;)
The Commentariat -- April 20, 2019
Trump Can't Handle the Truth
Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Before we get started today, it is worth pointing out how remarkable the obstruction-of-justice part of Mueller's report is, inasmuch as obstruction was not specifically part of Mueller's mandate. In his order appointing Mueller as special counsel, Rod Rosenstein wrote that the special counsel was to investigate "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump; and ... any matters than arose or may arise directly from the investigation." The entire obstruction part of Mueller's final report therefore is a matter "arising from the investigation." Were Mueller as by-the-book as nearly everyone describes him, he could have conducted a narrow investigation that ignored Trump's many "obstructive acts" altogether. In all of the coverage of the Mueller report over the past two days, I haven't heard or read a single recollection of Rosenstein's directive.
Peter Baker & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "... Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts became the most prominent Democrat to call for impeachment. But most Republican lawmakers remained silent on the report, meaning any effort to force Mr. Trump from office faced long odds.... One of the exceptions was Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, who said he was' appalled' that the president's campaign welcomed help from Russia.While Mr. Trump had initially greeted the report as an exoneration, he spent at least part of the day in Florida stewing about disloyal aides who talked with investigators and sounded more defensive than celebratory.... The subpoena issued on Friday by Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York and the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, escalated a fight with Mr. Barr.... Mr. Nadler asked for all evidence obtained by Mr. Mueller's investigators, including summaries of witness interviews and classified intelligence -- and indicated that he intended to air it to the public.... '... Congressman Nadler's subpoena is premature and unnecessary,' said Kerri Kupec, a [DOJ] spokeswoman." (More on Nadler's subpoena linked below.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: In several tweets, Trump goes after the media. Here's one: "The Washington Post and New York Times are, in my opinion, two of the most dishonest media outlets around. Truly, the Enemy of the People!" Rachel Maddow pointed to daily newspapers across the country, many of which ran banner headlines featuring Mueller's findings on obstruction. I guess journalists, editors, & headline writers are all "dishonest." And let's point out that it isn't up to Bill Barr to decide what Congress finds "necessary." If the Judiciary Committee wishes to pursue an investigation of Trump's bad acts, it must have all documentation available, not just Mueller's conclusions. It would be irresponsible to rely on a report of the facts without actually having seen the facts contained in supporting documents. Barr's refusal to fully cooperate with Congress is, IMO, an impeachable act of obstruction.
So the Whiny Baby Sonata in B Flat Begins. Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: “... Donald Trump on Friday called 'total bullshit' on the damaging information his former aides offered to special counsel Robert Mueller, suggesting investigators skewed his staffers' words and that some of his aides just wanted to make him look bad. 'Statements are made about me by certain people in the Crazy Mueller Report, in itself written by 18 Angry Democrat Trump Haters, which are fabricated & totally untrue. Watch out for people that take so-called "notes," when the notes never existed until needed,' he wrote in a string of tweets. Trump complained that he was unable to push back on the claims made by his aides in Mueller's report because of his decision not to sit down with Mueller in person. He also suggested he was unfairly thrown under the bus by those who had spoken freely to investigators. 'Because I never agreed to testify, it was not necessary for me to respond to statements made in the 'Report' about me, some of which are total bullshit & only given to make the other person look good (or me to look bad),' he continued in another tweet.... In one tweet, which trails off and has not been completed by Trump, he condemned the investigation once more as an 'Illegally Started Hoax that never should have happened.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Baker & Fandos write that Trump finished the "thought" eight hours later: "'...big, fat waste of time, energy and money.' He went on to vow to go after his pursuers, whom he called 'some very sick and dangerous people who have committed very serious crimes, perhaps even Spying or Treason.'" ...
... Maggie Haberman of the NYT points out in a tweet that the aides who spoke candidly to investigators because the White House told them to do so now are "facing Trump's wrath for a position the WH put them in." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Isn't it sad when everybody lies except the guy who's told nearly 10,000 lies since taking office a couple of years ago? Gosh, I hope Trumpelthinskin doesn't, like, get so enraged he tears himself in half. Oops. My mistake. Turns out Trump started whining yesterday:
... Matthew Choi of Politico: "'I had the right to end the whole Witch Hunt if I wanted,' Trump wrote on Twitter [Thursday afternoon]. 'I could have fired everyone, including Mueller, if I wanted. I chose not to. I had the RIGHT to use Executive Privilege. I didn't!'... In a separate tweet later Thursday, Trump continued distancing himself from Russian interference in the election, saying it occurred while Barack Obama was president. Trump falsely said Obama did not respond to the threats of Russian meddling, though the FBI did investigate links between Russia and Trump months before the election. 'Anything the Russians did concerning the 2016 Election was done while Obama was President,' he wrote. 'He was told about it and did nothing! Most importantly, the vote was not affected.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Mrs. McCrabbie: It's pretty clear that as late as the day before the Mueller report's public release, Trump still didn't understand that the report would shred him. He told a confederate radio host Wednesday, "You'll see a lot of very strong things come out tomorrow. Attorney General Barr is going to be giving a press conference. Maybe I'll do one after that; we'll see." I'd guess the White House sycophants were pushing the fantasy of a rose-colored (as opposed to multi-color-coded) report so they might enjoy one last day of relative calm before the predictable Trumperstorm, a storm which, BTW, is taking place off-site in Florida on a holiday weekend far away from most White House staff. ...
... Shannon Pettypiece & Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg News: "After musing that he might hold a news conference the day before [Bill Barr released the Mueller report, Donald Trump] took no questions from reporters. [Melania Trump discouraged him from stopping for his customary chopper chat as they left for Florida Thursday, & Trump took that advice.]... At Palm Beach International Airport Thursday evening..., he again ignored questions shouted by reporters traveling with him. He golfed with Rush Limbaugh on Friday.... Trump's legal team issued an initial statement on Mueller's report but decided not to publish a fuller counter-report they had spent months compiling to rebut the special counsel.... The president's irritation grew as he watched coverage of the report Friday morning. He and his allies are particularly angry with former White House Counsel Don McGahn and former Staff Secretary Rob Porter, both of whom spoke extensively with Mueller. Many of the events Mueller chronicled were reported contemporaneously in the news media and declared 'fake news' by the president at the time. That claim is less credible following the Justice Department's release of Mueller's report, since people he interviewed could be charged wit perjury if they weren't truthful. Many of them corroborated their accounts with notes or other materials." ...
... Retribution. Nancy Cook of Politico: "The Trump campaign has hired its own in-house attorney for its 2020 reelection bid -- shifting future business away from Jones Day, the law firm, that has represented Trump since his first run for president.... Close Trump advisers say the decision also stems from disappointment with the White House's former top attorney and current Jones Day partner, Don McGahn.... Taking business away from Jones Day is payback, these advisers say, for McGahn's soured relationship with the Trump family and a handful articles in high-profile newspapers that the family blames, unfairly or not, on the former White House counsel.... The Mueller report ... seems only to have fueled Trump's anger. It portrayed McGahn as one of the key officials who stopped Trump from taking actions that might be deemed to have obstructed justice. In one especially colorful passage, McGahn is quoted as saying that the president had asked him to do 'crazy shit.' In another, Trump berates his White House counsel for taking too many notes, comparing him unfavorably to his longtime consigilere, the late Roy Cohn. On Friday, Trump seemed to take aim at McGahn on Twitter, writing, 'Watch out for people that take so-called "notes," when the notes never existed until needed.' The decision to shift law firms has been in the works for weeks, however, and predates release of the Mueller report."
Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., on Friday subpoenaed the Justice Department for the full, unredacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report as well as the underlying evidence. In a statement, Nadler said that the Justice Department must comply by May 1." (Also linked yesterday.)
Chris Kahn of Reuters: "The number of Americans who approve of ... Donald Trump dropped by 3 percentage points to the lowest level of the year following the release of a special counsel report detailing Russian interference in the last U.S. presidential election, according to an exclusive Reuters/Ipsos public opinion poll.... According to the poll, 37 percent of adults in the United States approved of Trump's performance in office, down from 40 percent in a similar poll conducted on April 15 and matching the lowest level of the year. That is also down from 43 percent in a poll conducted shortly after U.S. Attorney General William Barr circulated a [Mrs McC: fake] summary of the report in March."
Sanders Defends Her Own Lies. Annie Karni & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "After admitting to investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, that she delivered a false statement from the White House podium, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, defended herself in Trumpian fashion on Friday morning. She counterattacked.... Some of Mr. Trump's aides and allies acknowledged on Friday that it was problematic for the president's chief spokeswoman to spend airtime defending her own credibility. But White House officials -- some of whom think Ms. Sanders is taking an unfair beating in the press -- do not expect Mr. Trump to be fazed by the controversy. Unlike previous administrations, in which officials feared blows to their credibility in public, Mr. Trump's press aides are generally performing for an audience of one -- the president." ...
... Jonathan Chait: Caught in several lies by Mueller's team, Sarah Sanders can't stop lying. "Appearing on CBS This Morning, Sanders was asked, if the lie [about countless FBI personnel calling her to say how glad they were Trump dumped Comey] was a slip of the tongue, what did she mean to say? Sanders refused to answer, instead dissembling: 'Look, I've acknowledged that the word "countless" was a slip of the tongue. But it's no secret that a number of FBI, both current and former, agreed with the president's decision.' Pressed about the lie on ABC, Sanders kept repeating that the statements were made 'in the heat of the moment.' George Stephanopoulos noted that she repeated the same lie twice the next day." Mrs. McC: I'll bet every hound dog Mike Huckabee ever had was a voracious homework-eater. (Also linked yesterday.)
Katie Benner & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "The long-awaited report by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, released on Thursday painted a portrait of law enforcement leaders more fiercely under siege than previously known. They struggled to navigate Mr. Trump's apparent disregard for their mission through a mix of threats to resign, quiet defiance and capitulation to some presidential demands. While their willingness to stay quiet might have protected their institutions, it also helped empower Mr. Trump to continue his attacks.... The president sought to undermine the Justice Department's leaders and thwart the Russia investigation from his first days in office. He demanded that Mr. Comey publicly say that he was not under investigation, and he asked Dana J. Boente, who was briefly the acting attorney general before Mr. Sessions was confirmed in February 2017, to let him know whether the F.B.I. was investigating the White House, according to the special counsel's report."
Michael Daly of the Daily Beast: "In a morning press conference before the release [of the Mueller report], Attorney General William Barr [said]..., 'I would also like to thank Special Counsel Mueller for his service and the thoroughness of his investigation, particularly his work exposing the nature of Russia's attempts to interfere in our electoral process.'... A few breaths later, Barr committed one of the great public betrayals of our history. The country's most senior law enforcement officer actually sought to justify President Trump's mendacious attacks against Mueller.... 'As the special counsel's report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks,' Barr said. In fact, the report acknowledges no such thing.... [Mueller's] one mistake was to trust his supposed friend Barr." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Barr has been an ass throughout his terms of government service, and his assholery always has been in the direction of helping his boss dishonor the nation (see Bush, George H.W.). When that boss is Donald Trump, "helping" means throwing his own friends under the proverbial bus. In this, we see the Trumpification of a Lifelong Ass.
Mitt Romney Only GOP Senator Who Read Mueller Report. Marianne Levine & Katie Galioto of Politico: "Sen. Mitt Romney said Friday that he was 'sickened' by ... Donald Trump's actions described in ... Robert Mueller's report. In a statement, the Utah Republican said that while it was 'good news' there was not enough evidence to bring criminal charges related to conspiring with Russia and that there was no conclusion of obstruction of justice, he blasted the White House and Trump campaign officials for their actions.... 'I am sickened at the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the President,' Romney said. 'I am also appalled that, among other things fellow citizens working in a campaign for president welcomed help from Russia.... Reading the report is a sobering revelation of how far we have strayed from the aspirations and principles of the founders,' Romney said. The Utah Republican broke ranks with much of his party in condemning Trump.... Like his GOP colleagues, however, Romney called for the government to move on now that the 22-month probe has concluded." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yeah, that's right, Mittsky. You know the POTUS* engages in treacherous behavior on a daily basis, but let's forget about it. Apparently, Trump's nefarious activity is something else best discussed in "quiet rooms." ...
... Also, too, how sad that Romney must then face pushback like this: "Know what makes me sick, Mitt? Not how disingenuous you were to take @realDonaldTrump $$ and then 4 yrs later jealously trash him & then love him again when you begged to be Sec of State, but makes me sick that you got GOP nomination and could have been @POTUS," [former governor, fake-cures-huckster & Mrs. Liarbee's dad Mike] Huckabee tweeted. ...
... Okay, Susan Collins Read the Report. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Friday that ... Robert Mueller's report gives an 'unflattering portrayal' of President Trump, including an effort to oust the former FBI director from his special counsel role." Mrs. McC: Wow, Susan. Very tough! Maybe Mueller should have been more gracious.
New York Times Editors: "... the real danger that the Mueller report reveals is not of a president who knowingly or unknowingly let a hostile power do dirty tricks on his behalf, but of a president who refuses to see that he has been used to damage American democracy and national security."
Consevo-columnist David French in Time: The Mueller report "takes the traits we already knew [Trump] exhibited -- his mendacity, his propensity to surround himself with crooks and grifters, and his single-minded self-focus -- and places them in the context of a sweeping narrative about a presidential campaign and presidency devoid of ethics, honor or even strength. The stories paint a picture of a president who is both petty and small.... When ... Donald Junior learned that the New York Times was about to break the news of his now-infamous June 9, 2016, meeting in Trump Tower with Russian lawyer Natalya Veselnitskaya, his first instinct was to come clean.... But his father said no.... Donald Jr. complied and misled America.... President Trump threw his son under the bus. He made his son transmit his own deceptions.... It's difficult to overestimate the extent to which Trump's appeal to his core supporters is built around the notion that ... he possesses a core strength.... But now, thanks to the Mueller report, his 'fights' look more like temper tantrums.... President Trump is weak -- too weak even to commit the acts of obstruction he desired." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: One example: Trump's insistence that Corey Lewandowski, who was a private citizen, deliver a message to Jeff Sessions ordering Sessions to "unrecuse" himself from the Russia investigation, then change the special counsel's mandate to cover only "future election interference." Lewandowski was to tell Sessions he would be fired if he didn't carry out this bizarre order. When Lewandowski failed to make contact with Sessions, Trump ordered him to try again. Why didn't Trump call Sessions directly? Or Rosenstein -- and tell him to change Mueller's job? Did Trump think that no one would notice his own fingerprints on the note if somebody else was the messenger? Was he planning to make Lewandowski the fall guy? Lewandowski probably thought so. This is so Stupid Mob Boss-y. And, as French points out, so lame.
Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "It’s a national disgrace that Trump sleeps in the White House instead of a federal prison cell, but it has been a while since I had any expectation that the special counsel Robert Mueller's findings ... could set things right.... Several weeks before Trump was inaugurated, America's intelligence agencies reported that Russia had engaged in cyberoperations to help him win. In the months that followed, there was one staggering revelation after another about secret conversations between Trump's circle and various figures linked to Russian intelligence. At the same time, the new administration unleashed on the public a degrading cacophony of lies, of the sort many of us associate with authoritarian countries like Russia.... Mueller has given us the truth of what Trump has done, and in that sense the hokey faith the Resistance put in him was not misplaced. But right now only a political fight can make that truth matter."
Adrienne Varkiani of ThinkProgress: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Friday called on the House to begin impeachment proceedings against ... Donald Trump, joining fellow 2020 presidential candidate Julián Castro, who said he supported the idea earlier in the afternoon." ...
... Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "As the political world digests the shocking scale of corruption, misconduct and skirting of criminality detailed in the Mueller report, Democrats have been pushing back on the idea that it's time to initiate an inquiry into the impeachment of President Trump. But there's a key tell lurking in all this pushback: Democrats are not seriously arguing that all the misconduct that has now come to light does not merit an impeachment inquiry. This is creating a situation that's shaping up as a moral and political disaster. Yet there&'s no indication that Democrats are reckoning with the problems this poses. This, even though the basic dynamics of the situation strongly suggest that initiating an inquiry will grow harder to resist over time, not easier.... Democrats [have put themselves] in the impossible position of hoping the case for impeachment weakens, while simultaneously moving aggressively to establish more wrongdoing, which would strengthen that case." Sargent reviews -- and knocks down -- Democrats' lame excuses for not opening an impeachment inquiry, noting that their dithering only emboldens Trump to do more harm. ...
... ** Alex Pareene in the New Republic: "Democrats who preemptively declare impeachment off the table are mistakenly (or intentionally) conflating one possible end result of the impeachment process for the process itself. What [House Majority Leader Steny] Hoyer [who said Thursday that impeachment wasn't 'worthwhile'] and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (who ruled out impeachment well before anyone read the Mueller Report) want is to write op-eds about how many bills they are passing, despite the fact that those bills (like, uh, impeachment) will never get through the Senate. Democratic leadership seemingly believes that the party can't let its candidates campaign on promises to materially improve the lives of voters while also letting its elected officials carry out the responsibilities of their offices. They also believe, deep in their bones, that the country is not on their side.... Once again, we can celebrate a modern example of bipartisanship: a deep conviction, on both sides, that the only legitimate force in American politics is white grievance." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Like about 12 other Americans, I favored the House's impeachment of Bill Clinton but not necessarily his conviction in the Senate. I thought his behavior was despicable and that he should pay for it with more than a cold shoulder from his wife, although I'll admit that the Starr report was pretty good payback. If the Senate had convicted Clinton, we might never have been stuck with President Dubya. Clinton's bad behavior was personal in nature; Trump has engaged in hundreds of acts of public malfeasance, constantly putting himself before the nation's interests, constantly undermining the rule of law & constantly engaging in dangerous national security breaches. Trump's behavior is far, far more impeachable than that time Lewinsky gave Clinton a blow job while he was on the phone to Yasser Arafat. Pelosi's tut-tuts and committee hearings are not enough.
What's wrong with this picture? "Nothing," says the French ambassador to the U.S.Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The outgoing French ambassador to the US has compared the Trump administration to the court of King Louis XIV, filled with courtiers trying to interpret the caprices of a 'whimsical, unpredictable, uninformed' leader. Gérard Araud, who retires on Friday after a 37-year career that included some of the top jobs in French diplomacy, said Donald Trump's unpredictability and his single-minded transactional interpretation of US interests was leaving the administration isolated on the world stage." (Also linked yesterday.)
What Are MOCs up to Today?
Aris Folley of the Hill: "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) still has plans to visit Kentucky despite one of her GOP colleagues walking back an invitation for her to visit his district. A spokesman for Ocasio-Cortez told CNN on Friday that the congresswoman has since received another invite to visit the state and plans to follow through on the offer. 'Luckily, we still have open borders with Kentucky, we are free to travel there,' the spokesman, Corbin Trent, said. 'We hope to visit and have a town hall, listen to concerns of workers in Kentucky,' he added." Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) had invited Ocasio-Cortez to meet with coal miners in his district, but when she accepted his invitation, he seems to have realized that the miners might actually like her ideas, so he dreamed up an excuse to disinvite her.
Gaetz "Very Proud" to Hire White Supremacist. Sarah Ferris of Politico: "Rep. Matt Gaetz -- one of ... Donald Trump's most avid supporters in Congress -- has hired a former White House speechwriter who was forced out last year amid scrutiny over his ties to white nationalists. The Florida Republican announced Friday that former Trump administration aide, Darren Beattie, will join his Capitol Hill office. 'Very proud to have the talented Dr. Darren Beattie helping our team as a Special Advisor for Speechwriting. Welcome on board!' Gaetz tweeted Friday. Beattie was fired from the White House in August 2018 after reports that he had delivered remarks at a 2016 conference, dubbed an 'active hate group' by the Southern Poverty Law Center, alongside a well-known white nationalist, Richard Spencer."
Hunter Fakes Easy Mexican Crossing in Violation of Parole. Ken Stone of the Times of San Diego: "Rep. Duncan Hunter [R-Indicted] posted a video Thursday showing himself at the 'grand border wall in Yuma, Arizona.' He says: 'It looks pretty tough to cross. Let me see if I can do it.' He swings his legs over a horizontal rail less than waist high and declares: 'There you go. That's how easy it is to cross the border in Yuma, Arizona.' Only he didn't. The actual U.S.-Mexico border is the Colorado River 75-100 feet away, said a Border Patrol spokesman. In any case, Hunter's Facebook clip caught the eye of Ammar Campa-Najjar, the Democrat making a second run against the indicted Republican in the 50th Congressional District. Thursday, Campa-Najjar sent Times of San Diego email with the subject line: 'Hunter breaks the law violates parol,' meaning parole.... In August, federal Judge William Gallo set terms of Hunter and his wife's release on bail in their campaign spending case, including an order not to leave the continental United States or travel to Mexico." Mrs. McC: Lying about border security is a must for every indicted Republican.
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Reader Comments (10)
Sometimes dawn comes late in the day. Or?
Mentioned yesterday "The Life of Brian" was my distraction of choice from the Mueller hullaballoo. Saw it Th night but it took me until mid-day yesterday, Good Friday, to tumble to the obvious fact that the 40th anninversary re-release of the movie was timed to coincide with Easter.
One more Monty Python-Brian joke that I was slow to get?
Then last night as I spent a half hour with Rachael M., I wondered if the Pretender himself had yet figured out that if he had not allowed his base instincts to control his behavior and just let the Russian-coordination inquiry run its course, attempting no interference or obstruction, there wouldn't be all that "fake news" out there reporting his malfeasance. The inquiry would have come and gone, absent an obstruction section the report wouldn't have nearly as fat, his own crooked behavior could have been more easily ascribed to foreign policy credulousness rather than unmitigated and widespread crookedness, and his approval numbers wouldn't be dropping.
I'm guessing that light hasn't dawned and never will.
For those who, like the Pretender, are their own worst enemy, it's the joke they will never get.
This business about lawyers taking notes is pretty funny. Yes, Donald, real lawyers, like real doctors, take notes. The funny part is that his surprise at such an occurrence stems from his predilection for mob lawyers and quack doctors. Mob lawyers don’t take notes because they turn into work product which might then be vacuumed up by the FBI during a raid, guaranteeing that particular lawyer a brand new set of shoes (see-ment galoshes) and a new home (bottom of the Hudson).
Trump has spent so much of his life dealing with mobsters, crooks, and charlatans like himself that normal professional activity strikes him as weird and suspicious.
(I’m reminded of a great old New Yorker cartoon depicting a gangster and his mink-coated moll inspecting a newly vacant apartment. They’re standing in a room lined with bookcases and the girlfriend says “What kind of nutty people lived here?” Oh yeah, I also remember the actual author of “Art of the Deal” saying that he never saw a book in any room of Donald’s.)
@Ken Winkes: Excellent point. Absent Trump's firing of Comey, there probably would have been no Mueller report. The intelligence agencies would have reported to Congress -- just as they have done -- about Russian interference in the 2016 election & what to do going forward, & the FBI would have found less than Mueller did about Trump campaign coordination with Russians & Wikileaks. At worst, Trump would have come out looking like a jerk who had no idea what was going on in his own campaign.
BTW, when I was wondering how the Trump Tower meeting came to light, I discovered that it probably never would have been found out if Trump had stuck to hiring real staff instead of his own relatives. According to Wikepedia, "The meeting, which took place on June 9, 2016, first came to the attention of authorities in April 2017, when [Jared] Kushner reported on a revised security clearance form that he had met with [Natalia] Veselnitskaya," the Russian lawyer & lobbyist against the Magnitsky Act.
Maybe his lies about his Moscow tower project would have come out, but lying to the electorate is not a crime. Maybe BuzzFeed would have published the Steele dossier, but the most embarrassing (to Trump) parts have not been verified. Likely the NYT would have done its Pulitzer-winning dive into Trump's shady finances, but Congress still hasn't got hold of Trump's tax returns, so there's no hard evidence of what a tax cheat he is. Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, etc., would still be out scamming & grifting. Michael Flynn would be a footnote, somebody Trump rightly fired, if a little belatedly. And so forth. Trump brought on Mueller all by himself when he tried to end the FBI investigation into Russian election interference by firing Comey.
Yesterday Akhilleus gave a strong argument for impeachment. There are many who agree with him––"it's our constitutional duty" they say. I, myself, would like nothing better but am willing to listen to a good argument why it would not be prudent to do so.
Mark Strand was also front and center in Ak's piece and I was pleased: I fell in love with Strand way back and when he spoke in a Westport Library one winter night I had a front row seat.
Here's the end of "The Next Time":
"Simple no doubt, and short– sighted. For soon the leaves,
Having gone black, would fall and the annulling snow
Would pillow the walk, and we, with shovels in hand, would meet,
Bow, and scrape the sidewalk clean. what else would there be
This late in the day for us but desire to make amends
And start again, the sun's compassion as it disappears?"
@Akhilleus: I don't spend much time with lawyers, but I'm sure that on most occasions I've met with a lawyer, he or she has taken notes so she can, you know, remember what background I may have provided, what we agree she is going to do about whatever the matter is, & of course to preserve a record (as well as a billing record!) for her own protection as well as mine.
Then again, I haven't knowingly engaged mob lawyers, & I have never gone to a lawyer proposing some illegal or unethical scheme.
Maybe one reason Trump doesn't read is that he's suspicious of anything as "permanent" as a piece of paper with words on it. The semi-permanence of books, documents, newspapers, etc., in the digital/Google age has to be tough on somebody who lies all the time, when the Googles make it so easy to almost instantly disprove his lies.
And Trump is right to be suspicious. The notes that Comey, McGahn (& apparently Rob Porter) took came back to haunt Trump. I'm not sure about Porter, but it's clear that Comey & McGahn took notes about their meetings with Trump specifically in order to protect themselves from Trump. Yeah, written records are bad for a person who invents a new "reality" every day.
@PD Pepe: If you read the pieces by Greg Sargent & Alex Pareene, which I've linked today, you'll see some pretty strong arguments for impeachment. And both of them knock down most of the don't-impeach rationales we've heard from Congressional Democrats & their leaders.
@Marie: I have read the aforementioned and Goldberg's piece this morning. As I said, I would like nothing better than to have this idiot impeached and even more I want him disgraced meaning I want him to FEEL disgraced. But there are arguments against impeachment per Nancy and others and I would like to know what exactly they are. I gather, or I suppose one would be that it would muck up the Dems running for office in some way or/and fear of the vitriol of the republicans and the right nut jobs. I have listened to someone say the best way to deal with Trump is to beat him in 2020 and that impeachment would cause too much chaos. I don't buy that argument since chaos is our daily bread and it ain't gonna get any better.
So––It looks like, as in the song from "Wicked"–– "Because I knew you, I have been changed for good." I'm that easy––on THIS subject.
Were the House to vote to impeach, here are some of the Republican Senate votes we can surely count on to convict:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/20/mueller-report-impeachment-obstruction-bill-clinton-republicans
...but then there's that thing about consistency being the hobgoblin of opportunism, isn't there?
The number of illegal orders that Trump is giving to his administration is ridiculous. Many of these have been ignored, but we don't know how many have been followed through on. Last week when Nielsen resigned she said it was because he ordered her to restart the child separation policies which the courts had put a stopped. Around that same time reports came out about border agents being told to ignore the law and lie to judges about asylum seekers. Most of the people who were willing to ignore or tell Trump "no" have already left. I don't have any faith that Mick Mulvaney would refuse Trump anything. Trump likes "acting" agency heads because they will be afraid to tell him "no". There is a reason that Trump's lost something like 94% of his court cases. Now we have Barr as a rubber stamp for Trump. He showed everyone the last couple of weeks what kind of "public" servant he is. This is another reason that congress should start impeachment.
In the past few weeks, I have talked with quite a few friends and family members who have asked with bewilderment, "But he/they are breaking the law! Why are they still there?"
Indeed.
At some point, I believe--okay, hope--this will become more obvious to the people who tend not to pay attention to what is actually happening in the White House and Congress. A few years ago, I was stunned when friends of friends got all hepped up about a supposed new constitutional amendment that would force--force, I tell you--elected officials to follow the law. Of course, this was when a Democrat was president, but regardless of some people's other failings (racism, preference for an authoritarian government, and the like), I do think most people have a bred-in-the-bone American ideal that we are supposed to obey the law. Yes, rich white people skate away from prosecution too often, and too often we all shrug and say, "Well, of course." But if there is one thing to be grateful for with this band of dishonorable crooks and grifters who are running the country, none of us can say they haven't shown us quite clearly that there are some people who are sure they really, truly are above the law. That, I believe--yep, hoping again--will start sitting ill with some less-dedicated Trump supporters.
Somewhere in the past day, I read an op-ed that pointed out that the hearings House Democrats are holding/plan on holding can, in fact, be laying the groundwork for impeachment. The Democrats do not need to make a grand pronouncement on Tuesday that, "This is it! Impeachment hearings start today!" They need to--at least, this is my hope--follow the bread crumbs Mueller laid out for them, keep digging and keep uncovering (sorry for the mixed metaphor; level of wine in the glass is getting pretty low), and if what they turn up makes it clear that they must follow their Constitutional duty and hold impeachment hearings, then that is what they should do.
In the meantime, candidates for president should keep pointing out that the Republicans have made a mess of this country in just two years, and that Democrats have solid plans for how to fix things, giving voters a reason to pay attention to what they are saying and start casting votes their way.