The Commentariat -- June 6, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Burgess Everett of Politico: "... Donald Trump called Bob Corker on Wednesday morning to try to dissuade the GOP senator from filing an amendment that would allow Congress to block his steel and aluminum tariffs on U.S. allies.... The Tennessee senator is unbowed and plans to introduce his amendment to a defense policy bill on Wednesday afternoon with a bipartisan group of senators. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is also planning to lead a delegation of Republican senators to the White House to express their disapproval of the president's new tariffs, according to senators and aides.... Corker may not even be able to get a vote on his proposal. Senators are already at loggerheads over amending the defense bill, and Corker acknowledged that his amendment has a lot to do with it. The Senate has not held an amendment vote on the floor since March."

Sarah Fitzpatrick & Tracy Connor of NBC News: "Stormy Daniels says in a new lawsuit that her former attorney betrayed her and became a 'puppet' for ... Donald Trump and his personal lawyer while still representing her. The filing Wednesday alleges that Trump attorney Michael Cohen 'hatched a plan' and 'colluded' with the adult film actress' lawyer, Keith Davidson, to get her to go on Fox News in January and falsely deny she had an affair with Trump more than a decade ago. Cohen even referred to Davidson as 'pal' in one text cited in the complaint. The lawsuit against Davidson and Cohen also claims that Trump was aware the two attorneys were communicating and coordinating for his benefit -- unbeknownst to Daniels.... 'Mr. Davidson abdicated his role as an advocate and fiduciary of his client Ms. Clifford and instead elected to be a puppet for Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump in order to advance their interests at the expense of Ms. Clifford,' the suit says."

Gossip Page. Adam Edelman & Dartunorro Clark of NBC News: "First lady Melania Trump made her first public appearance in nearly a month on Wednesday, tamping down rumors about her noticeable absence from the public eye after she underwent a kidney procedure. The first lady sat next to ... Donald Trump at the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a 2018 hurricane season briefing with the vice president and several cabinet officials also in attendance."

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "President Trump has signed a commutation for Alice Johnson, currently serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense, according to a source with direct knowledge. CNN reported earlier today that the White House had prepped the paperwork for a pardon for Johnson while The Washington Post reported last night that he had been considering doing so.... Johnson's cause was championed last week at the White House by Kim Kardashian West.... Per a source familiar, White House counsel Don McGahn is skeptical of the merits of pardoning Johnson."

Louis Nelson of Politico: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's office is 'trying very, very hard to frame' ... Donald Trump, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said at a conference Wednesday in Israel. Giuliani said Mueller's team, tasked with investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and allegations that the Trump campaign colluded in those efforts, is composed of '13 highly partisan Democrats ... (who) are trying very, very hard to frame him to get him in trouble when he hasn't done anything wrong.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is a shocking lie to tell anywhere, much less while visiting an ally with whom we share intelligence. It's also probably pretty effective: if you're having trouble defending your vote for Trump because he's such a corrupt fuck-up, it really helps if you "find out" that the DOJ & the FBI are "trying to frame" Trump, so you can ignore every charge the Mueller team may assert.

Elie Mystal of Above the Law: "I'm not going to pretend I know the answer to the question: Can the President pardon himself?... Every speck of digital ink spilled contemplating the scope President's pardon power without talking about impeachment is a waste. This is not 'Philosophy of Laws: 101.' Instead, open your book 'So you've elected a despot' to chapter 1, page 1. It says right there: 'Does your system allow for the impeachment of said despot, and peaceful removal from power?' If YES, then you can stop reading. Impeachment or the 25th Amendment are the only Constitutional ways to remove a sitting president from power. That's the full list of despotic remedies.... It doesn't MATTER if he pardons himself. If Congress won't act, he can do ANYTHING HE WANTS.... The only relevant legal question is: what happens after Trump leaves office? Will he be arrested, like, the day a new president is sworn in? If so, will a preemptive self-pardon carry sway with whatever legal authorities are arrayed against former-President Trump? I don't know the answer to that question either, but at least it's one worth asking." --safari

Brooke Seipel of The Hill: "The World Bank is warning that trade tensions between the United States and other countries could trigger a financial crisis equivalent to the decline seen in 2008. In its Global Economic Prospects report, the World Bank warns that tariff increases would have 'severe consequences' for global trade and could cause a decline similar to that seen in 2008, or worse if tariffs are increased beyond the maximum level allowed by the; World Trade Organization." --safari

Simon Tisdall of the Guardian: "China's expanding efforts to impose its will on neighbours through diplomatic, commercial and military pressure -- the so-called Xi doctrine -- have drawn the sharpest riposte to date from the Trump administration with Taiwan once again the main flashpoint in a sea of accelerating Sino-American rivalry.... China has accelerated efforts to isolate Taiwan diplomatically, using its economic clout to pressure countries and international institutions into breaking off ties ... including the deployment of its own aircraft carrier in the strait.... The US response is being closely watched for signs of weakness by America's other allies in the region, who are also feeling the squeeze.... Dangerous US-China flashpoint issues appear to be multiplying fast." --safari

Extra-Special Rich-White-Boy Sentence Leads to Recall. Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Aaron Persky, the California judge who drew national attention in 2016 when he sentenced a Stanford student to just six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, was recalled on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. He is the first judge recalled in California in more than 80 years. Judge Persky, 56, had served on the Santa Clara County Superior Court since 2003, and he began his most recent six-year term in June 2016.... The judge said he thought [Brock] Turner [-- the assailant --] would 'not be a danger to others' and expressed concern that 'a prison sentence would have a severe impact' on him. He did not mention the impact of the assault on the victim, known publicly only as Emily Doe, who described her suffering in a more than 7,000-word statement that went viral soon after it was published by BuzzFeed."

Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "Former President Bill Clinton's book tour for his first novel keeps getting interrupted by a familiar character from his past: Monica Lewinsky. After Mr. Clinton reacted defensively on the 'Today' show on Monday when asked about Ms. Lewinsky..., he tried to walk back the tenor of his remarks, if not fully the substance, on Tuesday. 'When something that was that painful is thrown up again after 20 years after it was fully litigated, you tend to freeze up -- and it wasn't my finest hour,' Mr. Clinton said at a TimesTalk event in Manhattan."

*****

... Michael Rosenwald of the Washington Post: "... one of the most crucial bits of [American] technology [during World War II], the one that helped the Allies launch the surprise attack on Normandy, was the hull of a boat -- the Higgins boat ... the one that carried troops right onto Normandy's beach. It was built by a wily, hard-drinking inventor named Andrew Higgins, the man Dwight D. Eisenhower once credited with winning World War II. 'It is Higgins himself who takes your breath away,' Raymond Moley, a former FDR adviser, wrote in Newsweek in 1943. 'Higgins is an authentic master builder, with the kind of will power, brains, drive and daring that characterized the American empire builders of an earlier generation.'... They were 'tunnel stern boats,' whose magic was in the way the 'hull incorporated a recessed tunnel used to protect the propeller from grounding'...." ...

... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: To appreciate the Trump administration's "remembrance" of D-Day, find Heather Nauert on this page.

Primary Results

New Jersey. Sen. Robert Menendez (D) has survived a challenge from Lisa McCormick. Bob Hugin won the Republican Senate primary. Other results here.

     Jonathan Salant of NJ.com: "New Jersey Democrats' fight to help the party win the House in the midterm referendum on ... Donald Trump kicked into high gear Tuesday as high-profile candidates won primaries. Candidates touted by national party leaders defeated insurgent challengers in three districts deemed crucial to the party's chances of taking back the House. State Sen. Jeff Van Drew, former Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Tom Malinowski and former federal prosecutor and Navy pilot Mikie Sherrill all won their primary contests, according to the Associated Press.

Alabama. Gov. Kay Ivey won the Republican primary; her Democratic challenger will be Walt Maddox. Other results here. Al.com columnist John Archibald assesses the state of the state races.

Mississippi. Incumbent Sen. Roger Wicker (R) won the GOP primary. Democratic challengers Howard Sherman & David Baria advance to a run-off. Anna Wolfe of the Clarion-Ledger reports. The New York Times lists other results.

Iowa. Democrat Fred Hubbell will challenge Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, who ran uncontested. The Des Moines Register has links to full results & related stories here.

     Jason Clayworth of the Des Moines Register: "Multiple Iowa voter turnout records were announced as bested Tuesday even before polls had closed. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate reported at around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday that 50,610 absentee ballots had been received, surpassing the previous stat primary election record of 44,740 in 2014."

South Dakota. Kristi Noem won the GOP primary for governor. Billie Sullivan (uncontested) is the Democratic nominee. In South Dakota's House at-large district, Dusty Johnson won the GOP primary & Tim Bjorkman (uncontested) will face Johnson in November.

Montana. Sen. Jon Tester (D) will face Republican Matt Rosendale in November. At 1:40 am ET, the Democratic challenger to horrible Greg Gianforte (R) had not been decided.

New Mexico. Both Sen. Martin Heinrich (D) & his challenger Mick Rich ran uncontested in the primaries. Michelle Grisham won the Democratic primary for governor; Steve Pearce ran uncontested for the GOP candidacy. The NYT has other results here.

California. The New York Times has results here.

     Phil Willon & Seema Mehta of the Los Angeles Times have live updates here. "John Cox, a multimillionaire Republican hitched to the far-right policies of President Trump, won the second spot in California's primary for governor Tuesday night, and will face Democrat Gavin Newsom in the November general election. The results mark a stunning defeat for former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, representing the fall of a politician who embodied the growing power of the Latino electorate when he was elected mayor in 2005."

     L.A. Times reporters are doing live analysis here. The most recent update, at 1:30 am PT: "Democrats in California appeared poised Tuesday night to avoid getting shut out of key congressional races for the November election, the most pressing risk they faced as they seek to retake control of the House. With most precincts reporting, Democrats seemed to have captured second place in the contests where the threat was most acute. The party's wide, boisterous field of candidates could have locked them out of multiple races because of the state's unique primary, which advances the two candidates with the most votes regardless of party."

     Adam Nagourney & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "The California results were muddled in the most-watched races here: Seven congressional districts that Hillary Clinton carried in 2016 and are now held by Republicans. Democrats are aiming to capture those seats in November, a linchpin of their strategy to take back control of the House. But many of the districts had crowded primaries and votes were still being counted late Tuesday night.... Among the seven highly competitive House races in California, Democrats were battling in at least three of those contests to avoid getting shut out from the November ballot under the state's 'top two' election system.... The races appear to be close, and provisional ballots and votes sent by mail could be critical and take days to count.... California's unusual open-primary system has become a difficult obstacle for Democrats, as a horde of candidates on the left have divided up Democratic votes and threatened to let Republicans monopolize the general election."

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "'The Russian Witch Hunt Hoax continues, all because Jeff Sessions didn't tell me he was going to recuse himself,' Mr. Trump [tweeted Tuesday morning.] 'I would have quickly picked someone else. So much time and mone wasted, so many lives ruined ... and Sessions knew better than most that there was No Collusion!'... What made this tweet so striking was that it encapsulated the essential contradictions of Mr. Trump's arguments. In fewer than 280 characters, he acknowledged perhaps as explicitly as he ever has that the reason he is mad at Mr. Sessions is that the attorney general did not shut down the investigation into Mr. Trump's campaign. To critics, that is all but an admission of obstruction of justice, or at least the desire to obstruct justice.... The implication of his [many] attacks has been that he wanted a loyalist in charge of the Justice Department. But Tuesday's tweet went further by making clear that he was counting on Mr. Sessions not just to run a fair investigation but to halt it altogether."

** Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "In a series of exclusive interviews, former Fox News Channel chief political correspondent Carl Cameron explained to ThinkProgress how the Russians coordinated their cyber-attack on the 2016 election with the Trump campaign. 'Trump confidant Roger Stone's success was having the connections and creating the opportunities for [Russian intelligence officer] Guccifer2.0 and other Russian groups to really start taking advantage of social media'... Cameron explained.... In 2016 ... Stone helped Guccifer2.0 -- who worked for Russian intelligence -- and other Russian-backed groups boost an anti-Clinton narrative online targeted at key groups. Stone direct-messaged with Guccifer2.0 on Twitter and WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange in August 2016.... The President, Roger Stone, and other campaign officials have put a lot of effort into lying about their meetings and contact with Russians linked directly to the Kremlin and its cyber attack on the United States. But they put even more effort into coordinating their message with the Russians." --safari (Also linked yesterday.)

David Corn of Mother Jones: "The other evening I was on a cable news show to cover the latest Russia news of the day -- and I had an epiphany.... Though it's clear Trump's presidency has been hobbled by the Russia scandal, the manner in which this matter plays out in the media has helped Trump.... The evidence [against Trump] is rock-solid: They committed a profound act of betrayal.... But how often do you hear or see this fundamental point being made?.... It is hard to hold on to all these pieces and place them into one big picture.... The problem is there is no organized force with as loud a bullhorn countering his disinformation in fundamental terms.... When it comes to framing the overarching story, Trump practically has a monopoly.... All this shows how easy it is for disinformation and demagoguery to distort reality. That is a tragedy for the United States. For Trump -- and Putin -- that is victory." --safari (Also linked yesterday.)

Spencer Hsu & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "... Paul Manafort plans to fight prosecutors' claims that he tried to tamper with a witness -- an accusation that could get him sent to jail before he goes on trial this summer on conspiracy and money laundering charges. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District of Columbia set a June 15 hearing to weigh prosecutors' demand that she revoke or tighten the terms of Manafort's release while he is pending trial. Manafort, 69, has been on home detention. The judge gave Manafort's lawyers until Friday to present a written rebuttal to accusations by prosecutors that he and a longtime associate repeatedly contacted two executives at a public relations firm in hopes of persuading them to provide false testimony about secret lobbying they did at Manafort's behest in 2013.... Sending Manafort to jail before trial could intensify the pressure on him to reach a plea deal with prosecutors."

Pot Calls Kettle Black. The Latest Trumpertantrum. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump doubled down on his war with the Philadelphia Eagles on Tuesday, hosting a short celebration without the team as his spokeswoman accused the Super Bowl champions of turning their White House invitation into 'a political stunt.'... 'We love our country, we respect our flag and we always proudly stand for the national anthem,' Mr. Trump said.... The message from the president was clear: a denunciation of football players who knelt during the anthem or have said they would stay in the locker room when it is played -- even though none of the Eagles players did either of those things during their winning season. In tweets earlier, Mr. Trump also made his meaning crystal clear, saying, 'NFL, no escaping to Locker Rooms!' And moments before the 10-minute celebration, Sarah Huckabee Sanders ... unloaded on the Eagles, flatly accusing them of engaging in what she repeatedly called 'a political stunt' by declining to attend the White House celebration at the last minute.... In a [prior] statement, Mr. Trump abruptly disinvited the Eagles, accusing them of trying to make a political statement about the anthem." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: How many groups and individuals does Trump have to alienate before his dimwitted cult followers notice he's a nasty SOB with no redeeming qualities? ...

... David Nakamura & Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post: "Trump's decision to carry on with a 'Celebration of America,' complete with a Marine Corps band in dress uniforms and miniature American flags -- after abruptly canceling a traditional visit from the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles -- drew intense backlash from high-profile professional athletes [like LeBron James].... The event marked another discordant moment in the tide of cultural disputes stoked by Trump, who has fanned controversies on issues including immigration, a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville and last week's flare-up over a racist tweet from comedian Roseanne Barr. Rather than seek to defuse tensions, Trump again sought to magnify them -- turning what has traditionally been an apolitical White House feting of a sports team into another divisive spectacle.... Over the years, some players have chosen to skip the events, sometimes for political reasons. But past presidents have typically not reacted to the no-shows. That has changed in the Trump era. Last fall, after Warriors guard Stephen Curry said he did not want to attend his team's White House visit, Trump canceled the event.... Trump also used his speech to pay tribute to himself, touting low unemployment rates and asserting that the United States 'has never done better than it's doing right now. Never. We have record numbers at every outpost.'" ...

... Annie Karni & Christopher Cadelago of Politico: "Last week, the Eagles submitted 81 names of players who were planning to visit the White House, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. The team was 'full steam ahead,' another administration official said, for an event that had been in the works since February. But on Monday, the White House was informed that the delegation had been reduced to just two or three players, the owner, and the team's beloved mascot, Swoop. 'We feel like they wanted to publicly humiliate the White House and the president,' the official said." Mrs. McC: Hmm, wonder if that's because Trump has knocked himself out trying to "publicly humiliate" NFL players demonstrating for justice for all Americans. ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Even by the standards of a hastily devised event, it was a shambolic display. If the plan was to prove that Eagles fans would side with Trump over the Eagles, there is very little evidence it worked.... I have seen Philadelphia Eagles fans. [The people who showed up at the White House 'fan' event] do not look like Philadelphia Eagles fans.... They look like Republican staffers and lobbyists who were hastily summoned to the White House to fill out the audience. Trump attempted to sing along to 'God Bless America,' but managed to get just two lines in before he obviously no longer knew the words." With illustrations. Chait has a nice riff on Sarah Sanders' confused misunderstanding of "free speech," the national anthem &, oh, American values. ...

... Say, Here's a Clue Chait Might Be Right. Christian D'Andrea of SB Nation: "So instead [of the Eagles event, Trump] hosted a celebration of America -- i.e. the singing of patriotic songs to which Trump may or may not know the words -- for the 'more than 1,000 Eagles fans.'..." In a tweet D'Andrew cites, Tim Furlong of NBC Philly writes, "I've asked 6 of the 'fans' at the White House who was the Eagles quarterback during the super bowl. Not ONE person knew." ...

... Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Trump disinvited the Eagles. Why? Because he couldn't stand to have so few show him fealty. And here's the thing: He's admitting it.... Pro Bowl quarterback Carson Wentz wanted to go. So did head coach Doug Pederson. They said they didn't see it as a political issue.... If two or three dozen Eagles wanted to attend, they should now realize why they were invited.... They were pawns in his game.... It was never to be done in their honor, only his.... So, what now, Pennsylvania?... Let's hear how spitting in the face of the Super Bowl champions Makes America Great Again.... This act -- this graceless, puny act -- insults both the democratic ideal and the sporting ideal. Both are rooted in the concept that citizens put aside their differences to unite for the greater good." --safari (Also linked yesterday.)

Trump Foiled Again. Laura Nahmias of Politico: New York State Judge Jennifer Schechter "ruled Tuesday that ... Donald Trump can be deposed in a defamation lawsuit brought last year by Summer Zervos, a former contestant on 'The Apprentice' who says Trump kissed and groped her after she appeared on the show.... [Trump's] lawyers have appealed to New York's highest court in hopes of avoiding it.... Zervos' attorney Mariann Wang said Trump's attorneys are trying to stall for time. Wang said her legal team had already issued a subpoena to the Trump campaign, which had been unwilling to hand over any information related to other women who've accused Trump.... Schecter ordered both legal teams to give her a briefing on the issue." (Also linked yesterday.)

** Putin Punks U.S. Steven Erlanger & Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia arrived in Austria on Tuesday sensing an opportunity almost unimaginable just months ago: to overhaul frosty relations with a European Union infuriated by President Trump on a host of issues, from climate and Iran to, most recently, tariffs and trade.... Mr. Putin was now gaining considerable traction by casting himself as a reliable friend and trading partner to Europe even as the Trump administration was treating its closest allies there as strategic and economic competitors.... Though careful not to gloat, Mr. Putin had to take great satisfaction in the recent turn of events. Often dismissed as a tactician and opportunist, he was looking more like a grand strategist as Mr. Trump bluntly rejected European demands for an exemption from what Brussels considers illegal and unilateral tariffs on steel and aluminum.... It is not only Europe's populists who are looking for warmer ties with Russia. Last week, Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, called for an end to the demonization of Russia."

Ana Swanon & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "Mexico hit back at the United States on Tuesday, imposing tariffs on around $3 billion worth of American pork, steel, cheese and other goods in response to the Trump administration's steel and aluminum levies, further straining relations between the two countries as they struggle to rewrite the North American Free Trad Agreement. The tariffs came as the Trump administration threw yet another complication into the fractious Nafta talks by saying it wants to splinter discussions with Canada and Mexico and work on separate agreements rather than continue three-country discussions to rewrite the 1994 trade deal. Larry Kudlow, President Trump's chief economic adviser, said on Tuesday that Mr. Trump's 'preference now, and he asked me to convey this, is to actually negotiate with Mexico and Canada separately.'" ...

... Sanction Trump! Matt Yglesias of Vox: "Our trade partners are planning to respond to ... Donald Trump's imposition of new taxes on steel and aluminum imported from those countries by hitting back with tariffs of their own -- attempting to inflict economic harm on American companies and mobilize political pressure on Trump to relent. This is a fine idea.... But it does tend to founder on a few problems. One is that it's simply not clear whether Trump cares about the welfare of American citizens.... Another is that, with overall economic conditions generally pretty good in the United States right now, you'd need to inflict a lot of retaliatory pain for it to be noticeable to normal Americans. Last but by no means least, the true perversity of trade war is that it's genuinely lose-lose.... But there is a better way.... America's democratic allies probably can't (and certainly shouldn't) bribe Trump and his family in [the way China has], but they both can and should do the opposite: work together on a package of targeted sanctions narrowly designed to inflict pain specifically on the Trump Organization.... Hitting Trump personally might work on its own terms."

David Graham of the Atlantic: Donald Trump "aggressively and successively made hardline immigration policy synonymous with himself, but with a growing uproar over the separation of children from parents apprehended crossing the border, he is now wishing to distance himself from the policy. This is not the first time this has happened. The fight over how to handle 'Dreamers,' unauthorized immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, has played out similarly.... Trump has tried to soft-pedal the effects of the policy Sessions announced in May, and to distance himself from it. On May 26, he tweeted, 'Put pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from there [sic] parents once they cross the Border into the U.S.' On Tuesday, he added:... 'Separating families at the Border is the fault of bad legislation passed by the Democrats. Border Security laws should be changed but the Dems can't get their act together! Started the Wall.'... There is no law that requires separation per se...." ...

... Julia Ainsley & Courtney Kube of NBC News: "Border agents and child welfare workers are running out of space to shelter children who have been separated from their parents at the U.S. border as part of the Trump administration's new 'zero tolerance' policy, according to two U.S. officials and a document obtained by NBC News. As of Sunday, nearly 300 of the 550 children currently in custody at U.S. border stations had spent more than 72 hours there, the time limit for immigrants of any age to be held in the government's temporary facilities. Almost half of those 300 children are younger than 12.... HHS officials will soon tour military installations near the border in Texas as they search for more space to house children while they wait for placement." ...

... ** Gabe Ortiz of Daily Kos: "In an interview with America's most racist Keebler elf [Jeff Sessions], [conservative media personality Hugh] Hewitt said he was 'disturbed' by the administration's policy tearing kids from the arms of immigrant parents at the U.S./Mexico border, saying that 'I don&'t think children should be separated from biological parents at any age, but especially if they're infants and toddlers': 'HH: Is it absolutely necessary, General, to separate parents from children when they are detained or apprehended at the border? JS: Yes. What's happening is we are having more people coming bringing children with them entering between the ports of entry, between the ports of entry illegally.... We believe every person that enters the country illegally like that should be prosecuted. And you can't be giving immunity to people who bring children with them recklessly and improperly and illegally.... Within 72 hours, they're taken to the Health and Human Services to be sure they're properly cared for. And those persons will have, the adults will be prosecuted like the law requires.'... Petitioning for asylum at a U.S. port of entry is a legal act enshrined in U.S. law, yet the Trump administration has horrifically dismissed this as a 'Democrat loopholes.' There is no law forcing Trump and Sessions to separate families." Read the whole post so you won't forget what a weasly, lying little turd Jeff Sessions is. ...

... U.N. Cites U.S. Human Rights Violations. AFP: "The United Nations has urged Washington to immediately halt its controversial practice of separating asylum-seeking Central American children from their parents at the southern border. The UN human rights office said it was deeply concerned over the zero tolerance policy introduced by the Trump administration to deter illegal immigration. The spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the policy had 'led to people caught entering the country irregularly being subjected to criminal prosecution and having their children -- including extremely young children -- taken away from them as a result'.... 'The US should immediately halt this practice,' she told reporters in Geneva. 'The practice of separating families amounts to arbitrary and unlawful interference in family life, and is a serious violation of the rights of the child. The use of immigration detention and family separation as a deterrent runs counter to human rights standards and principles,' she said."

Good Grief. Pete Williams of NBC News: "A man wanted on an attempted murder charge was arrested Tuesday morning outside the White House, where he was working as a contractor and had a White House pass, law enforcement officials said. Officers arrested 29-year-old Martese Maurice Edwards of Suitland, Maryland, when he reported for work, according to a Secret Service statement.... A federal official said the warrant was for attempted first-degree murder.... A federal law enforcement official says Edwards did work for the National Security Council in the Old Executive Office Building next to the White House and did not have access to the West Wing."

No Apologies, But Sadler Gets the Boot. Noah Gray, et al., of CNN: "Kelly Sadler, the White House communications aide who made a imprudent comment about Republican Sen. John McCain's health, was quietly let go Tuesday nearly a month after making the insensitive remark. 'Kelly Sadler is no longer employed within the Executive Office of the President,' wrote Raj Shah, the principal deputy press secretary, in an emailed statement. The White House had been strategizing an exit for Sadler for the last two weeks, a senior administration official said." ...

... Update. Katie Rogers & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Ms. Sadler did not leave in light of her comments, according to two people familiar with the situation. Instead, they suggested that Ms. Sadler was pushed out over reports that she had told Mr. Trump that Mercedes Schlapp, the White House strategic communications director, had been the one leaking to the news media. Tensions between the two had reached a point where Ms. Sadler, who worked in the White House communications office focusing on immigration, and Ms. Schlapp were unable to be in the same room together, White House aides said."

David Dayen of The Intercept: "The leadership of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau [Mick "little prick" Mulvaney] is required by law to hold in-person meetings with its consumer advisory board, yet according to more than a dozen of its members, they are refusing to do so.... The CFPB ... has canceled two in-person meetings with the CAB, as well as numerous conference calls. Contact has been limited to one phone call in March that was supposed to last one hour but ended after 20 minutes.... CAB members have expressed concern with more than just refusing to meet, but the entire strategic direction of the CFPB. Since taking over last November as acting director, Mulvaney has overseen efforts to sideline enforcement, undermine the offices of fair lending and student loan enforcement through restructuring, sought to delay a major rule governing payday lenders, and temporarily freeze consumer complaint data collection. The CAB was not consulted on any of these changes." --safari

Swamp. Justin Glawe of The Daily Beast: "Before stepping off a military jet in Kentucky last summer where he viewed a solar eclipse at Fort Knox, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was doing something else in secret.... Mnuchin's use of the exemption to redact information [from his public schedule] supposedly related to his personal security is significantly higher than his predecessors.... In the first eight months of Mnuchin's tenure, the Treasury Department has used Exemption 7 148 times, or 18 times per month, on average.... By comparison, both Treasury secretaries in the Obama administration used law enforcement exemptions 235 times in eight years.... The revelation that Mnuchin is redacting significantly more information from his calendar comes at a time when several cabinet members have come under scrutiny for travel expenses...." --safari...

...This Is a Real Headline in a Real Newspaper: "Scott Pruitt enlisted an EPA aide to help his wife find a job -- with Chick-fil-A." There's a real story below the real headline, by Juliet Eilperin & others of the Washington Post. Almost tops yesterday's news: "Scott Pruitt enlisted an EPA aide to buy an old Trump Hotel mattress." Extra points for predicting tomorrow's story: "Scott Pruitt enlisted an EPA aide to _______(fill in the blank)_______." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jennifer Dlouhy & Mario Parker of Bloomberg: "Republican Senator Joni Ernst blasted allegations of ethical misconduct by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.... 'He is about as swampy as you get here in Washington, D.C., and if the president wants to drain the swamp, he needs to take a look at his own cabinet,' said Ernst, of Iowa.... The comments from Ernst coincided with sharp words from her fellow Iowa Republican, Senator Chuck Grassley, who told reporters in a conference call on Tuesday that Pruitt 'has betrayed the president.'"

Apparently Betsy DeVos was upset by the all the headlines Scott Pruitt was garnering, so she thought up something comparable for herself:

... AP: "Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday said the federal commission on school safety set up after a Florida high school shooting won't be looking at the role of guns in school violence. DeVos was asked during a congressional hearing whether the panel, which she is chairing, will look at guns in the context of school safety. 'That is not part of the commission’s charge per se,' DeVos told a Senate subcommittee overseeing education spending. 'We are actually studying school safety and how we can ensure our students are safe at school.' Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, who asked the question, quipped[,] 'So you are studying gun violence, but not considering the role of guns.'" ...

... Somebody Schooled Betsy. Michael Stratford of Politico: "Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday walked back earlier comments that it's up to individual schools to decide whether to report undocumented students, following intense criticism from Democrats and civil rights advocates. DeVos at a hearing was pressed by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on whether teachers and principals are permitted under federal law to contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about students who are undocumented. Murphy asked: 'So they can't call ICE?' 'I don't think they can,' DeVos responded. [Mrs. McC: According to the AP report linked above, "The audience gasped with relief" at her answer.] At another congressional hearing last month, DeVos said it was up to individual schools to decide whether to call ICE to report undocumented students."

You. Can't. Make. Up. This. Stuff. Mrs. McCrabbie: I didn't think anybody could top Scott Pruitt's petty corruption -- silver pens, used Trump mattresses, Chick-fil-A franchise -- or Betsy DeVos's commission on gun violence that isn't studying gun violence. But Patrick set me straight in today's Comments. Not only did State Department spokesperson and former "Fox & Friends" couch tomato Heather Nauert excuse our ambassador to Germany for his impolitic remarks by arguing that ambassadors have free speech rights, too, she cited D-Day as a proof of the U.S.'s great relationship with Germany:

Mike Ives of the New York Times: "Tens of thousands of dollars in cash. Documents listing locations of United States Cyber Command outposts. A passcode-protected thumb drive, hidden behind a sock in the toe of a shoe. According to the Justice Department, these are among the items that United States agents found over the years while searching the luggage of Ron Rockwell Hansen, a former Defense Intelligence Agency case officer, as he flew numerous times between the United States and China. Mr. Hansen, 58, a fluent Mandarin speaker who first visited China in 1981, has allegedly received at least $800,000 in 'funds originating from China' since May 2013. On Saturday, Mr. Hansen was arrested in Seattle and charged with attempted espionage, in what appears to be another high-profile mol hunt by F.B.I. investigators intent on uncovering Chinese spying against the United States." (Also linked yesterday.)

Senate Races. Thomas Kaplan & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Senator Mitch McConnell announced Tuesday that he is canceling most of the Senate’s monthlong August recess, a move that could keep vulnerable Democrats tethered to Washington as the midterm elections approach.... With 10 incumbent Democratic senators up for re-election in states won by Mr. Trump in the 2016 presidential election, the campaign implications were hard to overlook."

Now the Chinese Are Watching You, Too. Michael LaForgia & Gabriel Dance of the New York Times: "Facebook has data-sharing partnerships with at least four Chinese electronics companies, including a manufacturing giant that has a close relationship with China's government, the social media company said on Tuesday. The agreements, which date to at least 2010, gave private access to some user data to Huawei, a telecommunications equipment company that has been flagged by American intelligence officials as a national security threat, as well as to Lenovo, Oppo and TCL. The four partnerships remain in effect, but Facebook officials said in an interview that the company would wind down the Huawei deal by the end of the week."

Good-bye to all that.... Matthew Haag of the New York Times: "The Miss America Organization, confronting a harassment scandal and trying to find its place in the #MeToo era, announced on Tuesday that it would scrap the swimsuit portion, starting with its next pageant in September. 'We are not going to judge you on your outward appearance,' Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News anchor who is now the organization's chairwoman, said on ABC's 'Good Morning America.' 'We want more women to know that they are welcome in this organization.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "David H. Koch, the billionaire industrialist who combined his vast wealth and libertarian-tinged brand of conservatism to influence candidates and campaigns at all levels of American politics, is stepping away from his political and business interests because of declining health, his company announced Tuesday. Mr. Koch's brother, Charles, said in a letter to employees at Koch Industries, the company the two brothers controlled, that David Koch's health problems had made it impossible for him to continue working."

Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "The Wall Street Journal named a new editor in chief on Tuesday, elevating Matthew J. Murray to the top spot at one of the country's pre-eminent newspapers and bringing an end to the tenure of Gerard Baker, whose stewardship had prompted defections and some unrest in the newsroom. The British-born, Oxford-educated Mr. Baker, who led the broadsheet for five and a half years, will remain at The Journal as a weekend columnist and a host of conferences and live events. He will also host a Journal-themed show on the Fox Business Network, which, like the newspaper, is an arm of Rupert Murdoch's media empire.... Last year, at an all-hands meeting called to address concerns about coverage, Mr. Baker defended himself against accusations from reporters that the paper had gone easy on President Trump, and suggested that other news organizations had become overly negative in their coverage."

... Weird News. Martin Weil of the Washington Post: "An armored military vehicle, looking like a tank, but without the weaponry, was taken Tuesday night from a military installation in Virginia, and pursued over main roads to Richmond. The vehicle, known as an armored personnel carrier, and equipped with treads reminiscent of a tank, came to a halt about 9:40 p.m. in a Richmond intersection near the state capitol. It was not immediately known why it stopped or why it stopped where it did.... The base is used for National Guard training. It was not immediately known whether whoever drove it from the base was connected to the Guard.... State police said a man was taken into custody. The incident remained under investigation late Tuesday and no charges had been filed."

Beyond the Beltway

This is America. Brad Reed of RawStory: "[Eighth] graders graduating from the St. Cornelius middle school in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, this week were given a macabre gift: Bulletproof backpack 'shields' intended to save their lives during a future school shooting.... [M]any students seemed baffled by the fact that this was the gift they were getting to welcome them to high school. 'I never thought I'd need this,' one student told Fox 29.... A great grandparent of one of the graduating students similarly said it was a sad commentary on American society that 8th graders needed to be given bulletproof shields as rites de passage going into high school." --safari: As much as most of recoil in horror about this, others are amazed in its ingeniousness. WTF is wrong with us? ...

... Alex Finnie of WPLG-TV: "The family of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student David Hogg was 'swatted' Tuesday morning, prompting deputies to respond to their Parkland home. A call came into the Coral Springs Police Department claiming a hostage situation at the home. When a Broward Sheriff's Office SWAT team arrived at the scene, they found no hostage situation and determined the call was a prank. Hogg was not home at the time of the incident and is currently in Washington with his mother to accept the RFK Human Rights award. In a phone call with Local 10 News, Hogg sounded off about the prank call, which led to the massive law enforcement presence at his home."

Max Greenwood of the Hill: "A South Dakota state lawmaker argued in a Facebook comment that businesses should be allowed to turn down people based on the color of their skin. The comment from state Rep. Michael Clark (R) came shortly after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Colorado baker, who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple because of his religious beliefs.... 'It is his business,' Clark wrote in a comment. 'He should have the opportunity to run his business the way he wants. If he wants to turn away people of color, then [that's] his choice.' Clark deleted the post on Tuesday, saying he had 'jumped in on it a little bit too fast,' the Leader reported. He later apologized for the comment in an email to a reporter for the Leader." Mrs. McC: Reminds me of Sen. Rand Paul, who has a far more influential job than Clark.

The Commentariat -- June 5, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

This Is a Real Headline in a Real Newspaper: "Scott Pruitt enlisted an EPA aide to help his wife find a job -- with Chick-fil-A." There's a real story below the real headline, by Juliet Eilperin & others of the Washington Post. Almost tops yesterday's news: "Scott Pruitt enlisted an EPA aide to buy an old Trump Hotel mattress." Extra points for predicting tomorrow's story: "Scott Pruitt enlisted an EPA aide to _______(fill in the blank)_______."

Trump Foiled Again. Laura Nahmias of Politico: New York State Judge Jennifer Schechter "ruled Tuesday that ... Donald Trump can be deposed in a defamation lawsuit brought last year by Summer Zervos, a former contestant on 'The Apprentice' who says Trump kissed and groped her after she appeared on the show.... [Trump's] lawyers have appealed to New York's highest court in hopes of avoiding it.... Zervos' attorney Mariann Wang said Trump's attorneys are trying to stall for time. Wang said her legal team had already issued a subpoena to the Trump campaign, which had been unwilling to hand over any information related to other women who've accused Trump.... Schecter ordered both legal teams to give her a briefing on the issue."

** Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "In a series of exclusive interviews, former Fox News Channel chief political correspondent Carl Cameron explained to ThinkProgress how the Russians coordinated their cyber-attack on the 2016 election with the Trump campaign. 'Trump confidant Roger Stone's success was having the connections and creating the opportunities for [Russian intelligence officer] Guccifer2.0 and other Russian groups to really start taking advantage of social media'... Cameron explained.... In 2016 ... Stone helped Guccifer2.0 -- who worked for Russian intelligence -- and other Russian-backed groups boost an anti-Clinton narrative online targeted at key groups. Stone direct-messaged with Guccifer2.0 on Twitter and WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange in August 2016.... The President, Roger Stone, and other campaign officials have put a lot of effort into lying about their meetings and contact with Russians linked directly to the Kremlin and its cyber attack on the United States. But they put even more effort into coordinating their message with the Russians." --safari

David Corn of Mother Jones: "The other evening I was on a cable news show to cover the latest Russia news ... -- and I had an epiphany.... Though it's clear Trump's presidency has been hobbled by the Russia scandal, the manner in which this matter plays out in the media has helped Trump.... The evidence [against Trump] is rock-solid.... But how often do you hear or see this fundamental point being made?.... It is hard to hold on to all these pieces and place them into one big picture.... The problem is there is no organized force with as loud a bullhorn countering his disinformation in fundamental terms.... When it comes to framing the overarching story, Trump practically has a monopoly.... All this shows how easy it is for disinformation and demagoguery to distort reality. That is a tragedy for the United States. For Trump -- and Putin -- that is victory." --safari

Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Trump disinvited the Eagles. Why? Because he couldn't stand to have so few show him fealty. And here's the thing: He's admitting it.... Pro Bowl quarterback Carson Wentz wanted to go. So did head coach Doug Pederson. They said they didn't see it as a political issue.... If two or three dozen Eagles wanted to attend, they should now realize why they were invited.... They were pawns in his game.... It was never to be done in their honor, only his.... So, what now, Pennsylvania?... Let's hear how spitting in the face of the Super Bowl champions Makes America Great Again.... This act -- this graceless, puny act -- insults both the democratic ideal and the sporting ideal. Both are rooted in the concept that citizens put aside their differences to unite for the greater good." --safari

Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress: "During an interview on Monday, Fox News host Harris Faulkner and Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) vigorously agreed that President Trump has the power to pardon himself..." --safari

Mike Ives of the New York Times: "Tens of thousands of dollars in cash. Documents listing locations of United States Cyber Command outposts. A passcode-protected thumb drive, hidden behind a sock in the toe of a shoe. According to the Justice Department, these are among the items that United States agents found over the years while searching the luggage of Ron Rockwell Hansen, a former Defense Intelligence Agency case officer, as he flew numerous times between the United States and China. Mr. Hansen, 58, a fluent Mandarin speaker who first visited China in 1981, has allegedly received at least $800,000 in 'funds originating from China' since May 2013. On Saturday, Mr. Hansen was arrested in Seattle and charged with attempted espionage, in what appears to be another high-profile mole hunt by F.B.I. investigators intent on uncovering Chinese spying against the United States."

Good-bye to all that.Matthew Haag of the New York Times: "The Miss America Organization, confronting a harassment scandal and trying to find its place in the #MeToo era, announced on Tuesday that it would scrap the swimsuit portion, starting with its next pageant in September. 'We are not going to judge you on your outward appearance,' Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News anchor who is now the organization's chairwoman, said on ABC's 'Good Morning America.' 'We want more women to know that they are welcome in this organization.'"

*****

Ella Nilsen, et al., of Vox: "June 5 marks one of the most consequential and crowded primary days of the year. There's a 'jungle primary' that could lock out Democrats from important House seats in California, an establishment 84-year-old Democratic senator is facing a compelling primary challenger, and there's a surprisingly heated governor's race in South Dakota. There are key primaries in five states Tuesday: California, New Jersey, Iowa, Montana, and New Mexico. California will likely be the most closely watched state. With seven Republican-held districts that Hillary Clinton won in 2016, the state is an integral part of Democrats' path to regaining control of the House in November." The reporters provide details.

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

Painting by Patrick Shea.... Trump Declares Himself King. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump declared Monday that the appointment of the special counsel in the Russia investigation is 'totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL!' and asserted that he has the power to pardon himself, raising the prospect that he might take extraordinary action to immunize himself from the ongoing probe. In a pair of early-morning tweets, Mr. Trump suggested that he would not have to pardon himself because he had 'done nothing wrong.' But he insisted that 'numerous legal scholars' have concluded that he has the absolute right to do so, a claim that vastly overstates the legal thinking on the issue. In fact, many constitutional experts dispute Mr. Trump's position on his pardon power, an issue for which there has been no definitive ruling.... Mr. Trump did not elaborate in the tweets about the legal basis for his claim that the appointment of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel in the Russia case, was unconstitutional. In that tweet, he insisted that 'we play the game because I, unlike the Democrats, have done nothing wrong!'... The president also tweeted Monday morning about trade, asserting that Canada has 'all sorts of trade barriers' on American agricultural products. 'Not acceptable,' he said. He also bragged about his accomplishments at the 500-day mark in office. Shortly after, the White House echoed that sentiment with an email to reporters titled: 'President Donald J. Trump's 500 Days of American Greatness.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Allan Smith of Business Insider: Rudy interprets Donald. Mrs. McC: When pundits rely on opinions from the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel, remember these are opinions, & courts disagree with the DOJ's opinions all the time. OLC opinions do not set precedent in the way court decisions do. So Smith reports, "Giuliani repeatedly cited a 2000 memo from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel following President Bill Clinton's scandal, saying that while the Constitution does not give the president immunity from prosecution, the president cannot be indicted." That was the opinion of probably-career DOJ lawyers; it's up to the courts -- in this case, most likely the Supremes, to decide whether the opinion is "correct." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The president has had help in shaping his expansive view of his authority: For at least a year, his lawyers in the investigation into whether he tried to obstruct the Russia inquiry have been advising the president that he wields sweeping constitutional powers to impede investigations no matter his motive -- and despite obstruction-of-justice laws that everyone else must obey.... But their striking constitutional claim that obstruction statutes cannot bind Mr. Trump stood apart from the rest of their case.... Mr. Trump's lawyers, by contrast, are claiming that he is 'the chief la enforcement officer' -- a description usually applied to the attorney general -- wielding absolute power to command the actions of every federal prosecutor or F.B.I. agent in a way no congressional statute can limit." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: This is what happens when a bad client hires bad lawyers. Typically, a layperson who asks a lawyer to represent him against some adversary will believe some misbegotten tropes about the law that inure to his benefit -- like "possession is 9/10th of the law," or "my boss violated my First Amendment rights when he fired me for swearing at a customer." It's up to the lawyer to explain to him what the "real" law is and/or how cases like his are commonly decided. But Trump is a narcissist who is not capable of grasping or even hearing anything that suggests he could be a "loser." So the only "law" he can hear is that which would benefit him. The lawyers willing to take on this kind of client are also ones who must be willing to make outlandish claims with straight faces. Trump's lawyers feed his fantastical views & bill him for it. That may not matter much with an "ordinary" client -- he'll just lose the case & the client & his lawyers can all sit around & blame the judge & jury -- but it does matter when the client is a person of unique power.

... Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "Despite President Trump's declarations that he has expansive powers that could blunt the special-counsel investigation, his legal team is preparing for the possibility of a presidential interview, or a legally precarious subpoena battle over such a sit-down.... Private moves by Trump's attorneys and advisers indicate that -- despite the president's public bravado -- they are readying for a fraught legal confrontation that could have far-reaching consequences.... However, the fledgling briefings have not gone very deep, because of the president's anger about the probe, according to a person familiar with the situation." ...

... Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "Senate Republicans on Monday warned President Trump, with varying degrees of alarm, against entertaining the prospect of pardoning himself of any federal crime.... Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) noted constitutional scholars have reached varying conclusions on whether a president can pardon himself, but she added that ... she would urge him to 'never say another word about Bob Mueller's investigation until it's complete.'... 'It would be a tremendous abuse of his authority if he were to do so, as well as remarkably unwise.' Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) stressed that the Constitution 'doesn't give carte blanche freedom to a president.' And Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who is leading his own investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign... [told reporters], 'If I were president and somebody, some lawyer told me that I could do that, I'd hire a new lawyer.'..." And so forth. ...

... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A recently published letter from ... Donald Trump's attorneys claiming that the president could not have obstructed the federal investigation into ties between his campaign and Russia is deeply flawed, 14 prominent law professors and legal scholars said Monday in a pointed rebuttal sent to top lawyers at the White House. 'The Office of the President is not a get-out-of-jail free card for lawless behavior,' the professors wrote in their letter.... "Indeed, our country's Founders made it clear in the Declaration of Independence that they did not believe that even a king had such powers; they specifically cited King George's obstruction of justice as among the "injuries and usurpations" that justified independence. Our Founders would not have created -- and did not create -- a Constitution that would permit the President to use his powers to violate the laws for corrupt and self-interested reasons.' Among the better known signers of the rebuttal: Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe, former U.S. Attorneys Harry Litman and Joyce Vance and former Obama White House ethics czar Norm Eisen. The letter was coordinated by Project Democracy, a watchdog group.... The professors [directed their rebuttal] ... to White House Counsel Don McGahn and a recent addition to McGahn's office, Emmet Flood." ...

... Charles Pierce: "The president* ... has at his easy disposal everything a dictator could possibly want.... He is succeeding in his campaign to delegitimize any criminal investigation of his various schemes.... Hostile press, he can easily ignore. He is consolidating power based on deceit at an alarming rate, and, worst of all, he is becoming more popular for doing so among the only voters that matter to him.... [T]he president*'s approval rating among Republicans is the highest of any Republican president since World War II at this point in his administration* with the exception of where George W. Bush was at immediately after the attacks of 9/11. He stands at 87 percent approval among Republicans....It is entirely possible that the momentum now is unstoppable. The country is hurtling toward the destruction of its most basic ideas about itself.... Not that anyone actually is doing anything about it." -safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jack Holmes of Esquire: "The authoritarian movement that this president began during his campaign is approaching its natural conclusion.... The signs are that his supporters will back him no matter what: He enjoys the support of 87 percent of Republicans.... That support is similarly reflected in the ethno-nationalist fervor of his rallies.... If the president believes he can do as he wishes because he has unlimited authority, and a section of the nation backs him simply because he is the authority, you are dealing with an authoritarian movement that could support a tyrant. The alarm bells should be ringing." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "... Trump's tweets reinforce an underrecognized point: The likelihood that the fate of the Trump administration will eventually be decided by the Supreme Court is greater than most people realize. Consider three issues that seem increasingly likely to end up before the court. [1] Trump pardoning himself.... [2] Trump rejecting the authority of the special counsel.... [3] Trump rejecting a subpoena from the special counsel." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "For nearly a year, the denials from President Trump's lawyers and spokeswoman were unequivocal. No, the president did not dictate a misleading statement released in his son's name.... But in a confidential, hand-delivered memo to the special counsel, Mr. Trump's lawyers acknowledged that, yes, Mr. Trump had dictated the statement, which attempted to deflect questions about a meeting with a Kremlin-tied lawyer at Trump Tower. Prosecutors are asking whether the statement was part of an effort by the president to obstruct a federal investigation. Even for a president whose false statements have been constantly cited by fact-checkers, this was a stark private acknowledgment of what was a repeated public falsehood. And it sums up the dilemma that Mr. Trump faces as he weighs whether to sit for an interview with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. The misleading statement is but one aspect of Mr. Mueller's investigation. But it highlights a communication strategy that the White House has used repeatedly: deny facts, attack news outlets and dismiss journalism as 'fake news.'... On Monday, [Sarah] Sanders refused to answer the question or address her previous denial." ...

... Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "The admission that Trump dictated his son's statement is the latest example of where on a number of key issues -- especially pegged to Mueller's ongoing Russia probe and Trump's legal difficulties -- the White House and the president's lawyers have offered contradicting stories and whipsaw about-faces, often revealing the truth only weeks later, when confronted with their inconsistencies." Parker cites a number of instances in which Trump lied, then left others to try to cover for him when the "fake news" uncovered the facts of the matters. ...

... Michael Gerson of the Washington Post: "On the evidence of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's CNN interview over the weekend, the likely next speaker of the House is a mindless sycophant and a threat to the constitutional order. Confronted with a simple ethical question -- would he condemn demonstrable White House lies in covering up President Trump's role in drafting his son's account of the now-infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians -- McCarthy, a California Republican, was initially dumbstruck, then shifted into a prerecorded attack on special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.... McCarthy seems to view surrender to the president as a matter of principle -- as part of the tribal code of the partisan.... Because the Constitution makes impeachment so difficult -- requiring a two-thirds supermajority vote in the Senate for conviction and removal -- any president who retains the loyalty of his party has essentially no practical limits on his power in criminal matters.... The president has now claimed the entire executive branch as his private fiefdom, and every federal law enforcement official as his personal servant. Would a Speaker McCarthy stand athwart Trumpism yelling 'Stop!'? There is no reason to think it." ...

... Another Profile in Cowardice. Dominique Jackson of the Raw Story: "When asked by a local D.C. journalist, Haley Byrd, if he believes that President Trump can pardon himself, [Sen. Ted] Cruz had nothing to say. The Texas Senator paused for nearly 20 seconds before giving a lukewarm response. 'That is not a constitutional issue I have studied, so I will withhold judgement,' Cruz said." Includes audio w/20 seconds of background noise. ...

... ** Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "How did Trump get the idea he has powers that allow him to fire anyone, even for an illegal reason (e.g., a bribe)? We're only talking about self-pardon ... because Republicans were largely indifferent to pardons of cronies such as Joe Arpaio and right-wing race-monger Dinesh D'Souza. When reports suggested that the president's team might have dangled pardons in front of key witnesses, you did not see Republicans in Congress leap to object.... The failure of Republicans, even those considered constitutional sticklers, to balk at Trump's increasingly outrageous claims goes back the GOP original sin in 2016 -- sticking by Trump because of the notion he could deliver on taxes or appoint conservative judges.... Conservatives repeatedly called out [President] Obama and his administration for allegedly obstructing of justice. When exactly did it become impossible for presidents to obstruct justice?... The reason Trump feels emboldened to make frightful claims of vast executive power is that the constitutional conservatives don't much care about the Constitution and aren't conservative in any meaningful sense of the word." ...

... Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: "In the past, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has made excuses for false statements. On Monday, she tried something new -- telling incredulous reporters that she is not the right person to answer questions about one of her own untrue assertions. During a televised media briefing, journalists pressed Sanders about her insistence in August that President Trump 'certainly didn't dictate' a misleading statement to the New York Times on behalf of his son Donald Trump Jr. In a January letter to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, published for the first time over the weekend by the Times, the president's private legal team conceded that Trump had, in fact, dictated the statement. 'What's the reason for that discrepancy?' the Hill's Jordan Fabian asked Sanders. 'This is from a letter from the outside counsel, and I'd direct you to them to answer that question,' Sanders replied. That. Doesn't. Make. Sense. ...

... ** Maybe Putin Dictated the "Adoption" Excuse. Marcy Wheeler: "Right in the middle of this heated effort to respond to the NYT [About Junior's Trump Tower meeting with Russians], Trump bizarrely spent an hour chatting Vladimir Putin up over dinner at the G-20.... The question here is not just ... 'why did you emphasize adoptions -- Russian code for sanctions -- rather than the sanctions that were at the core of the meeting?' It's also the unstated question: 'Did you dictate that statement? Or did Vladimir Putin?'... We don't actually have to speculate about whether that spin -- adoptions rather than sanctions -- came up in the chat between Putin and Trump. In an interview not long after news of the June 9 meeting broke, Trump actually told the NYT he and Putin were talking about adoptions. '... And I actually talked about Russian adoption with him [Putin], which is interesting because it was a part of the conversation that Don [Jr., Mr. Trump's son] had in that meeting. As I've said -- most other people, you know, when they call up and say, 'By the way, we have information on your opponent,' I think most politicians ... [would say], "Who wouldn't have taken a meeting like that?"'" ...

     ... digby has more on this. Natasha Bertrand (tweet) & Josh Marshall (firewalled) agree with Wheeler. Mrs. McC: If anybody pays directly for the Trump-Putin collusion on the false story, it will likely be Junior, because he apparently perjured himself before committees of both Houses regarding who wrote the false cover story.

Eric Beech of Reuters: "... Paul Manafort, who has been indicted by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, attempted to tamper with potential witnesses, Mueller said in a court filing on Monday. Mueller, who is investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, asked the judge overseeing the case in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to revoke or revise an order releasing Manafort ahead of his trial." The story has been updated: "FBI Special Agent Brock Domin, in a declaration filed with Mueller's motion, said Manafort had attempted to call, text and send encrypted messages in February to two people from 'The Hapsburg Group,' a firm he worked with to promote the interests of Ukraine.... The communications were 'in an effort to influence their testimony and to otherwise conceal evidence,' Domin wrote." ...

... Darren Samuelsohn of Politico has more. A lot of "Person A" & "Person D2" stuff. ...

... Here's the government's filing, via the Washington Post. ...

... Now Is the Time for Manafort to Flip. Margaret Hartmann: "President Trump and his legal team are working feverishly to discredit the Russia probe, dismissing it as a 'witch hunt' at every opportunity, and filling the media with increasingly audacious claims about the president being above the law. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is using opposite tactics: avoid the press, don't leak, and occasionally file a court document that shows you're several steps ahead of those seeking to thwart your investigation. Mueller's team did it again on Monday when they interrupted the current discussion about whether Trump could kill James Comey and get away with it (theoretically!) to accuse former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort of attempted witness tampering.... The people Manafort was trying to tamper also ratted him out to the FBI.... Now he could wind up in jail until his two trials, scheduled for July and September, which would increase the pressure to cut a plea deal considerably.... [Trump] tweets [that attempted to distance him from Manafort] may help convince Manafort that the man he can trust to reduce his prison time is Mueller, not Trump."

Alan Feuer & Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "A special master reviewing a trove of documents and electronic files seized in April from Michael D. Cohen, President Trump's longtime lawyer and fixer, said on Monday that, at least so far, only a tiny fraction of the materials are protected by the attorney-client privilege, meaning that most can be used by the federal prosecutors who are conducting a wide-ranging criminal investigation into Mr. Cohen. In a report submitted to Kimba M. Wood, the federal judge presiding over Mr. Cohen's case in Manhattan, the special master, Barbara S. Jones, said that only 14 paper documents out of the 639 that she had looked at are privileged, or partly privileged, and would be withheld from the prosecutors' inquiry. Of the 291,770 electronic files contained on two of Mr. Cohen's cellphones and on one of his iPads, 148 are privileged and will be withheld if the judge approves, Ms. Jones said." ...

     ... Rachel Maddow ties the Cohen docs to Trump's latest freakout.

BUT Here's a DOJ Investigation Trump Anxiously Awaits. Louis Nelson of Politico: "... Donald Trump complained Tuesday that there have been 'numerous delays' in the release of the Justice Department inspector general's report on the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state.... 'What is taking so long with the Inspector General's Report on Crooked Hillary and Slippery James Comey. Numerous delays,' the president wrote on Twitter. 'Hope Report is not being changed and made weaker! There are so many horrible things to tell, the public has the right to know. Transparency!'"

Before There Was Donald, There Was Bill:

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, Bill is still a colossal dick. Poor boy is a victim of what he did to Monica Lewinsky. But, hey, this was a political thing, and the people love him. And the press didn't get the story straight. Nice way to turn a question about moral behavior into a political question -- very Trumpian Clintonian. Asshole. ...

... Update. Dana Milbank: "... in Bill Clinton were the seeds of Donald Trump.... To see the former president -- now promoting a mystery he co-wrote with novelist James Patterson -- sit down with NBC's Craig Melvin was to see how Clinton's handling of the Monica Lewinsky affair was a precursor of the monstrosity we now have in the White House: dismissing unpleasant facts as 'fake news,' self-righteously claiming victimhood attacking the press and cloaking personal misbehavior in claims to be upholding the Constitution. The former president's offenses were far less serious than President Trump's. Trump's many misdeeds -- against women, law, facts, democracy and decency -- are in a category of their own. But Clinton set us on the path, or at least accelerated us down the path, that led to today.... [In the Melvin interview,] Clinton hid his behavior behind high principle ('I think I did the right thing. I defended the Constitution') on the same day the current president complained about the 'unconstitutional' investigation of him and his campaign." ...

... AND Erin Ryan of the Daily Beast: "Bill Clinton just doesn't fucking get it. And he never will.... Instead of remorse, Clinton offered a brand of sleazy obfuscation.... There was the self-pity ('I left the White House $16 million in debt'), the argumentum ad populum ('Two-thirds of the American people sided with me'), and the clever, vague distractions ('you typically have ignored gaping facts in describing this'). There was even the misdirection. 'I've apologized to everybody in the world,' he said when asked whether he'd expressed sorrow to Monica Lewinsky. (For what it's worth, I wasn't able to find any reports of him apologizing directly to her.)... But above all, there was the moral preening that, when distilled to its purest form, is just a ham-fisted attempt to avoid taking responsibility. How could he, Bill Clinton, have been bad to Monica Lewinsky if he, Bill Clinton, had been so good for women elsewhere?... If Democrats are serious about being the party that women can count on to stand up for them, they need to take several giant steps away from Bill Clinton." ...

... AND Rebecca Traister of New York: "By many measures..., it's feminists -- and not Bill Clinton himself -- who have been blamed for having extinguished the post -- Anita Hill conversation. It is feminists, and more broadly women, who have had to answer for their errors in judgment 20 years ago, often with more frequency or rigor than Bill Clinton has been made to answer with for his errors in judgment 20 years ago. Which is what makes the most notable thing about [Monday] morning's interview the fact that Bill Clinton seemed to be shocked that he would be asked about his behavior in light of #MeToo.... Consider that Lewinsky herself has been asked to answer for this relationship -- and only this relationship -- for two decades.... Pundits like the New York Times' Maureen Dowd accused Hillary of leveraging sympathy as a wronged wife into a political career.... When Michigan congressman John Conyers was revealed to have settled sexual-harassment claims, it was Nancy Pelosi's (ill-advised!) defense of him on Meet the Press that garnered the most critical ink.... Considering all this, it is truly only a powerful white man who could have lived the past 20 years -- through the defeat of his wife and the social revolution it helped to galvanize -- and think that none of this effort or upheaval applied to him, especially given that so much of it applies to him directly." Mrs. McC: Traister cites other examples. Here's my favorite:

Let's not forget, and I'll be brutal, the reason she's a U.S. senator, the reason she's a candidate for president, the reason she may be a front-runner is her husband messed around. That's how she got to be senator from New York ... She didn't win there on her merit. -- Chris Matthews, January 2008 ...

... I'm no fan of Hillary Clinton's, but when she ran for Senate in 2000, she knew more about federal policy than most Senate candidates & more than many sitting senators. And she campaigned hard in New York for the Senate seat. In 2008, she knew more than most other presidential candidates, including Barack Obama. She had immersed herself in policy issues in Arkansas, too, when Bill was governor. Yes, she did win that Senate seat on her merit. Sexists like Chris Matthews should STFU. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Justin Carissimo of CBS News: "President Trump has disinvited the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles from a planned visit to the White House on Tuesday over what he says is a disagreement on standing during the national anthem. Mr. Trump issued a statement Monday evening saying the full NFL team would not be coming after several players indicated they wouldn't participate.... Mr. Trump said the team wanted to send a 'smaller delegation' of players but fans attending the event 'deserve better.' 'These fans are still invited to the White House to be part of a different type of ceremony -- one that will honor our great country, pay tribute to the heroes who fight to protect it, and loudly and proudly play the National Anthem,' it said. Some Democratic members of Congress from Pennsylvania reacted to the president's announcement by inviting the team to visit the Capitol instead. Sen. Bob Casey said he would be skipping the revised event[.]" ...

... Zach Berman, et al., of philly.com: "Fewer than 10 players planned to attend, a team source told the Inquirer and Daily News.... Owner Jeffrey Lurie planned to make the visit, the source said."

In More Trump Gossip "News" ... Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg: "Trump told ... Kim Kardashian,] wife of hip-hop mogul Kanye West, in the Oval Office that the couple was boosting his popularity with African-Americans, according to two people familiar with the matter." Mrs. McC: There's always something in it for Donald.

Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "Melania Trump emerged on Monday after more than three weeks out of the public eye, ending an absence that inspired wild conspiracy theories about her health and well-being. She appeared at a closed-door Memorial Day reception at the White House with the families of fallen members of the U.S. military. Reporters, photographers and videographers were barred from covering the event, but the first lady issued a statement on Monday evening in what might have been an effort to quell the mounting questions about her lengthy departure from public view." ...

... Amanda Arnold of New York: "... one reporter who was somehow in attendance [at the Gold Star event] tweeted some of Trump's uncomfortable remarks about his wife's absence. According to Jena Greene, a reporter for the right-wing outlet Daily Caller, Trump said, 'Melania had a little problem a couple weeks ago but she wouldn't miss this for anything.'" Mrs. McC: In another tweet, Greene wrote, "@realDonaldTrump joked about the media's speculation regarding Melania's recent absence. He laughed off rumors of them breaking up, saying it wasn't happening. 'Isn't that right honey?' He says to a room full of laughing Gold Star families." Arnold: "Though the state of Melania's well-being is less clear, Trump is certainly feeling fine, and acting like his typical tacky self. Laughing off rumors about the dissolution of your marriage in a room full of families of service members who were killed in the Iraq War -- that's our president!"

Kevin Liptak, et al., of CNN: "Furious after [John] Bolton raised the so-called 'Libya' model to describe US intentions in North Korea -- with its suggestion of a grisly death for a dictator who relinquishes his nuclear arms -- Trump has publicly walked back his national security adviser's rhetoric as he works to ensure his summit talks with Kim proceed. In doing so, he's dramatically lowered the bar for his face-to-face session with Kim, who has made no concrete commitments toward abandoning his nuclear arsenal.... The remarks about Libya also infuriated [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo, who angrily confronted Bolton in a heated conversation at the White House.... Trump has given his secretary of state, whom he views as intelligent and charismatic, considerable leeway on North Korea -- including following his lead and keeping Bolton at arm's length from the negotiations.... Pompeo views Bolton skeptically, two people familiar with their relationship say, and doesn't trust his motives on North Korea."

Michelle Kosinski & Maegan Vazquez of CNN: "A call about trade and migration between ... Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron soured last week after Macron candidly criticized Trump's policies, two sources familiar with the call told CNN. 'Just bad. It was terrible,' one source told CNN. 'Macron thought he would be able to speak his mind, based on the relationship. But Trump can't handle being criticized like that.'... Thursday's strained call is particularly notable because Macron is arguably the European leader to whom Trump is closest."

Caleb Ecarma of Mediaite: "Corey Stewart, the GOP front-runner in Virginia's Senate race, called white nationalist Paul Nehlen 'one of my personal heroes' on-camera and praised an apparent neo-Nazi his campaign's official 'volunteer of the week.' Stewart, an ardently pro-Trump candidate, is leading the Republican primary against two challengers on an anti-immigration platform. Should he win the nomination -- to be held on June 12 -- he will face off against Democratic incumbent Sen. Tim Kaine."

Our Political Racket. Aaron Lorenzo of Politico: "Top-level GOP aides who helped write the new tax law are now leaving the Hill in droves to cash in as lobbyists on K Street and other marquee private-sector destinations.... Meanwhile, some of their bosses have already left or announced retirements, and Republican control of the Hill could be in jeopardy." Lorenzo lists quite a few Congressional and one top White House aide who are proceeding through the revolving door.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court sided with a Colorado baker on Monday in a closely watched case pitting gay rights against claims of religious freedom. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority in the 7-2 decision, relied on narrow grounds, saying a state commission had violated the Constitution's protection of religious freedom in ruling against the baker, Jack Phillips, who had refused to create a custom wedding cake for a gay couple.... The Supreme Court’s decision, which turned on the commission's asserted hostility to religion, strongly reaffirmed protections for gay rights and left open the possibility that other cases raising similar issues could be decided differently.... Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Elena Kagan and Neil M. Gorsuch joined the majority opinion. Justice Clarence Thomas voted with the majority but would have adopted broader reasons. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, dissented.... Though the case was mostly litigated on free speech grounds, Justice Kennedy's opinion barely discussed the issue. Instead, he focused on what he said were flaws in the proceedings before the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Members of the commission, he wrote, had acted with 'clear and impermissible hostility' to sincerely held religious beliefs." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Mark Stern of Slate analyzes the decision, which doesn't actually decide much. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Richard Primus in Politico Magazine: "... from a culture-war perspective, the baker's victory was considerably less than opponents of same-sex marriage might have been hoping for.... The Court ruled only that the specific administrative proceeding that ruled against this particular baker had been tainted by a disrespectful attitude toward his religious beliefs.... By framing the case as it did, the Court made its limited decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission a warm-up act for ... Hawaii v. Trump, the case about the executive order banning entry into the United States by nationals of several countries, most of them majority-Muslim. That case, like the wedding-cake case, is about the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause. The author of Monday's decision, Justice Anthony Kennedy, is generally assumed to be the swing vote in the entry-ban case. And over and over in Monday’s decision, Justice Kennedy articulated positions directly relevant to the entry ban — all of them running against the Trump administration's position.... In Monday's decision, Justice Kennedy made plain that it is appropriate to consider the prejudice in things government officials say when analyzing claims that those officials' actions are unconstitutionally discriminatory...."

Adam Liptak: "The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a request from the Justice Department to discipline lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union for assisting an undocumented teenager to obtain an abortion. In an unsigned opinion with no noted dissents, the court vacated an appeals court ruling that had allowed the teenager to obtain the procedure, saying the dispute was moot. That wiped out the appeals court's ruling as precedent. The case attracted wide attention after the Justice Department, in an unusual Supreme Court filing in November, accused the A.C.L.U. of serious professional misconduct in the case of the teenager, who was known as Jane Doe. She obtained an abortion in October over the government's objection after an appeals court allowed it." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Brent Griffiths of Politico: "... Donald Trump and one of his top aides on Monday night appealed a federal court ruling that said the president was violating the constitutional rights of individuals he has blocked from viewing his personal Twitter feed. Three Justice Department officials filed notice of their appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second District on behalf of Trump and Dan Scavino, the White House social media director.

WTF? Nicole Lafond of TPM: "Among a slew of odd and unprofessional personal requests that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt asked his top aide Millan Hupp to undertake for him.... Pruitt asked Hupp to secure a 'used mattress' from the Trump International Hotel for him.... Hupp said she didn’t know why Pruitt wanted the mattress other than he mentioned it 'around the same time that he was moving.' She said she never 'actually connected' with someone at the Trump Hotel about the secondhand bedding." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Now that's a firing offense! Hilarious. Here's more on the old mattress from Lisa Friedman & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "Federal ethics standards prohibit such personal assistance by a subordinate, even if the employee is working outside of office hours. One provision bans the use of government time to handle personal matters. A second provision prohibits bosses from asking employees to handle personal matters for them outside of the office.... According to a partial transcript released by Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, [Millan] Hupp ..., who serves as Mr. Pruitt’s scheduling director..., worked with real estate agents and visited at least 10 apartments over more than a month to find Mr. Pruitt new lodging. She also did other personal errands for the administrator including booking his personal travel to the Rose Bowl college football game." Ms. Hupp could not recall if Mr. Pruitt requested a urine-stained mattress. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "Over the past seven years, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has overseen a sweeping rollback of state environmental protections, implementing a suite of industry-friendly policies that have since been embraced by the Trump administration at the national level.... Now, the person Walker hired to implement his pro-industry vision for environmental regulation [Cathy Stepp] has a key leadership position in the EPA." --safari

Jeremy Diamond & Kevin Liptak of CNN: "in his role as deputy chief of staff, [Joe] Hagin is being counted on to pull off a high-stakes presidential trip of a different nature,& President Donald Trump's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.... Deployed to Singapore last week to negotiate logistical details with a delegation of North Koreans, Hagin has assumed an outsized role in the preparations for the off-again, on-again meeting.... Two officials said Hagin has kept sensitive logistical details from Trump -- including during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Mar-a-Lago last year -- for fear that the President might tweet about them and upend the plans." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Trump Goon Calls Cops on U.S. Senator. James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "As the sun set Sunday night, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) went to a shuttered Walmart in Brownsville, Texas, that has been converted into a detention center for immigrant children who have been separated from their parents. He asked for a tour. Instead, the government contractor that runs the converted store called the cops. An officer filled out a police report, and the senator was asked to leave. The half-hour incident at a strip mall near the southern border with Mexico underscores the lack of transparency from President Trump's administration about its intensifying efforts to break up undocumented families caught crossing the border, the centerpiece of a 'zero tolerance' policy announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month to deter illegal immigration." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Andrew Sorkin of the New York Times: "Howard Schultz, the outspoken executive chairman of Starbucks, will leave the company at the end of the month, bringing to an end the tenure of a socially conscious entrepreneur who turned a local Seattle coffee chain into a global giant with more than 28,000 stores in 77 countries. Mr. Schultz's decision to retire, a plan he said he privately outlined to the board a year ago, will most likely stoke speculation that he is considering a run for president in 2020. He is frequently mentioned as a potential candidate for the Democratic Party and has become increasingly vocal on political issues, including criticizing President Trump last year as 'a president that is creating episodic chaos every day.' While Mr. Schultz, 64, typically bats away speculation about his political ambitions with an eye roll or a pithy answer, on Monday he acknowledged for the first time that it is something he may consider." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Is this a candidacy that excites me? Absolutely not. But the furniture there looks really nice, & gilt-free. Also, nice suit -- and it fits.

Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "The head of Illinois' National Rifle Associate affiliate inadvertently admitted on Tuesday that gun restrictions have helped prevent mass shootings in his state. Richard Pearson, the executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, made the argument on Fox & Friends on Tuesday morning while trying to make the case that additional gun laws are not necessary in Illinois." --safari

** David Taylor of the Guardian: "The emboldened religious right has unleashed a wave of legislation across the United States since Donald Trump became president, as part of an organised bid to impose hardline Christian values across American society. A playbook known as Project Blitz, developed by a collection of Christian groups, has provided state politicians with a set of off-the-shelf pro-Christian 'model bills.'... Some legislation uses verbatim language from the 'model bills' created by a group called the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation (CPCF), set up by a former Republican congressman which has a stated aim to 'protect religious freedom, preserve America's Judeo-Christian heritage and promote prayer'. At least 75 bills have been brought forward in more than 20 states during 2017 and 2018 which appear ... to have similar objectives to the playbook." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Meet Your GOP. Kelly Weill of The Daily Beast: "An affiliate of a 'pro-white' group who marched in Charlottesville last year was elected to a Republican Party post in Washington state last week, part of his campaign to take over the GOP for the alt-right.... James Allsup ... was filmed marching with Identity Evropa, an anti-immigrant alt-right group.... Allsup was now a precinct committee officer for the Whitman County, Washington Republican Party."

Kelsey Mo & Anne Ryman of the Arizona Republic: "Police say a man suspected of murdering a prominent forensic psychiatrist, a psychologist and two paralegals at their offices in Phoenix and Scottsdale is dead... of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.... The series of murders that began Thursday evening have rattled the legal community. Police said evidence connects all four homicides. First killed was Steven Pitt, a forensic psychiatrist who consulted on a number of high-profile cases including the Baseline Killer case and the JonBenét Ramsey murder investigation.... Less than 24 hours later, 48-year-old Veleria Sharp and 49-year-old Laura Anderson were shot in the downtown Scottsdale law offices of Burt, Feldman and Grenier.... Psychologist and counselor Marshall Levine was found dead of an apparent gunshot wound early Saturday inside an office building...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Matt Stevens of the New York Times: "A rookie police officer in Georgia was swiftly fired over the weekend after body camera video showed him striking a man with his patrol car during a pursuit. An internal investigation by the Athens-Clarke County Police Department determined that the officer, Taylor Saulters, used excessive force when he struck the man, Timmy Patmon, with his vehicle on Friday. Chief Scott Freeman fired Officer Saulters on Saturday after initially placing him on administrative leave, said Eppi Rodriguez, a police spokesman. The Georgia State Patrol is investigating the crash and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is conducting a criminal investigation, Mr. Rodriguez added. Mr. Patmon suffered scrapes and bruises and was taken to a hospital for evaluation, a police statement said." Saulters is white; Patmon is black. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Ledes

Washington Post: "The molten lava on the island of Hawaii has destroyed what officials said may be hundreds of homes, including a vacation home of the county's mayor, Harry Kim, as a spewing vent has sent a wide, slow-moving river of lava into a residential community and the sea beyond it on the island's east side. The lava flow, which has destroyed homes in the community of Kapoho and filled in an ocean bay known for snorkeling and tidal pools, is coming from a nearby fissure that has spouted a fountain of lava that has reached as high as 250 feet in recent days."

New York Times: American fashion designer Kate "Spade, 55, was discovered dead at her Manhattan apartment, where she had hanged herself in her bedroom, the police said."

The Commentariat -- June 4, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Painting by Patrick Shea.... Trump Declares Himself King. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump declared Monday that the appointment of the special counsel in the Russia investigation is 'totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL!' and asserted that he has the power to pardon himself, raising the prospect that he might take extraordinary action to immunize himself from the ongoing probe. In a pair of early-morning tweets, Mr. Trump suggested that he would not have to pardon himself because he had 'done nothing wrong.' But he insisted that 'numerous legal scholars' have concluded that he has the absolute right to do so, a claim that vastly overstates the legal thinking on the issue. In fact, many constitutional experts dispute Mr. Trump's position on his pardon power, an issue for which there has been no definitive ruling.... Mr. Trump did not elaborate in the tweets about the legal basis for his claim that the appointment of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel in the Russia case, was unconstitutional. In that tweet, he insisted that 'we play the game because I, unlike the Democrats, have done nothing wrong!'... The president also tweeted Monday morning about trade, asserting that Canada has 'all sorts of trade barriers' on American agricultural products. 'Not acceptable,' he said. He also bragged about his accomplishments at the 500-day mark in office. Shortly after, the White House ... [sent] an email to reporters titled: 'President Donald J. Trump's 500 Days of American Greatness.'" ...

... Allan Smith of Business Insider: Rudy interprets Donald. Mrs. McC: Something to bear in mind when pundits rely on opinions from the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel: these are opinions, & courts disagree with the DOJ's opinions all the time. OLC opinions do not set precedent in the way court decisions do. So Smith reports, "Giuliani repeatedly cited a 2000 memo from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel following President Bill Clinton's scandal, saying that while the Constitution does not give the president immunity from prosecution, the president cannot be indicted." That was the opinion of probably-career DOJ lawyers; it's up to the courts -- in this case, most likely the Supremes, to decide whether the opinion is "correct." ...

... Charles Pierce: "The president* ... has at his easy disposal everything a dictator could possibly want.... He is succeeding in his campaign to delegitimize any criminal investigation of his various schemes.... Hostile press, he can easily ignore. He is consolidating power based on deceit at an alarming rate, and, worst of all, he is becoming more popular for doing so among the only voters that matter to him... [T]he president*'s approval rating among Republicans is the highest of any Republican president since World War II at this point in his administration* with the exception of where George W. Bush was at immediately after the attacks of 9/11. He stands at 87 percent approval among Republicans.... It is entirely possible that the momentum now is unstoppable. The country is hurtling toward the destruction of its most basic ideas about itself.... Not that anyone actually is doing anything about it." -safari ...

... Jack Holmes of Esquire: "The authoritarian movement that this president began during his campaign is approaching its natural conclusion.... The signs are that his supporters will back him no matter what: He enjoys the support of 87 percent of Republicans.... That support is similarly reflected in a href="https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a20961787/trump-rally-animals-crowd-chant/" target="_blank">the ethno-nationalist fervor of his rallies.... If the president believes he can do as he wishes because he has unlimited authority, and a section of the nation backs him simply because he is the authority, you are dealing with an authoritarian movement that could support a tyrant. The alarm bells should be ringing." --safari ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "... Trump's tweets reinforce an underrecognized point: The likelihood that the fate of the Trump administration will eventually be decided by the Supreme Court is greater than most people realize. Consider three issues that seem increasingly likely to end up before the court. [1] Trump pardoning himself.... [2] Trump rejecting the authority of the special counsel.... [3] Trump rejecting a subpoena from the special counsel."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court sided with a Colorado baker on Monday in a closely watched case pitting gay rights against claims of religious freedom. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority in the 7-2 decision, relied on narrow grounds, saying a state commission had violated the Constitution's protection of religious freedom in ruling against the baker, Jack Phillips, who had refused to create a custom wedding cake for a gay couple.... The Supreme Court’s decision, which turned on the commission's asserted hostility to religion, strongly reaffirmed protections for gay rights and left open the possibility that other cases raising similar issues could be decided differently.... Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Elena Kagan and Neil M. Gorsuch joined the majority opinion. Justice Clarence Thomas voted with the majority but would have adopted broader reasons. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, dissented.... Though the case was mostly litigated on free speech grounds, Justice Kennedy's opinion barely discussed the issue. Instead, he focused on what he said were flaws in the proceedings before the Colorado Civi Rights Commission. Members of the commission, he wrote, had acted with 'clear and impermissible hostility' to sincerely held religious beliefs." ...

... Mark Stern of Slate analyzes the decision, which doesn't actually decide much.

Adam Liptak: "The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a request from the Justice Department to discipline lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union for assisting an undocumented teenager to obtain an abortion. In an unsigned opinion with no noted dissents, the court vacated an appeals court ruling that had allowed the teenager to obtain the procedure, saying the dispute was moot. That wiped out the appeals court's ruling as precedent. The case attracted wide attention after the Justice Department, in an unusual Supreme Court filing in November, accused the A.C.L.U. of serious professional misconduct in the case of the teenager, who was known as Jane Doe. She obtained an abortion in October over the government's objection after an appeals court allowed it."

WTF? Nicole Lafond of TPM: "Among a slew of odd and unprofessional personal requests that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt asked his top aide Millan Hupp to undertake for him.... Pruitt asked Hupp to secure a 'used mattress' from the Trump International Hotel for him.... Hupp said she didn't know why Pruitt wanted the mattress other than he mentioned it 'around the same time that he was moving.' She said she never 'actually connected' with someone at the Trump Hotel about the secondhand bedding." --safari ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Now that's a firing offense! Hilarious. Here's more on the old mattress from Lisa Friedman & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "Federal ethics standards prohibit such personal assistance by a subordinate, even if the employee is working outside of office hours. One provision bans the use of government time to handle personal matters. A second provision prohibits bosses from asking employees to handle personal matters for them outside of the office.... According to a partial transcript released by Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, [Millan] Hupp ..., who serves as Mr. Pruitt's scheduling director..., worked with real estate agents and visited at least 10 apartments over more than a month to find Mr. Pruitt new lodging. She also did other personal errands for the administrator including booking his personal travel to the Rose Bowl college football game." Ms. Hupp could not recall if Mr. Pruitt requested a urine-stained mattress.

Jeremy Diamond & Kevin Liptak of CNN: "in his role as deputy chief of staff, [Joe] Hagin is being counted on to pull off a high-stakes presidential trip of a different nature, President Donald Trump's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.... Deployed to Singapore last week to negotiate logistical details with a delegation of North Koreans, Hagin has assumed an outsized role in the preparations for the off-again, on-again meeting...Two officials said Hagin has kept sensitive logistical details from Trump -- including during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Mar-a-Lago last year -- for fear that the President might tweet about them and upend the plans."

Trump Goon Calls Cops on U.S. Senator. James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "As the sun set Sunday night, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) went to a shuttered Walmart in Brownsville, Texas, that has been converted into a detention center for immigrant children who have been separated from their parents. He asked for a tour. Instead, the government contractor that runs the converted store called the cops. An officer filled out a police report, and the senator was asked to leave. The half-hour incident at a strip mall near the southern border with Mexico underscores the lack of transparency from President Trumps administration about its intensifying efforts to break up undocumented families caught crossing the border, the centerpiece of a 'zero tolerance' policy announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month to deter illegal immigration."

** David Taylor of the Guardian: "The emboldened religious right has unleashed a wave of legislation across the United States since Donald Trump became president, as part of an organised bid to impose hardline Christian values across American society. A playbook known as Project Blitz, developed by a collection of Christian groups, has provided state politicians with a set of off-the-shelf pro-Christian 'model bills.'... Some legislation uses verbatim language from the 'model bills' created by a group called the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation (CPCF), set up by a former Republican congressman which has a stated aim to 'protect religious freedom, preserve America's Judeo-Christian heritage and promote prayer'. At least 75 bills have been brought forward in more than 20 states during 2017 and 2018 which appear ... to have similar objectives to the playbook." --safari

Kelsey Mo & Anne Ryman of the Arizona Republic: "Police say a man suspected of murdering a prominent forensic psychiatrist, a psychologist and two paralegals at their offices in Phoenix and Scottsdale is dead... of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.... The series of murders that began Thursday evening have rattled the legal community. Police said evidence connects all four homicides. First killed was Steven Pitt, a forensic psychiatrist who consulted on a number of high-profile cases including the Baseline Killer case and the JonBenét Ramsey murder investigation.... Less than 24 hours later, 48-year-old Veleria Sharp and 49-year-old Laura Anderson were shot in the downtown Scottsdale law offices of Burt, Feldman and Grenier.... Psychologist and counselor Marshall Levine was found dead of an apparent gunshot wound early Saturday inside an office building...."

Matt Stevens of the New York Times: "A rookie police officer in Georgia was swiftly fired over the weekend after body camera video showed him striking a man with his patrol car during a pursuit. An internal investigation by the Athens-Clarke County Police Department determined that the officer, Taylor Saulters, used excessive force when he struck the man, Timmy Patmon, with his vehicle on Friday. Chief Scott Freeman fired Officer Saulters on Saturday after initially placing him on administrative leave, said Eppi Rodriguez, a police spokesman. The Georgia State Patrol is investigating the crash and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is conducting a criminal investigation, Mr. Rodriguez added. Mr. Patmon suffered scrapes and bruises and was taken to a hospital for evaluation, a police statement said." Saulters is white; Patmon is black.

*****

The Absolute Power of King Donald, Ctd. Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "The assertion by President Trump's lawyers that he cannot obstruct justice because he has absolute authority over all federal investigations is legally problematic, analysts say, because it would essentially mean the nation's commander in chief is above the law. But the president';s powers are expansive, and many questions remain about how Trump's office could protect him from the special counsel investigation examining whether his campaign coordinated with Russia to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.... Legal analysts said that as the head of the executive branch, Trump could issue pardons, fire senior officials or order them to shut down investigations. But if his motives were corrupt, such actions could constitute obstruction. The principle laid out in [a] letter [by Trump's attorneys Jay Sekulow & John Dowd (who has since resigned)] is 'a ludicrous legal theory,' said Neal Katyal, a former acting solicitor general who now works in private practice at Hogan Lovells. 'The idea that a president can't obstruct justice died with King George III, with a brief attempt at revival by Richard Nixon.'" ...

... Ashley Parker & Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post: "... Rudolph W. Giuliani publicly pressed Trump's expansive view of executive power this weekend, arguing on two Sunday TV shows that the president probably has the sweeping constitutional authority to pardon even himself. 'He probably does,' Giuliani said, when asked on ABC's 'This Week' if Trump has the ability to pardon himself. 'He has no intention of pardoning himself, but he probably -- not to say he can't.'... On NBC's 'Meet the Press...,' Giuliani framed the pardon question as purely hypothetical and politically implausible. 'It's not going to happen. It's a hypothetical point,' he told host Chuck Todd. He went on to describe such a move as 'unthinkable,' and said it would probably lead immediately to impeachment." ...

... S.V. Date of the Huffington Post: "Candidate Donald Trump bragged that he could shoot someone on New York's Fifth Avenue and not lose any support, and now President Donald Trump's lawyer says Trump could shoot the FBI director in the Oval Office and still not be prosecuted for it. 'In no case can he be subpoenaed or indicted,' Rudy Giuliani told HuffPost Sunday, claiming a president's constitutional powers are that broad. 'I don't know how you can indict while he's in office. No matter what it is.... If he shot James Comey, he'd be impeached the next day,' Giuliani said. 'Impeach him, and then you can do whatever you want to do to him.' Norm Eisen, the White House ethics lawyer under President Barack Obama and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the silliness of Giuliani's claim illustrates how mistaken Trump's lawyers are about presidential power." ...

... Matt Yglesias of Vox: "In a 20-page memo written by Trump's legal team and delivered to Robert Mueller..., they make an unusually frank case for a tyrannical interpretation of presidential power.... Consider that if the memo is correct, there would be nothing wrong with Trump setting up a booth somewhere in Washington, DC where wealthy individuals could hand checks to Trump, and in exchange Trump would make whatever federal legal trouble they are in go it away.... Since Washington DC isn't a state all criminal law here is federal criminal law, so the president could have his staff murder opposition party senators or inconvenient judges and then block any investigation into what's happening.... Trump has started using the power abusively and capriciously early in his tenure in office in a disturbing way, but has not yet tried to pardon his way out of the Russia investigation in part because there is one important limit on the pardon power -- you have to do it in public." Mrs. McC: Of course Rudy argued that egregious acts such as murder were within the president's power. ...

... "President Trump Thinks He Is a King." Harry Litman, in a New York Times op-ed: "The president believes he is above the law.... The central claim of the legal memorandum[, which Trump's attorneys sent to Robert Mueller,] is that it is impossible for the president to illegally obstruct any aspect of the investigation into Russia's election meddling. That's because, as president, Mr. Trump has the constitutional power to terminate the inquiry or pardon his way out of it. Therefore -- and this is the key and indefensible point -- he cannot obstruct justice by exercising this authority 'no matter his motivation.'... No tenable account of executive power holds that a president's purposes in exercising powers accorded under Article II, 'to take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,' have no import.... The second pillar of the letter ... is that he is too busy running the country to sit for an interview. Relatedly, they argue, forcing him to testify 'demeans the office of the president before the world.' Here Mr. Trump's position run completely afoul of another presidential precedent: that of Bill Clinton." ...

... Martin Longman of the Booman Tribune: "The assertions of executive power made by Trump's former lawyers are outrageous, but not because they're strictly untrue. While some of their brief contains flawed legal analysis, in its broad outlines it is simply a maximalist approach that concedes absolutely nothing in advance. His lawyers reserved the right to make the broadest possible claims of executive power, and I don't see this as all that unusual. I don't think they would win most of these points in court using these arguments, but part of their argument is that they don't need to comply with the courts in any meaningful sense. If they don't like being compelled to provide testimony, they can just shut the whole investigation down.... Impeachment is prescribed for high crimes and misdemeanors, which basically carves out an area for allowable low crimes. And even within that definition, weak as it is, the determination of what is serious enough to merit removal and what is not has no binding or strictly correct definition." ...

... Jamelle Blouie of Slate: "[T]his week's pardon of Dinesh D'Souza ... [is] a show of solidarity with a figure who built his career on the same prejudice and conspiracy theorizing that fueled Trump's rise through the Republican Party. In a healthier political system, D'Souza would be a fringe figure.... Instead, he is a conservative in good standing with strong ties to the Republican Party elite.... [H]is presence in the rarefied spaces of Republican politics is a reminder that Trump merely embodies the dysfunctions and pathologies that already existed within the conservative movement.... Everything D'Souza has stood for over the course of his [30 year] career -- racism, malicious trolling, and conspiracy theorizing -- now exists at the center of conservative politics, emanating from the West Wing. He didn't place it there, but he helped give it shape and form. His story shows the thin wall between the Republican mainstream and the fringe, and how, after decades of pressure from many figures like D'Souza, it has finally collapsed, eliminating any distinctions that matter." --safari ...

... Andy Borowitz (satire): "... Donald J. Trump made Vice-President Mike Pence watch him issue pardons for several hours to see how it is done, a White House source confirmed. According to the source, Trump pardoned a number of disgraced political figures and former reality-show cronies for the sole purpose of training Pence in the art of issuing pardons. After signing pardon after pardon while Pence looked on intently, Trump commanded the Vice-President to sign a 'practice pardon' to prove that he 'wouldn't mess anything up,' the source said." ...

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump will host a dinner in the coming week in honor of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, restoring a White House tradition that he had abandoned during his first year in office, a West Wing official said on Saturday. The dinner is expected to be held on Wednesday. The guest list was not made available." Mrs. McC: I'm thinking there will be more Middle East princes than political refugees.

House of Cards, Season 2 Finale, "Melanie Goes Missing." Meredith McGraw of ABC News: "... Melania Trump will not be joining ... Donald Trump on his upcoming trips to the G7 summit in Quebec and the highly anticipated summit between the United States and North Korea in Singapore, her spokeswoman told ABC News. The 48-year-old first lady has not been seen in public since May 10, when she and the president welcomed home three American detainees from North Korea.... Last week, as questions swirled about the state of her health and the hashtag #whereisMelania trended online, she tweeted that she was 'feeling great' and 'working hard on behalf of children and the American people.'... Last year, Melania Trump joined the president for his first G7 trip to Taormina, Italy, where she participated in public appearances...." Mrs. McC: Spoiler alert: in the final cliffhanger scene, a woman suspected to be Melanie Trump arrives at the port city of Koper, Slovenia, seeking asylum under the alias Melania Knauss. Production note: reports that the show's star Donald Drumpf is a corrupt criminal serial sex abuser have put production of Season 3 in jeopardy. ...

     ... Update. Kate Bennett of CNN: "First lady Melania Trump is expected to attend a White House event on Monday evening to honor Gold Star families, her spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, confirms to CNN." Mrs. McC: Yeah, probably a body double. The White House can get away with that because "Monday's reception is closed to the press." Bet the Gold Star families have to leave their cell phones & cameras at the door. No photos for side-by-side comparisons. Just kidding.

G6 +1. AP: "The United States was singled out by some of its closest allies Saturday over the imposition of tariffs that they warn will undermine open trade and weaken confidence in the global economy. The dispute over U.S. President Donald Trump's new levies on steel and aluminum imports is driving a wedge in the G7 group of industrial nations.... Ministers urged the U.S. to abandon the tariffs ahead of the leaders' summit [next week] before the move causes deeper divisions within the G7.... Bruno Le Maire, France's finance and economy minister, was blunt in his assessment of the ... meeting [in Whistler, B.C., Canada], where ministers confronted [Steve] Mnuchin. 'It has been a tense and tough G7 -- I would say it's been far more a G6 plus one than a G7,'" --safari

Rick Noack of the Washington Post: The U.S., new ambassador to Germany, Richard "Grenell is being criticized over an interview with hard-right news site Breitbart in which he said he wants to 'empower' conservatives in Europe.... The comments were criticized both in the United States and in Europe for politicizing diplomacy with a core U.S. ally and as a further blow to transatlantic relations. The German foreign ministry said on Monday it was seeking 'clarification on whether the statements were actually made in the form they were given.' While Chancellor Angela Merkel is from the conservative Christian Democrats, that does not seem to be what the ambassador has in mind.... Grenell has called himself a 'big Merkel fan' in past interviews and credited her economic performance, but in regards to perhaps the most important criterion he listed to Breitbart -- migration -- Merkel stands for the exact opposite.... '... [Grenell] personally assured me that once he became ambassador he would stay out of politics. This interview is awful -- ambassadors aren't supposed to "empower" any political party overseas,' Democrat U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy wrote on Twitter. A U.S. ambassador who applauds the leader of a neighboring country [-- far-right Sebastian Kurz of Austria --] while indirectly appearing to criticize the leader of his host nation likely also wasn't what German officials had in mind when they urged Washington to name a new top diplomat earlier this year." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: In the first place, no U.S. ambassador should be giving interviews to Breitbart. This is particular true of the ambassador to Germany, since Breitbart has a pro-neo-Nazi bias. A decent president would recall Grenell immediately & apologize to Angela Merkel, but we don't have a decent president.

New York Times Editors: The "chief reason" for the inadequate, slow response to Hurricane Maria's devastation of Puerto Rico "has been the perception in Washington, and especially in the White House, of Puerto Rico as a second-class United States territory where poverty, hardship and shoddy government are accepted as the norm. That was memorably underscored by President Trump in the aftermath of the hurricane, first in his callous tweets assailing the mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulín Cruz -- 'they want everything to be done for them' -- and then on his visit to the island, where he said Puerto Ricans should be 'very proud' that only 16 people had died, unlike the toll in a 'real catastrophe' like Katrina, which took 1,833 lives." A recent Harvard study "estimated 4,645 additional deaths through the end of the year -- a third of them people who died for lack of medical care.... When confronted with the Harvard study..., the White House spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, responded with more self-congratulation, claiming that the government had responded to Maria with the largest Federal Emergency Management Agency effort ever."

Pay and Play. Kiley Kroh of ThinkProgress: "[Scott] Pruitt saw coal executive Joe Craft at least seven times in his first 14 months as administrator, plus two additional scheduled appearances -- more meetings than Pruitt has had with any environmental group.... Pruitt and his son even enjoyed one of the biggest University of Kentucky basketball games of the season from Craft's plum seats last December. The EPA says Pruitt paid cash for the tickets, but he was accompanied by his own security detail as well as Kentucky state police.... Craft and his wife, Kelly Craft, donated more than $2 million to Trump's campaign and inauguration. Trump appointed Kelly Craft ambassador to Canada last October." --safari

Ali Watkins of the New York Times: As they inspect the nation's gun stores, federal investigators regularly find violations of the law, ranging from minor record-keeping errors to illegal sales of firearms. In the most serious cases, like a sale of a gun to a prohibited buyer, inspectors often recommend that gun dealers lose their licenses. But that rarely happens. Senior officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives regularly overrule their own inspectors, allowing gun dealers who fail inspections to keep their licenses even after they were previously warned to follow the rules, according to interviews with more than half a dozen current and former law enforcement officials and a review of more than 100 inspection reports.... Of about 11,000 inspections of licensed firearm dealers in the year starting in October 2016, more than half were cited for violations. Less than 1 percent of all inspections resulted in the loss of a license.... The bureau has sidestepped the potential legal appeals and political fallout of revoking licenses by trying to work with gun dealers rather than close their stores.... The A.T.F. declined repeated requests for comment."

Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "Last week, Republicans responded with outrage after a Vice story noted that a Google algorithm listed 'Nazism' under the California state GOP's ideologies in its search results. On Sunday, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee [David 'dingleberry' Nunes] threatened to retaliate against the company with congressional hearings and called for the creation of a conservative Internet search engine to take Google's place." --safari

Congressional Race. Dan Helmer, a candidate for a Virginia Congressional seat, faces off against Fox "News"' Pete Hegseth, whom Trump considered for Secretary of the Veterans Administration until veterans' groups rose up in horror:

Peter Maas of The Intercept: "This is a tale of two defendants and two systems of justice.... Arrested a year ago today, on June 3, 2017, [Reality] Winner was accused of leaking an NSA document that showed how Russians tried to hack American voting systems in 2016. The alleged leak -- Winner has pleaded not guilty -- came at a time when there was far greater doubt than now about Russian attempts to tip the presidential election. Her case is related to [Paul] Manafort's in this sense: While Manafort is suspected of aiding the Russian effort, Winner is accused of warning Americans about it.... Even though she has been indicted on just one count of leaking classified information and faces far less prison time than Manafort, the judge in her case decided she was a flight risk and denied her bail.... Manafort avoided jail by posting $10 million in bond, though he was confined to his luxury condo in Alexandria, Virginia.... [For a party, a judge allowed] Manafort [to go to] his Christmas getaway in the Hamptons." --safari

Julie Steenhuysen of Reuters: "Some 70 percent of women with early-stage breast cancer and an intermediate risk of cancer recurrence can safely skip chemotherapy after their tumors have been removed, U.S. researchers said on Sunday." --safari

Gabriel Dance, et al., of the New York Times: "As Facebook sought to become the world's dominant social media service, it struck agreements allowing phone and other device makers access to vast amounts of its users' personal information. Facebook has reached data-sharing partnerships with at least 60 device makers -- including Apple, Amazon, BlackBerry, Microsoft and Samsung -- over the last decade.... The deals, most of which remain in effect, allowed Facebook to expand its reach and let device makers offer customers popular features of the social network, such as messaging, 'like' buttons and address books. But the partnerships, whose scope has not previously been reported, raise concerns about the company's privacy protections and compliance with a 2011 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission. Facebook allowed the device companies access to the data of users' friends without their explicit consent, even after declaring that it would no longer share such information with outsiders." ...

... Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times: "While [Facebook] has introduced several measures to improve the transparency of political ads on its platform, some groups and individuals appear to be finding ways to flout the new restrictions -- and Facebook has not been able to catch them." Frenkel cites the example of a California Congressional race in which Facebook allowed a targeted fake "news" story to run for a month without labeling it a political ad or disclosing who paid for it. "In total, [the political advertiser] Sierra Nevada Revolution ran 29 Facebook ads in May aimed at swaying people's votes in California's primary, according to Facebook's ad archive," without identifying the ads' sponsors.

Reuters: "Some 80 pieces of plastic rubbish weighing eight kg (17 lb) were found in the stomach of a whale that died in Thailand after a five-day effort to save it, a marine official said on Sunday.... Globally, eight million tonnes of plastic - bottles, packaging and other waste - are dumped into the ocean every year." --safari

"Capitalism is Awesome" Ctd. Julia Lurie of Mother Jones: "The medication was called Subsys, and its key ingredient, fentanyl, is a synthetic opioid 100 times stronger than morphine.... To boost [sales], the manager allegedly advised [the sales representatives] to 'behave more sexually toward pain-management physicians, to stroke their hands while literally begging for prescriptions,' and to ask for the prescriptions as a 'favor.'.... [The] pharmaceutical company Insys, is one of a handful of potent, highly regulated prescription fentanyl brands ... approv[ed] from the Food and Drug Administration in early 2012, Insys' growth has been meteoric. In the spring of 2013, the company went public; by the end of the year, it was the nation's best-performing IPO. By 2015, revenue from Subsys was approaching $500 million.... All the while, a handful of Insys employees were quietly filing whistleblower lawsuits ... alleging that the addictive drug was marketed to patients who suffered from all kinds of pain -- not just cancer patients with breakthrough pain -- and detailing dubious sales tactics.... [T]he DOJ's criminal investigation of Insys and its top executives is ... underway." --safari

Beyond the Beltway

Tom Boggioni of Raw Story: "Four years after protests erupted in Ferguson, Missouri ... the attorney germinal [sic.] for the state has issued a report that shows that African-Americans are 85 percent likely to be pulled over than whites by a cop, reports Atlanta Black Star.... According to the report, white motorists were less likely to be searched ... but more likely to be busted with contraband such as weapons and drugs." --safari

Thomas Novelly of the Louisville Courier-Journal: "Bell County high school student and valedictorian Ben Bowling wanted to share some words of wisdom with his graduating class.... 'This is the part of my speech where I share some inspirational quotes I found on Google,' Bowling said in his speech. "'Don't just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table." - Donald J. Trump.' The crowd burst into applause. 'Just kidding,' Bowling said. 'That was Barack Obama.' The 18-year-old valedictorian said the crowd quickly went silent. Bell County, which is located in the southeastern part of the Commonwealth near the Tennessee border, overwhelmingly supported Trump in ... 2016...."

Way Beyond

Reuters: "North Korea's top three military officials have been removed from their posts, a senior U.S. official said on Sunday, as ... Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un prepare to meet on June 12 in Singapore. The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was commenting on a report by South Korea's Yonhap news agency that all three of the North's top military officials were believed to have been replaced.... U.S. officials believe there was some dissension in the military about Kim's approaches to South Korea and the United States.... South Korea's unification and defense ministries declined to confirm the report...."

News Lede

New York Times: "A volcano erupted near Guatemala's capital on Sunday, killing at least 25 people and leaving many more missing, officials and the local news media reported. Volcán de Fuego exploded on Sunday morning, and volcanic ash was later seen billowing in the area[.]"