The Commentariat -- May 12, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Luis Sanchez of the Hill: "White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney on Saturday defended the White House aide who made a derisive comment about Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), saying the real issue was that the 'bad joke' had been leaked to the press. 'This was a private meeting inside the White House. It was a joke. It was a badly considered joke that she said fell flat,' Mulvaney, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said during an appearance on Fox News. But Mulvaney argued that the leak of the comment posed the greater issue: 'The leak was designed to hurt that person. Also, it completely ignored the harm it would do to the McCain family, which is doubly inconsiderate.'" Mrs. McC: Fortunately, we all already knew Mulvaney was a flaming ass. ...
... Josh Delk of the Hill: "Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu (Calif.) chided White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Saturday, arguing that leaks from White House staff might stop if officials behaved 'normally.' Lieu, one of President Trump's most vocal critics in Congress, offered the mocking advice after Sanders reportedly scolded her staff for allowing the leak of a derisive comment about Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) this week. 'One way to prevent leaks is if Administration officials stopped saying demeaning things, stopped wasting taxpayer funds, and started behaving normally. Then the leaks wouldn't be of interest to the American people. Get it?' Lieu tweeted."
Kathryn Watson of CBS News: "Sen. Joe Donnelly on Saturday became the second Democrat to announce he will cast his vote in favor of CIA director nominee Gina Haspel -- boosting her prospects of being confirmed. Donnelly, a Democrat in a heavily Republican state that voted for Donald Trump in 2016, faces a tough reelection battle against self-described Republican outsider Mike Braun in November. Donnelly voiced his support for Haspel on Twitter Saturday morning, saying he believes Haspel learned from the past and has the experience needed as the U.S. faces 'dynamic and challenging security threats.'"
"Nunes vs. the DOJ." Nicholas Fandos & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The relationship between the Justice Department and [Rep. Devin] Nunes [R-Ca.] has so eroded that when he trekked down Pennsylvania Avenue on Thursday from the Capitol to the department to discuss his latest request, Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, a Republican colleague and former federal prosecutor, tagged along at the encouragement of the House speaker to help keep the meeting civil, according to a person familiar with the matter. Democrats believe the pattern is clear: Mr. Nunes is abusing his authority to undermine the Russia investigation.... Top officials at the Justice Department have privately expressed concern that the lawmakers are simply mining government secrets for information they can weaponize against those investigating the president, including the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III."
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "The White House probably thinks it cannot punish Kelly Sadler for her awful comment about John McCain because President Trump has also said nasty things about McCain. It may worry that showing her the door would set a troubling precedent for a president who may one day cross a very similar line. Welcome to the ongoing degradation of our political discourse. Destination: No end in sight.... The comment, as it happens, was first reported Thursday just hours after a Fox Business Network pundit suggested McCain had given up key information while being tortured as a prisoner of war — a claim for which the network soon apologized. But while Trump's favorite cable news company was quick to atone for merely airing someone else's view that crossed a line, the White House is apparently not going to take any public action for a staffer talking blithely about the death of an American war hero." ...
... Tara Palmieri of ABC News: "Press secretary Sarah Sanders scolded her staff Friday for the derogatory comment about Sen. John McCain leaked from a closed-door meeting, according to multiple senior White House officials. Sanders called the comment 'unacceptable,' but was said to be more upset about the leak than the off-handed comment from White House staffer Kelly Sadler that McCain's opposition to their CIA director nominee Gina Haspel 'doesn't matter, because he's dying anyway.' She was at the meeting standing at the other side of the room and did not apologize for the comment, according to people in the room." ...
... Jonathan Swan of Axios has more about the meeting where Mrs. Huckleberry reamed out her "team" for leaking the Sadler remark.
A Lousy Investment. Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "Like other firms that hired [Michael] Cohen for his connections, Columbus Nova ended up disappointed with the fixer. The Columbus Nova sources said Cohen failed to deliver the big fish. 'He couldn't bring in the volume of introductions,' one of the sources recalled. As a result, [Columbus Nova U.S. CEO Andrew] Intrater, after consulting with Cohen, stopped making payments to Cohen about halfway through the year, the sources said. In their account, it turns out, Cohen was a lousy investment for the firm."
"A War on Brown People." Tom Eblen of the Lexington (Kentucky) Herald-Leader: "Eddie Devine voted for ... Donald Trump because he thought he would be good for American business. Now, he says, the Trump administration's restrictions on seasonal foreign labor may put him out of business. 'I feel like I've been tricked by the devil,' said Devine, owner of Harrodsburg-based Devine Creations Landscaping. 'I feel so stupid.'... Devine said he believed Trump's America-first promises. But cutting off a good supply of seasonal foreign labor when Americans won't take those jobs is only hurting American business owners and the U.S. workers they employ, he said. These workers aren't immigrants, and there is no path to U.S. citizenship. When their seasonal work is done, they return home. That's why Devine thinks the Trump administration's stifling of guest-worker programs has more to do with racism than economics. 'I think there's a war on brown people,' he said."
*****
Robert Pear & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump vowed on Friday to 'derail the gravy train for special interests' as he outlined what he called a comprehensive strategy to lower the cost of prescription drugs by promoting competition and pressing foreign countries to raise their drug prices to alleviate pressure on American consumers. But he dropped the popular and populist proposals of his presidential campaign, opting not to have the federal government negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare or allow American consumers to import low-cost prescriptions from abroad.... Ronny Gal, a securities analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, said the president's speech was 'very, very positive to pharma,' and he added, 'We have not seen anything about that speech which should concern investors' in the pharmaceutical industry." ...
... Paul Waldman: "This could have been written by the drug companies. The best part is a provision to force other countries to pay more for drugs, which would boost pharmaceutical profits by so much that they'd reduce prices in in the U.S. Or maybe they wouldn't, but we can trust them, right? Kind of like how the corporate tax cut was going to trickle down to workers." ...
... Jonathan Chait: "One of Donald Trump's most well-received and attention-grabbing campaign promises was that he would allow the federal government to negotiate the price of prescription drugs it covers through Medicare." But Trump dropped that plan. "Donald Trump ran for president as an economic populist. This fact has been largely forgotten, buried by the flurry of bizarre and outrageous actions.... Voters actually saw Trump as more moderate than any Republican presidential candidate since 1972. And he has violated every one of his promises.... Trump has not merely forgotten these promises, his administration has embraced Washington sleaze with unprecedented gusto.... Many of these promises were feasible if Trump actually wanted to follow through on them. Instead, the only promises he has kept are the ones that put money in the pockets of Trump and his cronies."
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump's fury at [Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen] Nielsen was a long time coming, White House officials said. They described it as part of the president's longstanding desire to close the United States' borders and part of his increasing belief that his administration is moving too slowly to make good on the central promise of his 2016 presidential campaign.... In testimony to a congressional committee on Tuesday, the day before the president's tirade at the cabinet meeting, Ms. Nielsen urged people seeking asylum to present themselves at United States ports of entry rather than trying to sneak into the country. Aides say she was trying to send a strong message about not breaking the law. But many hard-line conservatives viewed her statement as an invitation to asylum seekers, many of whom end up living in the United States for years while their claims are adjudicated."
This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.
... it would be wise and seasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of foreigners into the administration of our national government and to declare expressly that the commander in chief of the American army shall not be given to, nor devolve on, any but a natural born citizen. -- John Jay, letter to George Washington, 1787
Hard as they tried, the founders could do nothing about Donald Trump, a "natural born citizen" who nonetheless is a sleeper beholden to "foreigners." -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie
John Santucci, et al., of ABC News: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has questioned several witnesses about millions of dollars in donations to ... Donald Trump's inauguration committee last year, including questions about donors with connections to Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, sources with direct knowledge told ABC News.... Several donors with those ties contributed large sums to the non-profit fundraising entity -- gifts that topped out at $1 million dollars, according to public records.... Those interviewed included longtime Trump friend and confidant Thomas Barrack, who oversaw the fundraising effort.... Special counsel investigators have also asked witnesses about specific inauguration donors, including American businessmen Leonard Blavatnik, and Andrew Intrater." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Russ Choma of Mother Jones: "The inaugural committee's finances have been curious from the start. Prior administrations placed limits on donations in an effort to tamp down accusations of influence buying, but the Trump administration enthusiastically raised money -- with no limits."
John Bowden of the Hill: "Special counsel Robert Mueller has reportedly probed outreach by President Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen to Ford Motor Co. in January 2017 offering consulting services, an offer that was rejected. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Cohen approached the company's office in Washington, D.C., over the phone to discuss possible consulting work, but was rejected by Ford's head of government affairs, Ziad Ojakli. Ojakli has since been interviewed by Mueller's team about his interactions with Cohen and investigators have requested emails and records from the company, the Journal reported."
Tim Mak of NPR: "The FBI warned four years ago that a foundation controlled by the Russian oligarch who allegedly reimbursed Donald Trump's personal lawyer might have been acting on behalf of Russia's intelligence services. FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Lucia Ziobro wrote an unusual column in the Boston Business Journal in April of 2014 to warn that a foundation controlled by Russian energy baron Viktor Vekselberg might be part of a Moscow spying campaign that sought to siphon up American science and technology. 'The foundation may be a means for the Russian government to access our nation's sensitive or classified research, development facilities and dual-use technologies with military and commercial applications,' Ziobro wrote. 'This analysis is supported by reports coming out of Russia itself.'" Mrs. McC: Let's see how long it takes Devin Nunes to decide to investigate Ziobro. (Also linked yesterday.)
Judd Legum of ThinkProgress: "Over the past few days, Michael Avenatti, the attorney for Stormy Daniels, has been steadily releasing what appear to be private communications between Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's longtime attorney, and Keith Davidson, who represented Daniels.... [I]t appears that Davidson turned over these communications to Avenatti as part of Daniels' case file.... Avenatti's stockpile of emails potentially presents big problems for Cohen, Davidson -- and possibly President Donald Trump. The nature of Cohen's relationship with Davidson is key." --safari: Keith Davidson is reportedly cooperating with the feds in the Cohen probe.
Brian Stelter of CNN: "'AT&T hiring Michael Cohen as a political consultant was a big mistake,' the company's CEO Randall Stephenson said Friday morning. AT&T paid Cohen ... $600,000 through a contract that ended in December 2017. The payments are now under scrutiny in part because Cohen is under federal investigation. 'To be clear, everything we did was done according to the law and entirely legitimate. But the fact is, our past association with Cohen was a serious misjudgment,' Stephenson wrote in a memo to employees. 'In this instance, our Washington D.C. team's vetting process clearly failed, and I take responsibility for that,' he added. Stephenson announced that Bob Quinn, one of the executives involved in the Cohen deal, 'will be retiring.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
David Voreacos, et al., of Bloomberg: "Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, was informed about allegations of sexual misconduct by then-New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman around 2013, according to a letter filed in Manhattan federal court on Friday.... In a tweet on Sept. 11, 2013, Trump took aim at Schneiderman while also referring to New York politicians who'd resigned over allegations of sexual misconduct, Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer. 'Weiner is gone, Spitzer is gone -- next will be lightweight A.G. Eric Schneiderman. Is he a crook? Wait and see, worse than Spitzer or Weiner,' Trump tweeted." (Also linked yesterday.)
S.V. Date of the Huffington Post: "Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen was paid millions of dollars in consulting fees by corporate clients, but never discussed those clients with the president, Trump's new lawyer said Friday. 'The president had no knowledge of it,' Rudy Giuliani told HuffPost in an interview.... He said the fact that Cohen has become involved in the probe shows that Mueller has been unable to make headway on the idea of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.... '... The guy [Cohen] is really collateral damage,' Giuliani said."
Jonathan Lemire of the AP: "... Donald Trump and his lawyers likely won't decide whether he will answer questions from Russia probe investigators until after his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un next month, according to the president's legal team. Rudy Giuliani, the president's new attorney, said in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday that any preparation with Trump for a possible interview with federal investigators would likely be delayed until after the June 12 summit in Singapore because 'I wouldn't want to take his concentration off something far, far more important.'"
Rudy Says He's too Good to "Get Involved with Pimps." Allan Smith of Business Insider: "... Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on Friday escalated his battle with Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for the adult-film actress Stormy Daniels." Avenatti has offered to debate Giuliani, but "During a phone interview with Business Insider, Giuliani said he wouldn't debate Avenatti because the lawyer was 'pimping for money.' 'I don't get involved with pimps,' Giuliani said." Mrs. McC: Keep it classy, Rudy.
Derek Hawkins of the Washington Post: "The massive trove of Facebook ads House Intelligence Committee Democrats released Tuesday provides a stunning look into the true sophistication of the Russian government's digital operations during the presidential election.... The ads clearly show how Russia weaponized social media, the senior Democrat on the panel investigating Moscow's interference in the presidential election said.... 'The future of these campaigns is hybridization -- in terms of state and criminal actors working together,' [Peter] Singer ... a strategist at the New America think tank ... told me.... Facebook acknowledged Thursday it had not anticipated the two-pronged approach.... 'This will never be a solved problem because we're up against determined, creative and well-funded adversaries,' Facebook said." ...
... Nick Penzenstadler, et al., of USA Today: "The Russian company charged with orchestrating a wide-ranging effort to meddle in the 2016 presidential election overwhelmingly focused its barrage of social media advertising on what is arguably America's rawest political division: race. The roughly 3,500 Facebook ads were created by the Russian-based Internet Research Agency, which is at the center of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's February indictment of 13 Russians and three companies seeking to influence the election. While some ads focused on topics as banal as business promotion or Pokémon, the company consistently promoted ads designed to inflame race-related tensions. Some dealt with race directly; others dealt with issues fraught with racial and religious baggage such as ads focused on protests over policing, the debate over a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico and relationships with the Muslim community. The company continued to hammer racial themes even after the election."
Heidi Przybyla & Mike Memoli of NBC News: "If Congress can't protect special counsel Robert Mueller's job, perhaps it can protect his work. That's the thinking among several lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who are discussing ways to safeguard the special counsel's investigation into possible ties between the Trump 2016 campaign and Russia amid ... Donald Trump's escalating attacks.... Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who helped draft a bipartisan bill to protect Mueller that passed the Judiciary Committee late last month, confirmed to NBC News on Thursday that talks are underway for a 'Plan B' after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to bring the original legislation for a floor vote. The discussions 'involve assuring the evidence is preserved and reports are done if the special counsel is fired or other political interference is undertaken by the president,' Blumenthal told NBC News. Notably, Blumenthal added, some GOP senators are participating in the effort." (Also linked yesterday.)
Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "The GOP is no longer the Party of Reagan. It]s the Party of Michael Cohen. Saint Ronald and his acolytes preached that the way to get ahead in the United States was to work hard and never rely on government to help you out. By contrast, consider the Cohen blueprint for achieving the American Dream: Work minimally, if you can, and leverage government connections whenever possible.... Cohen is hardly the only prominent Trumpster invoking White House connections in an effort to make bank.... It's tempting to see ... these unsavory stories as unique to Trump, his extended family or his administration. But in fact they are illustrative of exactly the kind of economy that Trump's party is intent on creating. Shielding officials from public scrutiny, rolling back campaign finance law, and kneecapping enforcement of existing laws and regulations designed to protect the public are precisely the conditions that help grifters and swamp monsters thrive."
Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "White House chief of staff John Kelly said he believes the vast majority of undocumented immigrants crossing the southern border into the US do not assimilate well because they are poorly educated. 'Let me step back and tell you that the vast majority of the people that move illegally into United States are not bad people. They're not criminals. They're not MS13,' Kelly told NPR in an interview released late Thursday, referring to the criminal gang. 'But they're also not people that would easily assimilate into the United States into our modern society.'... [He] said the undocumented immigrants don't speak English and are 'overwhelmingly rural people' from countries where 'fourth-, fifth-, sixth-grade educations are kind of the norm.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Likely the same could be said of Kelly's immigrant ancestors, tho they may have spoken a version of English.* ...
... * ** Mrs. McCrabbie: The indispensable Philip Bump of the Washington Post consults Kelly's family tree. Bump finds, not surprisingly, that Kelly's ancestors perfectly fit Kelly's definition of undesirable immigrants: They were ... not people that would easily assimilate into the United States & into mainstream society.... Some didn't speak English (and apparently never learned English even after living in the U.S. for decades) and were "rural people" from countries where fourth-, fifth-, sixth-grade educations (or less) were the norm. Kelly's four great grandfathers, immigrants all, were respectively a cooper, a railroad worker, a wagon driver & a fruit peddler. These were not wealthy aristocrats, captains of industry, college professors or medical doctors who frequented the salons of Boston's high society. But they were workers who did the essential jobs that impoverished, "poorly-educated" (the very people Trump says he loves) that immigrants have often performed. A complete lack of self-awareness & empathy is not just a Trump trait: it applies to the top people in his administration, too. ...
... If for any reason you'd like to read more Kelly, here's the full transcript of the NPR interview. ...
... The chairperson of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Michelle Lujan Grisham, is not amused: "The Chief of Staff's bigoted comments about immigrants seeking refuge are a slap in the face to the generations of people who have come from foreign lands to contribute to the richness of our nation. I would like to remind General Kelly that the intolerant and ignorant ideas he espoused from the White House are exactly the same comments and attitudes that were prevalent against all of our families. It wasn't right then, and it isn't right now." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Eric Levitz of New York: "... the most conspicuous flaw in Kelly’s argument is that it does precisely nothing to justify separating asylum seekers from their children. And the White House chief of staff's attempt to justify the administration's decision to strip temporary protected status (TPS) from hundreds of thousands of longtime legal U.S. residents was even more lackluster: '... I can't pick and choose what laws to enforce. I would be, I should be thrown out of the job if I do that.' The idea that the Trump administration was legally obligated to revoke the legal status of over 1 million longtime U.S. residents (a figure that includes 700,000 Dreamers and more than 300,000 TPS recipients) is simply false. Multiple federal courts have found the DACA program constitutional.... A bipartisan group of senators reached agreement on a bill that would have provided those populations with legislative protection from deportation -- the White House shot it down. John Kelly surely understands all this. He just doesn't want you to." ...
... Jennifer Rubin takes Kelly to the woodshed: "Actually, current immigrants assimilate just as well as immigrant in past generations, according to a slew of data-rich studies. The chief of staff chooses either to lie or not to inform himself about basic facts relevant to hugely consequential policies he champions. He aptly reflect the prejudices of his boss and the thinking behind the cruel policies (such as ending protection for 'dreamers' and separating families) that he and Trump doggedly pursue." She has more to say. (Also linked yesterday.)
Pruitt Dines with Accused Child Sex Abuser, Hides It, Then Staff Lies about It. Eric Lipton & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, dined last year in Rome with Cardinal George Pell, a prominent climate-science denialist and Vatican leader who was also facing sexual abuse allegations. The E.P.A. later released official descriptions of the dinner that intentionally did not mention the cardinal's presence, according to three current and former E.P.A. officials. Kevin Chmielewski, Mr. Pruitt's former deputy chief of staff for operations, said in an interview that top political appointees at the agency feared that the meeting would reflect poorly on Mr. Pruitt if it were made public. Twenty days after the dinner, authorities in Australia charged Cardinal Pell with sexual assault; he has denied the charges.... On Friday, Jahan Wilcox, an E.P.A. spokesman, issued a statement confirming the June 9 meal took place while emphasizing that it 'was not a private one-on-one dinner' and saying that Mr. Pruitt wasn't aware of the allegations against Cardinal Pell. He also said the E.P.A. had no knowledge the cardinal would be attending the dinner. However, emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show that as early as May 12, Mr. Pruitt's scheduler, Millan Hupp, was working on plans for Mr. Pruitt to meet with Cardinal Pell. 'Dinner with Cardinal Pell and others,' an email says, proposing the dinner for June 7...."
Arthur Allen of Politico: "The first stage of a multibillion-dollar military-VA digital health program championed by Jared Kushner has been riddled with problems so severe they could have led to patient deaths, according to a report obtained by Politico. The April 30 report expands upon the findings of a March Politico story in which doctors and IT specialists expressed alarm about the software system, describing how clinicians at one of four pilot centers, Naval Station Bremerton, quit because they were terrified they might hurt patients, or even kill them.... The unclassified findings could further delay a related VA contract with Cerner Corp., the digital health records company that began installing the military's system in February 2017."
Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Sen. John McCain is 2,200 miles from Washington and hasn't been on Capitol Hill in five months, but he showed this week that he remains a potent force in national politics and a polarizing figure within the Republican Party. From his home in Sedona, Ariz., where he is receiving treatment for an aggressive and typically fatal type of brain cancer, McCain has challenged and praised the Trump administration's actions on national security -- his voice limited to news releases and Twitter. But his declaration Wednesday in opposition to Gina Haspel, President Trump's nominee for CIA director, has uniquely roiled the political scene. The denunciation has prompted reactions from fellow senators and a former vice president, as well as intemperate remarks from some Republicans aligned with Trump, including a White House aide." ...
... Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "Meghan McCain responded Friday to a White House staffer who joked about her father's brain cancer, saying her family was doing well.... 'I don't understand what kind of environment you're working in when that would be acceptable and then you can come to work the next day and still have a job,' McCain said on 'The View' Friday. On Thursday, Kelly Sadler, a special assistant who handles surrogate communications, told other staffers that McCain's opposition to ... Donald Trump's CIA director nominee Gina Haspel does not matter because 'he's dying anyway.'..." Mrs. McC: During her daily press briefing, First Stepford Wife Mrs. Huckleberry refused to address the matter, saying she would "not validate a leak." She did concede that Sadler still worked at the White House. ...
... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The White House declined on Friday to renounce or apologize for an aide whose joke at a meeting that Senator John McCain was irrelevant because he would soon die went viral, outraging relatives, friends and admirers of the ailing lawmaker. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said she would not comment on a closed-door meeting where the joke was made. And she offered no words of regret over the remark or sympathy for Mr. McCain, a Republican senator and two-time presidential candidate who is battling brain cancer at his Arizona ranch.... Mr. McCain's friends lashed out at the White House for gross insensitivity. 'People have wondered when decency would hit rock bottom with this administration,' former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said in a statement. 'It happened yesterday. Given this White House's trail of disrespect toward John and others,' he added, 'this staffer is not the exception to the rule; she is the epitome of it.'" Fox "News" says it has cut ties with & will not book Thomas G. McInerney, a retired 3-star general who derided McCain on air, calling him "Songbird John" for supposedly succumbing to torture during the years McCain was a prisoner-of-war in Viet Nam.
Travels with Pompeo. Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "The State Department normally craves elaborate planning and procedures for everything. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's 13-hour visit to North Korea had little of that. I had a view of the improvisational quality of his trip because, in a tongue-twister of an adventure, I was one of two reporters who traveled with Pompeo to Pyongyang to pick up three prisoners from North Korea and bring them home to the United States. The degree of uncertainty that hovered over the trip extended to Pompeo himself, just two weeks into his new job as the administration's top diplomat. Pompeo said he had no guarantees when he flew in Wednesday morning whether he would be allowed to leave with the three Americans who had been detained for more than a year on charges of espionage and hostile acts. Neither he nor his staff knew whom he would meet with, or when. An Associated Press reporter and I had little advance notice of our departure time or even day, and no promises we'd be able to see much of anything." (Also linked yesterday.)
Avery Anapol of the Hill: "A top nuclear expert has resigned from the State Department following President Trump's decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal. Richard Johnson, acting assistant coordinator in the agency's Office of Iran Nuclear Implementation, stepped down this week, according to Foreign Policy. Johnson had been involved in negotiations with European countries working to save the deal. 'I am proud to have played a small part in this work, particularly the extraordinary achievement of implementing the [deal] with Iran, which has clearly been successful in preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,' Johnson said in an email to colleagues about his departure."
Making Us Safer. Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "The top White House official responsible for leading the U.S. response in the event of a deadly pandemic has left the administration, and the global health security team he oversaw has been disbanded under a reorganization by national security adviser John Bolton. The abrupt departure of Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer from the National Security Council means no senior administration official is now focused solely on global health security. Ziemer's departure, along with the breakup of his team, comes at a time when many experts say the country is already underprepared for the increasing risks of a pandemic or bioterrorism attack. Ziemer's last day was Tuesday, the same day a new Ebola outbreak was declared in Congo. He is not being replaced.... The personnel changes, which Morrison and others characterize as a downgrading of global health security, are part of Bolton's previously announced plans to streamline the NSC." (Also linked yesterday.)
Snakes. Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "[I]n one of the most predictable developments since the sun rose in the east on the day of Trump's inauguration, the Judiciary Committee's current chair, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has not given Democratic senators the same veto power [known as the 'blue slip'] that [Pat] Leahy gave Republicans.... On Thursday ... the Senate Judiciary Committee's Democrats released a long report describing how 'how President Trump and Republicans are working to stack the federal judiciary, particularly circuit courts.'... But Democrats have no standing to complain about the blue slip.... They knew Chuck Grassley was a snake when they let him in." --safari ...
... Blowing Smoke. Tierney Sneed of TPM: "Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said he would follow what Republican in 2016 dubbed the 'Biden rule' -- that Supreme Court vacancies open within a year before a presidential election shouldn't be filled until after the presidential election -- if it happened before the 2020 election. He added that President Trump and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) would not agree with the Biden rule if the vacancy opened under Trump." --safari
Senate Race. Sore Loser. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Ex-coal CEO Don Blankenship, who lost the GOP primary bid in West Virginia this week, is actively plotting how to undercut state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey's [R] Senate candidacy." Blankenship also dislikes Sen. Joe Manchin (D), whom Morrisey is challenging. (Also linked yesterday.)
Gail Collins: "Planned Parenthood has been a flash point ever since 1916, when Margaret Sanger was arrested for handing out birth control information. These days, its opposition seems particularly obsessed. Yet at the same time the organization is becoming more and more popular. A recent Fox News survey found it had a 58 percent favorable rating -- the top in a crop that included everything from labor unions to Donald Trump. In a similar NBC News poll, Planned Parenthood came in ahead of the F.B.I. and everyone else on the questionnaire, including the Republican Party."
Beyond the Beltway
Only White People Need Apply. Jeff Stein & Andrew Van Dam of the Washington Post: "Michigan Republicans' plan to require some recipients of government health insurance to work would disproportionately affect black people, a Washington Post analysis of new data from state health officials reveals. State Republicans are moving a proposal through the legislature that would impose work requirements on some Medicaid recipients.... The proposal would exempt people living in counties where the unemployment rate tops 8.5 percent, a provision GOP lawmakers say is aimed at protecting those living in areas where job opportunities are scarce.... This exemption would overwhelmingly benefit white people while leaving the work requirements in place for all but a sliver of the affected African American population."
Louis Lucero of the New York Times: "Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma vetoed a bill on Friday that would have eliminated the need for training and permits to carry a gun in public, dealing a blow to gun-rights activists in one of the most firearm-friendly states. The bill, which had broad support in the state's Republican-controlled Legislature but had troubled some law enforcement officials, 'would have eliminated the requirement to complete a short firearms safety and training course from a certified instructor and demonstrate competency with a pistol before carrying a gun in public,' according to the governor's office."
Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "Sheldon Silver, the former powerful Democratic speaker of the New York State Assembly, was found guilty of federal corruption charges on Friday, less than a year after his first conviction on the same charges was thrown out. During his two-week trial in Manhattan, prosecutors showed that Mr. Silver, 74, had obtained nearly $4 million in illicit payments in return for taking a series of official actions that benefited a cancer researcher at Columbia University and two real estate developers in New York." (Also linked yesterday.)
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