The Commentariat -- Sept. 3, 2016
Presidential Race
John Koblin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Lester Holt, Martha Raddatz, Anderson Cooper and Chris Wallace have been selected to moderate this year's presidential debates, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced on Friday. Mr. Holt, the anchor of the 'NBC Nightly News,' will moderate the first debate on Sept. 26; Ms. Raddatz of ABC and Mr. Cooper of CNN will moderate the town hall debate on Oct. 9; and Mr. Wallace of Fox News will handle the final debate on Oct. 19." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
** Paul Waldman: "Whenever some new piece of information emerges about Hillary Clinton or people close to her, we're told that it 'raises questions' of some kind, which means it's being shoehorned into a larger narrative that ... she's tainted by scandal, or corrupt, or just sinister.... Yet somehow, stories about Donald Trump that don't have to do with the latest appalling thing that came out of his mouth don't 'raise questions' in the same way." Waldman compares two reports: one a non-story by the New York Times about Clinton's e-mails, and the other a Washington Post story about Donald Trump's contributing to Florida AG Pam Bondi's campaign while she was supposedly investigating Trump University, an investigation she dropped after Trump paid her tribute money. "Some stories 'raise questions,' and others don't." -- CW
Standing Rule: If it's Friday before a holiday weekend, you know there has to be a major docudump. ...
... Eric Lichtblau & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "F.B.I. officials questioned Hillary Clinton extensively about her judgment in using her private email system to discuss classified drone strikes and in allowing aides to destroy large numbers of emails, before ultimately deciding she should not face criminal charges, according to investigative documents released Friday. The documents provided a number of new details about Mrs. Clinton's private server, including what appeared to be a frantic effort by a computer specialist to delete an archive of her emails even after a congressional committee had requested that they be preserved." The page includes the FBI's summary of its investigation. -- CW ...
... Matt Zapotosky & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her staffers employed an informal and sometimes haphazard system for exchanging and storing sensitive information and were at times either unaware or unconcerned with State Department policy, documents from an FBI investigation into her private email server system show. The documents reveal a myriad of new details about the email set-up and show that investigators found multiple attempts by hackers to access Clinton's system -- a series of personal devices and servers that the Democratic presidential candidate told investigators she used as a matter of convenience while she was secretary of state. The materials, which include a summary of the FBI's entire investigation as well as Clinton's hours-long interview with agents in July, contain no major revelations." -- CW ...
... Adam Goldman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times report on "highlights" from the documents. -- CW ...
... Adam Blake of the Washington Post: "In the three hours-plus that Hillary Clinton spoke with FBI investigators about her private email server on July 2, she cited more than three-dozen things that she could not recall. Among them were things such as specific emails that perhaps nobody could be expected to remember years later, but Clinton also said she had no recollection of several key moments when it came to her email server, including briefings on how to handle classified information and key conversations about her server." Blake lists some of the things Clinton said she couldn't remember. -- CW ...
Nick Gass of Politico:"Former Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Hillary Clinton about using a BlackBerry to conduct official business in her first days as President Barack Obama's secretary of state, according to the FBI investigation's report.... According to the report, Clinton emailed Powell on Jan. 23, 2009, to ask about his use of a BlackBerry during his time in office.... In his response, according to the FBI, Powell told Clinton that if it became 'public' that she was using a BlackBerry to 'do business,' the emails could become 'official records[s] and subject to the law.' 'Be very careful. I got around it all by not saying much and not using systems that captured the data,' Powell said in the same email." -- CW ...
... Paul Waldman: "Don't forget that when the State Department told Powell, along with other secretaries of state, to produce all their work-related emails, Powell said he couldn't because they were all deleted." -- CW
Nick Gass: "Hillary Clinton opened up in a recent interview about the personal crisis she faced as first lady to Bill Clinton as scandal over his affair with Monica Lewinsky enveloped the political world and impeachment proceedings unfolded. 'It was really hard. It was painful. And I was so supported by my friends...," the Democratic nominee told CNN's Pamela Brown in a clip from a forthcoming documentary set to air Monday night.... CNN will also air a documentary about Donald Trump on Monday night following the Clinton special." CW: Yeah, Trump will probably open up about how painful it was to have to tell is potential dates to get HIV & other STD testing. "It’s one of the worst times in the history of the world to be dating," he said in 1991." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: Hillary Clinton created the "vast right wing conspiracy" because she wanted to hide something about the Whitewater deal. And she did it when she wasn't even in the room. CW: See, Republicans would have been normal people instead of turning into a pack of radical, hateful loons if not for Hillary Clinton. With Tumulty's story, we have officially turned down the volume on the "Everything is Obama's fault" meme and activated the well-tested "Everything is Hillary's fault" back-up. ...
... CW: Here's Scott Lemieux, in LG&$, "raising questions" about Clinton coverage just as I did in a remark below. Here's he's referring to a NYT non-story story that ran a couple of days ago: "Hmm, it strikes me that the 'questions' that were 'raised' have an 'answer.'... 1)a Hillary Clinton aide asked for a special favor, 2)didn't get it, and 3)this 'raises questions' because the Clintons once lost money in a minor Arkansas land deal or something. I have no idea what explains it, but this form of hackery has been endemic at the Times for decades. The clouds over the Clinton campaign can never be dissipated." Let's commend Karen Tumulty for her NYT-style "journalism."
** Michelle Conlin & Grant Smith of Reuters: "... Donald Trump has run an unusually cheap campaign in part by not paying at least 10 top staffers, consultants and advisers, some of whom are no longer with the campaign, according to a review of federal campaign finance filings. Those who have so far not been paid ... include recently departed campaign manager Paul Manafort, California state director Tim Clark, communications director Michael Caputo and a pair of senior aides who left the campaign in June to immediately go to work for a Trump Super PAC[, which appears to violate federal campaign law].... Caputo told a Buffalo radio station in June after he resigned from the campaign, that he was not volunteering. Rather, he said he just had not gotten paid. Caputo confirmed to Reuters on Thursday that the Trump campaign has still not paid his invoices.... The Trump campaign said the Reuters' reporting was 'sloppy at best' but declined to elaborate." -- Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. -- CW
** Michelle Goldberg of Slate: "In a new New York magazine story, the invaluable Gabriel Sherman gives us fresh details of the depravity of ex-Fox News head Roger Ailes. [Linked yesterday in the Commentariat.]... There is abundant evidence, then, that Ailes is a vicious misogynist and a workplace predator. So why isn't it a bigger deal that he's advising the Republican presidential nominee?... If the Clinton Foundation were accused of doing anything this outrageous, it would be front-page news. The difference in how the two candidates are covered stems, in part, from a long-standing mainstream media tendency to view everything about Bill and Hillary Clinton in the most invidious possible light. But it's also a result of the fact that Trump is consistently able to bury his old misdeeds with new misdeeds, until all the outrages start to blur together." -- CW ...
... Molly Ball of the Atlantic: "Polls show majorities of Americans worried about being victims of terrorism and crime, numbers that have surged over the past year to highs not seen for more than a decade." In a longish piece, she shows how effectively Trump has tapped into, heightened and used that fear to his advantage. ...
... CW: BTW, I suspect the fear factor is largely a reflection of an aging U.S. population. People who are older are more fearful, not because we're all nuts but because we understand the stupidity of youthful bravado & we recognize not only our waning physical power but also our power to shape the world to more closely conform to our own ideal. Clinton began her campaign portraying herself as the protective grandmother figure, someone who would both bring you milk & cookies AND keep you safe from the bogeyman. But the press portrays her as a shady, elusive character (see this piece about the NYT's use of "shadow" and "cloud" in its Clinton stories, plus Paul Waldman's post linked above) and Trump of course calls her a crook (which is true of him but not of her). Together, the press & Trump have turned beloved "Nana" into a mashup of Lady MacBeth & the female villains in "Throw Mama from the Train."
... Dana Milbank: "... in recent episodes, something has gone wrong with the Trump Show. Trump still dominates the airwaves, but ... it turns out the Trump Show, late in the season, has lost its plot progression. And voters, belatedly but finally, are less inclined to view Trump the same way they view reality TV: with a suspension of disbelief.... Trump [has] benefit[ed] from the expectation of phoniness.... Reality TV may favor scoundrels, but reality can be more judgmental.... The Trump Show has lost its coherent story lines, its narrative arc.... This is no longer reality TV; it's reality. And reality is not as kind to Trump." -- CW
Alexander Burns & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... the collaboration between Mr. Trump's campaign and [The Republican National Committee] has grown strained over the last month.... There is no prospect of a full public breach between the Trump campaign and the R.N.C. because both sides rely on a joint fund-raising arrangement crucial to their election efforts. But tensions have grown to such a point that they threaten to diminish the party's ability to work smoothly with Mr. Trump.... Mr. Trump, who has struggled to raise money, is dependent on his party's national committee to perform many of the basic functions of a presidential campaign." The reporters characterize Trump's Phoenix speech as perhaps a last straw. Prince Rebus & a Trump spokesman deny it.
AND Gideon Resnick of the Daily Beast on Trump's other teevee show. (And what a shame he didn't get to produce that show which aimed to pit black & white contestants against each other. Yeah, that was really a plan.)
Hey, there's one campaign that's more screwed-up than Trump's. Jill Stein's Green party staff sent her to the wrong city. Randy Ludlow of the Columbus Dispatch: Stein was scheduled to give a speech in Columbus, Ohio; her campaign sent her to Cincinnati. CW: We'll have to assume that Stein is as clueless as her staff: after all, she got on the plane bound for Cincinnati. Her excuse: "'A little scheduling error,' Stein said. 'I wish we had the resources of the other candidates. We're the only candidate who operates like the American people.'" Really? Do the "American people" routinely take flights to places they never intended to go? Ah, well, fly-over country. One place is about the same as the next, isn't it, Jill?
Beyond the Beltway
Matt Zapotosky: "Less than three months after the Supreme Court vacated the convictions of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell, the U.S. attorney’s office that prosecuted the Republican has recommended to Justice Department higher-ups that they endeavor to try him again, according to people familiar with the case.... The decision ultimately rests with senior officials at the Justice Department, including the deputy attorney general and possibly the attorney general. But it is a significant step that demonstrates ... the prosecutors who convinced jurors that he was guilty the first time believe they could do it once more." -- CW
Robert Salonga & Mark Gomez of the San Jose Mercury News: "As he regained his freedom, Brock Turner faced protesters and heavy media scrutiny as an enduring public face of the issue of sexual assault on American college campuses. That was just with his first few steps out of jail. Turner's early release just after 6 a.m. Friday after three months in jail was met by a throng of television and press cameras from far-reaching parts of the country, as well as critics who continue to lament the light sentence given to the former Stanford swimmer for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman last year outside a campus party." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.)
Way Beyond
Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "Islam Karimov, a ruthless autocrat who ruled Uzbekistan for almost three decades, died on Friday in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent. He was 78. A joint statement by the cabinet of ministers and the Parliament announced the death, saying he had a stroke that led to multiple organ failure. The announcement came after a long, strange interlude during which Uzbek officials refrained from confirming the death even while the leaders of Turkey and Georgia expressed condolences, mosque leaders were barred from offering prayers for the president's health, and funeral arrangements were being made very publicly." -- CW