertrand & Daniel Lippman of Politico: "The intelligence community's chief watchdog, Michael Atkinson, is known to his peers and colleagues as a highly cautious 'straight shooter' who tends to keep his head down. So when he sounded the alarm to Congress earlier this month about an 'urgent' complaint he'd received from an intelligence official involving Trump's communications, those who've worked with him were surprised -- and took it seriously. 'As soon as I saw that it was Atkinson, I thought, "Oh shit, this is real,"' said one of Atkinson's former Justice Department colleagues.... He's ... irked Republicans who have accused both him and the whistleblower of being partisan actors. There's no evidence Atkinson is a political partisan in either direction -- a search of campaign finance records, for instance, finds no evidence that he's ever donated to a candidate. And those who know Atkinson say he wouldn't have gone this far if he didn't believe his actions were consistent with the law." --s
Mrs. McCrabbie: Something that hasn't received a lot of attention: the number of other high-ranking officials Trump has implicated in the Ukraine scheme. His acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney; the Office of Management & Budget; AG Bill Barr & the "Justice" Department, of course; the Pentagon & Defense Department; the acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo & the State Department; Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin; VPOTUS mike pence; & probably others. This is one big steaming pile. ~~~
~~~ Update. Josh Marshall gets it: "... this latest and most egregious Trump scandal is that his senior team was clearly in on it, aware of it, participated in it. One key person here is Vice President Mike Pence.... On September 1st, he met in Warsaw with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The next day he held a press conference with President Duda of Poland at which he was specifically asked whether he had pressed Zelensky to manufacture damaging information about Joe Biden and whether military aid was being held up until he did. Pence started by saying he hadn't and then proceeded to give an answer that made it pretty clear that he had, even if he had not mentioned the former Vice President by name.... '... We discussed America's support for Ukraine and the upcoming decision the President will make on the latest tranche of financial support in great detail.... But as President Trump had me make clear, we have great concerns about issues of corruption.... To invest additional taxpayer in Ukraine, the President wants to be assured that those resources are truly making their way to the kind of investments that will contribute to security and stability in Ukraine. And that's an expectation the American people have and the President has expressed very clearly.... [I] also told him that I would carry back to President Trump the progress that he and his administration in Ukraine are making on dealing with corruption in their country." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Message delivered, message received. Welcome, President Pelosi.
Mark Stern of Slate: "The unfolding story of the whistleblower complaint may well be another chapter in the lengthy narrative of how the [Office of Legal Counsel] has quietly facilitated some of the worst overreaches of executive power in recent history.... The OLC notoriously issued the 'torture memos,' blessing the George W. Bush administration's abusive interrogation methods, which were hidden from the public for years. It also crafted the policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted, which boxed in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and report. Under Attorney General William Barr and Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel, who is in charge of the OLC, the office has created a legal rationale for Trump's agenda while shielding that same rationale from scrutiny.... The OLC claims authority to determine which of its opinions are made public, and it releases only a tiny fraction of its memos.... What is [acting DNI Joseph] Maguire's legal basis for withholding the complaint? The OLC told him it was not an 'urgent concern.' Its reasoning, of course, is secret." Thanks to Ken W. for the link.
Lachlan Markay & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "... Rudy Giuliani is already hinting at a new front in his questionable offensive against former Vice President Joe Biden's son. And it&'s a charge that Trump allies outside the White House have been pursuing for months. A group of conservative activists closely aligned with the president -- including former White House adviser Steve Bannon, conservative author Peter Schweizer, and anti-Muslim activist Frank Gaffney -- are trying to spread dirt on Hunter Biden's work in China. Their efforts have come as almost all of the national political attention is currently focused on Giuliani's and ... Donald Trump's efforts to pressure the Ukrainian government into investigating alleged corruption involving the former VP's son who formerly sat on the board of an energy company in the country.... In his protracted interview last week with CNN host Chris Cuomo, Trump's attorney said the word 'China' more than a dozen times to draw attention to the matter. Giuliani and Trump have also talked about China as a liability for Biden and his son in recent conversations, according to a source with knowledge of the discussions.... 'It's arguably worse than Ukraine,'" Giuliani told the Daily Beast."
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Funny irony. Trump may be impeached specifically because of his efforts to undermine a person who will not ultimately be his opponent in the presidential race. What is he going to do? Assert that Elizabeth Warren stole small change from the coffee fund in the Harvard Law lounge? Assert Kamala Harris isn't black? (Oh, wait, that one is already in the soup.)
The Party of Treason. Paul Krugman: "Republicans have spent the past half-century portraying themselves as more patriotic, more committed to national security than Democrats.... But now we have a president who really is unpatriotic to the point of betraying American values and interests.... Yet almost all G.O.P. politicians seem perfectly fine with Trump's behavior. Which means that it's time to call Republican superpatriotism what it was long before Trump appeared on the scene: a fraud.... If a party is willing to rig political outcomes by preventing minorities from voting, if it's willing to use extreme gerrymandering to retain power even when voters reject it, why won't it be equally willing to encourage foreign powers to subvert U.S. elections? A bit of treason is just part of the package.... An impeachment process would ... get the truth about who really cares about defending America and its values -- and who doesn't -- out into the open."
Tom Winter & Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "Prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney's office want a judge to throw out ... Donald Trump's bid to block them from looking at his personal and corporate tax returns. The office of Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance subpoenaed Trump's accountants for the returns late last month as part of a criminal investigation into the Trump Organization over hush money payments made to two women who had alleged affairs with the president. Trump has denied the affairs. Trump's lawyers filed suit in federal court to block the request, arguing in part that Vance isn't entitled to the returns and that "'[v]irtually all legal commenters agree" that a sitting president of the United States is not "subject to the criminal process" while he is in office.'" The reporters summarize Vance's arguments against Trump's above-the-law assertions.
Hahahaha. Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Monday revived his beef with the selection committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize, claiming that the process is rigged against him. Speaking to reporters before a bilateral meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, Trump asserted that 'I would get a Nobel prize for a lot of things, if they give it out fairly, which they don't.'" Mrs. McC: Yeah, when the Nobel committee starts giving out the prize for people who promote international discord, you'll win, Donaldo. (Sorry, forgot the link earlier as I was laughing too hard to concentrate.) (Also linked [belatedly] yesterday.)
Stephanie Ebbs of ABC News: "Leaders from around the world are set to discuss climate change on Monday at a United Nations summit in what one U.N. official said could be a 'slingshot' to catalyze global action toward reducing emissions and limiting global warming.... Donald Trump was not scheduled to attend but showed up unexpectedly Monday morning." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Update. Arren Kimbel-Sannit of Politico: "The president attended the day-long summit for just 14 minutes before leaving for his religious freedom event, according to a pool report.... He found a seat in the auditorium just as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the stage, according to pool reports." Mrs. McC: So it was a GOTV-India event. Nice. ~~~
~~~ Kalhan Rosenblatt of NBC News: "Teen environmental activist Greta Thunberg delivered an emotional and scathing speech at the United Nations on Monday, accusing world leaders of stealing her dreams and her childhood with their inaction on climate change.... Thunberg slammed the members of the U.N. for caring more about money and 'fairytales of eternal economic growth' than collapsing ecosystems, mass extinctions and people suffering due to climate change." ~~~
~~~ A facial expression is worth a thousand words. Thunberg spies Trump:
~~~ So ... Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "... Donald Trump mocked Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on Twitter late Monday night after the 16-year-old excoriated world leaders for not doing enough to tackle the climate crisis. 'She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!' Trump posted on Twitter, replying to a video of Thunberg's speech at the United Nations climate action summit earlier in the day.... Monday's tweet is a striking display of the President teasing a child. In the video shared by Trump of her speech, Thunberg is visibly frustrated and at times appears to be holding back tears of anger as she dresses down the UN General Assembly." ~~~
~~~ "There Is No Planet B." Justin Moyer, et al., of the Washington Post: "Climate change protesters shut down some intersections from Capitol Hill to downtown Washington Monday morning in the latest of rallies around the world designed to force policymakers to respond to Earth's rising temperatures. Organizers of Shut Down DC urged 'climate rebels' to flood the District';s streets Monday to bring 'the whole city to a gridlocked standstill,' according to the group's website. The website included a map of so-called 'climate criminals' that includes 'corporations, lobbyists, trade cartels, and government institutions that are most responsible for creating the climate crisis.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said Sunday that Iran would not resume talks with ... Donald Trump and his administration until a French plan to extend $15 billion of credit to Tehran goes into full effect.... Iran has been in conversations with French President Emmanuel Macron for weeks about the possibility of accessing billions of dollars from either the French central bank or the European Central Bank to compensate for the money Iran lost in oil sales due to American sanctions.... On CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday, [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo said: 'I don't know why anyone listens to the Iranian foreign minister. It's beneath the dignity of anyone to listen to him.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So Pompeo is the U.S.'s top "diplomat," and he's insulting Zarif, his Iranian counterpart. Okay. BUT Eleanor Mueller of Politico: "... Donald Trump 'would like a diplomatic solution' with Iran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday. 'Our mission set is to avoid war. That's the task in front of us,' Pompeo said on 'Fox News Sunday.' 'That's what we've been aiming for for a little over two years now, with the strongest sanctions that have ever been put in place against this revolutionary regime.'" (Also linked yesterday.) Note to Mike: You know, if it's "beneath your dignity" (as if a Trumpy flunkie has any dignity) to listen to Iran's top "diplomat," you're not all that likely to get a "diplomatic solution."
All the Best People, Ctd. Jason Burke & Julian Borger of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's new national security adviser attended a segregated university in South Africa, described by one of its former vice-chancellors as 'routinely racist'. Robert O'Brien, a relatively junior official appointed to the top White House post on Wednesday, went to the University of the Orange Free State under the South African apartheid system. O'Brien's LinkedIn page says he was there in 1987, while still an undergraduate.... The first black undergraduate was admitted in 1988. South Africa at the time was considered a pariah state and faced wide-ranging academic, sporting and cultural boycotts, backed by the UN. The US imposed sanctions in 1986, after Congress pushed through the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, overriding a veto by Ronald Reagan." --s
** A.G. Sulzberger, the New York Times publisher in a Times op-ed: "Around the globe, a relentless campaign is targeting journalists because of the fundamental role they play in ensuring a free and informed society. To stop journalists from exposing uncomfortable truths and holding power to account, a growing number of governments have engaged in overt, sometimes violent, efforts to discredit their work and intimidate them into silence. Thi is a worldwide assault on journalists and ... on the public's right to know, on core democratic values, on the concept of truth itself. And perhaps most troubling, the seeds of this campaign were planted right here, in a country that has long prided itself on being the fiercest defender of free expression and a free press.... The current administration, however, has retreated from our country’s historical role as a defender of the free press. Seeing that, other countries are targeting journalists with a growing sense of impunity." Read on. What the administration did (or rather didn't do) when NYT reporters Declan Walsh & David Kirkpatrick were threatened by a foreign government is still shocking, even knowing what we know about Trump.
Christine Stapleton of the Palm Beach Post: "Bad optics has prompted a West Palm Beach Marine Corps reserve unit to cancel its plans to celebrate the corps' 244th birthday at Mar-a-Lago even though no tax dollars would have been spent, no discounts had been given and no money would have been raised at the president’s private club. The controversy and cancellation has left the 4th Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company, also known as the 4th ANGLICO, with no alternative but to host the annual birthday ball in its warehouse-like quarters off Belvedere Road."
Judd Legum of Popular Information: "The 'I Love America' Facebook page boasts 1.1 million fans ... [and] reaches more Facebook users than some of the largest media outlets in the United States.... Not mentioned is that the page is managed by ten people based in Ukraine. (There is also one manager from Kazakhstan, one from France, and one from the United States.)... The 'I Love America' page regularly recycles memes used by the Internet Research Agency, the Russian entity that set up phony Facebook pages to benefit Trump in advance of the 2016 election.... There is a complex network of Facebook pages, all managed by people in Ukraine ... that are now being used to funnel large audiences to pro-Trump propaganda. The pages have also joined political Facebook groups and are active on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.... A Facebook spokesperson told Popular Information that the company does not believe any of the Facebook pages discussed in this article violate its policies[.]" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Update: Judd Legum, in a tweet writes that the "I Love America" page, and every page identified in his piece, has been removed by Facebook. --s
Matthew Chapman of Raw Story: "A new report [PDF] from the Vietnam Veterans Association has uncovered an ongoing two-year effort by actors in several foreign countries, including Russia, to target U.S. veterans and servicemembers. The report shows that 'These foreign admins have created individual social-media accounts that purport to belong to American veterans working at reputable veterans organizations,'... and 'spread propaganda and false news, while shaping and moderating/censoring the conversations of the unsuspecting community of American veterans who follow or join these groups and pages.'" --s (Also linked yesterday.)
Michael Wolgelenter of the New York Times: "The tour operator and airline Thomas Cook said on Monday that it had collapsed, forcing hundreds of thousands of travelers to scramble to find a way home, after last-minute negotiation to obtain necessary financing for the debt-ridden company fell apart.... The Civil Aviation Authority in Britain said that all Thomas Cook bookings, including flights and vacations, had been canceled, affecting an estimated 600,000 people around the world. The liquidation of the world’s oldest travel company, which specialized in low-cost package vacations that included flights and accommodation in more than 60 destinations around the world, has set in motion what was being described as the biggest peacetime repatriation in British history, as the government announced plans to bring back 150,000 Britons." The NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Way Beyond the Beltway
U.K. Another Very Bad Hair Day for Boris. Owen Bowcott & Severin Carrell of the Guardian: "The supreme court has ruled [unanimously] that Boris Johnson's advice to the Queen that parliament should be prorogued for five weeks at the height of the Brexit crisis was unlawful. The unanimous judgment from 11 justices on the UK's highest court followed an emergency three-day hearing last week that exposed fundamental legal differences over interpreting the country's unwritten constitution." ~~~
~~~ Mark Landler of the New York Times: "The unanimous decision, which upheld a ruling from Scotland's highest civil court, said that the suspension of Parliament until Oct. 14 is void. That means that the lawmakers are still in session and will continue the debate over Brexit that was short-circuited when Mr. Johnson asked the queen to suspend, or prorogue, Parliament for five weeks.... The speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, who presides over debate, said the chamber would reconvene on Wednesday -- nearly three weeks earlier than the schedule Mr. Johnson had set. Mr. Johnson showed no sign of being chastened by the ruling, and did not rule out suspending Parliament again.... Mr. Johnson has suffered an extraordinary string of legal and political defeats since becoming prime minister in July.... A new threat emerged over the weekend, when The Sunday Times of London reported that when Mr. Johnson was mayor of London, his office directed government grants and coveted spots in trade delegations to an entrepreneur, a young woman, whose apartment he often visited during working hours."
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