The Commentariat -- October 18, 2017

Afternoon Update:

Yamiche Alcindor, et al., of the New York Times: "The mother of a soldier killed in an ambush in Niger said Wednesday that President Trump disrespected her family during a call with the man's widow by saying the soldier 'knew what he signed up for.' President Trump denied he said those words to Sgt. La David T. Johnson's wife during a Tuesday phone call and escalated his dispute with Representative Frederica Wilson, Democrat of Florida, who first described the exchange on Tuesday.... When asked about Ms. Wilson's account of the call on Wednesday, Mr. Johnson's mother, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, backed the congresswoman's version. 'Yes, he did state that comment,' Ms. Jones-Johnson said of Mr. Trump, corresponding via Facebook.... On Tuesday, Ms. Wilson was in the car with the widow, and said she overheard the phone call from the president, who was on speakerphone."

This is amusing:

The Saboteurs. Alayna Treene of Axios: "Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) sat down with Mike Allen immediately after getting off the phone with President Trump, who called to encourage him about the bipartisan health care bill he announced yesterday with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). Trump told Alexander that he supports the effort, is glad they're trying, but still needs to review the deal to 'reserve his options.'...'Trump completely engineered the plan that we announced yesterday,' by calling me repeatedly and asking Sen. Murray to be a part of it. He wanted a bipartisan bill for the short term.' Yes, but: Minutes later, Trump tweeted: 'I am supportive of Lamar as a person & also of the process, but I can never support bailing out ins co's who have made a fortune w/ O'Care.' House Speaker Paul Ryan's take: 'The speaker does not see anything that changes his view that the Senate should keep its focus on repeal and replace of Obamacare,' Doug Andres, Ryan's press secretary, told Axios."

Emily Tillett of CBS News: "A Maryland federal judge is the second to rule against the latest version of President Trump's travel ban in the space of two days, putting the brakes on the administration's plans to restrict travel by citizens from eight countries, the Washington Post first reported. U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang issued the ruling early Wednesday, citing Mr. Trump's own remarks on the 2016 campaign trail, official campaign statements and his past Tweets were effectively an unconstitutional Muslim ban. 'The evidence offered by Plaintiffs includes numerous statements by President Trump expressing an intent to issue a Muslim ban or otherwise conveying anti-Muslim sentiments,' wrote Chuang."

Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "... inside a federal courtroom on Wednesday in Lower Manhattan, with the full force of the Justice Department defending him, Mr. Trump will be the focus, in absentia, of a remarkable legal drama: Is a sitting president -- disinclined to relinquish his gilded empire before taking office -- violating the Constitution by continuing to own and profit from his businesses? At issue is a filed this year in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York by a legal watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW. It has argued that Mr. Trump is violating a constitutional provision that a president may not accept any economic benefit from foreign governments or the United States government beyond a salary."

Greg Sargent: "... in an interview with me this morning..., Rep. Frederica S. Wilson (D-Fla.) ... shared some new details that will thicken this plot: She said there were other witnesses in the car and also noted that she has known the slain soldier for a long time and 'mentored' him.... When I reiterated that Trump claims to have proof [she was not truthful about the content of his 'condolence' call to Myeshia Johnson], she said, 'How about you go get that proof and call me back?'... Wilson said ... that [La David Johnson] had passed through the mentoring program for boys of color she founded in Miami in 1993."

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Democrats pressed Wednesday for Rep. Trey Gowdy -- the Republican chairman of the powerful House oversight committee -- to subpoena the White House for documents related to former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Flynn has faced questions about payments from foreign governments and business interests that he failed to disclose while he sought a security clearance.... He resigned in February.... But the White House spurned bipartisan requests for details about Flynn's background by the oversight committee in March, when the panel was chaired by then-Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). Now, the committee's Democrats, led by ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), are asking Gowdy to force the issue. '[T]he White House has been openly defying this Committee's bipartisan request for documents regarding General Flynn for months without any assertion of privilege of any kind,' the Democrats wrote in a 10-page letter to Gowdy sent Wednesday morning."

John Solomon of the Hill: "The Senate Judiciary Committee has launched a probe into a Russian nuclear bribery case, demanding several federal agencies disclose whether they knew the FBI had uncovered the corruption before the Obama administration in 2010 approved a controversial uranium deal with Moscow. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the committee chairman, on Wednesday raised the issue in public during questioning of Attorney General Jeff Sessions during an oversight hearing. The senator cited a series of The Hill stories that showed the FBI had evidence that Russian nuclear officials were involved in a racketeering scheme as early as 2009, well before the uranium deal was approved."

*****

Alan Fram & Erica Werner of the AP: "A bipartisan Senate deal to curb the growth of health insurance premiums is reeling after ... Donald Trump reversed course and opposed the agreement and top congressional Republicans and conservatives gave it a frosty reception.... In remarks Tuesday in the Rose Garden, Trump called the deal 'a very good solution' that would calm insurance markets, giving him time to pursue his goal of scrapping Obama's 2010 Affordable Care Act.... In an evening speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation, he said that 'while I commend' the work by the two senators, 'I continue to believe Congress must find a solution to the Obamacare mess instead of providing bailouts to insurance companies.' A White House official said Trump's statement was aimed at conveying opposition to the Alexander-Murray plan." Mrs. McC: Never have we had a more cowardly, two-faced flim-flamming president. ...

... ** Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "Two leading senators have reached a bipartisan deal to provide funding for critical subsidies to health insurers that President Trump said last week that he would cut off, Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, said Tuesday. The plan agreed to by Mr. Alexander and Senator Patty Murray of Washington, a Democrat, is intended to stabilize health insurance markets under the Affordable Care Act. As one part of the deal, the subsidies would be funded for two years, a step that would provide at least short-term certainty to insurers. The subsidies, known as cost-sharing reductions, lower out-of-pocket costs for low-income consumers. Mr. Trump said he was aware of the deal, describing the effort as very close to a 'short term' solution.... Mr. Alexander said that in addition to funding the payments to insurers, the deal would also give states 'more flexibility in the variety of choices they can give to consumers,' which should appeal to Republican lawmakers eager to give states more say over health care."

It Would Have Been Better Had He Never Called. Steve Brusk & Leigh Munsil of CNN: "... Donald Trump told the widow of a US serviceman killed in the ambush in Niger that 'he knew what he signed up for, but I guess it still hurt,' according to Rep. Frederica Wilson.... The call from the President to [Sgt. La David] Johnson's widow came shortly before Johnson's casket arrival [in Miami, Florida], Wilson, a Florida Democrat, said on 'CNN Tonight with Don Lemon' Tuesday.... Wilson said ... that she listened to part of the call on speaker phone while in a vehicle with the family. Asked earlier if she was sure the President said that, Wilson told CNN affiliate WPLG: "Yeah, he said that. You know, ... that is something that you can say in a conversation, but you shouldn't say that to a grieving widow. Everyone knows when you go to war you could possibly not come back alive, but you don't remind a grieving widow of that. That is so insensitive." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I realize Trump's callous remark was a function of his ingrained, narcissistic cruelty, but it is also attributable to his complete lack of mastery of common social graces. Even when he tries to "sound nice," or "be presidential," he doesn't know how. I doubt he intended to be cruel to Myeshia Johnson, but like an awkward teenager caught in an adult conversation, he doesn't know what to say. Now we understand his odd claim that he has "the best words"; apparently many have told him that he does not. Of course, his lack of courtesy also is a function of his narcissism -- he sees little need to be gracious to others, yet he "fights back" when anyone even seems to diss him. Now look for him to attack both Rep. Wilson and Mrs. Johnson. ...

     ... Update. Toljaso. Julia Manchester of the Hill: "President Trump early Wednesday ripped Rep. Frederica Wilson, saying the Florida Democrat's claim that he made an insensitive comment about a fallen soldier's wife was 'totally fabricated.' 'Democrat Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof). Sad!' the president said in a tweet." ...

     ... Update of Update. "The Worst Part." Julia Manchester: "Rep. Frederica Wilson blasted President Trump on Wednesday.... 'This man is a sick man. He's cold hearted, and he feels no pity or sympathy for anyone,' Wilson told CNN's Alisyn Camerota.... 'When [Myeshia Johnson] actually hung up the phone, she looked at me and said "he didn't even know his name." Now that's the worst part,' Wilson said." ...

... Margaret Hartmann: "Wilson told the Washington Post that Johnson broke down when Trump made the remark. 'He made her cry,' Wilson said, adding that she wanted to take the phone and 'curse him out,' but the Army sergeant holding the phone wouldn't let her talk to the president. The White House has not denied the account, saying only 'The President's conversations with the families of American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice are private.'... Sergeant Johnson, 25, leaves behind two two children -- a 6-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son -- and Myeshia is six months pregnant with their third child."

Philip Rucker & Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "U.S. Africa Command first disclosed late Oct. 4 that U.S. troops had come under fire in Niger. The command confirmed the following morning that three U.S. soldiers -- Staff Sgts. Bryan C. Black, 35; Jeremiah W. Johnson, 39; and [Staff Sgt. Dustin] Wright -- were killed.... On Oct. 6, the Pentagon disclosed that U.S. troops also had recovered the remains of [Sgt. La David] Johnson.... On Oct. 4, the day four U.S. Special Forces soldiers were gunned down at the border of Niger and Mali in the deadliest combat incident since President Trump took office, the commander in chief was lighting up Twitter with attacks on the 'fake news' media. The next day, when the remains of the first soldiers reached Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Trump was assailing the 'fake news' and warning the country of 'the calm before the storm.' What storm, he never did say. Over that weekend, as the identity of the fourth soldier was disclosed publicly and more details emerged about the incident, Trump was golfing and letting it rip on Twitter about Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the NFL, North Korea, Puerto Rico and, again, alleged media bias." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: On October 6, then, Trump could have issued a general statement about the loss of American soldiers. The statement would have been fine if staffers or Pentagon officials wrote it. If Trump had added to his Twitter stream, he probably would have written something crass about dead Americans in Nigeria.

... Calvin Woodward & Russ Bynum of the AP: "Like presidents before him, Trump has made personal contact with some families of the fallen, not all. What's different is that Trump, alone among them, has picked a political fight over who's done better to honor the war dead and their families.... He placed himself at the top of this pantheon, boasting Tuesday that 'I think I've called every family of someone who's died' while past presidents didn't place such calls. But The Associated Press found relatives of two soldiers who died overseas during Trump's presidency who said they never received a call or a letter from him, as well as relatives of a third who did not get a call. And proof is plentiful that Barack Obama and George W. Bush -- saddled with far more combat casualties than the roughly two dozen so far under Trump, took painstaking steps to write, call or meet bereaved military families.... Gold Star families, which have lost members in wartime, told AP of acts of intimate kindness from Obama and Bush when those commanders in chief consoled them.... Despite the much heavier toll on his watch -- more than 800 dead each year from 2004 through 2007 -- Bush wrote to all bereaved military families and met or spoke with hundreds if not thousands, said his spokesman, Freddy Ford." ...

... Lachlan Markay & Asawan Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "On Tuesday morning, the White House, not just ... Donald Trump, went out of its way to turn Chief of Staff John Kelly's dead son into a political football for the purpose of attacking Barack Obama's character. Trump falsely claimed during a Rose Garden press conference on Monday that his predecessors had not called the families of U.S. servicemen and women killed in action. The next day, Trump turned Kelly and his late son, who was killed by a landmine in Afghanistan in 2010, into political pawns.... Trump told Fox News radio host Brian Kilmeade on Tuesday morning. '... I don't know, I mean you could ask Gen. Kelly, did he get a call from Obama'... The Daily Beast confirmed that senior White House officials signed off on this specific line of attack as legitimate communications strategy." ...

... Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress: "While the White House didn't disclose exactly which official was smearing Obama, Steven Perlberg of BuzzFeed later reported that Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was one of the officials confirming on background that Obama hadn't called Kelly." ...

... Dan Merica of CNN: "... Donald Trump, in defense of his claim that President Barack Obama didn't call the loved ones of fallen soldiers, floated the idea Tuesday that reporters ask ... John Kelly whether Obama called him after his son died in Afghanistan. The comment came during an interview on Fox News Radio.... Multiple White House officials have told CNN that Obama did not call Kelly when his son was killed.... [Oh, wait.] Kelly and his wife, Karen Hernest Kelly, attended a 2011 Memorial Day breakfast for Gold Star families, those men and women whose children were killed in action, according to an [Obama??] aide, speaking on background. The aide said the Kellys were seated at then-first lady Michelle Obama's table." ...

Pete Souza: 'I photographed [President Obama] meeting with hundreds of wounded soldiers, and family members of those killed in action.' pic.twitter.com/01pICn3YVo

-- Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 16, 2017

... Yochi Dreazen of Vox: "... retired Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tweeting that both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama had worked to comfort the families of dead troops.... It isn't simply another reminder that Trump is a liar of almost unfathomable proportions (the Washington Post recently reported that he'd made 1,318 false or misleading claims in his first 263 days in office, an average of five per day). It also shows that Trump remains inexplicably willing to tell lies that alienate the leadership of the armed forces he commands and that he may one day order into war with North Korea." Dreazen details how Trump has shown disrespect for the military." ...

... Evan Hurst of Wonkette: "... there's one thing nobody seems to be paying attention to about this story, and it's that Marine 1st Lt. Robert Kelly was MARRIED, and his wife's name was HEATHER, so if Obama did pick up his Obamaphone and make a phone call upon his death, it would have been to his WIFE and not his DAD, Donald Trump, you FUCKING IDIOT." Mrs. McC: Hurst goes on graf after graf berating the FUCKING IDIOT, & he's damned good at it. Don't know if Hurst's rant will cheer you or rile you, but he may well reflect your own opinion. ...

... Margaret Hartmann: "It seems mostly likely that Trump was basing his assertion on reports about Obama amplified in conservative media. But to make matters worse, rather than just admitting that he didn't have all the facts, Trump pinned his inaccurate comments on top members of the military. 'That's what I was told,' he said. 'All I can do -- all I can do is ask my generals.'" ...

... First, It Was "His Generals'" Fault. Now It's Pentagon Bureaucrats' Fault. Eric Boehlert of Shareblue: "Donald Trump had time to go golfing five times since four U.S. troops were killed by an ISIS ambush in Niger on Oct., 4. But Trump didn't have time to reach out to the mourning military families because the White House had to wait on Pentagon 'paperwork,' according to the latest administration spin. In a man-made crisis of leadership that continues to metastasize, Trump and his team struggle to offer up any rationale reason for his shocking silence about the killed Special Forces troops. This, at a time when Trump seems obsessed with trolling the NFL about the proper way to honor U.S. troops during the pre-game national anthem.... On Monday, Trump confirmed he still hadn't offered up condolences to the families. Trump also hasn't used his prolific Twitter account to honor the men, let alone acknowledge their deaths.... From The New York Times: 'A senior official said Mr. Trump had planned to speak sooner to the families, but the White House had to wait until the Pentagon's paperwork was completed.'... Really? Trump's team is claiming it took the Pentagon 12 days to identify the families of the killed? That's absurd because the Department of Defense released information about the men soon after they were killed. Some of the troops have already been buried, and their funerals were covered in the local media...." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: As Yochi Dreazen pointed out, Trump often shows disrespect for the military. To cover this one failure, Trump has dissed the military three times. (1) He blamed 'my generals' for misinforming him about former presidents' practices re: contacting the families of fallen troops. But Margaret Hartmann asserts -- with evidence -- that Trump got his disinformation from Sean Hannity, et al. (2) He blamed lower-ranking military for slow-walking the paperwork. That's ridiculous. Trump certainly received information on the deaths of the Special Forces troops almost immediately. So more than a week ago, could have directed staff to draft letters or comments for him to make in phone calls. (3) He put former Gen. John Kelly on the spot. The White House reportedly didn't make Kelly available for comment, but some day, some reporter will get the opportunity to ask Kelly about any contacts he had with President Obama regarding his son's death. Kelly will have to dream up a way to couch his answer in some way that does not make Trump look like a lying sack of shit. Good luck with that, General. ...

... Poison. Josh Marshall of TPM: "To get out of an awkward situation, Trump triggered a partisan fight about one of the most painful, horrible, hallowed part of our national life. People use the word too casually. I've used it too casually. But it's a genuine disgrace. It's a disgrace.... We shouldn't be having this conversation at all.... But now we are. And that's the thing: Donald Trump poisons everything. It's like an abuser with a captive family; he poisons everything, inflames everything, destroys and degrades anything in his path for his own ends. No one gets out in one piece. He's poison. He's just poison." --safari ...

... David Graham of the Atlantic: "... a president who promised to pull the United States back from its engagements around the globe hasn't made any statement to the American people about why Special Forces soldiers were in Niger, why they were out on patrol despite their advisory role, who was responsible for their deaths, or why it's important for U.S. troops to be in West Africa. Trump is eager to talk about the troops when he is accusing NFL players of disrespecting them by kneeling during the National Anthem.... It's much easier to snipe about which president's consolations were most patriotic than to actually talk about the troops as anything more than a signifier." Graham elaborates on how Trump turned a question about how & why fallen soldiers met their fate into a feeding frenzy -- and reporters' trap -- about Barack Obama's supposed disrespect for the military. ...

... Barbara Starr of CNN: "The Defense Department is conducting an initial review of the mission in Niger and the ambush by 50 ISIS-affiliated fighters that left four US soldiers dead and two wounded. Multiple US officials have described to CNN a scene of confusion on the ground during the unexpected firefight.... The review will aim to determine precisely what happened -- something that is still not clear nearly two weeks after the incident occurred, according to the official."

It's because of the fine journalists at the Washington Post and 60 Minutes that we have avoided appointing someone who could have made the opioid epidemic even worse. I am eager to make this wrong right and work with my colleagues and the President to repeal this horrible law that should have never passed in the first place. -- Sen. Joe Manchin (D-ish W.Va.) ...

... Trump Caves to "Fake News Amazon Washington Post." Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Tuesday that his nominee to be the nation's drug czar is withdrawing from consideration for the job. Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) was under fire in the wake of revelations in a Washington Post/'60 Minutes' investigation that the& lawmaker helped steer legislation in Congress making it harder for the Drug Enforcement Administration to act against giant drug companies." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... UPDATE. Guardian: "Tom Marino, the Pennsylvania representative who Donald Trump nominated to be his 'drug czar', has withdrawn from consideration, the president said on Tuesday." --safari (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: On MSNBC, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, drug czar under President Obama, reminded us that Trump tried to defund the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the office the drug czar heads. As CNN reported in May, "The draft memo provided to CNN by a source details how the Office of National Drug Control Policy will receive a near 94% cut in 2018, from a $380 million budget to $24 million.... 'Throughout the campaign, Trump promised communities ravaged by opioid addiction that he would come to their aid,' said Daniel Wessel, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. 'That was a lie.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Ken Thomas of the AP: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday warned Sen. John McCain that 'I fight back' after McCain questioned 'half-baked, spurious nationalism' in America's foreign policy. McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent 5½ years in a Vietnam prisoner of war camp and is battling brain cancer, offered a simple response to Trump: 'I have faced tougher adversaries.' Trump said in a radio interview with WMAL in Washington, 'I'm being very, very nice but at some point I fight back and it won't be pretty.' He bemoaned McCain's decisive vote this past summer in opposition to a GOP bill to dismantle Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, a move that caused the failure of GOP efforts to repeal and replace 'Obamacare.'"

Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "Most days bring another round [of insults], often at dawn, like plot points in a 24-7 miniseries. In just the past few weeks, Trump has started, without any clear provocation, fights with football players who kneel during the national anthem, department stores that declare 'happy holidays' instead of 'Merry Christmas,' and late-night television hosts for their 'unfunny and repetitive material.' Then there are the individual targets: [Hillary] Clinton, of course, but also 'Liddle' Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, North Korea's 'Little Rocket Man' Kim Jong Un, ESPN anchor Jemele Hill, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), and a shifting array of reporters, newspapers and networks he labels as the 'fake news.'... In each instance, the combat allows Trump to underline for his core supporters the populist promise of his election: to challenge the power of political elites and those who have unfairly benefited from their 'politically correct' vision." (Also linked yesterday.)

Ha Ha. Steve Benen: "For many years, various presidents in both parties have issued proclamations recognizing days, weeks, and months in recognition of worthy causes, and for the most part, these proclamations have gone largely overlooked. But there's something about Donald Trump that puts some of these presidential declarations in an unfortunate light. For example, it's now 'National Character Counts Week' in the United States. Trump's proclamation read in part: 'We celebrate National Character Counts Week because few things are more important than cultivating strong character in all our citizens, especially our young people.... Character is built slowly. Our actions -- often done first out of duty -- become habits ingrained in the way we treat others and ourselves....'... Didn't Trump just yesterday smear his presidential predecessors by lying about their interactions with the families of American soldiers killed in action?" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Update: See MAG's commentary in today's thread. MAG has hit on the "real reason" for Trump's enthusiasm for "Character Counts."

Damian Paletta of the Washington Post: "White House officials working on trade policy were alarmed last month when a top adviser to President Trump circulated a two-page document that alleged a weakened manufacturing sector leads to an increase in abortion, spousal abuse, divorce and infertility, two people familiar with the matter said. The documents, which were obtained by The Washington Post, were prepared and distributed by Peter Navarro, director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy. They were presented without any data or information to back up the assertions, and reveal some of the materials the Trump administration reviewed as it was crafting its trade policy." ...

... Kevin Drum: "Navarro is wrong about nearly everything. However, opioid use is up and single-parent households have increased. I guess two out of twelve isn't bad. Oh, and one other thing: manufacturing employment has been dropping in every rich country. This is hardly unique to the United States.... And it's worth noting one other thing: In the entire OECD, manufacturing employment is down 2 percent since the end of the Great Recession, but in the United States it grew 6 percent during Obama's presidency.... So none of this makes any sense. But I don't suppose anyone in the White House actually cares. I expect Navarro's slide to become a favorite over at Fox News."

Josh Dawsey & Bryan Bender of Politico: "National Archives officials have periodically warned White House lawyers that the Trump administration needs to follow document preservation laws, according to people familiar with the conversations and emails.... The exchanges with the National Archives staff come amid concerns that the White House has been haphazard about its handling of government materials. Politico previously reported that numerous White House officials used personal devices and email accounts for work, raising questions from watchdogs and congressional investigators about document preservation and internal security in Trump's administration."

Louis Nelson of Politico: "... Donald Trump said Wednesday that former FBI Director James Comey 'lied and leaked' information and ultimately protected Hillary Clinton, while also questioning the credibility of the FBI's probe into her email. Trump's early morning tweets come in the wake of news that the bureau's former director had drafted a statement exonerating Clinton before the investigation was over. 'Wow, FBI confirms report that James Comey drafted letter exonerating Crooked Hillary Clinton long before investigation was complete. Many people not interviewed, including Clinton herself,' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'Comey stated under oath that he didn't do this-obviously a fix? Where is Justice Dept?' 'As it has turned out, James Comey lied and leaked and totally protected Hillary Clinton. He was the best thing that ever happened to her! the president added later. Newsweek reported Monday on documents released by the FBI that included an email sent on May 2, 2016, by Comey to other FBI officials that included a file titled 'Drafts of Director Comeys July 5, 2016 Statement Regarding Email Server Investigation Part 01 of 01.'" ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you thought this sounded like old "news," as I did, you were right:

     ... Max Kutner of Newsweek: "The release confirms information that Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senator Lindsey Graham, a member of that committee, disclosed in a letter to new FBI Director Christopher Wray in August."

Annie Karni & Josh Dawsey of Politico: "... Donald Trump's former press secretary Sean Spicer met with special counsel Robert Mueller's team on Monday for an interview that lasted much of the day, according to multiple people familiar with the meeting. During his sitdown, Spicer was grilled about the firing of former FBI director James Comey and his statements regarding the firing, as well as about Trump's meetings with Russians officials including one with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the Oval Office, one person familiar with the meeting said."

Natasha Bertrand of Business Insider: "A cybersecurity researcher who described being recruited to vet hacked Hillary Clinton emails last year by a GOP operative tied to ... Donald Trump's campaign team has been interviewed by the FBI's special counsel, Robert Mueller, Business Insider has learned. Mueller interviewed Matt Tait, a former information-security specialist at Britain's Government Communications Headquarters who tweets as @pwnallthethings, several weeks ago, said a source familiar with the matter. The interview was part of a broader effort by Mueller to examine the relationship between the longtime GOP operative, Peter Smith, and the former national security adviser Michael Flynn and whether Flynn played any role in seeking out the stolen emails during the election. Smith killed himself in May after talking to The Wall Street Journal about his experience. The House Intelligence Committee has also interviewed Tait..., CNN reported."

Vivian Yee of the New York Times: "President Trump[s attempts to block travelers from a handful of countries -- most of them predominantly Muslim -- from coming to the United States hit another legal snag on Tuesday, when a federal judge in Hawaii issued a nationwide order freezing most of Mr. Trump's third travel ban the day before it was to take effect. At least for now, the judge's order will prevent the Trump administration from stopping almost all travel to the United States indefinitely from most of the countries named in the ban.... Mr. Trump initially ordered an immediate suspension of travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries, a move that plunged airports across the country into confusion and protest in January. That order was eventually blocked by a federal judge in Seattle. Mr. Trump's second attempt narrowed the scope of the ban, but still struggled to survive judicial scrutiny; it was blocked in March by the same Hawaii judge who issued Tuesday's order, Derrick K. Watson of Federal District Court in Honolulu."

Jonathan Allen of Reuters: "National Football League officials weighed the fervor of players protesting racism against ... Donald Trump's anger at their autumn meeting on Tuesday with supporters of the players kneeling outside in solidarity. The NFL did not seek commitments from its players to stop kneeling during pregame renditions of the U.S. national anthem but rather focused on helping them in their political activism. 'We spent today talking about the issues that our players have been trying to bring attention to. About issues in our communities to make our communities better,' NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters. Trump's repeated denunciation of the players as unpatriotic for kneeling during the national anthem, which he reiterated as recently as Monday, has only made the practice more widespread." ...

... Julia Manchester of the Hill: "President Trump in an early morning tweet on Wednesday ripped the NFL for its decision to allow players to kneel during the national anthem... 'The NFL has decided that it will not force players to stand for the playing of our National Anthem. Total disrespect for our great country!' the president said in a tweet." Mrs McC: To the extent the protests are about you, Donnie, what they show is total disrespect for you. And that's a patriotic thing.

Molly Ringwald in the New Yorker on rampant sexual abuse -- mostly against women -- in the film industry: "... I have had plenty of Harveys of my own over the years, enough to feel a sickening shock of recognition.... I never talked about these things publicly because, as a woman, it has always felt like I may as well have been talking about the weather. Stories like these have never been taken seriously. Women are shamed, told they are uptight, nasty, bitter, can't take a joke, are too sensitive. And the men? Well, if they're lucky, they might get elected President. My hope is that Hollywood ... decides to enact real change, change that would allow women of all ages and ethnicities the freedom to tell their stories -- to write them and direct them and trust that people care.... It's time. Women have resounded their cri de coeur. Listen."

News Lede:

New York Times: "The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the second in a radically new class of treatments that genetically reboot a patient's own immune cells to kill cancer. The new therapy, Yescarta, made by Kite Pharma, was approved for adults with aggressive forms of a blood cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, who have undergone two regimens of chemotherapy that failed."

The Commentariat -- October 17, 2017

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: On MSNBC, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, drug czar under President Obama, reminded us that Trump tried to defund the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the office the drug czar heads. As CNN reported in May, "The draft memo provided to CNN by a source details how the Office of National Drug Control Policy will receive a near 94% cut in 2018, from a $380 million budget to $24 million.... 'Throughout the campaign, Trump promised communities ravaged by opioid addiction that he would come to their aid,' said Daniel Wessel, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. 'That was a lie.'"

It's because of the fine journalists at the Washington Post and 60 Minutes that we have avoided appointing someone who could have made the opioid epidemic even worse. I am eager to make this wrong right and work with my colleagues and the President to repeal this horrible law that should have never passed in the first place. -- Sen. Joe Manchin (D-ish W.Va.) ...

... Trump Caves to "Fake News Amazon Washington Post." Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Tuesday that his nominee to be the nation's drug czar is withdrawing from consideration for the job. Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa) was under fire in the wake of revelations in a Washington Post/'60 Minutes' investigation that the lawmaker helped steer legislation in Congress making it harder for the Drug Enforcement Administration to act against giant drug companies." ...

... UPDATE. Guardian: "Tom Marino, the Pennsylvania representative who Donald Trump nominated to be his 'drug czar', has withdrawn from consideration, the president said on Tuesday." --safari

NEW. Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "Most days bring another round [of insults], often at dawn, like plot points in a 24-7 miniseries. In just the past few weeks, Trump has started, without any clear provocation, fights with football players who kneel during the national anthem, department stores that declare 'happy holidays' instead of 'Merry Christmas,' and late-night television hosts for their 'unfunny and repetitive material.' Then there are the individual targets: [Hillary] Clinton, of course, but also 'Liddle' Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, North Korea's 'Little Rocket Man' Kim Jong Un, ESPN anchor Jemele Hill, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), and a shifting array of reporters, newspapers and networks he labels as the 'fake news.'... In each instance, the combat allows Trump to underline for his core supporters the populist promise of his election: to challenge the power of political elites and those who have unfairly benefited from their 'politically correct' vision."

NEW. Ha Ha. Steve Benen: "For many years, various presidents in both parties have issued proclamations recognizing days, weeks, and months in recognition of worthy causes, and for the most part, these proclamations have gone largely overlooked. But there's something about Donald Trump that puts some of these presidential declarations in an unfortunate light. For example, it's now 'National Character Counts Week' in the United States. Trump's proclamation read in part: 'We celebrate National Character Counts Week because few things are more important than cultivating strong character in all our citizens, especially our young people.... Character is built slowly. Our actions -- often done first out of duty -- become habits ingrained in the way we treat others and ourselves....'... Didn't Trump just yesterday smear his presidential predecessors by lying about their interactions with the families of American soldiers killed in action?"

*****

BFFFs. (Best Fake Friends Forever.) Michael Shear & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "In an impromptu, 45-minute Rose Garden news conference after the men met for lunch at the White House, Mr. Trump and [Mitch] McConnell both put on a display of awkward camaraderie, as the president went on volubly, fielding question after question as the senator fidgeted and spoke only occasionally. Through it all, they tried to wave aside reports of a disintegrating relationship that had included the president's repeated use of tweets to publicly disparage Mr. McConnell's legislative leadership.... The feud peaked this weekend when Stephen K. Bannon ... delivered a blunt message to Mr. McConnell: 'They're just looking to find out who is going to be Brutus to your Julius Caesar.'... The president hinted that he would not entirely support Mr. Bannon's efforts to throw out of office Republicans who Mr. Bannon does not think are sufficiently supportive of Mr. Trump's agenda." ...

** Ed O'Keefe, et al., of the Washington Post: "Congressional Democrats reacted sharply Monday to reports that President Trump's nominee to serve as the nation's drug czar helped steer legislation that made it harder for the government to take some enforcement actions against giant drug companies. One Democratic senator [-- Joe Manchin (W.Va.) --] called on Trump to withdraw the nomination of Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) to lead the Office of National Drug Control Policy, a position requiring Senate confirmation. Another quickly introduced legislation to undo the law that Marino championed and that passed Congress with little opposition.... In a separate letter to Trump, Manchin said that more than 700 West Virginians died of opioid overdoses last year. 'No state in the nation has been harder hit than mine,' he wrote.... Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) also said Monday that she would introduce legislation that would repeal the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act of 2016. The law, she said, 'has significantly affected the government's ability to crack down on opioid distributors that are failing to meet their obligations and endangering our communities.'... Manchin and McCaskill face reelection next year in rural states that Trump won last year." Mrs. McC: Thank you, Washington Post & "60 Minutes." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... New Lede: "President Trump said Monday that he will declare a national emergency next week to address the opioid epidemic and declined to express confidence in Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.), his nominee for drug czar, in the wake of revelations that the lawmaker helped steer legislation making it harder to act against giant drug companies. Trump's remarks came amid widespread reaction across the political spectrum to a Washington Post/'60 Minutes' investigation that explained how Marino helped guide the legislation, which sailed through Congress last year with virtually no opposition. Trump said 'we're going to be looking into' the investigation, while many Democrats and at least one Republican called for modification or outright repeal of the law. Democrats also urged Trump to drop Marino as his pick to lead the Office of National Drug Control Policy."

... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump falsely asserted on Monday that ... Barack Obama, and other presidents did not contact the families of American troops killed in duty, drawing a swift, angry rebuke from several of Mr. Obama's former aides. Answering a question about why he had not spoken publicly about the killing of four American Green Berets in an ambush in Niger two weeks ago, Mr. Trump said he had written personal letters to their families and planned to call them in the coming week. 'If you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn't make calls,' Mr. Trump said during a news conference in the Rose Garden with the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell. 'A lot of them didn't make calls. I like to call when it's appropriate.' Mr. Trump's assertion belied a long record of meetings Mr. Obama held with the families of killed service people, as well as calls and letters. Mr. Obama regularly traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to greet the caskets of troops, a ritual that began early in his presidency before he decided to deploy 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. 'This is an outrageous and disrespectful lie even by Trump standards,' Benjamin J. Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser to Mr. Obama, posted on Twitter. 'Also,' Mr. Rhodes added, 'Obama never attacked a Gold Star family.' What made Mr. Trump's assertion all the more remarkable was that he made it to defend his silence after three American soldiers were killed while on patrol on the border between Niger and Mali this month. The body of a fourth American soldier was recovered later." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's not a lie, Ben. If there's something Trump doesn't know (which would be a lot) or something he doesn't want to know (also a lot), then it didn't happen. This is somewhat like Trump's construct "a lot of people don't know," which is followed by some commonly-known fact: that President Lincoln was a Republican or that "France is America's first and oldest ally." (P.S. "First and oldest" is a tautology.) Then, as Steve Benen noted, there are the things that "nobody knows," which is because these are not true. ...

This man in the Oval Office is a soulless coward who thinks that he can only become large by belittling others. This has of course been a common practice of his, but to do it in this manner -- and to lie about how previous presidents responded to the deaths of soldiers -- is as low as it gets. We have a pathological liar in the White House, unfit intellectually, emotionally, and psychologically to hold this office, and the whole world knows it, especially those around him every day. The people who work with this president should be ashamed, because they know better than anyone just how unfit he is, and yet they choose to do nothing about it. This is their shame most of all. -- Gregg Popovich, coach of the San Antonio Spurs, in response to Trump's defense of not contacting families of four American troops killed in Niger...

... Phil Mudd has had enough of this shit:

Q: [by Peter Alexander of NBC News]: Earlier, you said that President Obama never called the families of fallen soldiers. How can you make that claim?

Trump: I don't know if he did. No, no, no, I was told that he didn't often. And a lot of Presidents don't; they write letters. I do... Excuse me, Peter. I do a combination of both. Sometimes -- it's a very difficult thing to do, but I do a combination of both. President Obama I think probably did sometimes, and maybe sometimes he didn't. I don't know. That's what I was told. All I can do -- all I can do is ask my generals. Other Presidents did not call. They'd write letters. And some Presidents didn't do anything. But I like the combination of -- I like, when I can, the combination of a call and also a letter.

... Steve Benen: "Notice the shifts. First, Obama didn't call the families, then Obama didn't call them 'often.' Initially, Trump said he had the facts about what previous presidents did, then Trump said he didn't have the facts and it's the generals' fault if he claims were wrong. Regardless, this was a rare example of Trump being pressed on one of his lies at the same event in which he told the lie. And confronted with reality, the president folded almost immediately." Mrs. McC: And Coach Pop had the nerve to call Trump "a soulless coward." Also, Steve, it wasn't the generals' fault; it was "my generals'" fault. P.S. I'd be way surprised if his generals said any such thing. ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post posts an annotated transcript of the press conference. ...

... Michael Shear: "President Trump convened his cabinet on Monday in the hopes of kick-starting his stalled domestic policy agenda and complained that Democrats in Congress are obstructing his efforts on tax reform, health care and the confirmation of judicial nominees. 'The Democrats have terrible policy,' Mr. Trump told reporters.... 'They are very good at, really, obstruction.' He also lashed out -- without naming them -- at 'some Republicans' in the Senate.... 'There are some Republicans, frankly, that should be ashamed of themselves,' Mr. Trump said, adding that most of the senators are 'really, really great people' but saying that 'you had a few people that really disappointed us.' Mr. Trump offered support to Stephen K. Bannon..., who has declared political war against members of the Republican establishment...." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Who the hell listens to Trump when he complains about policy? He doesn't have any idea what his "own" policy is, let alone the Democrats'. ...

... ** Josh Dawsey of Politico: "... on Monday, [Donald Trump] ... gave the Trump White House a Trump-sized dose of brand enhancement. With both the Roosevelt Room and the Rose Garden as backdrops, he mixed facts and mirage, praise and perfidy in two head-spinning, sometimes contradictory performances designed to convince supporters and detractors alike that everything's terrific, moving ahead of schedule and getting even better. His opponents were cast as misguided, deluded or even unpatriotic.... The president first convened his Cabinet for a discursive soliloquy on issues domestic and foreign. They sat stone-faced as he held forth, meandering from topic to topic.... He then abruptly canceled the daily briefing by press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, instead summoning reporters already gathered in the briefing room to the Rose Garden for an impromptu 40-minute news conference.... Trump told Cabinet members and reporters that there's plenty wrong in America, and it's variously the fault of Democrats, insurance companies, NFL players, Republicans in Congress, Hillary Clinton, former presidents and drug-dealing Mexicans.... What is going well, he said, has been his doing. Much of the self-praise seemed designed to rebut or pre-empt criticisms."

The Babysitters. Ashley Parker & Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post: "When Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) described the White House as 'an adult day-care center' on Twitter last week, he gave voice to a certain Trumpian truth: The president is often impulsive, mercurial and difficult to manage, leading those around him to find creative ways to channel his energies. Some Trump aides spend a significant part of their time devising ways to rein in and control the impetuous president, angling to avoid outbursts that might work against him, according to interviews with 18 aides, confidants and outside advisers.... Trump's penchant for Twitter feuds, name-calling and temperamental outbursts presents a unique challenge. One defining feature of managing Trump is frequent praise, which can leave his team in what seems to be a state of perpetual compliments.... H.R. McMaster, the president's national security adviser, has frequently resorted to diversionary tactics to manage Trump. In the Oval Office he will often volunteer to have his staff study Trump's more unorthodox ideas.... Perhaps no Cabinet official has proven more adept at breaking ranks with Trump without drawing his ire than Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who has disagreed with his boss on a range of issues...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Burgess Everett & Josh Dawsey of Politico: "... behind the scenes, Trump, his administration and even some senators are increasingly worried that taxes will go the way of Obamacare repeal in the Senate: Months of bickering ending in extreme embarrassment.... 'We look at the Senate and go: "What the hell is going on?"' White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said in an interview Friday. 'The House passed health care, the House has already passed its budget, which is the first step of tax reform. The Senate hasn't done any of that. Hell, the Senate can't pass any of our confirmations,' Mulvaney fumed in an interview, slapping a table for emphasis. 'You ask me if the Republican-controlled Senate is an impediment to the administration's agenda: All I can tell you is so far, the answer's yes.'... And House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), when asked Monday to name the biggest impediment to tax reform, replied: 'You ever heard of the United States Senate before?'" ...

... Paul Krugman: "... almost 60 percent of the American public believes that the current Republican tax plan favors the wealthy. Some people see this number as a sign that the plan is in trouble; I see it as a sign that Republican lies are working far better than they deserve to.... It's not difficult to see how the plan is tilted toward the very top. The main elements of the plan are a cut in top individual tax rates; a cut in corporate taxes; an end to the estate tax; and the creation of a big new loophole that will allow wealthy individuals to pretend that they are small businesses, and get a preferential tax rate. All of these overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy, mainly the top 1 percent.... But how can an administration that pretends to be populist, to stand up for ordinary (white) working people, sell such elitist policies? The answer is a strategy based entirely on lies. And I mean entirely: The Trump administration and its allies are lying about every aspect of their tax plan." ...

... Greg Sargent: "The Trump administration is set to roll out a new analysis on Monday that supposedly demonstrates that President Trump's proposed tax plan would ultimately boost middle-class incomes ... based on the notion that corporations will pass their tax savings ... on to workers, something that other researchers doubt.... Trump allies and Republicans are so desperate to pass this tax plan that they're also doubling down on another strange argument: If Republicans don't get this plan passed, their majority in Congress is doomed -- and with it, so is the Trump agenda.... these two lines of argument, when taken together, actually illustrate just how deep the scamming around these matters really runs." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn of Mother Jones: "As Facebook, Google, and Twitter have become increasingly bigger parts of the story of Russian meddling, it's been exceedingly difficult to keep track of what's going on.... We've created a timeline tracking some of the biggest revelations since early September." --safari ...

... Natasha Bertrand of Business Insider: "The founders of the opposition-research firm that produced the dossier alleging ties between ... Donald Trump's campaign team and Russia [-- Fusion GPS --] will invoke constitutional privileges and decline to testify before the House Intelligence Committee, their attorney ... Josh Levy wrote in response to subpoenas issued earlier this month by the committee's chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes.... A former federal prosecutor, Renato Mariotti, said the First Amendment argument, while 'novel,' seemed 'unlikely to succeed.... That is probably why the attorneys have emphasized other arguments, like Nunes' apparent lack of authority to issue the subpoenas and the fact that Congress didn't authorize the investigation he's conducting on his own,' Mariotti said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Brian Beutler comes up with a new reason we should believe the "golden rain" incident in the Moscow Ritz actually happened -- because subsequently, peeing all over President Obama has been the way Trump has "governed." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "... Donald Trump urged Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander to seek out an Obamacare deal with Democrats -- encouragement that might help sway Republicans who are skeptical of a bipartisan agreement. Alexander said Trump told him by phone Oct. 14 he’d like to see a bill that funds the Obamacare cost-sharing subsidies that he abruptly cut off last week. In return, he wants to see 'meaningful flexibility for the states in providing more choices,' Alexander (R-Tenn.) said." See related Politico story, published October 13, in which Mick Mulvaney suggested Trump would use his move to strip the subsidies as a bargaining chip to fund the Mexican border wall -- or whatever. Mulvaney said, "if the straight-up question is: Is the president interested in continuing what he sees as corporate welfare and bailouts for the insurance companies? No." The story's headline: "Trump opposes bipartisan Obamacare rescue plan".

Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "An emotional Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) launched a thinly veiled critique of President Trump's global stewardship Monday night, using a notable award ceremony to condemn 'people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems.' McCain said that 'some half-baked, spurious nationalism' should be considered 'as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history.' The 2008 Republican presidential nominee spoke with Independence Hall in his line of sight, having just been awarded the Liberty Medal by the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan institution...."

Esther Lee of ThinkProgress: "[I]t would ... appear that his White House's discontinuation of his predecessor's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration executive action, which has been an economic lifeline for 800,000 people, could lead to devastating economic costs.... A July 2017 CAP report already shows that taking away all DACA recipients, or an estimated 685,000 workers from the economy would lead to a $460.3 billion drop in GDP over the next ten years.... Some of the heavyweights leading the cause to end DACA and enforce hardline immigration policies include a host of influential lawmakers, but their hometowns too will be seriously impacted by the crackdowns." --safari ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Oh yeah? So what? Trump doesn't mind wrecking the economy, not to mention hundreds of thousands of people's lives, if what he does boosts his creds with his xenophobic, racist "base."

David Dayen of The Intercept: "Six Senate Democrats have asked the Treasury Department's inspector general to investigate whether Keith Noreika, head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, is illegally serving in office.... September 12 represented Noreika's 130th day in control of the OCC, one of the most critical banking regulators in the federal government. That's a key number because Noreika ... has been serving as a 'special government employee,' a designation that exempts him from certain ethics and disclosure rules for members of the executive branch.... Special government employee designations are typically reserved for temporary members of advisory committees, not the head of a federal agency."--safari

Richard Oppel of the New York Times: "Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who walked off his base in eastern Afghanistan in 2009, setting off a huge military manhunt and a political furor, pleaded guilty on Monday to desertion and to endangering the American troops sent to search for him. The guilty pleas by Sergeant Bergdahl, a 31-year-old Idaho native now stationed at an Army base in San Antonio, Tex., were not part of any deal with prosecutors. It will now be up to an Army judge here at Fort Bragg to decide the sergeant's punishment, following testimony at a hearing that is expected to begin as soon as next week." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Brian Ross, et al., of ABC News: "... Bergdahl, Trump said in several campaign speeches as a presidential candidate, was a 'traitor' who should be executed. In an on-camera interview shot last year by a British filmmaker, obtained exclusively by ABC News and airing today on 'Good Morning America,' 'World News Tonight With David Muir' and 'Nightline,' Bergdahl says the words of the man who is now his commander in chief would have made a fair trial impossible. 'We may as well go back to kangaroo courts and lynch mobs that got what they wanted,' Bergdahl says. 'The people who want to hang me -- you're never going to convince those people.'... Trump ... called Bergdahl 'garbage.'... 'You know, in the old days -- bing, bong,' Trump said as he mimicked firing a rifle. 'When we were strong.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michael Wilson of the New York Times: "A federal jury convicted Ahmad Khan Rahimi, a loner from New Jersey drawn to online calls to jihad, of setting the explosives in the Chelsea neighborhood that blew out windows and sent shrapnel flying into buildings, cars and people during a two-day bombing campaign in and around New York City last year. The conviction on Monday carries a mandatory life sentence; the sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 18.... Jurors also heard from those wounded that night by shrapnel from a bomb specifically designed to hurt people. No one was killed, a remarkable stroke of good fortune when the magnitude of the explosion became clearer." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Somehow, in the wake of the Weinstein revelations, the president's supporters appear to believe they hold the moral high ground.... The people now ruling this country don't share ... progressive ideals about sexual consent, workers' rights and the fundamental equality of men and women.... Yes, [Roger] Ailes had to leave Fox News after charges that he'd demanded sexual favors from women in exchange for professional opportunities. But in the aftermath, conservatives did not ostracize him. Instead, Trump defended Ailes and defamed his accusers, then brought him on as an adviser. Most Republican voters and officeholders, in turn, implicitly condone Trump's treatment of women.... The movie business is corrupt, depraved and iniquitous -- and still morally superior to the Republican Party under Trump. Betraying the principle of gender equality is bad. Rejecting it is worse."

Beyond the Beltway

Dying for Water. Arelis Hernández & Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "Every 10 minutes or so, a truck or a van pulled up to the exposed spigot of an overgrown well.... Fencing around the area had been torn open, and a red and white 'Peligro' sign, warning of danger, lay hidden beneath debris and dense vegetation. One after another, people attached a hose to draw water for bathing, washing dishes and, in some cases, drinking. They filled buckets, jugs, soda bottles. What many didn't realize is that the well is one of nearly a dozen that are part of the Dorado Groundwater Contamination Superfund site -- designated last year by the Environmental Protection Agency as among the nation's most toxic sites. Past testing here has shown the presence of tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene, solvents commonly used in industrial processes, which can cause health problems including liver damage and increased risk of cancer.... In the late morning, EPA officials arrived on the scene ... armed with kits, gloves and other materials to conduct tests, hastily reassembled the broken chain-link fence near the spigot and restored the 'Danger' sign.... Residents unwittingly drawing water from a Superfund site is merely one example of Puerto Rico's dire lack of clean, reliable water. Government officials have said it could be months before power is fully restored across the island, which means that it could take nearly as long to get water flowing to all residents in need."

Steve Bouquet of the Miami Herald-Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau: Florida "Gov. Rick Scott on Monday declared a state of emergency in Alachua County three days ahead of a scheduled speech at the University of Florida campus in Gainesville by the white nationalist Richard Spencer. 'I find that the threat of a potential emergency is imminent,' Scott said in a seven-page executive order." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Think about that. Donald Trump has had at least two high-level administration officials with ties to Richard Spencer -- Steve Bannon & Stepher Miller. Miller is apparently still writing Trump's speeches, the texts of which include Miller's alt-right views. Meanwhile, Rick Scott -- a strong ally of Trump's -- finds Bannon & Miller's friend Spencer so dangerous that he triggers a state of emergency. We are living in interesting times.

Way Beyond

** Martyrs to the Truth. Eli Rosenberg of the Washington Post: "Daphne Caruana Galizia, an investigative journalist and blogger from Malta who was known for her reporting on governmental corruption, was killed in a bomb explosion near her home on Monday, officials say.... In 2017, 27 journalists have been killed for their work so far, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.... Galizia spent much of her work in recent years reporting on the Panama Papers, the cache of records from a law firm in that country that detailed offshoring activities of powerful officials and companies around the world." She was highly critical of Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscats, his wife & his cronies.

David Zucchino of the New York Times: "After weeks of threats and posturing, the Iraqi government began a military assault on Monday to blunt the independence drive by the nation's Kurdish minority, wresting oil fields and a contested city from separatists pushing to break away from Iraq. In clashes that pit two crucial American allies against each other, government troops seized the vital city of Kirkuk and surrounding oil fields, ousting the Kurdish forces who had controlled the region for three years in their effort to build an independent nation in the northern third of Iraq. The Kurds voted overwhelmingly in a referendum three weeks ago for independence from Iraq. The United States, Baghdad and most countries in the region condemned the vote, fearing it would fuel ethnic divisions across the region, lead to the break up of Iraq and hobble the fight against the Islamic State." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dom Phillips of the Guardian: "If Brazil's recent decline could be plotted in the falling popularity of its presidents, Michel Temer represents the bottom of the curve.... Last month, the government of Temer, [deposed Brazilian President Dilma] Rousseff's former vice-president, plunged to 3% in one poll.... Temer has been charged with corruption, racketeering and obstruction of justice. Yet there have been none of the huge, anti-corruption street protests that helped drive Rousseff's impeachment on charges of breaking budget rules.... [T]rust in Brazil's political leaders has been drastically undermined. That lack of trust is feeding support for an authoritarian solution to the crisis -- which could have serious consequences in next year's presidential elections." --safari

The Commentariat -- October 16, 2017

Afternoon Update:

The Babysitters. Ashley Parker & Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post: "When Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) described the White House as 'an adult day-care center' on Twitter last week, he gave voice to a certain Trumpian truth: The president is often impulsive, mercurial and difficult to manage, leading those around him to find creative ways to channel his energies. Some Trump aides spend a significant part of their time devising ways to rein in and control the impetuous president, angling to avoid outbursts that might work against him, according to interviews with 18 aides, confidants and outside advisers.... Trump's penchant for Twitter feuds, name-calling and temperamental outbursts presents a unique challenge. One defining feature of managing Trump is frequent praise, which can leave his team in what seems to be a state of perpetual compliments.... H.R. McMaster, the president's national security adviser, has frequently resorted to diversionary tactics to manage Trump. In the Oval Office he will often volunteer to have his staff study Trump's more unorthodox ideas.... Perhaps no Cabinet official has proven more adept at breaking ranks with Trump without drawing his ire than Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who has disagreed with his boss on a range of issues...."

Greg Sargent: "The Trump administration is set to roll out a new analysis on Monday that supposedly demonstrates that President Trump's proposed tax plan would ultimately boost middle-class incomes ... based on the notion that corporations will pass their tax savings ... on to workers, something that other researchers doubt.... Trump allies and Republicans are so desperate to pass this tax plan that they're also doubling down on another strange argument: If Republicans don't get this plan passed, their majority in Congress is doomed -- and with it, so is the Trump agenda.... these two lines of argument, when taken together, actually illustrate just how deep the scamming around these matters really runs."

Natasha Bertrand of Business Insider: "The founders of the opposition-research firm that produced the dossier alleging ties between ... Donald Trump's campaign team and Russia [-- Fusion GPS --] will invoke constitutional privileges and decline to testify before the House Intelligence Committee, their attorney ... Josh Levy wrote in response to subpoenas issued earlier this month by the committee's chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes.... A former federal prosecutor, Renato Mariotti, said the First Amendment argument, while 'novel,' seemed 'unlikely to succeed.... That is probably why the attorneys have emphasized other arguments, like Nunes' apparent lack of authority to issue the subpoenas and the fact that Congress didn't authorize the investigation he's conducting on his own,' Mariotti said." ...

... Brian Beutler comes up with a new reason we should believe the "golden rain" incident in the Moscow Ritz actually happened -- because subsequently, peeing all over President Obama has been the way Trump has "governed."

** Ed O'Keefe, et al., of the Washington Post: "Congressional Democrats reacted sharply Monday to reports that President Trump's nominee to serve as the nation's drug czar helped steer legislation that made it harder for the government to take some enforcement actions against giant drug companies. One Democratic senator [-- Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) --] called on Trump to withdraw the nomination of Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) to lead the Office of National Drug Control Policy, a position requiring Senate confirmation. Another quickly introduced legislation to undo the law that Marino championed and that passed Congress with little opposition.... In a separate letter to Trump, Manchin said that more than 700 West Virginians died of opioid overdoses last year. 'No state in the nation has been harder hit than mine,' he wrote.... Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) also said Monday that she would introduce legislation that would repeal the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act of 2016. The law, she said, 'has significantly affected the government's ability to crack down on opioid distributors that are failing to meet their obligations and endangering our communities.'" Mrs. McC: Thank you, Washington Post & "60 Minutes."

Richard Oppel of the New York Times: "Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who walked off his base in eastern Afghanistan in 2009, setting off a huge military manhunt and a political furor, pleaded guilty on Monday to desertion and to endangering the American troops sent to search for him. The guilty pleas by Sergeant Bergdahl, a 31-year-old Idaho native now stationed at an Army base in San Antonio, Tex., were not part of any deal with prosecutors. It will now be up to an Army judge here at Fort Bragg to decide the sergeant's punishment, following testimony at a hearing that is expected to begin as soon as next week." ...

... Brian Ross, et al., of ABC News: "... Bergdahl, Trump said in several campaign speeches as a presidential candidate, was a 'traitor' who should be executed. In an on-camera interview shot last year by a British filmmaker, obtained exclusively by ABC News and airing today on 'Good Morning America,' 'World News Tonight With David Muir' and 'Nightline,' Bergdahl says the words of the man who is now his commander in chief would have made a fair trial impossible. 'We may as well go back to kangaroo courts and lynch mobs that got what they wanted,' Bergdahl says. 'The people who want to hang me -- you're never going to convince those people.'... Trump ... called Bergdahl 'garbage.'... 'You know, in the old days -- bing, bong,' Trump said as he mimicked firing a rifle. 'When we were strong.'"

Michael Wilson of the New York Times: "A federal jury convicted Ahmad Khan Rahimi, a loner from New Jersey drawn to online calls to jihad, of setting the explosives in the Chelsea neighborhood that blew out windows and sent shrapnel flying into buildings, cars and people during a two-day bombing campaign in and around New York City last year. The conviction on Monday carries a mandatory life sentence; the sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 18.... Jurors also heard from those wounded that night by shrapnel from a bomb specifically designed to hurt people. No one was killed, a remarkable stroke of good fortune when the magnitude of the explosion became clearer."

David Zucchino of the New York Times: "After weeks of threats and posturing, the Iraqi government began a military assault on Monday to blunt the independence drive by the nation's Kurdish minority, wresting oil fields and a contested city from separatists pushing to break away from Iraq. In clashes that pit two crucial American allies against each other, government troops seized the vital city of Kirkuk and surrounding oil fields, ousting the Kurdish forces who had controlled the region for three years in their effort to build an independent nation in the northern third of Iraq. The Kurds voted overwhelmingly in a referendum three weeks ago for independence from Iraq. The United States, Baghdad and most countries in the region condemned the vote, fearing it would fuel ethnic divisions across the region, lead to the break up of Iraq and hobble the fight against the Islamic State."

*****

"The Low-Information President." Eric Levitz: "Here in the Fake News Media, we spend a lot of time documenting all the ways in which Donald Trump’s 'populism' is a lie. (The president isn't a self-made titan of business so much as a trust-fund kid turned con artist; his administration isn't pro-worker, only pro-boss; far from 'draining the swamp,' he's flooding it with raw sewage.) No occupant of the Oval Office has ever shared the average person's disinterest in policy, parliamentary procedure, and the rudiments of American civics to the extent that Trump does.... But if blithe ignorance about politics and mindless faith in the claims of right-wing pundits worked for Trump as a candidate, they've proven less effective for him as a president.... The fact that he gets most of his news from the GOP's propaganda network [Fox 'News'] has led him to assume that the party's talking points bear some resemblance to political reality.... Now, weeks after introducing 'his' tax-cut plan, Trump is starting to learn what it actually does -- and he's not happy." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: The underlying problem may be that Trump never expected to win the presidency, as several of his reported remarks have indicated. While he well may believe a bunch of the crapola he hears on Fox "News" & from a host of conspiracy theorists, what he believed & what he said before his election didn't matter if the whole campaign was just a massive publicity stunt. It's easy to throw flames until you find out that you've unexpectedly been tasked with putting out the fires. On January 20, Trump the Unready found himself in a profoundly bad position: he had to try to keep those preposterous campaign promises. Indeed, if you look at nearly every dangerous, dimwitty move he's made, you can find its antecedent in a dangerous, dimwitty campaign promise or assertion.

Where's Donaldo? San Francisco Chronicle Editors: "As raging wildfires devour the lives, homes and dreams of Californians in an unprecedented scale, one voice has been conspicuously mute through day after day of crisis: President Trump. This is not a man who is reticent to let Americans know what is foremost on his mind. He is also someone who should have learned by now -- after devastating hurricanes and the Las Vegas massacre -- that Americans expect their president to step forward with empathy and resolve in moments of national trauma. Yet Trump has offered no more than a few perfunctory words about the Wine Country fires that have left at least 40 dead, consumed thousands of structures and stretched the physical and mental mettle of the dedicated firefighters and medical professionals to the edge of exhaustion." Mrs. McC: There are few groups less likely to vote for Trump than the liberal, wine-sipping coastal elites of Napa. The editors suggest my reading is "cynical." I call it realistic, inasmuch as everything Trump does or says is in his self-interest, and he can't see any upside in showing sympathy for this California corps d'elite.

Fredreka Schouten & Christopher Schnaars of USA Today: "President Trump's campaign spent more than $1 million on legal fees between July 1 and Sept. 30, as special counsel Robert Mueller and congressional committees intensified their probes into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.... The Republican National Committee last month reported paying more than $230,000 to the president's lawyers assisting in the Russia probe, John Dowd and Jay Sekulow. In addition, party officials say they spent nearly $200,000 in September on lawyers to help [Trump Junior] prepare for his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee's investigators." ...

... Judd Legum of ThinkProgress: "In total, donors to the Trump campaign and the Republican party have spent over half a million dollars on Trump Jr.'s legal representation.... President Trump claims to be worth $10 billion. But his son's legal defense is being paid, with the help of people of modest means donating small amounts to the Trump campaign. Over $1.2 donated to the Trump campaign last quarter was 'unitemized,' meaning it came from individuals who have cumulatively donated $200 or less." Mrs. McC: Among these donors are surely some of the same patsies who have made televangelists rich.

... Andy Borowitz of the New Yorker: "Just minutes after the publisher Larry Flynt offered ten million dollars in exchange for information leading to Donald Trump's impeachment, Trump contacted Flynt and said that he would gladly provide the information himself in exchange for the cash.... Meanwhile, the success of Flynt's cash offer appears to have only emboldened the publisher, who announced that he is now offering twenty million dollars for information leading to the impeachment of Mike Pence." ...

... Jane Mayer of the New Yorker profiles mike pence, "who has dutifully stood by the President, mustering a devotional gaze rarely seen since the days of Nancy Reagan...."

Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "The United States military said on Monday that it would practice evacuating noncombatant Americans out of South Korea in the event of war and other emergencies, as the two allies began a joint naval exercise.... It has been conducting similar noncombatant evacuation exercises for decades, along with other joint military exercises with South Korea. But when tensions escalate with North Korea, as they have recently, such drills draw outsize attention and ignite fear among South Koreans, some of whom take them as a sign that the United States might be preparing for military action against the North."

Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has dispatched an experienced federal hate crimes lawyer to Iowa to help prosecute a man charged with murdering a transgender high school student last year, a highly unusual move that officials said was personally initiated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. In taking the step, Mr. Sessions, a staunch conservative, is sending a signal that he has made a priority of fighting violence against transgender people individually, even as he has rolled back legal protections for them collectively."

Scott Higham & Lenny Bernstein of the Washington Post detail Rep. Tom Marino's (R-Pa.) critical part of passing a law that severely curtailed the DEA's ability to regulate narcotics, making "it virtually impossible for the DEA to freeze suspicious narcotic shipments from the companies.... Marino ... represents a district in northeastern Pennsylvania that has been hard-hit by the opioid crisis." Marino is Trump's nominee for drug czar, an apt title for a major opioid pusher. In the main story, also linked yesterday, the authors fingered others responsible for the plot to push the legislation through an uninformed Congress (and White House). One of the secret plan's architect? Haley Barbour, now a lobbyist for the drug cartel industry. Mrs. McC: I hope the Post will profile Barbour. You can get an idea of his role in the plot by reading yesterday's lead article on this topic.

Mark Stern of Slate: "There's no guarantee ... that the courts will step in to save Obamacare. But ... potential legal challenges do have a genuine chance of succeeding -- and, in the process, thwarting Trump's most dangerous (and expensive) attempt yet to sabotage Obamacare. The ACA is clear: HHS must keep paying out stercost-sharing subsidies to insurers whether it wants to or not. Trump has no authority to destroy the ACA by rewriting it. The cost-sharing money must keep flowing. If Trump wants to cut off those funds, he cannot merely sign an executive order. He must convince Congress to change the law itself." Stern presents three legal theories supporters of the payments might pursue.

Jessica Garrison & Kendall Taggart of BuzzFeed: "A high-stakes legal showdown is brewing for ... Donald Trump, as a woman who said he groped her has subpoenaed all documents from his campaign pertaining to 'any woman alleging that Donald J. Trump touched her inappropriately.' The subpoena ... was issued in March but entered into the court file last month.... Summer Zervos, a former contestant on the Trump's reality TV show The Apprentice, accused Trump of kissing and grabbing her when she went to his bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 2007 to discuss a possible job at the Trump Organization. After Zervos made the accusation last October, just weeks before the election, Trump denied her accusation and called it a lie. She responded by suing him for defamation. As part of that suit, her lawyers served a subpoena on his campaign, asking that it preserve all documents it had about her."

Kyle Swenson of the Washington Post: "If there was one Hollywood celebrity who perhaps should have stayed on the sidelines of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, it was Woody Allen. The Oscar-winning director's personal and professional lives intersect directly with the disgraced media mogul in messy ways. The two worked together on several films.... Allen also faced his own allegations of sexual misconduct and his estranged son, Ronan Farrow, was the journalist who wrote the New Yorker's blockbuster investigation into Weinstein s behavior. Over the weekend, the 81-year-old director told the BBC Weinstein's downfall was 'sad for everybody involved.' But Allen also warned about a 'witch hunt atmosphere, a Salem atmosphere, where every guy in an office who winks at a woman is suddenly having to call a lawyer to defend himself,' Allen told the BBC. 'That's not right either.'"

Medlar's Sports Report. Rob Goldberg of Bleacher Report: "After remaining unsigned through six weeks of the 2017 NFL season, Colin Kaepernick claims the league is participating in collusion.... The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback has filed a grievance against the owners for collusion under the latest collective bargaining agreement."

Beyond the Beltway

"Res Ipsa Loquitur." New York Times Editors: "Cyrus Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney..., has no opposition on the Nov. 7 ballot as he seeks election to a third four-year term.... In 2015, Mr. Vance chose not to pursue sexual abuse charges against Harvey Weinstein. In 2012, he dropped a case against Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., who were investigated for possible fraud in the way they pitched a SoHo hotel and condo project.... In both situations Mr. Vance had at one point or another accepted campaign contributions from those people's lawyers.... In a statement submitted to state elections officials on Wednesday, Mr. Vance reported $925,333.49 in his campaign account. The list of donors is strewn with law firms and individual lawyers.

Republicans Repeal the Public Will. Clio Chang of the New Republic: "... in the midst of last year&'s [Democratic] electoral wipeout, there was one bright spot: Citizens took the law into their own hands, introducing 71 ballot initiatives in 16 states -- the most in a decade.... But such victories have proved short-lived. Republican legislatures responded to the surge in civic participation by using their power to effectively overrule the will of the people -- and to make it harder to enact citizen-backed reforms in the future.... [Besides repealing some ballot initiatives,] following the election, according to a report by Ballotpedia, lawmakers in 33 states introduced 186 bills to adjust the ballot-initiative process -- often making it more restrictive.... Veteran political observers say that the current conservative backlash against ballot initiatives is particularly extreme.... In an age of partisan gerrymandering and voter suppression, robust forms of direct democracy are more important than ever."

Way Beyond

Hussein Mohamed & Mohamed Ibrahim of the New York Times: "The death toll from twin truck bombings in Somalia's capital rose to nearly 300 on Sunday, officials said, as emergency crews pulled more bodies from burned cars and demolished buildings after the Saturday blasts. Officials called the explosions on Saturday one of the deadliest attacks to hit the capital, Mogadishu, since an Islamist insurgency began in 2007. The blasts left at least 300 others wounded, and families scrambled to find missing relatives amid the rubble and in hospitals. The death toll -- which the information minister on Sunday said was 276 -- was expected to rise. President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed declared three days of national mourning and called for donations of blood and funds to help the victims.... There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack."