;)
The Commentariat -- August 19, 2017
Afternoon Update:
boston.com has live updates on competing rallies scheduled in Boston, Mass., this afternoon.
David Nakamura, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump and first lady Melania Trump have elected not to attend the annual Kennedy Center Honors in December amid a political backlash among those who will be feted at the event. The first family will not participate 'to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction,' White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Saturday morning. The announcement comes as three of the five honorees -- television producer Norman Lear, singer Lionel Richie and dancer Carmen de Lavallade -- said they would boycott the traditional White House reception related to the celebration. As for the other two, rapper LL Cool J had not said whether he would attend, and Cuban American singer Gloria Estefan said she would go to try to influence the president on immigration issues.... This is the first time in the awards' history that the White House portion of the festivities has been canceled."
*****
Nahal Toosi & Eliana Johnson of Politico: "Top administration officials in favor of sending more troops to Afghanistan teamed up ahead of a high-level meeting on Friday to persuade ... Donald Trump to step up American military involvement in the 16-year-old war, two sources told Politico. Vice President Mike Pence and national security adviser H.R. McMaster rehearsed their pitch heading into the Camp David strategy session.... But as of Friday evening, the president had not announced a decision on his plans for Afghanistan.... And no announcement appeared imminent. The two sources -- an administration official and a senior White House aide -- also confirmed that Erik Prince, founder of the former Blackwater private security firm, had been scheduled to attend the session but that ... McMaster ... blocked Prince... at the last minute.... Prince has been urging the administration publicly and privately to outsource much of the war effort -- which primarily involves training and advising Afghan security forces. Prince had the backing of Steve Bannon, who was ousted Friday from his role as the chief White House strategist."
... Larry Buchanan, et al., of the New York Times name "the top White House officials who resigned, or were fired, dismissed or reassigned. Mr. Trump also fired James B. Comey as director of the F.B.I. and Sally Q. Yates, a holdover from the Obama administration who was serving as his acting attorney general." ...
... Andrew Prokop of Vox: "... it’s remarkable that Trump has burned through so many of his choices for senior jobs in less than seven months in office. For instance, his predecessor Barack Obama went through four official chiefs of staff and one interim one over his eight years in office -- something Trump mocked at the time: '3 Chief of Staffs in less than 3 years of being President: Part of the reason why @BarackObama can't manage to pass his agenda. -- Donald J. Trump January 10, 2012' Trump is far exceeding that pace -- not just for his own chief of staff (who had the shortest stint of anyone since the position was created) but for a whole swath of top-level White House jobs." ...
... Julia Wong of the Guardian: "In his first post-White House interviews, Steve Bannon ... made clear that he had no intention of going quietly. 'I've got my hands back on my weapons,' the former White House chief strategist, who returned as executive chairman of Breitbart News late Friday afternoon, told the Weekly Standard. 'I built a f[uck]ing machine at Breitbart. And now I'm about to go back, knowing what I know, and we're about to rev that machine up. And rev it up we will do.'" ...
The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over. We still have a huge movement, and we will make something of this Trump presidency. But that presidency is over. It'll be something else. And there'll be all kinds of fights, and there'll be good days and bad days, but that presidency is over. -- Steve Bannon, to the Weekly Standard, Friday afternoon
If there's any confusion out there, let me clear it up: I'm leaving the White House and going to war for Trump against his opponents -- on Capitol Hill, in the media, and in corporate America. -- Steve Bannon, to Bloomberg News, Friday afternoon ...
... Peter Boyer of the Weekly Standard: "'On August 7th , I talked to [Chief of Staff John] Kelly and to the President, and I told them that my resignation would be effective the following Monday, on the 14th,' [Steve Bannon] said. 'I'd always planned on spending one year. General Kelly has brought in a great new system, but I said it would be best. I want to get back to Breitbart.' Bannon says that with the tumult in Charlottesville last weekend, and the political fallout since, Trump, Kelly, and he agreed to delay Bannon's departure, but that he and Kelly agreed late this week that now was the time for Bannon to leave. Bannon may have resigned, but it was clear from the time that Kelly became chief of staff that Bannon's remaining time in the West Wing was going to be short.... It is plainly Bannon's view that his departure is not a defeat for him personally, but for the ideology he'd urged upon the president...." ...
... Joshua Green, et al., of Bloomberg News: "According to a person close to Bannon, he met Wednesday with conservative billionaire Robert Mercer, co-chief executive of Renaissance Technologies and a major financial supporter of both Trump and Bannon's efforts. The two mapped out a path ahead for Bannon's post-White House career and discussed how Trump could get his agenda back on track. The following evening, Mercer and several other major Republican donors had dinner with Trump to share their thinking, and Mercer also had a private meeting with Trump to pledge to redouble his efforts to support Bannon and advance Trump's agenda.... Moving Bannon outside the White House raises new risks. Even if he continues to support the president, he may become aggressive in attacking the administration's more traditional Republican players and policies. He has ample access to funding through his close relationships with Mercer and other major Republican donors.... Sebastian Gorka, a Bannon ally who previously worked with him at Breitbart News, also may face removal from his post as a counter-terrorism aide to the president, said two people with knowledge of the situation.... House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California called Bannon's ouster 'welcome news, but it doesn't disguise where President Trump himself stands on white supremacists and the bigoted beliefs they advance.'" ...
... Michael Grynbaum & Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Stephen K. Bannon, who left his post on Friday as President Trump's chief strategist, has resumed his role as chairman of Breitbart News, the provocative right-wing website that propelled him to national fame. Hours after his departure from the White House was announced, Mr. Bannon led the evening editorial meeting of his former publication, Breitbart said on its website. 'The populist-nationalist movement got a lot stronger today,' the editor in chief of Breitbart, Alex Marlow, said in a statement." ...
... Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump has told senior aides that he has decided to remove Stephen K. Bannon..., according to two administration officials briefed on the discussion. The president and senior White House officials were debating when and how to dismiss Mr. Bannon." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... New Lede: "Stephen K. Bannon, the embattled chief strategist who helped President Trump win the 2016 election but clashed for months with other senior West Wing advisers, is leaving his post, a White House spokeswoman announced Friday. 'White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve's last day,'..., Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said in a statement. 'We are grateful for his service and wish him the best.'" ...
... Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump has decided to dismiss ... Stephen K. Bannon, an architect of his 2016 general election victory, in a major White House shake-up that follows a week of racial unrest, according to two people familiar with the move. Trump had been under mounting pressure to dispatch with Bannon...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... New Lede: "President Trump on Friday dismissed his embattled chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, an architect of his 2016 general election victory, in a major White House shake-up that follows a week of racial unrest, according to multiple administration officials." ...
... Jeremy Diamond, et al., of CNN: "Bannon was supposed to be fired two weeks ago, a White House official told CNN's Jeff Zeleny, but it was put off. CNN reports the President equivocated after an initial plan was to fire Bannon and then-Chief of Staff Reince Priebus at same time, the official says, because Rep. Mark Meadows, the influential chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, and others urged Trump to keep him on board. The interview [with Robert Kuttner of the American Prospect] this week was enough for Meadows to change his view, a person close to him says." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Madison Kircher of New York: "Over on 4chan, users are discussing whether or not they'll continue to support Trump now that Bannon is gone. While there's some support for a Bannon-free Trump administration, the bulk of comments mourn the senior strategist in some, uh, colorful language.... There's a similar conversation happening over on Reddit, too. Though it's slightly -- thank you, moderators -- more tame.... Meanwhile, Twitter reaction has been everybody making the same joke about Trump taking down a pro-Confederacy statue at the White House."
Maggie Haberman & Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "President Trump dined on Thursday night at his Bedminster golf club with a handful of the right's most generous donors, as he tried to build support for his hobbled legislative agenda amid mounting criticism from within his own party, three people briefed on the dinner said. The dinner was scheduled weeks ago as part of a donor-outreach initiative by the Trump administration as it prepares an overhaul of the tax code, according to several people involved in the planning. But it came as the White House is struggling to move past the racially charged controversy that Mr. Trump fueled in the wake of the deadly white supremacist rally last weekend in Charlottesville, Va." ...
Bryan Bender & Negassi Tesfamichael of Politico: "Military leaders have hastened to denounce racism amid the furor over ... Donald Trump's defense of white supremacists who violently rallied last week around a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia. But they are also presiding over their own controversial symbols of the Confederacy -- including 10 Army bases named for generals who commanded armies of the slave-holding South during the Civil War, such as Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Fort Hood in Texas and Fort Rucker in Alabama. On Friday, a group of mostly African-American Democrats in the House proposed legislation that would require the defense secretary to rename any military property 'that is currently named after any individual who took up arms against the United States during the American Civil War or any individual or entity that supported such efforts.' They argued that the names undermine the military's commitment to American values of 'freedom, equality, and democratic governance.' The office of the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state, told Politico that he too he supports renaming bases named for Confederates." ...
... Gail Collins wants to put a remove-by date on publicly-situated statues. ...
... Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "The mother of the woman who was run down by a car during violent clashes in Charlottesville, Va., said Friday that after seeing President Trump's comments equating white supremacist protesters with those demonstrating against them, she does not wish to speak with him. 'I'm not talking to the president now; I'm sorry,' Susan Bro said. 'After what he said about my child.' In an interview on ABC's 'Good Morning America,' Ms. Bro said that she had initially missed several calls from the White House, the first of which came during the funeral of her daughter, Heather D. Heyer, who was killed when a man drove a car into a crowd of counterprotesters on Saturday. She said that she had been too busy with the funeral and working to set up a foundation in her daughter's name to watch the news until Thursday night. That was when she saw footage of Mr. Trump's explosive Tuesday news conference, in which he said that there was 'blame on both sides' for the violence in Charlottesville.'" ...
... Paul Waldman. It doesn't matter whether or not Donald Trump is a racist. He "is the most racially divisive president in our lifetimes -- and it's not even close. From literally the moment he began his presidential campaign in 2015, he has spread racist ideas, made racist arguments, appealed to racist sentiments, enacted racist policies, and encouraged the most repugnant racists in American society to become more vocal and visible.... .... So Steve Bannon may be gone, but we shouldn't let that fool us into thinking that the Trump administration has undergone some kind of transformation. We'll know that something has truly changed if the Justice Department displays a genuine commitment to upholding civil rights, or if the administration dials back on its vote suppression efforts, or if the president himself stops making statements that bring so much joy to the most detestable hatemongers in American society.... I don't know about you, but I'm not expecting much." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Adam Kelsey of ABC News: "Businessman Carl Icahn announced on Friday that he will step away from his role as a special advisor to ... Donald Trump on regulatory reform issues -- a decision he claims was made to avoid the suggestion of conflicts of interest by critics of the administration.... The announcement from Icahn, the founder and majority shareholder of conglomerate Icahn Enterprises, comes days after a number of business leaders resigned from the White House's American Manufacturing Council in the aftermath of Trump's response to last weekend's violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. The American Manufacturing Council disbanded on Wednesday, as did a second, separate panel of CEOs, dubbed the Strategic and Policy Forum. Icahn's letter made no mention of Charlottesville." ...
... Max Greenwood of the Hill: "The pastor of a New York megachurch said Friday that he has resigned from President Trump's Evangelical Advisory Board, citing 'a deepening conflict in values' with the administration. Rev. A.R. Bernard, who leads the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, said in a statement that he had 'quietly stepped away' from the panel several months ago, but submitted his formal resignation on Tuesday.... It was not immediately clear if Bernard had formally resigned from the panel because of the president's comments on Tuesday, in which he equated white nationalists to the counter-demonstrators who had gathered in Charlottesville to oppose them. The pastor signed onto a Monday letter from the Commission of Religious Leaders fiercely condemning hate groups in the wake of the violence in Charlottesville." ...
... Nancy Scola of Politico: "More business executives are departing en masse from Trump administration advisory positions, with a new set of resignations from a Commerce Department advisory board following an exodus from two business groups advising the White House, which then disbanded both of them. More than half of the members of the 15-person Digital Economy Board of Advisors, an expert board set up last year by the Obama administration to help the federal government navigate the digital economy, are known to have resigned this week in the wake of ... Donald Trump's controversial comments about the violence last week in Charlottesville, Va., that left one person dead." ...
... Drew Harwell & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "The Salvation Army, the American Red Cross and Susan G. Komen on Friday joined a growing exodus of organizations canceling plans to hold fundraising events at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, deepening the financial impact to President Trump's private business amid furor over his comments on Charlottesville. The major exits now mean seven of the club's biggest event customers have abandoned it in a matter of hours, likely costing the Trump business hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue or more" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Maggie Haberman: "James Murdoch, the chief executive of 21st Century Fox and the son of a frequent ally of President Trump's, condemned the president's performance after the violence in Charlottesville, Va., and pledged to donate $1 million to the Anti-Defamation League. In an email on Thursday, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times and confirmed as authentic by a spokesman for Mr. Murdoch's company, the Fox scion gave an extraordinarily candid statement against the white supremacist sentiment that swept through Virginia last weekend. It was also the most outspoken that a member of the Murdoch family has been in response to the week's events.... '... I can't even believe I have to write this: standing up to Nazis is essential; there are no good Nazis. Or Klansmen, or terrorists....'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico: "Another advisory group is walking away from ... Donald Trump after his equivocation on neo-Nazis and white supremacists, with the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities resigning en masse Friday morning. 'We cannot sit idly by, the way that your West Wing advisors have, without speaking out against your words and actions,' members write in a joint letter to Trump obtained by Politico, which ends by calling on the president to resign if he does not see a problem with what's happened this week. The first letter of each paragraph of the letter spells out 'Resist.'... The 17-member committee was appointed by President Barack Obama and hasn't met under Trump, but it has continued work on some of its programs." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Avi Selk of the Washington Post: "... none of the [Charlottesville] marchers soared so high or crashed so hard as Chris Cantwell, who became the ivory-skinned, gun-toting star of a documentary about Charlottesville that aired Monday on HBO -- and a week later is better known as the 'weepy white supremacist' or 'weeping Nazi' who got banned from OkCupid." ...
Aram Roston of BuzzFeed: "Federal prosecutors working for special counsel Robert Mueller are focusing keenly on the president's son Donald Trump Jr. and are trying to determine his intent when he attended a controversial June 9, 2016, meeting with a Russian lawyer, according to a source familiar with the investigation. Trump Jr. has acknowledged that he was looking for negative information about Hillary Clinton when he, as well as Jared Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort, met with the lawyer. But he claimed he did not receive any useful opposition research. The source familiar with the investigation said that prosecutors have been trying to determine exactly what information was provided and are scrutinizing Trump Jr.'s statements about the meeting. Requesting or accepting anything of value for a presidential campaign from a foreign national violates federal election law, legal experts told BuzzFeed News."
Tracy Jan of the Washington Post: "The person President Trump tapped this summer to oversee one of the largest regions under the Department of Housing & Urban Development is a longtime Trump family employee with no experience in housing, according to the one-page résumé Lynne Patton submitted as part of the transition. Patton began working for Trump's son Eric in 2009 as the vice president of his foundation and as his primary aide. She oversaw all aspects of his business, charity and personal obligations. That included his home and spousal responsibilities as well as coordinating events. She was promoted in 2012 to be the Trump family's senior aide and chief of staff, serving as the principal contact between the family members and all corporate partners, heads of state and high-end donors. Specifically, she worked for the Trump children, Donald Jr., Tiffany, Ivanka and Eric and his wife, Lara. During Donald Trump's presidential campaign, Patton worked as his senior adviser and family liaison.... In June, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, an acclaimed neurosurgeon with no expertise in housing policy either, charged Patton with running the agency's regional office overseeing New York and New Jersey. Her appointment stirred controversy because of her lack of experience and the fact that Trump has a 4 percent stake in a Brooklyn development, Starrett City, that is the nation's largest subsidized housing complex.... Patton has officially recused herself from any decisions involving the Starrett City housing development, signing a 'conflict of interest disqualification' memorandum on July 12."
Way Beyond the Beltway
James McAuley, et al., of the Washington Post: "Spain was seized Friday with the realization that it had incubated a large-scale terrorist plot, as authorities across Europe mounted a manhunt following the deadliest attacks to strike the country in more than a decade: two vehicle assaults in Barcelona and a Catalan coastal town. Investigators say they believe that at least eight people plotted the attacks, putting them at a level of sophistication comparable to major strikes in Paris and Brussels in recent years. Other more recent attacks in London, Berlin and the southern French city of Nice were perpetrated by individuals operating largely on their own. Spanish counterterrorism officers were scrambling to untangle the terrorist network, which involved at least four Moroccan citizens under age 25, according to intelligence officials. In addition to those four, authorities have detained three Moroccan men and a Spaniard."
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Reader Comments (10)
Clearly under the influence, Bannon seems to think that bottle of booze in his hand is a light saber and his name is Han Solo.
Heard this piece on NPR today. Paraguay artist re-purposes the statue of dictator General Alfredo Stroessner. The transformation made me gasp. It's makes a salient comment of the importance of art and artists, especially in light of the recent resignation of the members of the PCAH and potential Trump defunding of NEA and NEH.
http://wunc.org/post/heres-what-paraguayans-did-statue-commemorating-longtime-dictator#stream/0
Diane,
Excellent point (and fascinating solution, although I think the sight of monuments to their hee-roes who fought and died to defend the institution of slavery recalibrated in so drastic a fashion would elicit major outbreaks of pants wetting on the right. Trump himself would need a six month's supply of Depends).
The politics of art and the political stance of most artists (good ones, anyway) go a long way to explaining the antipathy of so many great artists to the kind of politics favored by liars and demeaners of human rights like Trump and his entire party. It also explains, in part, why wingers hate artists. Well, artists who ask that the public think for themselves and rebel against fascist, totalitarian, non-inclusive, and Christian-jihadist policies favored by Confederates.
It would be foolish to suggest that there are no artists who harbor conservative political views, but the idea of an old fashioned pre-Reagan conservatism is next to impossible today. You voted for Trump? You voted for Nazi style repression and race hatred. You voted for Confederates who refuse to repudiate Trump and reject his politics outright (and I don't mean piddling, anodyne expressions of hoping we don't invite too many white supremacists to our next family cookout), same thing.
Artists have always been feared and reviled by far right wingers. There are no other types these days.
"We’ve had bad presidents and good ones, but in the last century I don’t think we’ve had a president who took the country for saps and was rewarded for doing so. We’ve had standards, of a sort. But with this president, all bets are off. All of the traditional racial, religious and political prejudices seem quaint when viewed in the glare of this man’s ignorance. Kafka couldn’t have conjured up a cockroach that compares to this man.
He is only temporary, but I despair that his legacy may linger on.
Oy vey."
by gemli, our favorite N.Y.T. commentator, from Bret Stephen's piece on anti-semitism.
The committees and councils are gone. Important people are speaking up. Major charities are running away. The WH is moving from dysfunctional to non-functional. Can't wait to see the congressional response. Sorry guys, vacation is over in a few weeks.
Also, breaking news today (See WAPO) the Trumps won't be attending the Kennedy Center Honors event in December...three of the honorees have indicated they would not attend with DJT there.
Yeh! Donnie, nobody but the nobodies loves ya!
@AK. The large #s of confederate statues would make a re-purposing project a momentous undertaking. However, can you imagine the release of such an enormous amount of creativity? Boggles the mind.
@Mag. Several people suggesting on twitter that Obama and W co-host Kennedy Center Honors. Although improbable, I'd love to see Trump's reaction. It might be the final crack in the psychotic break.
Icahn resigned a few minutes before Patrick Radden Keefe published his article; "Carl Icahn’s Failed Raid on Washington" in the New Yorker. Its a lengthy and scathing history of the completely reprehensible Icahn and his blatant bullying of E.P.A. to get the requirements for refineries (either blend ethanol in products or buy credits) eliminated. Clearly, he's a mentor to Trump, although Trump is not near as successful as Icahn.
Its a bit of a commitment in reading time, but worth the investment.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/08/28/carl-icahns-failed-raid-on-washington
Diane: today's articles don't mention it, but traditionally the Secretary of State hosts the Kennedy Center Honors, not the President. The reception at the White House, which the Trumps won't host, is one of the peripheral activities, important but not the main show.
When Colin Powell was Secretary, when asked what he liked about the job the most, he often answered that it was hosting the Honors.
Let's see how Rex does, if he's still there in December.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/09/us/kennedy-center-honors-five-but-guess-who-has-the-place-in-the-sun.html
@Patrick: the Kennedy Center Honors seems to have several parts as follows:
Surrounded by the Honorees, the luncheon is held on Saturday at the Kennedy Center, with a welcoming speech by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees. At that evening’s reception and dinner at the State Department, presided over by the Secretary of State, the Honorees are introduced and the Honors medallions are presented by the Chairman of the Board.
BUT...
On Sunday, there is an early-evening white House reception hosted by the President of the United States and the First Lady, followed by the Honors gala performance at the Kennedy Center and supper. This is the part of the event that is televised and watched by millions. and, this in my memory generally has the President & First Lady present in the box.
@Patrick. THX. Made me read up on it. Wikipedia.