The Commentariat -- June 14, 2019

 

Late Morning Update:

Image of a $20 note produced by the Bureau of Engraving & Printing.

... Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Extensive work was well underway on a new $20 bill bearing the image of Harriet Tubman when Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced last month that the design of the note would be delayed for technical reasons by six years and might not include the former slave and abolitionist.... Mr. Mnuchin, testifying before Congress, said new security features under development made the 2020 design deadline set by the Obama administration impossible to meet....In fact, work on the new $20 note began before Mr. Trump took office, and the basic design already on paper most likely could have satisfied the goal of unveiling a note bearing Tubman's likeness on next year's centennial of the 19th Amendment.... A current employee of the [Bureau of Engraving and Printing] ... said that the design appeared to be far along in the process."

Justin Fishel & Lucien Bruggeman of ABC News: "... Donald Trump is directly disputing the account of a key witness in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible obstruction of justice during the course of the Russia probe saying that it 'doesn't matter' what his former White House counsel Don McGahn testified.... Trump [told George Stephanopoulos] McGahn 'may have been confused' when he told Mueller that Trump instructed him multiple times to have the acting attorney general remove the special counsel because of perceived conflicts of interest. 'The story on that very simply, No. 1, I was never going to fire Mueller. I never suggested firing Mueller,' Trump told Stephanopoulos." Mrs. McC: If there was any basis for Trump's claim of executive privilege re: McGahn, there isn't anymore. By discussing the matter publicly & disputing McGahn's sworn testimony, Trump has waived any claim of executive privilege. McGahn has the right, for one thing, to publicly defend his testimony. ...

... In Another Attempted Clean-up, Trump Again Vows to Collude with Foreign Governments. Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "Trump on Friday [told Fox 'News'] he would 'of course' look at dirt from a foreign government on his political opponents, but stated he would give it to the FBI if he knew it was 'bad.' The comments were Trump's latest attempt to do damage control over his comments to ABC News that he would accept damaging information about his rivals from hostile powers, which drew widespread backlash in Washington.... He added that 'if I thought anything was incorrect or badly stated I'd report to the FBI or law enforcement, absolutely.'... Despite the blowback he has faced from Democrats and Republicans, Trump said 'I've had a lot of support' for his position, but did not cite any examples. The president insisted he made it clear in his interview with ABC that he would report damaging information to the FBI, even though he told anchor George Stephanopoulos he would 'maybe' do so." ...

     ... Mitch Is Like, "Whatever." Matthew Choi of Politico: "Speaking with Fox News' Laura Ingraham on Thursday night, the Senate majority leader spoke with exasperation over the backlash the president has received for saying he would hear out foreign assistance if offered in the 2020 election. McConnell portrayed the comments as a nonstory, saying Congress had legislative agendas to focus on. 'They just can't let it go, Laura,' McConnell said. 'I said weeks ago, case closed. We got the Mueller report, the only objective evaluation that will be conducted.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So even if the Mueller report had exonerated Trump, which of course it did not, according to Mitch, nothing Trump does or says thereafter can be scrutinized, either. So a "forever" get-out-of-jail-free card. The last time I got stopped for speeding, the policeman did not give me a ticket, even though I was definitely speeding. If I had one of Mitch's cards, I could go on speeding every time I got behind the wheel, with no legal consequences.

... Trump Can't Take the Heat, Insults Stephanopoulos. Joe Concha of the Hill: "President Trump pushed back at ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos during a testy interview, calling him 'a little wise guy.' Stephanopoulos was pressing the president on not answering questions in person from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team. 'Wait a minute. I did answer questions. I answered them in writing,' Trump said. 'Not on obstruction.' Stephanopoulos replied. 'George, you're being a little wise guy, OK, which is, you know, typical for you,' Trump hit back. 'Just so you understand. Very simple. It's very simple. There was no crime. There was no collusion. The big thing's collusion. Now, there's no collusion. That means ... it was a setup, in my opinion, and I think it's going to come out,' he continued." ...

... Politico: "... Donald Trump said on Friday that he has no plans to fire top aide Kellyanne Conway after an independent federal agency recommended that she be removed from her job after she repeatedly used her office for political purposes.... On Friday, Trump fiercely defended Conway and criticized the Hatch Act, saying it unfairly muzzles officials." Mrs. McC: So New Trump Rule: If the President* Says a Law Is "Unfair," He Doesn't Have to Obey It. Expect the rule to apply to court orders, too.

Ben Dooley of the New York Times: "One of the tankers that were attacked in the Gulf of Oman was struck by a flying object, the ship's Japanese operator said on Friday, expressing doubt that a mine had been attached to its hull. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday that American intelligence agencies had concluded that Tehran was behind the disabling of two tankers in the Gulf of Oman, a vital conduit for much of the world's oil.... In an interview broadcast on Friday by 'Fox & Friends,' President Trump directly accused Tehran, saying, 'Iran did do it.'... But Yutaka Katada, the [tanker] company's president, citing accounts from the ship's crew, said Friday: 'I do not think there was a time bomb or an object attached to the side of the ship.'"

Brian Faler of Politico: "Federal tax payments by big businesses are falling much faster than anticipated in the wake of Republicans' tax cuts, providing ammunition to Democrats who are calling for corporate tax increases. The U.S. Treasury saw a 31 percent drop in corporate tax revenues last year, almost twice the decline official budget forecasters had predicted. Receipts were projected to rebound sharply this year, but so far they've only continued to fall, down by almost 9 percent or $11 billion. Though business profits remain healthy and the economy is strong, total corporate taxes are at the lowest levels seen in more than 50 years. At the same time, overall taxes paid by individuals under the new tax law are up so far this year by 3 percent, thanks to higher wages and salaries, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Last year tax payments by individuals went up 4 percent."

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Michael Kruse of Politico: "Four years ago, Donald Trump stepped onto an escalator in the atrium of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York and began descending into a lobby packed with cameras. It's safe to say the 10 or so seconds that followed are the most consequential escalator ride in American history. The cranked-up soundtrack was Neil Young's 'Rockin' in the Free World.' The cued-up crowd was made up of loyal staff, bemused reporters, people given 50 bucks to wave signs and make noise, and tourists and bystanders dressed up in early MAGA merchandise they'd just been handed. And they watched Trump, the director and leading man of his own lifelong show, standing and waving and giving a thumbs-up, trailing behind his smiling, stiletto-heeled wife, gliding through his habitat of marble and brass toward his discursive, xenophobic speech, his unprecedented candidacy and ultimately the White House." ...

The only thing he missed was a fog machine at the top of the escalator so that he could appear out of a mist.... If you saw it in a Batman movie where a villain was staging his announcement, it would look a lot like this. It would be staged in the same way. … A movie villain would live in a golden tower in the middle of a metropolis. He would have bodyguards. He would have paid courtiers. He would glide down the golden escalator. -- Michael D'Antonio, reflecting on Trump's announcement theatrics

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

It's the Media's Fault. Also Prince of Whales. Peter Baker & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "President Trump on Thursday defended his willingness to accept campaign help from Russia or other foreign governments by equating it to the sort of diplomatic meetings he holds with world leaders as the nation's chief executive.... 'I meet and talk to "foreign governments" every day,' he wrote Thursday on Twitter. 'I just met with the Queen of England (U.K.), the Prince of Whales, the P.M. of the United Kingdom, the P.M. of Ireland, the President of France and the President of Poland. We talked about "Everything!"' he added, misspelling the title of Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, before fixing and reposting it. 'Should I immediately call the FBI about these calls and meetings?' he continued 'How ridiculous! I would never be trusted again. With that being said, my full answer is rarely played by the Fake News Media. They purposely leave out the part that matters.' The comparison was startling even for Mr. Trump. Having tea with the queen of England is hardly the same as taking clandestine help from agents of President Vladimir V. Putin as part of a concerted campaign by Russian intelligence to tilt an American presidential election." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... The story has been substantially updated to cover reaction to Trump's announcement that in 2020 he would collude with, say, Norway (or a hostile foreign government) in order to get dirt on his opponent. For instance, "Irritated at what they considered an unnecessary distraction, Republicans, including some of the president's staunchest supporters, joined in the chorus of criticism. While some sought to turn the tables on Democrats by accusing them of taking foreign help, too, Republicans flatly rejected Mr. Trump's insistence that it was acceptable."

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Trump's declaration is even more astounding than Baker & Fandos let on. It's an honor-among-thieves defense in which Trump promises U.S. adversaries that he'll keep their secrets if they dish dirt that benefits him. Very mob-bossy. See Patrick's commentary in yesterday's thread explaining what happens when a foreign official speaks by phone to a :real" president. ...

... Kevin Drum: "In Trump's interview [Wednesday] with George Stephanopoulos, neither man explicitly mentioned getting oppo from foreign 'governments.' I figured this was negligent on Stephanopoulos's part and deliberate on Trump's part, but obviously that's not the case. In today's tweet, Trump specifically said he thought it was just fine for him to talk to 'foreign governments.' Since the context is campaign oppo, he's saying that it's OK for a presidential candidate to accept scuttlebutt from an agent of a foreign government. I didn't think that even Trump would admit to that, but as usual, it turns out that he's even worse than I ever thought." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Since Republicans -- House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy & Sen. Lindsey Graham, for instance -- are accusing Hillary Clinton of doing the same thing vis-a-vis the Steele dossier, let's clear that up. As Baker notes, Christopher Steele "was not working for a hostile government and he turned over his findings to the F.B.I." AND Bill McCarthy of Politifact: "Experts we spoke to described a range of differences between the type of information Trump said he would accept and what Clinton's campaign was paying Fusion GPS for. The main difference is the role of a foreign government. 'Working hand-in-hand with a foreign power for information intended to influence an election is different than hiring a private firm that then hired somebody who had been a former intelligence agent,' said Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law.... 'One is collecting intelligence and the other is an active measure by a foreign power to achieve a political end of some sort,' [former CIA intelligence agent Glenn] Carle said. 'There’s no comparison at all.'" ...

... AND let's see how upset Republicans actually are to Trump's illegal, unethical & mind-boggling declaration. Zachary Basu of Axios: "Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) blocked an effort by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) to pass a bill via unanimous consent requiring campaigns to report any offers of foreign assistance to the FBI." ...

... Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News: "President Trump's 2020 reelection campaign will handle damaging information on political opponents provided by foreign governments and entities on a 'case by case basis,' according to the campaign's top spokesperson. Asked about Mr. Trump's assertion that he would be receptive to dirt on rivals offered by foreigners, Kayleigh McEnany, the national press secretary for the president's reelection bid, told CBSN ... that campaign staff should take the president's comments as a 'directive' to handle foreign dirt through a two-pronged approach. "The president's directive, as he said, [it's] a case by case basis. He said he would likely do both: Listen to what they have to say, but also report it to the FBI," McEnany said. She denied that the president's comments were an "open invitation" for foreign actors to interfere in the 2020 campaign." Mrs. McC: Okay, so this is a confirmation that the campaign will happily violate the law by collecting (and presumably using) "dirt," then -- "on a case by case basis" -- maybe tell the FBI what country provided the dirt, in accordance with Trump's "directive." Who could have a problem with that? ...

... Oh. Matthew Choi of Politico: "The head of the Federal Election Commission released a statement on Thursday evening reiterating, emphatically, that foreign assistance is illegal in U.S. elections. 'Let me make something 100% clear to the American public and anyone running for public office: It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election,' wrote Ellen Weintraub, chairwoman of the FEC. 'This is not a novel concept.' She also sent the statement via Twitter with the introductory line: 'I would not have thought that I needed to say this.'" Mrs. McC: George W. Bush appointed Weintraub. I suppose Trump the mobster thinks it's hilarious that a little old lady thinks she can make him behave himself. Would that Chris Ray had Weintraub's guts. ...

... Darren Samuelsohn & Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "Nearly two years ago, FBI Director Chris Wray set up an office tasked solely with stopping the type of Russian interference efforts that infected the 2016 campaign. On Wednesday night..., Donald Trump undercut the whole operation in a matter of seconds. In [the] ABC News interview, the president first proclaimed he would have no problem accepting dirt on his opponents from a foreign power, then said Wray was 'wrong' to suggest the FBI needs to know about such offers. The comments, according to interviews with nearly a dozen law enforcement veterans, have undone months of work, essentially inviting foreign spies to meddle with 2020 presidential campaigns and demoralizing the agents trying to stop them. And it has backed Wray into a corner, they added, putting him in a position where he might have to either publicly chastise the president and risk getting fired, or resign in protest. America's enemies will see Trump's comments and likely 'come out of the woodwork like never before to try to influence the president,' said longtime FBI veteran Frank Figliuzzi, who served as the bureau's assistant director for counterintelligence until 2012. 'And it's going to be more difficult to defend against because they&'ll try harder than ever to mask their attempts.'" ...

... Napolitano Shocks Foxbots Again. Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "Reacting to President Trump saying he would accept foreign intel on a political opponent if offered, and that he doesn't feel it's necessary to contact the FBI, Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano on Thursday said he worries the president is 'prepared to commit a felony.' Napolitano was asked by Fox News anchor Shep Smith if there was any 'gray area' or 'wiggle room' when it comes to campaigns legally receiving 'dirt from a foreign entity on a political opponent.' 'There's no wiggle room with respect to dirt,' the judge responded. 'With respect to opposition research. The Federal Election Commission decided in other cases that that is a thing of value.'... 'The president of the United States of America is prepared to commit a felony to get re-elected,' Napolitano concluded." ...

... Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "In a new interview with ABC News's George Stephanopoulos, parts of which were released on Wednesday evening, Donald Trump announced his willingness to betray and subvert American democracy, again.... With the end of Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation, House Democrats' craven fear of launching an impeachment inquiry, and the abject capitulation of Republicans to Trumpian authoritarianism, the president is reveling in his own impunity.... I know everyone's tired. But democracy is not going to save itself." ...

... Susan Glasser of the New Yorker: Trump, instead of proclaiming 'no collusion,' now seemed to be announcing that he is pro-collusion.... In Washington, Democrats currently have two opposite and contradictory theories of the case.... A fight between Pelosi and her fellow-Democrats is exactly what Trump wants. He seeks division and discord; he benefits from it." Glasser, who was in Germany this week, elaborates on Trump's relationships with European leaders, & discusses, among other things, Trump's announced decision to transfer a thousand U.S. troops from Germany to Poland because Poland's winger nationalistic president Andrzej Duda has kissed up to him & promised to build a "Fort Trump" in Poland if Trump will permanently station U.S. troops there. "... the vision of an America whose foreign policy is driven by personal pique, whose troops can be rented out by the highest, most obsequious bidder, is a searing one. In a week of outrages, this was far from the worst, but in some ways it ranks among the most consequential."

Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: “... Donald Trump on Thursday hailed Michael Flynn's move to hire a lawyer who has been a fierce critic of the FBI's investigation into the former national security adviser. 'General Michael Flynn, the 33 year war hero who has served with distinction, has not retained a good lawyer, he has retained a GREAT LAWYER, Sidney Powell,' Trump tweeted. 'Best Wishes and Good Luck to them both!' The message from Trump is one of the strongest indicators Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his contacts with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition, remains in the president's good graces and hints that a pardon might still be within the realm of possibility." Mrs. McC: I can't help but suspect Flynn has something on Trump that Flynn has not divulged or that Trump thinks Flynn has not divulged. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Fred Kaplan of Slate: "... Trump's conflating his own interests with those of U.S. national security isn't so much a revelation (there have been countless instances of Trump's 'l'etat, c'est moi' attitude) but rather an extension of the syndrome into new and dangerous territory. This is detailed in a front-page story in Thursday's New York Times reporting that Attorney General William Barr wants to interview the CIA's counterintelligence analysts about precisely how they concluded that Putin ordered the hacking of the 2016 election.... Whatever you want to believe [about the motivations of the various investigators], there is nothing to be gained -- no theory abou Mueller's team would be confirmed or disputed -- by giving Barr the 'sources and methods' behind the intelligence community's conclusions. On what basis -- with what training as an intelligence analyst -- would Barr determine that the sources were unreliable or that the methods didn't justify the conclusions?... There is another distressing factor to consider.... Trump has been careless with top secrets.... This is the bottom line on Trump's suitability as president: It is an active debate -- and no one can be certain -- whether he can be trusted with the secrets on which presidents rely to do their job."

Adam Edelman of NBC News: "The House Intelligence Committee on Thursday issued subpoenas to former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates, as part of the panel's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The subpoenas are for both testimony and documents, the committee's chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said in a statement." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Personnel Matters -- All the Best People

Good Riddance. Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "Sarah Huckabee Sanders will leave her post as White House press secretary at the end of the month, President Trump announced on Thursday." (Also linked yesterday.)

     ... Replaced in a Tweet, and by Tweets. The New York Times story, by Katie Rogers & Peter Baker, is here. "Mr. Trump announced [Sanders'] departure on Thursday on Twitter, the presidential tweet having supplanted the role that a White House press secretary played in previous administrations."

Jordan Fabian & Al Weaver of the Hill: "A federal watchdog agency on Thursday urged President Trump to remove Kellyanne Conway as White House counselor over repeated violations of the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from engaging in elections in their official capacity. The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) sent a 16-page report to Trump accusing Conway of breaking the law on numerous occasions ... 'by disparaging Democratic presidential candidates while speaking in her official capacity during television interviews and on social media' and calling on the president to oust her 'immediately.' 'As a highly visible member of the administration, Ms. Conway's violations, if left unpunished, would send a message to all federal employees that they need not abide by the Hatch Act's restrictions,' special counsel Henry Kerner wrote to Trump. 'Her actions thus erode the principal foundation of our democratic system -- the rule of law.' The White House immediately rejected the office's recommendation that Conway be fired, saying its findings are 'deeply flawed and violate her constitutional rights to free speech and due process.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Just so you don't march on the OSC waving your First Amendment flag for Kellyanne, be advised that Wikipedia says, "The Supreme Court has several times declined to hear challenges to the [Hatch Act] and has twice upheld its constitutionality." Obviously, there are numerous instances in which "free speech" arguments don't cut it. In Conway's case, for instance, she also is prohibited from revealing confidential information. I guess she can't yell "Fire!" in the White House theater, either. ...

... Five Dollar Feminist of Wonkette: "On May 29, [Kellyanne] Conway seemed to brush off any suggestion that the federal law applied to her, saying, 'Blah, blah, blah ... If you're trying to silence me through the Hatch Act, it's not going to work. Let me know when the jail sentence starts.' This appears to have been the final straw, as Special Counsel Henry Kerner wrote to the president [Thursday] morning[.]... But rule of law is not really the Trump administration's thing. White House Counsel Pat Cipollone sent one of his signature nastygrams alleging gross violations of due process and the First Amendment and "inappropriate external influence," whatever that's supposed to imply.... In an interview with the Washington Post, Special Counsel Kerner acknowledged the 'unprecedented' nature of his Office recommending that a high-ranking presidential advisor be quitfired for violating the Hatch Act, saying, 'You know what else is unprecedented? Kellyanne Conway's behavior.' Silly SCO! In Trumpland, laws are for the little people." ...

... Doug! at Balloon Juice thinks the whole Kellyanne-Hatch Act thing "seems ludicrous to me given that Obama's wardrobe advisor was not pushed out after the tan suit debacle[.]"

Ted Hesson & Anita Kumar of Politico: "John Zadrozny, an ally to White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, is expected to head to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, according to four people familiar with the plan. Zadrozny is an official at the State Department; he previously worked for the Domestic Policy Council. At USCIS he may become deputy chief of staff, two current and former Homeland Security Department officials briefed on the move told Politico. Zadrozny will join the team of newly installed USCIS acting Director Ken Cuccinelli, a vocal immigration hard-liner. As Virginia attorney general earlier this decade, Cuccinelli backed measures to end birthright citizenship and to deny unemployment benefits to workers who didn't speak English." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has sold the stock she owned in one of the nation's biggest manufacturers of highway construction materials, just days after the holding raised questions over a potential conflict of interest. Ms. Chao sold the shares, worth $250,000 to $500,000, last Monday, according to a letter the Transportation Department released Thursday. Days earlier, The Wall Street Journal, followed by other news media, reported that she had not cashed out, as promised, stock options she held in Vulcan Materials, an Alabama-based producer of crushed stone and asphalt, where she served on the board before joining the Trump administration. On Wednesday, Ms. Chao sent a letter to the Transportation Department's top ethics lawyer, notifying the agency of the sale. In the letter, she attributed the stock holdings to an 'inadvertent misstatement' made after she was nominated in late 2016 to take over the top transportation job.... In recent weeks, Ms. Chao has been the focus of a series of news articles scrutinizing her actions since she took over the department...."

Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast: "It has been far too long since America has heard from Louise Linton, wife of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Linton, you may recall, became instantly notorious in August 2017 as a modern-day Marie Antoinette when she bragged on Instagram about her super-rich lifestyle, and then mocked one of her online critics -- a Portland, Oregon, mother of three — for not having as opulent a bank account or paying as much as Linton does in taxes, and also for being 'adorably out of touch.'... Of course, it wasn't Linton's fault. 'That whole Instagram thing happened because I got some bad advice. My advisers at the time were telling me to be glamorous and fashionable,' she explains.... Los Angeles Magazine editor Maer Roshan has remedied the problem of Linton-free public discourse with a glamorously illustrated cover story, rife with movie-star poses, in which the 38-year-old aspiring actress dishes on how uncomfortable she's being made to feel by ... Donald Trump's hard-right social policies, and her terrible ordeal of being married to a high-ranking public servant in Washington, D.C. 'It sucks being hated,' she confides to Roshan during the three interviews she granted in her 'massive Bel Air mansion.'..." ...

     ... "I'm Just a Happy Girl and a Filmmaker." Mrs. McCrabbie: The LA Magazine spread includes a crotch shot, boobs shot, armpit shot, crossbow shot & numerous whiney, profanity-laced complaints about the trials of a starlet-scriptwriter-producer-director-casting director AND Cabinet wife occasionally forced to dine with Don Junior.

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Richard Pérez-Peña, et al., of the New York Times: "Apparent attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday forced their crews to abandon ship and left one vessel ablaze, a month after four tankers were damaged in the same area, raising alarms about the security of a vital passageway for much of the world's petroleum. The early morning incidents, which two shipping companies involved and the White House described as attacks, elevated tensions in a region already unsettled by the escalating conflict between the United States and some of its allies, and Iran.... It was not immediately clear how the most recent incidents unfolded or who was involved, just as the circumstances of last month's attacks remain murky." Japan's PM Shinzo Abe was visiting Iran Wednesday, and MSNBC is reporting that the tankers were carrying oil bound for Japan. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... New Lede: "Explosions crippled two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday in what the United States called 'unprovoked attacks' by Iran, raising alarms about immediate security and potential military conflict in a vital passageway for a third of the world's petroleum.Iran called the accusations part of a campaign of American disinformation and 'warmongering.'" ...

... Edward Wong of the New York Times: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that intelligence reviewed by American officials showed that Iran was responsible for [the] attacks.... Mr. Pompeo did not present any evidence to back up the assessment of Iran's involvement.... Speaking at a news conference in Washington, Mr. Pompeo said the sabotage against the two tankers was only the latest in a series of recent violent acts by Iran.... Naval explosives experts were preparing Thursday to approach [one of] the stricken ship[s], to secure and to remove [an unexploded] mine [attached to the ship], and examine it for clues about who attached it to the ship, the defense official said. But before they could do so, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps patrol boat pulled up to the side of the Courageous, according to two United States officials who said a Navy P-8 surveillance plane captured the encounter on videotape."

Julia Reinstein of BuzzFeed News: "The wife of Republican California Rep. Duncan Hunter changed her plea from not guilty to guilty in a San Diego court Thursday, admitting that she and her husband misused more than $200,000 worth of campaign funds for personal gain. Margaret Hunter admitted in court that she and her husband used the funds 'as their personal bank account,' according to the US attorney's office. She pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, for which there is a maximum sentence of five years in prison. As part of the new plea agreement, she is also required to help in the investigation of her husband and any others involved in her crimes. The Republican congressman, who has also been indicted, has not changed his not-guilty plea.... When the pair were first charged last year, Rep. Hunter seemed to blame his wife for the controversy. 'She was also the campaign manager, so whatever she did, that'll be looked at too, I'm sure,' he told Fox News. 'But I didn't do it. I didn't spend any money illegally.'"

Presidential Race 2020

Adam Edelman of NBC News: "The Democratic National Committee on Thursday named the 20 presidential candidates who qualified to appear on stage later this month in the first primary debate of the 2020 campaign.... The DNC, which is sanctioning the debate, set two ways for candidates to qualify -- fundraising and polling. To make the stage, candidates needed to have either at least 1 percent support in three qualifying polls, or provide evidence of at least 65,000 unique donors, with a minimum of 200 different donors in at least 20 states. [Declared candidates] Those who did not meet the threshold for the first debate include: Montana Gov. Steve Bullock; former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel; Miramar, Florida Mayor Wayne Messam; and Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts.... The two-night debate, hosted by NBC News, MSNBC and Telemundo, will take place on June 26 and 27...."

Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: "Officials in El Paso complained last week that they were still waiting for ... Donald Trump';s reelection campaign to pay up for expenses related to providing extra police, fire department and other services for a rally months ago. Now it turns out there are nine more cities across the country that haven't received a dime from the campaign for similar charges, according to The Center for Public Integrity. Five of the 10 invoices date back to 2016, when Donald Trump was campaigning to become president. Ironically, Trump often gushes at rallies about police officers and other brave first responders, but his campaign is apparently stiffing police and firefighters across the nation.... When asked earlier this month about the El Paso bill by ABC News, a Trump campaign spokesman indicated that the city may have overcharged the campaign. Michael Glassner, Trump Campaign CEO, told ABC: 'We are reviewing' the bill." Thanks to PD Pepe for the link.

Jonathan Stempel of Reuters: "Michael Avenatti, the lawyer who represented porn star Stormy Daniels in lawsuits against ... Donald Trump, has been sued by a paraplegic former client who accused him of siphoning away a $4 million settlement he had won. Geoffrey Johnson is seeking at least $9.5 million, plus punitive damages, from Avenatti and several former colleagues in his civil lawsuit filed with the Orange County Superior Court in California.... Johnson's claims are also part of federal prosecutors' criminal case against Avenatti, who has pleaded not guilty to wire fraud, bank fraud, extortion and other charges, including defrauding other clients, in California and New York." Mrs. McC: Trump mocked a disabled person, Avenatti allegedly stole millions from another. Although there never seemed to be much of a likelihood he would win, remember that Avenatti had planned to run for president as a Democrat. Imagine if allegations of his misdeeds had not come out until after he won the nomination -- we'd have to vote for Trump because he seemed to be the better person.

Beyond the Beltway

Michigan. Ed White of the AP: "Prosecutors dropped all criminal charges Thursday against eight people in the Flint water crisis and pledged to start from scratch the investigation into one of the worst man-made environmental disasters in U.S. history. The stunning decision came more than three years -- and millions of dollars -- after authorities began examining the roots of the scandal that left Flint's water system tainted with lead. Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud, who took control of the investigation in January after the election of a new attorney general, said 'all available evidence was not pursued' by the previous team of prosecutors. Officials took possession this week of 'millions of documents and hundreds of new electronic devices, significantly expanding the scope of our investigation,' Hammoud and Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement.... Hammoud's team recently used search warrants to get state-owned mobile devices of former Gov. Rick Snyder and 66 other people from storage."

New York. Bobby Allyn of NPR: "New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill Thursday ending vaccination exemptions based on religious beliefs, the latest attempt to address the growing measles outbreak, the worst the U.S. has experienced in decades. Cuomo said plugging the loophole should help contain the spike in measles cases in New York, the state the hardest hit by the uptick in the contagious virus due to low vaccination rates in ultra-Orthodox communities. 'The science is crystal clear: Vaccines are safe, effective and the best way to keep our children safe,' Cuomo said after signing the bill.... Th Democratic-controlled Legislature approved the measure, which also eliminates other nonmedical exemptions for schoolchildren across the state."

The Commentariat -- June 13, 2019

Afternoon Update:

** Good Riddance. Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "Sarah Huckabee Sanders will leave her post as White House press secretary at the end of the month, President Trump announced on Thursday."

It's the Media's Fault. Also Prince of Whales. Peter Baker & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "President Trump on Thursday defended his willingness to accept campaign help from Russia or other foreign governments by equating it to the sort of diplomatic meetings he holds with world leaders as the nation's chief executive.... 'I meet and talk to "foreign governments"' every day,' he wrote Thursday on Twitter. 'I just met with the Queen of England (U.K.), the Prince of Whales, the P.M. of the United Kingdom, the P.M. of Ireland, the President of France and the President of Poland. We talked about "Everything!"' he added, misspelling the title of Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, before fixing and reposting it. 'Should I immediately call the FBI about these calls and meetings?' he continued. 'How ridiculous! I would never be trusted again. With that being said, my full answer is rarely played by the Fake News Media. They purposely leave out the part that matters.' The comparison was startling even for Mr. Trump. Having tea with the queen of England is hardly the same as taking clandestine help from agents of President Vladimir V. Putin as part of a concerted campaign by Russian intelligence to tilt an American presidential election." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is even more astounding than Baker & Fandos let on. It's an honor-among-thieves defense in which Trump promises U.S. adversaries that he'll keep their secrets if they dish dirt that benefits him. Very mob-bossy. See Patrick's commentary below explaining what happens when a foreign official speaks by phone to a "real" president.

Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Thursday hailed Michael Flynn's move to hire a lawyer who has been a fierce critic of the FBI's investigation into the former national security adviser. 'General Michael Flynn, the 33 year war hero who has served with distinction, has not retained a good lawyer, he has retained a GREAT LAWYER, Sidney Powell,' Trump tweeted. 'Best Wishes and Good Luck to them both!' The message from Trump is one of the strongest indicators Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his contacts with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition, remains in the president's good graces and hints that a pardon might still be within the realm of possibility." Mrs. McC: I suspect Flynn has something on Trump that Flynn hasn't divulged or that Trump thinks Flynn hasn't divulged.

Adam Edelman of NBC News: "The House Intelligence Committee on Thursday issued subpoenas to ... Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates, as part of the panel's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The subpoenas are for both testimony and documents, the committee's chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said in a statement."

Jordan Fabian & Al Weaver of the Hill: "A federal watchdog agency on Thursday urged President Trump to remove Kellyanne Conway as White House counselor over repeated violations of the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from engaging in elections in their official capacity. The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) sent a 16-page report to Trump accusing Conway of breaking the law on numerous occasions ... 'by disparaging Democratic presidential candidates while speaking in her official capacity during television interviews and on social media' and calling on the president to oust her 'immediately.' 'As a highly visible member of the administration, Ms. Conway's violations, if left unpunished, would send a message to all federal employees that they need not abide by the Hatch Act's restrictions,' special counsel Henry Kerner wrote to Trump. 'Her actions thus erode the principal foundation of our democratic system -- the rule of law.' The White House immediately rejected the office's recommendation that Conway be fired, saying its findings are 'deeply flawed and violate her constitutional rights to free speech and due process.'"

Ted Hesson & Anita Kumar of Politico: "John Zadrozny, an ally to White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, is expected to head to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, according to four people familiar with the plan. Zadrozny is an official at the State Department; he previously worked for the Domestic Policy Council. At USCIS he may become deputy chief of staff, two current and former Homeland Security Department officials briefed on the move told Politico. Zadrozny will join the team of newly installed USCIS acting Director Ken Cuccinelli, a vocal immigration hard-liner. As Virginia attorney general earlier this decade, Cuccinelli backed measures to end birthright citizenship and to deny unemployment benefits to workers who didn't speak English."

Richard Pérez-Peña, et al., of the New York Times: "Apparent attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday forced their crews to abandon ship and left one vessel ablaze, a month after four tankers were damaged in the same area, raising alarms about the security of a vital passageway for much of the world's petroleum. The early morning incidents, which two shipping companies involved and the White House described as attacks, elevated tensions in a region already unsettled by the escalating conflict between the United States and some of its allies, and Iran.... It was not immediately clear how the most recent incidents unfolded or who was involved, just as the circumstances of last month's attacks remain murky." Japan's PM Shinzo Abe was visiting Iran Wednesday, and MSNBC is reporting that the tankers were carrying oil bound for Japan.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

** Trump Invites Foreign Governments to Collude with Him. Lucien Bruggeman of ABC News: "... Donald Trump may not alert the FBI if foreign governments offered damaging information against his 2020 rivals during the upcoming presidential race, he said, despite the deluge of investigations stemming from his campaign's interactions with Russians during the 2016 campaign. Asked by ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos in the Oval Office on Wednesday whether his campaign would accept such information from foreigners -- such as China or Russia -- or hand it over the FBI, Trump said, I think maybe you do both.' 'I think you might want to listen, there isn't anything wrong with listening,' Trump continued. 'If somebody called from a country, Norway, [and said] "we have information on your opponent" -- oh, I think I'd want to hear it.'... 'It's not an interference, they have information -- I think I'd take it,' Trump said. 'If I thought there was something wrong, I'd go maybe to the FBI -- if I thought there was something wrong. But when somebody comes up with oppo research, right, they come up with oppo research, "oh let's call the FBI." The FBI doesn't have enough agents to take care of it. When you go and talk, honestly, to congressman, they all do it, they always have, and that's the way it is. It's called oppo research.'... 'The FBI director said that is what should happen," Stephanopoulos replied, referring to comments FBI Director Christopher Wray made during congressional testimony last month, when he told lawmakers 'the FBI would want to know about' any foreign election meddling.... 'The FBI director is wrong, because frankly it doesn't happen like that in life,' Trump said." Includes video. ...

... Here's a clip from ABC News' nightly report that includes Trump's remarks reported above:

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: This is "Russia, if you're listening ..." on steroids. Trump is now POTUS* & he has said openly he will violate federal law & use his powerful position to obtain oppo research from foreign powers. This is not about illegal acts Trump committed in the past; it's about ongoing breaches. "Nancy Pelosi, if you're listening...," this is an essential element in an Article of Impeachment. "Chris Wray, if you're listening...," better get a FISA warrant to "tap Trump's wires." ...

... Rick Hasen: "Trump Says He Would Accept Foreign Government In-Kind Contributions of Opposition Research in the 2020 Elections, in Violation of American Law.... In a few pieces in Slate, I explained why an offer of free opposition research from a foreign government is a crime, and there is no good First Amendment defense for doing so. (I also have explained that the Steele Dossier involved the payment at market rates from a foreign individual for services, which is legal.) I'm not going to rehash it all here. Click the links for more." ...

... Another Whopper. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump has sought to characterize Mr. Mueller's report as complete exoneration. He took it a step further on Wednesday during an earlier meeting with reporters when he claimed that Mr. Mueller's report actually said that 'we rebuffed them' when the Russians tried to help.... In actuality, Mr. Mueller's report documented numerous contacts between Mr. Trump's campaign and Russian figures throughout the 2016 campaign." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "... Trump reiterated his view that he would not go to the FBI. Trump hates flippers, he's a stand-up guy, not a rat, and he respects the omertà: 'I'll tell you what, I've seen a lot of things over my life. I don't think in my whole life I've ever called the FBI. In my whole life. You don't call the FBI. You throw somebody out of your office, you do whatever you do,' Trump continued. 'Oh, give me a break -- life doesn't work that way.' Trump continues to show every sign of hoping and expecting to benefit from foreign collusion in 2020.... His message to Russia, or any other government that wants a close relationship with him, is obvious: Do anything you can to help me win." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The initial, visceral impression I got watching that clip of Trump defending the acceptance of foreign aid was "mob boss defends stupid son." Say, an episode where Tony Soprano tells the school principal that A.J. was a good boy despite having ripped off a bunch of gym equipment: "Hey, this is what kids do. It's human nature. It's pretty harmless, Mrs. McCrabbie. You don't want any harm to come to anybody, do you?" As Chait writes, the POTUS* has the mindset of the head of a crime family. (The difference, as far as we know, is that he beats up & slaughters his enemies metaphorically rather than actually.) Maybe we should blame David Chase & Martin Scorsese for this presidency*. ...

... Dylan Scott of Vox: "Mueller's report contained at least 140 contacts between Trump and Russian associates. Officials from other countries -- United Arab Emirates, China, Israel, and Mexico -- have reportedly discussed trying to manipulate Jared Kushner..., a key target for foreign contacts during the campaign and in the White House due to his focus on foreign policy and his family's real estate business. Kushner himself said in a recent interview with Axios he was unsure whether he'd tell the FBI if Russians contacted him to request another meeting similar to the infamous Trump Tower appointment in 2016.... While Trump's answer to the same question now sounds like Kushner's, the president told reporters a month ago he would not accept help from a foreign adversary during the 2020 presidential campaign. 'I don't need it,' he said at the time." ...

... Ben Bradlee, Jr., in the New Yorker: "Trump ... crowed on Twitter..., 'No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION....' That statement was false on all three counts. Mueller's report explicitly did not exonerate Trump, and it cited at least ten possible instances of Trump's obstruction of justice, while noting that Justice Department policy prevented the filing of criminal charges against a sitting President. Mueller made no judgment on collusion, meanwhile, because that isn't a crime.In the political and popular vernacular, collusion has been incorrectly conflated with its legal equivalent: criminal conspiracy.... But the special counsel noted in his report that there were 'numerous links' (i.e., contacts) between the Russian government and the Trump Campaign.... Most Americans would doubtless consider it unacceptable for a Presidential candidate to collaborate with a foreign enemy to win an election. But Trump, by endlessly repeating his 'no collusion' mantra, has been strikingly successful in inoculating himself ... against the politically explosive charge that he was in cahoots with the Russians."

Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's report failed to address crucial questions about ... Donald Trump's relationship with Russia that the FBI may still be investigating, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Wednesday as he kicked off a hearing designed to spotlight those issues. 'Of all the questions that Mueller helped resolve, he left many critical questions unanswered -- what happened to the counterintelligence investigation?,' Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said as he opened a hearing on counterintelligence issues. 'Were there other forms of compromise, like money laundering, left out, uninvestigated or referred to other offices? Were individuals granted security clearances that shouldn't have them? And are there individuals still operating in the administration that leave America vulnerable?' ... Wednesday's hearing ... featured testimony from two former FBI counterintelligence officials and conservative commentator.... The Republican witness at the hearing, Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor who writes for National Review, testified that members of the Trump campaign should have called the FBI when Russians approached them with offers of assistance. But Republican lawmakers dismissed any notion that the Trump campaign behaved inappropriately."

Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "Justice Department officials intend to interview senior C.I.A. officers as they review the Russia investigation, according to people briefed on the matter, indicating they are focused partly on the intelligence agencies' most explosive conclusion about the 2016 election: that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia intervened to benefit Donald J. Trump. The interview plans are the latest sign the Justice Department will take a critical look at the C.I.A.'s work on Russia's election interference. Investigators want to talk with at least one senior counterintelligence official and a senior C.I.A. analyst, the people said. Both officials were involved in the agency's work on understanding the Russian campaign to sabotage the election in 2016. While the Justice Department review is not a criminal inquiry, it has provoked anxiety in the ranks of the C.I.A., according to former officials."

Nicholas Fandos & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Donald Trump Jr. told Senate investigators on Wednesday that he did not inform his father at the time about a June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer promising 'dirt' on Hillary Clinton and that he was not kept abreast of negotiations over a proposed real estate project in Moscow, a person familiar with his testimony said. The younger Mr. Trump, in roughly three hours of closed-door questioning in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that he had nothing to correct fro past statements that he had given that panel and other congressional bodies -- despite claims by former Trump aides to the contrary. Questioning appeared to focus on two of the most scrutinized issues of the 2016 presidential campaign: a meeting in Trump Tower in Manhattan between top Trump campaign officials and a Russian emissary, and the extensive efforts of the Trump Organization to secure a major development in Moscow even as Donald J. Trump was running for president."

Manu Raju & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "Former White House aide Hope Hicks has agreed to testify next Wednesday behind closed doors, the House Judiciary Committee announced Wednesday. The committee plans to release a transcript of the interview afterward. The scheduled interview with Hicks, a longtime Trump campaign aide and former White House communications director, is the first case where a member of Trump's inner circle will appear before the committee as part of its investigation into possible obstruction of justice.... The Judiciary Committee plans to ask questions about Hicks' time at the White House and during the campaign, according to two sources, but it remains to be seen whether the White House will assert executive privilege to prevent her from answering about her time at White House.... Last week, the White House directed Hicks and former White House deputy counsel Annie Donaldson not to provide any documents to the committee involving their time at the White House...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is not a victory for the Judiciary Committee. It's not getting the telegenic Hicks on camera -- which is a major goal of the committee -- and there's no reason to think Hicks will answer critical questions about Trump's actions while in office, like that tarmac episode where Trump created a false statement about the Trump Tower "adoption" meeting. Moreover, if Hicks has notes & other documents from her White House stint that would be helpful, it doesn't appear she will produce them.

Emoluments Galore! Shelby Hanssen & Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "Representatives of at least 22 foreign governments appear to have spent money at Trump Organization properties, an NBC News review has found, hinting at a significant foreign cash flow to the American president that critics say violates the U.S. Constitution. The extent and amount of foreign spending at Trump's hotels, golf clubs and restaurants is not known, because the Trump Organization is a private company and declines to disclose that information. Trump promised to donate any profits from foreign governments, and the Trump Organization has sent$343,000 to the U.S. Treasury for 2017 and 2018. The company did not release underlying numbers to support that figure.... Donald Trump is the first president in modern history to retain ownership of a business empire while in office. He says the company is being run by his sons, but he continues to derive income from the various businesses...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Tierney Sneed & Matt Shuham of TPM: "Former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn has hired attorney Sydney Powell to replace his legal team. Powell bashed Mueller's tactics in commentary before she was hired by Flynn, suggesting Flynn might be doubling down on a strategy to cast doubt on his guilty plea even as he continues to cooperate with prosecutors.... Legal experts have said it would be 'suicidal' for Flynn to escalate any attacks on the FBI while he awaits his sentence. Yet he has hired a lawyer who has done just that, in punditry on Twitter and on television.... Her commentary has focused specifically on Flynn's case and claims that he did not commit the crimes he pleaded guilty to.&" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "Somehow nepotism seems to rankle more than grift alone.... It's worth recognizing that currently, the United States of America is not just in thrall to the billionaires. It's in thrall to the children, and the wives, and also the pool boys of the billionaires.... [T]he problem with the Trump administration's seemingly bottomless capacity to fill the swamp with money and influence is that the swamps are now noticeably teeming with unfit, uninteresting, and unqualified children and spouses.... The Trump family took something American elites have done in stealth and discretion for decades and tried to turn it into a sales pitch: 'Nobody does nepotism like we do nepotism.'... The idea of American meritocracy was imperfect from the founding, but it's never been as transparently laughable as it is today." --s

"What is Being Hidden?" Julie Davis & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A House committee voted on Wednesday to recommend that the House hold two cabinet secretaries in contempt of Congress, hours after President Trump invoked executive privilege to block disclosure of crucial documents on the decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The House Oversight and Reform Committee's contempt recommendation for Attorney General William P. Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross sets up a possible vote on the House floor in the coming weeks. It was the culmination of a monthslong dispute with the administration over the panel's efforts to compel testimony from top officials and documents related to the census question. The vote was mostly along party lines, with only one Republican, Representative Justin Amash of Michigan, the sole member of his party to call for Mr. Trump's impeachment, supporting it.... Before the contempt vote, the Justice Department informed Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland and the [Oversight] committee chairman, that Mr. Trump had decided to invoke his secrecy powers because Mr. Cummings had 'chosen to go forward with an unnecessary and premature contempt vote.' 'We must protect the integrity of the census, and we will stand up for Congress's authority under the Constitution to conduct meaningful oversight,' Mr. Cummings....' 'This begs the question,' Mr. Cummings added, 'what is being hidden?'" (This is an update of a story linked yesterday.) ...

... What Is Being Hidden Is Racism, Election-Rigging & Economic Discrimination against Blue Regions. Rafi Schwartz of Splinter: "As part of a federal lawsuit against the citizenship question's inclusion, lawyers for the ACLU provided documents from the late former Republican National Committee redistricting chairman-turned gerrymandering consultant Dr. Thomas Hofeller, which showed the clearest look to date at the GOP's racist effort to use the Census to skew elections to their advantage.... [Hofeller] concluded that the effect of a citizenship question on reworking election district maps would be 'advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.' Subsequently, parts of Hofeller's documents were reportedly included 'word-for-word' in a Department of Justice letter to the Census Bureau over including a citizenship question the census." Mrs. McC: It's kinda quaint that the administration wants to hide their racist election-rigging, isn't it? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jay Michaelson of the Daily Beast: "In the case of the census, Trump administration officials may have violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and perhaps even the constitution. But in brazenly defying congressional subpoenas, they have flouted the rule of law itself, not to mention Congress's constitutionally-mandated powers. In some ways, the cover-up is even worse than the crime.... It's clear ... that [Commerce Secretary Wilbur] Ross lied under oath to Congress. As Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) pointed out in [Wednesday's] hearing, Ross said that he only added the citizenship question in December, 2017, after a request from the Department of Justice and a public comment period. But a letter Ross wrote seven months earlier, in May 2017, said that he had already requested the question be added. That makes the entire public process a sham, and means that Ross's underlings violated the APA by falsifying the record.... Ross [also] lied under oath about his meetings with White House advisors Steve Bannon and Kris Kobach, both ardent nationalists. DOJ officials lied about the influence of [GOP gerrymandering guru Thomas] Hofeller, covered up their conversations about changing census confidentiality rules to share data with ICE, and lied about the chain of events leading up to the proposed change. Most importantly, it's now abundantly clear that the proffered rationale for the question -- to aid in the enforcement of the Voting Rights Act -- is pure pretext.... The real rationale is right there in the Hofeller memos: to dilute the power of non-white communities by omitting non-citizens from congressional district apportionment." ...

... Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "George Conway, the husband of senior White House advisor Kellyanne Conway, wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post on Wednesday calling for the impeachment of ... Donald Trump. Conway, an outspoken critic of Trump on Twitter, penned the op-ed with Georgetown law professor Neal Katyal in response to the President's latest brief fighting the House Oversight Committee's subpoenas. In the brief, Trump argues that Congress can't investigate the President unless it's for impeachment proceedings. 'It's a spectacularly anti-constitutional brief, and anyone who harbors such attitudes toward our Constitution's architecture is not fit for office,' Conway and Katyal write. 'Trump's brief is nothing if not an invitation to commencing impeachment proceedings that, for reasons set out in the Mueller report, should have already commenced.' 'Every principle behind the rule of law requires the commencement of a process now to make this president a former one,' Conway and Katyal write at the end of the column." The op-ed is here.

Josh Israel & Melanie Schmitz of ThinkProgress: "...Donald Trump is considering moving 2,000 American troops from Germany to Poland. On Wednesday, he explained that his reasoning for doing so was because he simply liked Polish President Andrzej Duda and his wife." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As Israel & Schmitz point out, "Trump made the comments Wednesday during a joint Rose Garden press conference with Duda, who has pushed to dismantle his country's independent judiciary, promoted Holocaust denial, and launched an assault on the free press." But as you might surmise, the whimsical redeployment of U.S. troops is perfectly reasonable when you really like an authoritarian leader.

** Fred Kaplan of Slate: "America’s European allies are finally spending more on defense, but the Trump administration is raising hell about it because some of the allies want to spend the money on weapons made in their own countries.... It would be funny if it weren't so damaging. The whole episode bolsters suspicions that the United States is interested more in enriching its own military-industrial complex than in improving the common defense. As a result, trans-Atlantic tensions, which Trump has done much to brew, will likely thicken. The case for higher European defense budgets will lose legitimacy if it comes to be seen as a mere appendage to Trump's 'America First' campaign." --s

Mexico Ignores Trump, Goes to Jared. Erin Banco & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "It was Friday night last week and top officials in Mexico, including those in the president and foreign minister's offices, were alerted by their aides that Donald Trump had tweeted, again.... Most times they ignored the missives, believing that Trump's public statements were often divorced from the reality of the negotiations, according to individuals with direct knowledge of that strategy. Instead, they relied on what Mexican officials viewed as a better source of information from inside the Trump administration: Jared Kushner.... Tapping on Kushner for clarity has become a semi-official policy in the top ranks of the offices of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Catherine Garcia of the Week: "A new study has found that the Pentagon emits more greenhouse gas emissions in one year than several industrialized countries, including Sweden and Portugal. The Department of Defense is the world's single largest consumer of oil, and in 2017, the Pentagon released 59 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, the study states. 'If it were a country, it would have been the world's 55th largest greenhouse gas emitter,' study author Neta Crawford, a political scientist at Boston University, writes."

Grace Segers & Emily Tillett of CBS News: "The House Judiciary Committee unanimously passed a bill which would permanently reauthorize the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund Wednesday, the day after comedian Jon Stewart gave impassioned testimony in support of the bill in video that quickly went viral. The bill will now go to the floor for a full vote in the House of Representatives, where it is likely to pass. It's unclear whether Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will take up the bill in the Senate, although Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Wednesday that he was 'imploring, pleading, even begging' McConnell to bring the bill to the floor as soon as it passes in the House."

Kellie Mejdrich of Roll Call: "A routine House debate nearly exploded Wednesday when California Democrat Norma J. Torres implied her Republican colleagues were 'sex-starved males' for opposing abortion.... Torres, one of the newest members of the House Rules Committee, clearly broke House Rules -- members cannot personally impugn their colleagues on the floor." Mrs. McC: It seems to me "sex-obsessed males" would be more accurate. One result of the feminist movement is that it has stifled men's lewd and sexually-suggestive remarks -- once socially-acceptable means to sublimate actual sexual activity -- even as it has liberated women to speak about sex, a once-taboo subject. The prominence & virulence of the anti-abortion movement is a result of this, and related, reasons.

Rep. Duncan Hunter's Wife Cops a Plea, Flips on Duncan. Jeff McDonald of the San Diego Union-Tribune: "Margaret Hunter, the wife of longtime East County Congressman Duncan D. Hunter [R-Lunatic] who was co-indicted with her husband last summer, has agreed to change her plea of not guilty and is scheduled to appear in federal court Thursday morning.... Hunter and wife were indicted in August on 60 criminal counts related to what prosecutors allege was a yearslong misuse of campaign donations to the congressman's re-election fund. Each of the defendants pleaded not guilty to all charges last year.... Experts say a change-of-plea hearing almost certainly means Margaret Hunter is now working with prosecutors."

Presidential Race 2020

Frank Rich: "I have no idea who is going to be the Democratic nominee, but I don't think it's going to be Biden. One of the several reasons is that by focusing solely on Trump 17 months before Election Day and refusing to engage with any of his Democratic opponents, he is disrespecting not just those opponents but the majority of voters in his own party.... As for Trump, he is making the mistake of refighting the last war. He is lazy, and by assuming that he'll face Biden, an Establishment party figure, he's betting that he can recycle his Jeb Bush-Hillary Clinton playbook from four years ago.... Meanwhile the Trump-Biden split-screen duel in Iowa is fun in its way, given that Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon are unavailable to make any more sequels to Grumpy Old Men."

Brian Schwartz of CNBC: "Howard Schultz, the billionaire former CEO of Starbucks who is considering an independent run for president, is taking the summer off from political activities and has laid off several staffers -- but he is sticking with veteran strategist Steve Schmidt.... Schmidt himself has gone dark.... On Wednesday, Schultz released a statement saying that he was recovering from three back surgeries. He said he would be 'back in touch after Labor Day' but did not say whether his next announcement will about a potential presidential run."

Congressional Races 2020. Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Donald Trump and his top allies are moving to make Justin Amash pay for becoming the sole Republican congressman to call for the president's impeachment. Trump and his top advisers have discussed the prospect of backing a primary challenge to the Michigan lawmaker -- a highly unusual move for a president against a member of his own party that would effectively amount to a warning shot to other Republicans thinking of crossing him.... Amash is not the only sitting Republican incumbent that the Trump team has its eye on. Trump advisers are growing increasingly annoyed by Texas Rep. Will Hurd, a frequent critic of the president's immigration policies. Last week, Trump's reelection campaign took the rare step of sending a tweet taking the swing-district congressman to task over one of his cable news appearances. The president also met recently with Rep. Mark Walker, a North Carolina Republican who is weighing a primary challenge to Sen. Thom Tillis. Last year, Tillis co-sponsored legislation to protect then-special counsel Robert Mueller, and he initially opposed the president's emergency declaration to build a border wall before ultimately voting for it." (Also linked yesterday.)

David Eggert of the AP: "A former dean who had oversight of now-imprisoned sports doctor Larry Nassar at Michigan State University was found guilty Wednesday of neglect of duty and misconduct in office but acquitted on a more serious criminal sexual conduct charge. William Strampel, the ex-dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine, was the first person charged after Michigan's attorney general launched an investigation 1½ years ago into how Michigan State handled complaints against Nassar, a former USA Gymnastics team physician who pleaded guilty to molesting female athletes and possessing child pornography. Strampel, 71, had been accused of abusing his power to sexually proposition and harass female students for years and not enforcing patient restrictions imposed on Nassar following a 2014 sexual misconduct complaint. Jurors acquitted him of felony criminal sexual conduct in the second degree, a charge that could have sent him to prison for up to 15 years, for grabbing the buttocks of one student at a fundraising ball. He still faces up to five years in prison on the felony misconduct conviction, which stems from a charge that he used his public office to sexually harass, demean and proposition students who met with him to discuss academic issues." ...

... Molly Olmstead of Slate has more details on accusations made against Strampel. Mrs. McC: I hope the court sentences him to the full five years. When a person in a position of power & authority does to young women what they asserted Strampel did -- and there's no reason to disbelieve them -- it's far worse than when an ordinary creep makes equally-egregious assaults.

Kate Taylor & David Chen of the New York Times: "A former Stanford sailing coach who on Wednesday became the first person to be sentenced in the nation's largest-ever college admissions fraud prosecution has avoided prison time, receiving a far lighter punishment than prosecutors had sought. The coach, John Vandemoer, who was accused of taking bribes from a corrupt college consultant, was ordered to spend a single day in jail -- time the judge said he had already served -- and six months in home confinement as part of two years of supervised release. Prosecutors had called for a 13-month sentence, and the lighter penalty raised uncertainties about the future of the sprawling case, which has so far brought criminal charges against 50 people...."

Beyond the Beltway

Driving While Black Is a Moving Violation in Missouri. Michelle Lou of CNN: "Black drivers are 91% more likely than whites to be pulled over by police, a report from the Missouri Attorney General has found." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

New York: "David Ortiz, the retired baseball star that millions of residents of the greater Boston area call Big Papi, was shot on June 9 at a bar in east Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Details are still emerging from the shooting, but with each piece of new information, it appears to be one of the most bizarre acts of gun violence involving an athlete in a decade."

The Commentariat -- June 12, 2019

Afternoon Update:

"What is Being Hidden?" Charlie Savage & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump invoked executive privilege to block access by Congress to documents about how a citizenship question was added to the 2020 census ahead of a House committee vote to recommend that two cabinet secretaries be held in contempt of Congress over the matter. In a letter to the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, the Justice Department said that Mr. Trump had decided to invoke his secrecy powers to provide a lawful basis to defy the panel's subpoena for the census-related materials. In response, Mr. Cummings put off until later on Wednesday a vote whether to recommend that the House hold Attorney General William P. Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur L. Ross Jr. in contempt. Mr. Cummings called the move 'another example of the administration's blanket defiance of Congress' constitutionally mandated responsibilities,' adding that it raised a question: 'What is being hidden?'” ...

... What Is Being Hidden Is Racism, Election-Rigging & Blue-State Discrimination. Rafi Schwartz of Splinter: "As part of a federal lawsuit against the citizenship question's inclusion, lawyers for the ACLU provided documents from the late former Republican National Committee redistricting chairman-turned gerrymandering consultant Dr. Thomas Hofeller, which showed the clearest look to date at the GOP's racist effort to use the Census to skew elections to their advantage.... [Hofeller] concluded that the effect of a citizenship question on reworking election district maps would be 'advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.' Subsequently, parts of Hofeller's documents were reportedly included 'word-for-word' in a Department of Justice letter to the Census Bureau over including a citizenship question the census." Mrs. McC: It's kinda quaint that the administration wants to hide their racist election-rigging, isn't it?

Mexico Ignores Trump, Goes to Jared. Erin Banco & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "It was Friday night last week and top officials in Mexico, including those in the president and foreign minister's offices, were alerted by their aides that Donald Trump had tweeted, again.... Most times they ignored the missives, believing that Trump's public statements were often divorced from the reality of the negotiations, according to individuals with direct knowledge of that strategy. Instead, they relied on what Mexican officials viewed as a better source of information from inside the Trump administration: Jared Kushner.... Tapping on Kushner for clarity has become a semi-official policy in the top ranks of the offices of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard...." ...

Stephen Colbert reveals what that U.S.-Mexico agreement really says:

Emoluments Galore! Shelby Hanssen & Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "Representatives of at least 22 foreign governments appear to have spent money at Trump Organization properties, an NBC News review has found, hinting at a significant foreign cash flow to the American president that critics say violates the U.S. Constitution. The extent and amount of foreign spending at Trump's hotels, golf clubs and restaurants is not known, because the Trump Organization is a private company and declines to disclose that information. Trump promised to donate any profits from foreign governments, and the Trump Organization has sent $343,000 to the U.S. Treasury for 2017 and 2018. The company did not release underlying numbers to support that figure.... Donald Trump is the first president in modern history to retain ownership of a business empire while in office. He says the company is being run by his sons, but he continues to derive income from the various businesses...."

Tierney Sneed & Matt Shuham of TPM: "Former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn has hired attorney Sydney Powell to replace his legal team. Powell bashed Mueller's tactics in commentary before she was hired by Flynn, suggesting Flynn might be doubling down on a strategy to cast doubt on his guilty plea even as he continues to cooperate with prosecutors.... Legal experts have said it would be 'suicidal' for Flynn to escalate any attacks on the FBI while he awaits his sentence. Yet he has hired a lawyer who has done just that, in punditry on Twitter and on television.... Her commentary has focused specifically on Flynn's case and claims that he did not commit the crimes he pleaded guilty to."

Congressional Races 2020. Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Donald Trump and his top allies are moving to make Justin Amash pay for becoming the sole Republican congressman to call for the president's impeachment. Trump and his top advisers have discussed the prospect of backing a primary challenge to the Michigan lawmaker -- a highly unusual move for a president against a member of his own party that would effectively amount to a warning shot to other Republicans thinking of crossing him.... Amash is not the only sitting Republican incumbent that the Trump team has its eye on. Trump advisers are growing increasingly annoyed by Texas Rep. Will Hurd, a frequent critic of the president's immigration policies. Last week, Trump's reelection campaign took the rare step of sending a tweet taking the swing-district congressman to task over one of his cable news appearances. The president also met recently with Rep. Mark Walker, a North Carolina Republican who is weighing a primary challenge to Sen. Thom Tillis. Last year, Tillis co-sponsored legislation to protect then-special counsel Robert Mueller, and he initially opposed the president's emergency declaration to build a border wall before ultimately voting for it."

Driving While Black Is a Moving Violation in Missouri. Michelle Lou of CNN: "Black drivers are 91% more likely than whites to be pulled over by police, a report from the Missouri Attorney General has found."

~~~~~~~~~~

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The Democrat-led House voted on Tuesday to authorize the Judiciary Committee to go to court to enforce two subpoenas related to Robert S. Mueller III's investigative findings and to empower other panels to move more quickly to court in future disputes. The resolution, which passed along party lines, 229 to 191, grants the Judiciary Committee the power to petition a federal judge to force Attorney General William P. Barr and the former White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II to comply with congressional subpoenas that they have either completely or partly defied. But it stops short of holding either witness in contempt of Congress, as lawmakers had initially threatened to do, forgoing for now a formal accusation of a crime. The decision appears to be based, at least in part, on new signs of cooperation from the Justice Department, which on Monday agreed to begin sharing key evidence collected in Mr. Mueller's obstruction of justice investigation." The resolution is here. ...

... Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "... House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) announced on Monday that he had reached an agreement with the Justice Department to view some of the underlying evidence behind Special Counsel's Robert Mueller's report.... But Nadler may get less than expected. That's because the Trump White House will work with the Justice Department to decide what exactly the committee gets to see, two senior administration officials told The Daily Beast. And, so far, the White House has not waived executive privilege regarding any of Mueller's materials, the two officials said. Neither official would discuss if the White House plans to use executive privilege to limit Nadler's access to documents.... The deal reached on Monday still gives Congress expanded access to Mueller's work. All the members of the House Judiciary Committee, as well as some committee staff, will be able to read some evidence at Justice Department headquarters in downtown D.C. They will be able to take notes on what they read, and they will be able to take those notes with them when they leave the building."

Encore! Pamela Brown, et al., of CNN: "Donald Trump Jr. is returning to the Senate Intelligence Committee to be interviewed behind closed doors on Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the matter. The appearance of the President's eldest son Wednesday comes after a lengthy and contentious fight that spilled into public view after the committee issued a subpoena to Trump Jr. and he initially balked at testifying for a second time. Trump Jr.'s allies mounted an aggressive campaign targeting Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr for the subpoena, accusing the North Carolina Republican of helping the Democrats by continuing his committee's investigation even after special counsel Robert Mueller had wrapped up his probe. Many of those criticizing Burr included his own Senate Republican colleagues. But Burr did not back down from the subpoena, and the committee and Trump Jr. struck a deal for him to testify for two-to-four hours on roughly a half dozen topics, including the key questions the committee has for the President's eldest son about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting and the Trump Tower Moscow project."

Mitch Says "Meh." Jonathan Chait: "There ... are a lot of bills to safeguard the 2020 elections from the next Russian attack. Mitch McConnell is blocking all of them.... There's a Democratic bill to provide election funding to state and local governments. There's a bipartisan Senate bill to 'codify cyberinformation-sharing initiatives between federal intelligence services and state election officials, speed up the granting of security clearances to state officials, and provide federal incentives for states to adopt paper ballots.' The threat from Russian election interference is actually quite severe.... The reason the government isn't doing more to protect our democracy from the next attack is that the people who cooperated with the last attack don't want to." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: No less serious a person that former CIA Director John Brennan speculated on MSNBC Tuesday that Trump well may be looking forward to more help from Russians & other foreign operatives in the 2020 election. Mitch, BTW, is up for re-election this cycle, too. ...

     ... AND digby reminds us, via Newsweek: "'Rusal, the aluminum company partially owned by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, announced plans to invest around $200 million to build a new aluminum plant in Kentucky just months after the Trump administration removed it from the U.S. sanctions list. The new aluminum plant, slated to be built in the home state of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, will be the biggest new aluminum plant constructed in the U.S. in decades.' Deripaska was the Russian oligarch to whom Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, allegedly owed 20 million dollars. He's also the Russian suspected of receiving that polling information from Manafort for reasons about which we can only speculate. He's reportedly very close to Vladimir Putin. Maybe McConnell is obstructing all that election protection legislation for reasons beyond protecting Donald Trump." ...

... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "It is helpful to remember that McConnell took on forces within his own party to fight for the right of the wealthy to utilize massive amounts of dark money to undermine our democratic processes. He is also the one who mocked attempts to reform our electoral system as nothing more than a 'power grab' by Democrats. When it comes to Russia's attempt to interfere, it was McConnell who refused to cooperate with the Obama administration in making a bipartisan statement about the need to protect our voting systems in the lead-up to the 2016 election.... It has been clear for a while now that McConnell's partisan interests don't align with our democratic processes.... When it comes to elections, the strategy adopted by Republican leadership has been fourfold: (1) suppress the Democratic vote, (2) gerrymander districts to favor the GOP, (3) infuse our politics with the influence of dark money, and (4) allow foreign (and perhaps domestic) interference." ...

... ** Susan Halpern of the New Yorker: Mitch "McConnell has made 2020 open season for hackers aiming to undermine our election system. The [U.S. Election Assistance Commission (E.A.C.)] has made this easier, by displaying not only intransigence and institutional weaknesses but also a willful disregard of the threats facing our elections.... The E.A.C. is a small, relatively obscure agency, established by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (H.A.V.A.), an election-modernization bill that was passed in response to the disastrous failure of voting equipment during the 2000 Presidential election.... Inadvertently, perhaps, H.A.V.A. made the E.A.C. the closest thing this country has to a national election authority.... Lawrence Norden [of] ... the Brennan Center for Justice, testified in Congress recently, 'There are more federal regulations for ballpoint pens and magic markers than there are for voting systems and other parts of our federal election infrastructure.' The E.A.C. can suggest best practices, but election officials are free to ignore them. It can certify election machines, but election officials are not obligated to use them." Read on. The Republicans on the EAC are corrupt hacks & advocates for voter suppression; the agency's director is a protégé of Kris Kobach. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Remember Hillary Clinton's "vast right-wing conspiracy"? Well, the conspirators have specialties, and one of those specialties is to undermine democracy right where it begins -- at the ballot box. And "vast"? You betcha: from the POTUS* to justices & judges, to federal & state legislators, to federal agencies, to state attorneys general & governors (think Brian Kemp of Georgia, Greg Abbott of Texas & Kobach), to well-funded voter suppression advocacy groups like ALEC & True the Vote, to local election officials, right down to the day workers at local precincts.

Nah-Nee-Nah-Nee-Nah-Nee. Aaron Rupar of Vox: "... Donald Trump is going to increasingly odd lengths to sell people on the idea that his immigration agreement with Mexico isn't the nothingburger it appears to be. While answering questions from reporters outside the White House on Tuesday afternoon, Trump pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket and brandished it but refused to show it to reporters. 'That's the agreement that everybody says I don't have,' Trump said, waving the sheet of paper. 'Here's the agreement -- it's a very simple agreement.'... Pressed later to detail the contents of the agreement, Trump again refused to do so, but pounded the piece of paper in his jacket's chest pocket and said, 'I don't want to say, but you can just figure it out yourself -- right here ... right here is the story.'... After the event ended and the president boarded Marine One en route to Iowa, Washington Post photographer Jabin Botsford tweeted an enhanced photo of the sheet of paper Trump brandished.... The paper appeared to contain text about 'burden-sharing in relation to the processing of refugees,' and a paragraph in which the Mexican government made a vague promise 'to take all necessary steps under domestic law to bring the agreement into force'...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I do not know what every U.S. president did every day of his presidency. I do feel certain that none of them ever pulled a childish stunt like this. True, it's a form of bullying, which is signature Trump, but this is so infantile, we have to think he's regressing. ...

... The Outlaw Donnie Trump. (Bear with me on this.) Pia Deshpande of Politico: "... Donald Trump talked up his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday, saying he had received a 'beautiful letter' from Kim, shortly after 2020 hopeful Pete Buttigieg slammed the president for 'exchanging love letters with a brutal dictator.'... Like the supposed one-page Mexico deal Trump teased reporters with moments earlier, the president quipped: 'I can't show you the letter, obviously.'" ...

... Scott Neuman of NPR: "Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of the North Korean leader who was killed in a nerve-agent attack allegedly ordered by the North Korean government, had been working with the CIA prior to his death, according to The Wall Street Journal and a new book by a Washington Post reporter. The Journal, in a story published Monday, cites 'a person knowledgeable about the matter' as saying that Kim Jong Nam, who was living in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory of Macau in the years before his death, had 'met on several occasions with [CIA] operatives.' Washington Post correspondent Anna Fifield, in a book published Tuesday, makes a similar assertion, citing 'someone with knowledge of the intelligence who spoke on condition of anonymity.'" ...

... ** "Trump Sides With North Korea Against the CIA." David Graham of the Atlantic: "Trump was asked about the revelation as he left the White House for a trip to Iowa, and his answer was jarring. 'I see that, and I just received a beautiful letter from Kim Jong Un,' Trump said. '... I saw the information about the CIA with regard to his brother or half brother, and I would tell him that would not happen under my auspices. I wouldn't let that happen under my auspices...'.... Trump gave no sign of having been aware of the story prior to the Journal report. He did not, however, dispute its accuracy.... By saying he wouldn't allow American intelligence to cultivate an asset so close to Kim, he';s saying he wouldn't use spying to better understand the country's biggest overseas challenge.... Trump is sending a clear message to any would-be informants: The United States doesn't have your back. Why would any other North Korean take the risk of ending up like Kim Jong Nam?... When an alleged American informant is killed, his response is not to warn North Korea not to act that way again, but to rush to assure North Korea that he won't let such spying happen again." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It would be somewhat comforting to believe Trump sided with Kim because he's far more clueless buffoon than traitor. But the truth is that Trump is attracted to brutal dictators & he distrusts U.S. intelligence agencies, largely because some agencies have the power & all have the ability to discover some of the illegal and embarrassing things Trump does here & around the world. Trump has been an outlaw all his life, and that's the way he operates today.

Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "... Donald Trump appears to be having second thoughts about his choice of Patrick Shanahan as his next secretary of defense and asked several confidants in France last week about alternative candidates, according to four people familiar with the conversations. The White House announced May 9 that Trump had decided to nominate Shanahan, who has served as acting defense secretary since January. But the White House has yet to formally submit Shanahan's nomination to the Senate.... Asked by NBC News on Tuesday about Shanahan's nomination, Trump said he 'put it out officially' weeks ago and now the acting secretary 'has to go through the process.'" Mrs. McC: Trump is nothing but a "mean girl," one of those junior-high-school brats who get a kick out of humiliating other kids.

Scott Bixby of the Daily Beast: "Former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli's long-rumored role as a top coordinator of the Department of Homeland Security immigration policy finally has an official title. According to an email sent to staff at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Monday, the longtime border hawk has been named acting director of the agency.... While his support for ... Donald Trump may be relatively newfound, his championing of hardline Trump-style immigration policies is more than a decade in the making." Bixby does a good job of reminding us what a complete ass Little Kenny is. Mrs. McC: One big reason Kenny is "acting": the Senate probably wouldn't confirm him. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Rachel Frazin of the Hill: "An activist group is hoping to protest President Trump's planned Lincoln Memorial 4th of July address with an orange, yellow haired 'Baby Trump' blimp that also appeared during his visits to the U.K. Feminist anti-war group Code Pink announced in a statement last week it planned to protest the president's speech. 'The president is shifting the 4th of July festivities to celebrate his administration,' said Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin in the statement. 'We will bring together people opposed to the pain and suffering caused by this administration, from family separation at the border to supplying weapons used by Saudi Arabia to kill Yemeni children.'... According to The Washington Post, Code Pink requested a protest permit on Monday."

Nice Optics. W. J. Hennigan of Time: "The Trump Administration has opted to use an Army base in Oklahoma to hold growing numbers of immigrant children in its custody after running out of room at government shelters. Fort Sill, an 150-year-old installation once used as an internment camp for Japanese-Americans during World War II, has been selected to detain 1,400 children until they can be given to an adult relative, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services." ...

... Even Worse. Robert Moore of the Texas Monthly: U.S. "Immigration officials have resumed the much-criticized practice of keeping people outdoors for weeks [at the U.S.-Mexico border] to relieve dangerous overcrowding.... New Mexico State University professor Neal Rosendorf [discovered] ... migrants who said they'd been held outdoors for weeks as temperatures rose to nearly 100 degrees [near the El Paso-Juarez bridge]. Rosendorf described it as 'a human dog pound' -- one hundred to 150 men behind a chain-link fence, huddled beneath makeshift shelters made from mylar blankets and whatever other scraps they could find to shield themselves from the heat of the sun.... 'They told me they've been incarcerated outside for a month, that they haven't washed or been able to change the clothes they were detained in the entire time, and that they're being poorly fed and treated in general.' U.S. Customs and Border Protection took eight days to respond to Texas Monthly's questions about Rosendorf's discovery. In a statement this week, a CBP official acknowledged that the agency was detaining migrants outdoors for extended periods."

Salvador Hernandez of BuzzFeed News: "The viral crowdfunding effort to build a wall on the southern border aimed at deterring immigrants from crossing illegally was only recently completed, but on Monday the newly installed wall suffered a major setback -- a large gate built into the barrier was ordered opened by officials. The controversial half-mile wall constructed along the US-Mexico border near Sunland Park, New Mexico, was erected earlier this month after organizers raised more than $23 million on GoFundMe, the online crowdfunding site. But We Build the Wall organizers failed to obtain the required authorization to build the barrier on federal land, cutting off access to waterways and a public monument.... On Tuesday evening, after publication of this story, [the International Boundary and Water Commission] announced the gate would be locked at night 'due to security concerns.' The agency said in a statement that it 'is continuing to work with We Build The Wall regarding its permit request.'" The group initially told the agency the wall would be built on private land.

And Mitch Says 'Meh." Again. Brandon Carter of NPR: "Comedian Jon Stewart slammed representatives on Tuesday at a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on funding for the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, saying it was 'shameful' that more of them did not attend. 'As I sit here today, I can't help but think what an incredible metaphor this room is for the entire process that getting health care and benefits for 9/11 first responders has come to,' Stewart said in his statement. 'Behind me, a filled room of 9/11 first responders; and in front of me, a nearly empty Congress.' Rep. Steve Cohen noted that the hearing was held before the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties and not the full committee. 'All these empty chairs, that's because it's for the full committee. It's not because of disrespect or lack of attention to you,' the Tennessee Democrat said.... The fund has faced recent financial problems, including a spike in the number of claims ahead of its December 2020 expiration date.... Local, state and federal officials have rallied around the Never Forget the Heroes Act, which would provide funding for the victim fund through fiscal year 2090. The bill was introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., in October 2018, and reintroduced this year, but has since languished in the House. When asked about the legislation, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY., sidestepped the issue, saying he would have to look at the bill."

Jeff Zeleny of CNN: "Rep. Steve King, the Iowa Republican who was stripped of his congressional committee assignments earlier this year, was not allowed to fly aboard Air Force One on Tuesday as ... Donald Trump traveled to Iowa, two GOP officials say. King, who represents the state's 4th District in Western Iowa, asked the White House to join the President's entourage, but administration officials rejected the request, two officials familiar with the matter told CNN. Republican Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Deb Fischer of Nebraska joined Trump aboard Air Force One." Mrs. McC: So the country's No. 1 White Nationalist doesn't want to be seen with a lesser white nationalist, or what?

The Party of Corruption. Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "A strange thing has happened over the past month or so: Senate Republicans have begun to stand up to President Trump. Haltingly, tentatively, perhaps, but on things that matter, a bit of spine has been sighted.... This growing willingness to undercut the president's policy and personnel decisions has, however, coincided with Republicans growing ever more defensive of Trump, himself.... [This dualism] points to a party increasingly bound together by an embrace of a corrupt and plutocratic approach to governance.... While there might be growing disagreements on free trade and tariffs, [Republican] leaders are in lockstep on the idea that it is completely acceptable to use the government for corrupt ends.... It's been repeated again and again during the administration, with both relative newcomers to government and veterans like [Transportation Secretary Elaine] Chao [who has set up an apparatus to steer projects to her husband Mitch McConnell's state] using their offices to benefit themselves and their families." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race 2020

Katie Glueck & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "President Trump and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. both traveled to the key early voting state of Iowa on Tuesday, trading attacks in sharply personal terms.... Mr. Biden, who leads in early polls for the Democratic presidential nomination, described Mr. Trump as 'an existential threat' who could fundamentally change the nature of the country and its values, and who is already jeopardizing America's standing around the world, remarks that came during an afternoon appearance at an events center here. Mr. Trump, as he departed the Oval Office, told reporters that he though Mr. Biden was 'a loser' and questioned his mental fitness. 'I'd rather run against, I think, Biden than anybody,' he said. 'I think he's the weakest mentally, and I like running against people that are weak mentally. I think Joe is the weakest up here. The other ones have much more energy." Mrs. McC: Do take note of the difference in the caliber & veracity of the candidates' "personal attacks."

John Harwood of CNBC: "It may be time for Wall Street to recalibrate expectations about the 2020 election. In a survey of institutional investors this spring, more than 70% told RBC Capital Markets they expect ... Donald Trump to win a second term in 2020. But a new national poll of voters Tuesday points toward a different outcome. The Quinnipiac University poll showed the top Democratic candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden, leading Trump by a double-digit margin in a potential 2020 matchup. But it also found that five other Democratic contenders -- every one the poll pitted against Trump -- leading the president as well."

Josh Kraushaar of the National Journal: "Trump is in the weakest political shape of any sitting president since George H.W Bush. Despite a historically strong economy, his job approval ratings are still badly underwater. He's never hit 50 percent job approval in any reputable national poll throughout his presidency. At least 40 percent of voters are fired up to vote against him, no matter what happens in the next year. He's already lost ground with the working-class voters that defected from the Democrats to support him in 2016, with his favorability rating dropping 19 points among that critical Obama-Trump constituency in the last two years. The latest wave of polling is even more alarming for Trump.... Trump's clearest path to victory relies on Democrats making a series of self-destructive decisions. But even if Democrats turn leftward and nominate a weak challenger, they'd still have a credible chance at unseating Trump." Mrs. McC: The link may or may not work for you. I got a notice that I could read NJ articles until June 18. BTW, I've glanced at quite a few articles arguing Trump is a near shoo-in.

Brian Beutler of Crooked: "Ever since it became clear Joe Biden would seek the Democratic presidential nomination, politically active liberals have been engaged in internal dialogue over why he routinely asserts such a generous view of the very same Republicans who goosed birthers, sabotaged the Obama administration, abetted a foreign attack on the last presidential election, stole a Supreme Court seat, and have participated in a spree of political corruption, crime, institutional vandalism, and deceit over the last two and a half years.... [Biden's approach is] a recipe for failure.... The good news is candidates can help voters understand what lies ahead for the next Democratic government now, so that the GOP's nihilism is on the ballot, and everyone knows what to expect and fight for in 2021. The alternative is a campaign of false hope far more unrealistic than Medicare for All or a Green New Deal...."

Scott Detrow & Clay Masters of NPR: "California Sen. Kamala Harris says that if she's elected president, her administration's Department of Justice would likely pursue criminal obstruction of justice charges against ... Donald Trump.... 'I do believe that we should believe Bob Mueller when he tells us essentially that the only reason an indictment was not returned is because of a memo in the Department of Justice that suggests you cannot indict a sitting president. But I've seen prosecution of cases on much less evidence.'"

Thomas Edsall of the New York Times on meritocracy & how our society determines who makes the cuts. This is another "on-the-one-hand/on-the-other-hand" Edsall columns, but therein lies plenty of food for thought.

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona. Astrid Galvan of the AP: "A U.S. jury could not reach a verdict Tuesday against a border activist charged with conspiracy to transport and harbor migrants in a trial that humanitarian aid groups said would have wide implications on their work. Defense attorneys argued that Scott Daniel Warren, a 36-year-old college geography instructor, was simply being kind by providing two migrants with water, food and lodging when he was arrested in early 2018. He faced up to 20 years in prison. But prosecutors maintained the men were not in distress and Warren conspired to transport and harbor them at a property used for providing aid to migrants in an Arizona town near the U.S.-Mexico border.... Glenn McCormick, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Arizona, declined to comment on whether Warren will face another trial. The judge set a July 2 status hearing for the defense and prosecution."

Virginia Election Results. Alan Suderman of the AP: "Virginia's closely watched off-year primary contest produced plenty of surprises Tuesday, but little in the way of a coherent message. The top Democrat in the state Senate narrowly won his primary despite heavily outspending a progressive challenger, and another incumbent lost her seat to a former Virginia lawmaker who used to spend his days at the state Capitol and his nights in jail after being accused of having sex with his teenage secretary. Conservative challengers upset with Republican incumbents who backed Medicaid expansion had mixed results. One delegate in a key swing district lost to a more conservative challenger, while a moderate senator easily cruised to victory.... [Democrats] lost a major advantage earlier this year when its top three statewide office holders became ensnared in scandal.... Adding a significant new headache for Democrats was Joe Morrissey's victory over incumbent Sen. Rosalyn Dance in a Richmond-area senate district. Morrissey was jailed four years ago after a sex scandal involving a teenager, who Morrissey later married. He denied wrongdoing but entered an Alford plea to a misdemeanor, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, acknowledging that prosecutors had enough evidence for a conviction." Mrs. McC: Morrisey, who is 61 (not a typo), later married the teenager with whom he was having an affair.

Wisconsin. Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "The state Supreme Court late Tuesday reinstated most of the lame-duck laws Republican lawmakers approved in December to trim the powers of the state's top Democrats. With a pair of 4-3 orders, the high court canceled a trial that was to commence Wednesday and put back in place almost all the lame-duck laws while it considers an appeal. Under one of the most significant aspects of the rulings, Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul -- at least for the time being -- will have to get the approval of a committee of lawmakers before settling lawsuits. Under another, the Evers administration will have to take public comments for weeks before publishing certain documents. The status of the laws could change in the months ahead because the Supreme Court has to make more rulings in the case, as well as another one. A federal judge is overseeing another challenge to the lame-duck laws that is in its early stages. After Tuesday's rulings, just two provisions of the lame-duck laws have been kept from going into effect. One would have limited early voting; the other would have required a public commenting period for older government documents."

Way Beyond

Israel. David Halbfinger of the New York Times: "Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, accepted a plea bargain on Wednesday morning and will pay about $15,000 in fines and restitution to settle accusations that she misused about $100,000 in public funds in managing the couple's official residence. Prosecutors said that Ms. Netanyahu, whom they charged with fraud, had concealed that a cook was on the payroll so that she could order hundreds of catered meals from expensive restaurants and charge them to the state. Under the deal with the State Attorney's Office the amount of public money at issue was halved to about $50,000, and Ms. Netanyahu agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of trickery.... She is due to pay about $2,800 in fines and $12,500 in restitution.... Prosecutors accused her of 'exploiting her status as the wife of the prime minister' and colluding with a top aide in a 'planned, ongoing and systematic' scheme to break government rules and conceal it from state accountants.... Mr. Netanyahu faces a far more serious criminal prosecution of his own, on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust over his ties to wealthy businessmen, and accusations that he traded official favors for gifts and positive news coverage. He is widely expected to be indicted subject to a hearing now set for Oct. 2...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: No wonder the U.S. has such a strong bond with Israel; both countries are run (more or less) not just by right-wing grifters but by families of grifters. Tho sorry, Israel, our grifters are bigger than their grifters.