;)
The Commentariat -- Sept. 10, 2020
Afternoon Update:
Bob Woodward had my quotes for many months. If he thought they were so bad or dangerous, why didn't he immediately report them in an effort to save lives? Didn't he have an obligation to do so? No, because he knew they were good and proper answers. Calm, no panic! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet Thursday ~~~
~~~ Quint Forgey & Matthew Choi of Politico: "By Thursday afternoon, Trump found himself still trying to contain the fallout, aggressively fending off questions during an afternoon news conference. He repeated his Twitter defenses and pinned much of the responsibility on Woodward, saying the journalist should have alerted the appropriate authorities at the time of the interview if he found Trump's words problematic. Trump also watered down his contact with Woodward, portraying the interviews as casual quick chats rather than the hours of wide-ranging conversations that they were.... When a reporter asked why he lied to the American people about the severity of the disease, Trump bristled, calling the question 'disgraceful.' 'Such a terrible question and the phraseology,' Trump immediately shot back. 'I didn't lie.'... Biden's campaign ramped up its own assault on Thursday, contending that Trump's excuse of seeking to prevent coronavirus-related 'panic' did not explain his decision to hold a series of mega-rallies in the time between his first conversation with Bob Woodward and March."
Will Steakin & Terrance Smith of ABC News: "A new ad released by ... Donald Trump's reelection campaign that looked to capitalize on the August jobs report to portray the country as being in the middle of a 'great American comeback' features foreign stock footage. The ad, which paints an incomplete picture of the American economy amid the coronavirus pandemic, does so in part by featuring stock footage from countries outside the United States, including a warehouse in Ukraine and publicly available footage of two models -- one from Italy and another from Ukraine -- but which appear in the ad to represent images from the U.S."
Joel Schectman, et al., of Reuters: "Microsoft Corp ... recently alerted one of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's main election campaign advisory firms that it had been targeted by suspected Russian state-backed hackers, according to three people briefed on the matter. The hacking attempts targeted staff at Washington-based SKDKnickerbocker, a campaign strategy and communications firm working with Biden and other prominent Democrats, over the past two months, the sources said. A person familiar with SKDK's response to the attempts said the hackers failed to gain access to the firm's networks. 'They are well-defended, so there has been no breach,' the person said." ~~~
~~~ David Sanger & Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "The Russian military intelligence unit that attacked the Democratic National Committee four years ago is back with a series of new, more stealthy hacks aimed at campaign staff, consultants and think tanks associated with both Democrats and Republicans. That warning was issued on Thursday by the Microsoft Corporation, in an assessment that is far more detailed than any yet made public by American intelligence agencies. The findings come one day after a government whistle-blower claimed that officials at the White House and the Department of Homeland Security suppressed intelligence concerning Russia's continuing interference because it 'made the president look bad,' and instructed government analysts to instead focus on interference by China and Iran. Microsoft did find that Chinese and Iranian hackers have been active -- but often not in the way that President Trump and his aides have suggested. Contrary to an assessment by the director of national intelligence last month that said China preferred former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. win the election, Microsoft found that Chinese hackers have been attacking the private email accounts of Mr. Biden's campaign staff, along with a range of other prominent individuals in academia and the national security establishment.... Notably, only one of the Chinese targets detected by Microsoft was affiliated with Mr. Trump, a former administration official whom Microsoft declined to name." ~~~
~~~ Politico's report is here. A Microsoft report is here.
Rudy, Dumbest Senator Have Been Working with "Active Russian Agent." Noah Schactman of the Daily Beast: "The president's personal lawyer has been working closely with 'an active Russian agent' trying to smear the president's chief political rival. That's the conclusion of the U.S. Treasury Department, which sanctioned on Thursday one of Rudy Giuliani's Ukrainian allies for interference in the upcoming U.S. elections. Andriy Derkach worked closely with Giuliani -- and with the Trump-friendly cable network, OANN -- to push accusations of political misconduct against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Derkach, a member of Kyiv's parliament and son of a former KGB officer, has also been supplying documents to Republicans on Capitol Hill, where Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) is conducting an election-eve investigation into the Bidens."
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Thursday are here: "The coronavirus may be best known for the brutal toll it has taken on older adults, but a new study of hospital patients challenges the notion that young people are impervious. The research letter from Harvard found that among 3,222 young adults hospitalized with Covid-19, 88 died -- about 2.7 percent. One in five required intensive care, and one in 10 needed a ventilator to assist with breathing. Among those who survived, 99 patients, or 3 percent, could not be sent home from the hospital and were transferred to facilities for ongoing care or rehabilitation. The study 'establishes that Covid-19 is a life-threatening disease in people of all ages,' wrote Dr. Mitchell Katz, a deputy editor at JAMA Internal Medicine, in an accompanying editorial." ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here: "Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has quietly dropped a controversial rule directing states to give private schools a bigger share of federal coronavirus aid than Congress had intended after a federal judge ruled that it violated the law."
Erica Werner, et al., of the Washington Post: "Democrats blocked a pared-down GOP coronavirus relief bill in a bitterly disputed Senate vote Thursday, leaving the two parties without a clear path forward to approve new economic stimulus before the November elections. The vote was 52-47, far short of the 60 votes that would have been needed for the measure to advance. Democrats were united in opposing the legislation; all Republicans voted in favor except Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). For Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), wrangling a majority of the Senate behind the legislation constituted a measure of success, after months when Senate Republicans have been hopelessly divided. But next steps -- if any -- toward the kind of bipartisan deal that would be needed to actually pass a bill to provide new benefits to the public were unclear." The Hill's report is here.
Trump Boasted of Saving MBS's Ass after Khashogi Murder. Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "Among the 18 interviews with veteran reporter Bob Woodward..., Donald Trump admitted that he protected Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud after the murder and coverup of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashogi. BusinessInsider posted the excerpt Thursday from the book in which Trump bragged he 'saved his ass,' from Congress. 'I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop.'"
Marshall Cohen of CNN: "Twitter announced Thursday that it is expanding its policies against election-related misinformation, setting new rules that will likely force the platform to more aggressively fact-check ... Donald Trump during the final months of the 2020 campaign. The social media giant rolled out the new policies in a blog post, which said that Twitter ... will either add fact-check labels to or hide altogether tweets that contain 'false or misleading information that causes confusion' about election rules, or posts with 'unverified information about election rigging.' Twitter's porous and subjective policies have enabled Trump to spread a steady stream of misinformation about the election to millions of Americans. The company led the way for Big Tech when it rebuked Trump for a misleading tweet in May, but that watershed moment has ended up looking more like an outlier.... The new rules, which Twitter says will go into effect next week, explicitly prohibit a lot of the material Trump is prone to posting...."
Jeff Cox of CNBC: "Weekly jobless claims were worse than expected last week amid a plodding climb for the U.S. labor market from the damage inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic. The Labor Department on Thursday reported 884,000 first-time filings for unemployment insurance, compared with 850,000 expected by economists surveyed by Dow Jones. The total was unchanged from the previous week."
Tim Elfrink of the Washington Post: "When police last week surrounded Michael Forest Reinoehl, a self-described anti-fascist suspected of fatally shooting a member of a far-right group in Portland, Ore., the wanted man wasn't obviously armed, a witness to the scene said Wednesday. In fact, according to Nate Dinguss, Reinoehl was clutching a cellphone and eating a gummy worm as he walked to his car outside an apartment complex in Lacey, Wash. That's when officers opened fire without first announcing themselves or trying to arrest him, Dinguss, a 39-year-old who lives in the apartment complex, said in a statement shared with The Washington Post.... Dinguss added officers waited 'multiple minutes' before rendering medical aid to Reinoehl, who died at the scene from several gunshot wounds.... Dinguss's account of the Sept. 3 fatal shooting, first reported by the Oregonian, contradicts details offered by federal authorities, who said Reinoehl, 48, pulled a gun as members of a fugitive task force tried to arrest him. Two other witnesses also told the Olympian they had seen Reinoehl fire a weapon at police." Mrs. McC: I thought from the git-go this was a questionable killing-by-cops.
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Chutzpah, Lies & Corruption, Ctd.
Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump acknowledged Wednesday that he intentionally played down the deadly nature of the rapidly spreading coronavirus last winter as an attempt to avoid a 'frenzy,' part of an escalating damage-control effort by his top advisers to contain the fallout from a forthcoming book by The Washington Post's Bob Woodward.... Trump said publicly that he did nothing wrong. 'So the fact is, I’m a cheerleader for this country. I love our country. And I don't want people to be frightened,' Trump told reporters at the White House.... Democrats, led by their presidential nominee Joe Biden, denounced Trump's actions as part of a deliberate effort to lie to the public for his own political purposes when other world leaders took decisive action to warn their people and set those nations on a better path to handling the pandemic.... Public health officials have said for months that clearly educating the public on the lethal nature of covid-19 ... is the most important tool in reining in its spread, so that people will adhere to social distancing guidelines and wear masks. Trump, who regularly flouts those guidelines..., rejected the criticism Wednesday that his mistruths helped create a false sense of security in the public and led to a more widespread transmission of the disease than in other leading nations." ~~~
~~~ Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: Trump says he "downplayed" the severity of the coronavirus because he didn't want people to panic. But he's running his campaign for re-election on fear. "His YouTube video channel is filled with apocalyptic images of violence, economic despair and disaster. So are the president's speeches and news availabilities, including at the same venue where he said he did not want to create panic." ~~~
~~~ Kadia Goba of BuzzFeed News: "During Wednesday's press conference, Trump did not deny Woodward's report but called it a 'political hit job' before insisting he was trying to avoid showing a sense of panic. Trump said the same when a reporter asked how the American people can trust what he says. 'Well, I think that's really a big part of trust,' Trump said. 'We have to have leadership. We have to show leadership. And the last thing you want to do is create a panic in the country.'... Trump insisted Wednesday that he didn't expect the coronavirus outbreak would spread to the degree it ultimately did.... 'You didn't really think it was going to be to the point where it was,' Trump told reporters.... 'All of a sudden, the world was infected. The entire world was infected.'" ~~~
~~~ Adam Edelman of NBC News: "Joe Biden and other top Democrats on Wednesday slammed ... Donald Trump over comments he made about the coronavirus to journalist Bob Woodward for an upcoming book, including the president's acknowledgment that he 'wanted to always play it down,' even though he knew it was 'deadly.' 'It was a life and death betrayal of the American people,' Biden said about the revelations during a campaign event in Warren, Michigan. 'It's beyond despicable. It's a dereliction of duty, a disgrace.... He knew how deadly it was. He knew and purposely played it down,' Biden added. 'Worse, he lied.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
Steve M.: "If Trump had a conscience, he would have long since resigned in shame and disappeared from public life. As it is, this probably won't make more than a tiny dent in his polling. He'll still be a contender for the presidency in November. He won't alter anything he's doing about the pandemic, and his fans will be fine with that. Trump is a monster. There's no question anymore who the worst president in American history has been. It would take a Hitler to top him. Yet much of the commentary I've read in liberal online circles today has barely focused on Trump at all. Typical of what I've seen is this, from Charlie Pierce: Both the President* and Bob Woodward Knew This for Months and Kept It From the Public[.] Emphasis original. ~~~
~~~ Hillel Italie of the AP: "Bob Woodward, facing widespread criticism for only now revealing ... Donald Trump's early concerns about the severity of the coronavirus, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he needed time to be sure that Trump's private comments from February were accurate." Mrs. McC: IOW, Woodward says he had to check with other sources to determine whether Trump was lying about lying. Personally, I find it a little precious to blame a reporter for not telling all when at least a dozen officials surrounding Trump -- officials who had sworn oaths to the Constitution -- knew the same things and never said a word. A few -- and these may have been lower-level and/or career employees -- have been anonymously leaking bits & pieces of Trump's malfeasance, but none has been willing to walk out the White House door & timely speak on the record about what s/he knows. ~~~
~~~ Update. Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post spoke to Bob Woodward about his withholding Trump's remarks: "Woodward said his aim was to provide a fuller context than could occur in a news story: 'I knew I could tell the second draft of history, and I knew I could tell it before the election.'... What's more, he said, there were at least two problems with what he heard from Trump in February that kept him from putting it in the newspaper at the time: First, he didn't know what the source of Trump's information was. It wasn't until months later -- in May -- that Woodward learned it came from a high-level intelligence briefing in January that was also described in Wednesday's reporting about the book.... Second, Woodward said, 'the biggest problem I had, which is always a problem with Trump, is I didn't know if it was true.'... It took months, Woodward told me, to do the reporting that put it all in context.... Still, the chance -- even if it's a slim chance -- that those revelations could have saved lives is a powerful argument against waiting this long." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The people who believe Donald Trump are not going to believe Bob Woodward or anything any journalist writes in the Washington Post. I don't know anyone personally who was hanging on Trump's press briefings to find out how to reorganize their own lives in response to the coronavirus. Everyone I know sought reliable, professional sources of information. The people who did follow Trump's advice did so either because they're part of his cult or because it was convenient for them. It is significant that the reason Trump lied is different from the reason many of us thought: that he was too dumb and too stubborn to acknowledge the science that, had the federal government followed it, would have saved tens of thousands of American lives. Instead, we find out he knew all along what the consequences of his inaction would be, and he just didn't care. That certainly matters, but knowing Trump is a little smarter and more selfish than we thought would not have saved lives. One could argue that Trump would have changed his tune had his Big Lie been exposed, but I doubt it. That's one of those it-might-have-been suppositions that is not provable.
** Robert Costa & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: On January 28, national security advisor Robert O'Brien told Donald Trump that the coronavirus outbreak in China would "'be the roughest thing you face.' Ten days later, [according to Bob Woodward in a new book titled Rage,] Trump called Woodward and ... [said,] 'You just breathe the air and that's how it's passed.... It's also more deadly than even your strenuous flu.' 'This is deadly stuff,' the president repeated for emphasis. At that time, Trump was telling the nation that the virus was no worse than a seasonal flu, predicting it would soon disappear, and insisting that the U.S. government had it totally under control.... Trump admitted to Woodward on March 19 that he deliberately minimized the danger. 'I wanted to always play it down,' the president said.... Woodward's new book ... covers race relations, diplomacy with North Korea and a range of other issues that have arisen during the past two years. The book also includes brutal assessments of Trump's conduct from former defense secretary Jim Mattis, former director of national intelligence Daniel Coats and others." Read on. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Update: The WashPo story now includes audio clips. ~~~
~~~ Jamie Gangel & others at CNN also have read Woodward's book. Their report covers much of what the WashPo report does, and it includes recorded clips of Woodward's phone conversations with Trump. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It's worth noting that according to a May 3 CNN report by Jeremy Diamond, "... Donald Trump claimed Sunday [May 3] that the US intelligence community 'did NOT bring up the CoronaVirus subject matter until late into January' and that 'they only spoke of the Virus in a very non-threatening, or matter of fact, manner.'... 'On January 23, I was told that there could be a virus coming in but it was of no real import. In other words it wasn't, "Oh we gotta do something, we gotta do something." It was a brief conversation and it was only on January 23,' Trump said during a Fox News town hall." These would be not just lies, but monstrous, murderous lies. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Aishvarya Kavi of the New York Times: "Here are five takeaways [from Bob Woodward's book Rage]. Mr. Trump minimized the risks of the coronavirus to the American public early in the year.... Two of the president's top officials thought he was 'dangerous' and considered speaking out publicly.... Mr. Trump repeatedly denigrated the U.S. military and his top generals.... When asked about the pain 'Black people feel in this country,' Mr. Trump was unable to express empathy.... Mr. Woodward gained insight into Mr. Trump's relationships with the leaders of North Korea and Russia."
Jeremy Stahl of Slate: "Woodward's recording makes it clear that the president was not simply misinformed or being wishful about the virus, but deliberately lying about what he knew.... During a press conference on Feb. 27, for instance, Trump encouraged the public to 'view this the same as the flu' and to 'treat this like you treat the flu.' Less than three weeks earlier, he told Woodward the disease was 'more deadly than even your strenuous flus.'... In a Fox News appearance on March 4, Trump told Sean Hannity that his 'hunch' was that the deadliness of the disease was being exaggerated.... To Woodward less than one month earlier, he said 'this is more deadly. This is 5 percent [death rate].'... During her press briefing on Wednesday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, 'The president never downplayed the virus.'"
German Lopez of Vox: “Trump told Woodward that his intent was to avoid a panic. But experts say that Trump's response to the virus -- particularly the magical thinking that colored his public comments -- fueled the outbreak in America.... Once states began locking down, Trump pushed them to reopen too early and too quickly -- to 'LIBERATE' themselves from economic calamity. After his administration suggested people wear masks in public, Trump claimed it was a personal choice, refused to wear a mask himself, and said people wear masks to spite him. He also hyped up unproven and even dangerous treatments, at one point musing about people injecting bleach to treat Covid-19. And he was slow to expand US testing capacity, arguing that more testing made the US look bad by revealing more cases; he instead punted the issue to local, state, and private actors unequipped for the full job.... The result: The US is doing about seven times worse than the median developed country, ranking in the bottom 20 percent for Covid-19 deaths among wealthy nations. If America had the same death rate as Canada, 100,000 more Americans would likely be alive today."
Jerry Lambe of Law & Crime: "It didn't take long for legal commentators to call [Trump's public lies] evidence of a 'clearly impeachable offense.'... [Former U.S. attorney Harry] Litman wrote. 'This is clearly an impeachable offense, albeit not a crime. The POTUS lied to the American people for political purposes & easily tens of thousands deaths ensued. How more stark and harmful a dereliction of public duty can you get?'... Washington, D.C.-based national security attorney Brad Moss similarly said the tapes 'should end [Trump's] presidency,' adding, 'If it doesn't, god help us.'... Former federal prosecutor and top Mueller team lieutenant Andrew Weissmann ... said that Trump's words were an admission to endangering U.S. citizens."
Nancy Cook & Alex Thompson of Politico: "In 2018, White House aides shielded Trump from an interview for his book 'Fury' because they didn't want to give the author more ammunition than he already had. The book was withering -- portraying the Trump administration suffering a 'nervous breakdown.'... Trump learned about the book late in the process and called Woodward in frustration. 'It's really too bad, because nobody told me about it, and I would have loved to have spoken to you,' he said in audio released by The Washington Post at the time. He made clear to aides that he would participate in the next book, convinced that he could charm and cajole a veteran Washington journalist [who had already helped bring down one president] into seeing his point of view. At least two sit-downs with the president occurred in the Oval Office -- and far more frequently, Trump would call Woodward directly at night with the White House call log as a record."
Jennifer Szalai of the New York Times reviews Woodward's book, & she wryly examines Woodward's methodology & worldview: ">Woodward ends 'Rage' by delivering his grave verdict. 'When his performance as president is taken in its entirety,' he intones, 'I can only reach one conclusion: Trump is the wrong man for the job.' It's an anticlimactic declaration that could surprise no one other than maybe Bob Woodward.... What if the real story about the Trump era is less about Trump and more about the people who surround and protect him, standing by him in public even as they denounce him (or talk to Woodward) in private -- a tale not of character but of complicity?"
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump denigrated senior American military officials when he told his trade adviser, Peter Navarro, during a meeting in 2017 that his top generals were weak and overly concerned with their relationships with allies, according to a new book by the journalist Bob Woodward. And in a discussion with Mr. Woodward, Mr. Trump called the United States military 'suckers' for paying extensive costs to protect South Korea.... In the 2017 meeting, Mr. Woodward quoted Mr. Trump as telling Mr. Navarro that 'my fucking generals are a bunch of pussies. They care more about their alliances than they do about trade deals.'" The part about Prince Jared at the end of Haberman's piece is rich.
Jared Keller of Task & Purpose: "... there's apparently a brand new weapons system that's captured the commander-in-chief's attention -- and it's of the nuclear variety. According to Rage -- a new book published by legendary investigative reporter Bob Woodward on the Trump administration -- the president reportedly disclosed the existence of a new nuclear weapons system during a conversation about relations between the United States and North Korea. 'I have built a nuclear -- a weapons system that nobody's ever had in this country before,' Trump reportedly said.... '... We have stuff that Putin and Xi have never heard about before. There's nobody -- what we have is incredible.'... Woodward later confirmed with several anonymous U.S. officials that the Pentagon had indeed developed 'a secret new weapons system' -- something they were 'surprised' the president had disclosed.... It's likely that Trump's 'secret' nuclear weapon is actually the W76-2, a low-yield variant of the nuclear warhead traditionally used on the Trident missile, according to the Federation of American Scientists.... Then again, he's also made outlandish claims regarding U.S. military tech that haven't stood up under scrutiny, like that the F-35 is totally invisible. So there's a chance, however slight, that the commander-in-chief might be referring to a weapons system we've never heard of -- after all, this is the same guy who wanted to nuke a hurricane at one point."
Katie Benner & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The White House asked the Justice Department to replace President Trump's private lawyers to defend against a woman's accusations that he defamed her last year in denying her claim that he sexually assaulted her a quarter-century ago, Attorney General William P. Barr said on Wednesday. The Justice Department's intervention in the lawsuit means that taxpayer money will be used to defend the president, and it threatens the continued viability of the case of the plaintiff, the author E. Jean Carroll.... Ms. Carroll's lawsuit has been reassigned from a New York State court to a Federal District Court judge in New York, Lewis A. Kaplan. If he signs off on the department's certification that it meets the standards to substitute the government as the defendant, he could dismiss the lawsuit because the government has sovereign immunity and cannot be sued for defamation.... The department's motion to take control of the case came as Mr. Trump's private lawyers were facing a deadline to appeal an order compelling a deposition and a DNA sample. In portraying the Justice Department's intervention this week as unremarkable, Mr. Barr did not explain why the administration had waited more than 10 months to step in." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Neal Katyal, speaking to Lawrence O'Donnell yesterday, noted how ridiculous the DOJ's defense of Trump is. Here they are arguing that a president* is "acting in his official capacity" when he insults a woman & denies raping her 20 years ago. Yet at the very same time, the very same DOJ is arguing before the courts that the very same president* is not acting in his official capacity when he tweets insults, tweets orders to Cabinet officers, tweet-fires a staffer, & tweets new policies he dreamed up in the middle of the night.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Top officials with the Department of Homeland Security directed agency analysts to downplay the threat of violent white supremacy and of Russian election interference, according to a whistle-blower complaint filed by a top intelligence official with the department. Brian Murphy, the former head of the intelligence branch of the Homeland Security Department, said in a whistle-blower complaint filed on Tuesday that he was directed by Chad F. Wolf, the acting secretary of the department, to stop producing assessments on Russian interference. The department's second highest ranked official, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, also ordered him to modify intelligence assessments to make the threat of white supremacy 'appear less severe' and include information on violent 'left-wing' groups, according to the complaint, which was released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee. In so doing, the two top officials at the department -- both appointees of President Trump -- appeared to shape the agency's views around Mr. Trump's rhetoric and interests. Mr. Murphy, who was removed from his post in August after his office compiled intelligence reports on protesters and journalists in Portland, Ore., asserted in the complaint that he was retaliated against for raising concerns to superiors and cooperating with the department's inspector general. He asked the inspector general to investigate." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Murphy's whistleblower complaint is here, via a House committee pdf. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ CNN's report, by Zachary Cohen, is here. "A whistleblower is alleging that top political appointees in the Department of Homeland Security repeatedly instructed career officials to modify intelligence assessments to suit ... Donald Trump's agenda by downplaying Russia's efforts to interfere in the US and the threat posed by White supremacists, according to documents reviewed by CNN and a source familiar with the situation. The whistleblower claims that acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf instructed DHS officials earlier this year to 'cease providing intelligence assessments on the threat of Russian interference' and, instead, focus their efforts on gathering information related to activities being carried out by China and Iran." (Also linked yesterday.)
~~~ Kelly Weill of the Daily Beast: &"In October 2018, for example, then-DHS Deputy Chief of Staff Miles Taylor and DHS Counselor Kristen Marquadt allegedly pressured [Brian] Murphy into distorting information on immigrants.... Murphy says he declined to manipulate the data, and that he and a supervisor agreed that doing so would constitute a felony. Nevertheless, he claims, immigration data was distorted on multiple occasions, including oral testimony then-DHS head Kirstjen Nielsen gave to Congress, in which she claimed 3,755 known or suspected terrorists had crossed the southern border. In a meeting with Nielsen and then-DHS Chief of Staff Chad Wolf, Murphy offered documentation showing that no more than three people of that description had crossed the border. Even those descriptions might have been inappropriate, Murphy added, since they simply shared the 'name or phone number of a person who was known to be in contact with a terrorist. At that point, Mr. Murphy was removed from the meeting by Mr. Wolf.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I guess we know now why a DHS draft report that mentions both the threats of white supremacy & Russian cyberattacks recently made it into the hands of several journalists. The reason for the leak/release is spelled C-Y-A.
They're All Corrupt. Dan Diamond & Adam Cancryn of Politico: "When Seema Verma, the Trump administration's top Medicaid official, went to a reporter's home in November 2018 for a 'Girl's Night' thrown in her honor, taxpayers footed the bill to organize the event: $2,933. When Verma wrote an op-ed on Fox News' website that fall, touting ... Donald Trump's changes to Obamacare, taxpayers got charged for one consultant's price to place it: $977. And when consultants spent months promoting Verma to win awards like Washingtonian magazine's 'Most Powerful Women in Washington' and appear on high-profile panels, taxpayers got billed for that too: more than $13,000. The efforts were steered by Pam Stevens, a Republican communications consultant and former Trump administration official working to raise the brand of Verma.... The prices were the amount a consulting company billed the government for her services, based on her invoices, which were obtained by congressional Democrats.... Verma spent more than $3.5 million on a range of GOP-connected consultants, who polished her public profile, wrote her speeches and Twitter posts, brokered meetings with high-profile individuals -- and even billed taxpayers for connecting Verma with fellow Republicans in Congress.... 'Verma and her top aides abused the federal contracting process to Administrator Verma's benefit and wasted millions of taxpayer dollars,' the Democrats concluded in a 53-page summary of the investigation, which ... will be released later Thursday."
Jacob Bogage & Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Postal Service's Board of Governors signaled strong support for Louis DeJoy on Wednesday after convening a closed-door meeting with the embattled postal chief to discuss congressional investigations tied to the agency's delivery problems and allegations of political fundraising improprieties.... Members of the board, dominated 4 to 2 by Republican members appointed by President Trump, told The Post that the body fully backs the postmaster general, who has held the job for 87 days.... 'He has 100 percent board support,' William Zollars, a Republican governor of the board, said in a phone interview.... 'This man is doing a tremendous job,' fellow Republican board member John Barger said in testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday.... The board's chairman, Republican Robert M. Duncan, and two Democrats, Donald Lee Moak and Ron Bloom, did not respond to requests for comment." ~~~
~~~ Ken Vogel, et al., of the New York Times: "Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, moving to defend himself and top postal officials against suggestions that they are trying to help President Trump win re-election by sabotaging mail-in voting, told colleagues on Wednesday that he planned to hire a veteran Republican lobbyist to work with Congress. Facing calls for his ouster by Democrats and a flurry of investigations on Capitol Hill, Mr. DeJoy informed postal officials that he had selected Peter Pastre, a former Republican congressional aide and insurance lobbyist, to act as a liaison for the agency with Congress and state and local governments, according to people familiar with the discussions."
David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Trump's attempt to show that the nation is recovering from the economic damage of the coronavirus pandemic will clash head-on Thursday with his denunciations of social justice demonstrations when the National Football League kicks off its season in prime time. Trump has lobbied heavily for sports leagues to restart despite the threat of the virus, but his demands have been incongruous when it comes to the NFL, an $8.8 billion juggernaut whose television ratings dwarf all competitors'. Ahead of the season opener between the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans, the president and his allies have resumed their long-standing bashing of NFL players for kneeling during the national anthem to call attention to police brutality affecting communities of color.... 'President Trump stands with our brave soldiers and patriots who proudly stand for our national anthem and great flag, not those who choose to disrespect it by kneeling or elect to needlessly cover this demonstration -- and the American people agree with him,' said White House spokesman Judd Deere."
Jamie Ross of the Daily Beast: "Fox News got very excited Wednesday morning when announcing its exclusive that ... Donald Trump had been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. What it didn't mention was that hundreds of people are nominated every year, and that Trump's nomination -- for his role in the new Israel-United Arab Emirates agreement -- came from one of Norway's most well-known anti-immigration cranks. The nomination was submitted by Christian Tybring-Gjedde, a member of the Norwegian parliament, who also nominated Trump in 2018.... Any members of a national assembly or national government can put someone forward for the Peace Prize, so a mere nomination is not very significant." (Also linked yesterday.)
Presidential Race
Morgan Chalfant & John Kruzel of the Hill: "President Trump on Wednesday unveiled a list of 20 additional potential Supreme Court nominees that includes three Republican U.S. senators, a White House lawyer-turned-judge and his former solicitor general. Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), as well as Noel Francisco, who departed as solicitor general in June, are among the names added to the current list of candidates for the Supreme Court.... Trump's remarks were hastily scheduled Wednesday afternoon, and punctuated a media frenzy over new revelations from Bob Woodward's book that Trump acknowledged in a February interview that the coronavirus was 'deadly' while minimizing the threat publicly." The report includes the list of Trump's potential nominees. ~~~
~~~ Rachel Maddow noted that Trump included Ted Cruz in the list the day after Michael Cohen revealed that in 2016 Trump had insisted that a false report linking Cruz's father to President John Kennedy's assassination appear on the front cover of the National Enquirer. Maddow suggested that Cruz not get himself fitted for a fancy black robe on the basis of this fig leaf.
A Star-Studden QAnon Bash. Brian Slodysko & Michael Kunzelman of the AP: "Vice President Mike Pence and top officials from ... Donald Trump's campaign are slated to attend a Montana fundraiser next week hosted by a couple who have expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory, according to an event invitation obtained by The Associated Press and a review of social media postings. The hosts of the fundraiser, Caryn and Michael Borland, have shared QAnon memes and retweeted posts from QAnon accounts, their social media activity shows. The baseless conspiracy theory posits that Trump is fighting entrenched enemies in the government and also involves satanism and child sex trafficking. the Sept. 14 fundraiser in Bozeman, Montana, is expected to draw influential figures in the president's orbit including Kimberly Guilfoyle, a top Trump fundraising official who is dating Donald Trump Jr., GOP chairwoman Ronna [Romney] McDaniel, Republican National Committee finance chairman Todd Ricketts and RNC co-chairman Tommy Hicks Jr., the event invitation shows." Mrs. McC: Hey, QAnon money is just as green as yours & mine. What's the problem? (Also linked yesterday.)
Teo Armus of the Washington Post: "Hours before President Trump arrived in Winston-Salem, N.C., for a campaign rally on Tuesday, the county's top Republican official issued a warning: The president better be wearing a mask. 'It's been ordered by the governor,' David Plyler, a Trump supporter and GOP chair of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, told the Winston-Salem Journal.... But when the president emerged Tuesday evening to address a cheering group of supporters, his face was fully exposed, a likely violation of the state's coronavirus rules. The same was true of many of the supporters behind his podium.... And in fact, the whole event appears to have defied restrictions from North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooperto 50 people under the state's current phase of reopening. Trump jeered that crowd cap too...." (Also linked yesterday.)
Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "Daniel Coats, a former head of the intelligence community, warned Wednesday that the Trump administration's move to roll back in-person briefings to Congress on foreign threats to the 2020 election undermines the agencies' mission and efforts to safeguard the vote. 'It's imperative that the intelligence community keep Congress fully informed about the threats to our elections and share as much information as possible while protecting sources and methods,' the former director of national intelligence said in an interview. Coats's stern warning came in response to Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe's notifying Congress a week and a half ago that he was suspending in-person briefings to lawmakers, though the Senate Intelligence Committee's acting chairman said his panel will continue to receive such updates.... Coats spoke on the heels of the publication of an opinion piece by his former deputy, Sue Gordon, in The Washington Post, in which she decried how 'the national conversation around election security has turned vitriolic, diversionary and unhelpful, and we are doing our enemies' work for them.'"
Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "Independent presidential candidate Kanye West is fighting to get back on the ballot in Virginia after a judge threw him off last week, urging the state's highest court to weigh in quickly because ballots are already being printed and absentee voting starts next week. Attorneys for ... [West] filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of Virginia late Tuesday, seeking to overturn Thursday's Richmond Circuit Court ruling that found the West campaign had tricked some voters into helping him get on the ballot." ~~~
~~~ Celine Castronuovo of the Hill: "The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that Kanye West will not appear on the state's Nov. 3 presidential ballot as an independent candidate, despite the rapper's efforts to run in the state. The decision came just hours before eight of Arizona's 15 counties faced a deadline for printing election ballots. The court said in its ruling that West's electors did not file a necessary election document that stated their names and political parties, The Associated Press reported. The justices added that any nominating signatures collected before presidential electors filed their 'statements of interest' are invalid." (Also linked yesterday.)
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Wednesday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Wednesday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Sarah Owermohle of Politico: "A Trump administration appointee at the Department of Health and Human Services is trying to prevent Anthony Fauci ... from speaking about the risks that coronavirus poses to children. Emails obtained by Politico show Paul Alexander -- a senior adviser to Michael Caputo, HHS's assistant secretary for public affairs -- instructing press officers and others at the National Institutes of Health about what Fauci should say during media interviews.... Alexander's lengthy messages, some sent as recently as this week, are couched as scientific arguments. But they often contradict mainstream science while promoting political positions taken by the Trump administration on hot-button issues ranging from the use of convalescent plasma to school reopening. The emails add to evidence that the White House, and Trump appointees within HHS, are pushing health agencies to promote a political message instead of a scientific one.... 'No one tells me what I can say and cannot say,' Fauci said.... Alexander, a part-time professor of health research methods at McMaster University in Canada, joined HHS in March. He was appointed by Caputo, a longtime Trump ally now overseeing HHS's media strategy. In July, the Washington Post reported that Alexander had cracked down on the CDC after it warned pregnant women about the virus."
Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Patients who rely on the U.S. Postal Service for their prescription drugs may have experienced 'significant' delays in their deliveries, according to a Senate report released Wednesday, which accused Postmaster General Louis DeJoy of jeopardizing the 'health of millions of Americans.' Several major U.S. pharmacies told the two Democratic senators leading the investigation -- Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Robert P. Casey Jr. (Pa.) -- that average delivery times have ticked up since the spring.... Warren and Casey did not identify the pharmacies, but their report comes nearly three weeks after they asked Walgreens, CVS, and other pharmacies and benefit managers to detail the effects of DeJoy's changes to the Postal Service. This summer, DeJoy implemented policies to reduce overtime and mail trips.... Four prescription drug providers told Warren and Casey that delivery times this summer have increased by half a day or more, on average, compared with earlier this year or similar time frames in 2019, according to the Senate report.... The medicine delays, in some cases, appear to have started around May, when DeJoy had been tapped for the job but before he officially took the reins. The timeline raises the possibility that the coronavirus pandemic may have contributed to slowdowns for mailed prescription drugs, particularly as patients put new strain on the system by shifting away from in-person pickup to delivery." (Also linked yesterday.)
Your Tax Dollars at Work -- in Austria. Rick Noack of the Washington Post: "Hundreds of people have cashed U.S. stimulus checks at Austrian banks in recent months. Some of them appeared puzzled by the unexpected payments or were ineligible for the payouts, according to bank officials and Austrian media reports.... It is unclear how many U.S. checks were cashed in Austria by ineligible recipients. Similar instances have been reported in other countries. NPR reported last month that thousands of foreigners who used to temporarily work in the United States had accidentally received stimulus checks.... Representatives of three local branches of banks operating in Austria said they had cashed about 200 U.S. stimulus checks by Wednesday.... 'People initially thought it's a treacherous form of fraud -- but the checks were real,' said a spokeswoman for Austria's Oberbank." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As someone who spent about three hours on the phone yesterday to try -- ultimately successfully -- to get the IRS to reverse an $11,000+ error in their favor, count me as not surprised that Treasury has been sending checks to foreigners not eligible for payments.
Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "The United States is cutting troop levels in Iraq roughly in half, to 3,000 forces, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East said Wednesday, in a long-expected move that will help fulfill President Trump's goal of reducing the Pentagon's overseas deployments. The decision to reduce the 5,200 troops now in Iraq comes three weeks after Mr. Trump met with Mustafa al-Kadhimi, the Iraqi prime minister, in Washington, in part to finalize details of the drawdown, which will happen this month." (Also linked yesterday.)
William Booth & Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "The family of Harry Dunn, the 19-year-old motorcyclist killed by a car driven on the wrong side of an English roadway by the wife of a U.S. official, filed a U.S. federal lawsuit against the driver, Anne Sacoolas, on Wednesday. The lawsuit, which claims wrongful death and seeks financial damages, represents a significant escalation in the year-long campaign by Dunn's parents to hold Sacoolas accountable. The case has been a source of friction between British and American officials. Sacoolas left Britain shortly after the Aug. 27, 2019, accident, with the U.S. government asserting that she had diplomatic immunity. She returned to her home in Northern Virginia. But in December, British police charged her with causing death by dangerous driving." (Also linked yesterday.)
Beyond the Beltway
New York. Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "A Manhattan gynecologist accused by the wife of former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang of sexually assaulting her now faces federal charges related to the sexual abuse of women, according to a new indictment released on Wednesday. The former doctor, Robert A. Hadden, who has lost his medical license, was charged with six counts of enticing women, including one minor, to engage in illegal sex acts. The indictment says that over more than a decade, Mr. Hadden 'sexually abused dozens of female patients, including multiple minors, under the guise of conducting purported gynecological and obstetric examinations' at his medical office and at hospitals in Manhattan. The indictment identifies six victims of Mr. Hadden only by numbers, and it was not immediately clear whether any of those cases included that of Evelyn Yang, the former candidate's wife, who told CNN in January that Mr. Hadden sexually assaulted her in his exam room in 2012 when she was seven months pregnant with her first child.&" (Also linked yesterday.)
Way Beyond
Afghanistan. Susannah George of the Washington Post: "A deadly assassination attempt on Afghanistan's vice president struck downtown Kabul as U.S. officials in Doha struggle to bring the Taliban and Afghan officials together for peace talks. The bombing hit during rush hour Wednesday morning and targeted First Vice President Amrullah Saleh's convoy. Among the casualties were some of Saleh's bodyguards, but the majority of the 10 killed and 15 wounded were civilians commuting to work, according to the interior ministry. The high-profile assassination attempt comes amid a spike in violence nationwide as talks between Afghan officials and Taliban leaders have faced repeated delays."
U.K. A Foolish Consistency Is the Hobgoblin of Little Minds. Mark Landler & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain has always taken a seat-of-the-pants approach to governing. But his reversals this week on the two most pressing issues facing the country -- the pandemic and Brexit -- have been breathtaking, even by Mr. Johnson's brashly improvisational standards. On Wednesday, alarmed by a resurgence of the coronavirus, Mr. Johnson announced that the British government would ban gatherings of more than six people, after weeks of encouraging people to go back to work, eat out at restaurants, patronize pubs and send their children back to school. Hours earlier, the government introduced legislation on Northern Ireland that would override a landmark Brexit agreement that Mr. Johnson himself struck with the European Union, shepherded through Parliament and championed during last year's election on his way to a landslide victory. The government admitted that this unexpected move breaks international law, which critics say raises a sticky question: Why should people obey Mr. Johnson's new rules on social distancing when he brazenly flouts a legal treaty?"
News Ledes
AP: "A Northern California wildfire threatened thousands of homes Thursday after winds whipped it into a monster that incinerated houses in a small mountain community and killed at least three people. Several other people have been critically burned and hundreds, if not thousands, of homes and other buildings are believed to have been damaged or destroyed by the North Complex fire northeast of San Francisco, authorities said. Some 20,000 people were under evacuation orders or warnings in Plumas, Yuba and Butte counties. Between Tuesday and Wednesday, the fire -- which had been burning for weeks in forestland and was 50% contained -- exploded to six times its size as winds gusting to 45 mph drove a path of destruction through mountainous terrain and parched foothills."
AP: "Numerous wildfires burned in Oregon's forested valleys and along the coast, destroying hundreds of homes and causing mass evacuations. Farther north, flames devoured buildings and huge tracts of land in Washington state. Officials said the number of simultaneous fires and perhaps the damage caused was unprecedented. Several deaths were reported, including a 1-year-old boy in Washington state. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said communities have been 'substantially destroyed' and warned there could be numerous fatalities. Because of its cool, wet climate, the Pacific Northwest rarely experiences such intense fire activity. But climate change driven by human-caused greenhouse gases is expected to keep warming the region, with most models predicting drier summers, according to the College of the Environment at the University of Washington."
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Reader Comments (19)
Donald Trump, withholding vital, life-saving information from the public because he didn’t want to start a panic, is like a guy in a burning house sending the family go back to bed, telling them there’s nothing to worry about, because he didn’t want to upset anyone.
The actual reason is that he was happy to let tens of thousands of Americans die so that he wouldn’t look bad.
This is the action of a dangerous psychopath.
This isn’t just lying, this is murder. Manslaughter, at the very least. Will Barr be defending him against this charge too? So we have a president* who is both a rapist AND a murderer. And Republicans are perfectly fine with this.
plus just imagine what this would have done to the stock market!
I have wondered this before: Are both our president* and Boris Johnson on Putin’s payroll?
Have been (what's far beyond aghast? That's where I am) at the Pretender's I-don't-feel-responsible responses to everything from the Great Covid Fuckup to the state of race relations to caging children, but have to ask this question;
Outside of an electoral defeat, when have we held our dear leaders accountable for anything they've done? Nixon, maybe, though he skated with Ford's pardon. Other than that?
Not Vietnam and its 50.000 dead Americans, and a whole generation of adult males afflicted with PTSD or suffering from the ill effects of Agent Orange? The broken bodies, minds, hearts and families?
Iran-Contra? Nope. Nothing stuck to Sunny Boy.
And the second Iraq invasion that we may never recover from, economically or geo-politically?
Thought Obama made a mistake here with his typically light touch. No punishment for the diabolical behavior of those who lied to get us into the mess and none consequent to the related financial ruin encouraged the Bush II administration. Nary a financier in jail. Again, the whole bunch, off Scott free, re-inforced the same terrible message of unaccountability.
We know presidents and their administrations are not infallible. Some even engage in obvious criminal acts, yet we let it all go. Harm? Yes? Foul? Yeah. But no accountability. None.
Our history tells us out presidents can do pretty much anything they want.
The Pretender may be dumber than a rock, but that's one lesson he paid attention to along the path of protected privilege he's walked his entire life.
Is it time for a change? I'd like to think so.
Maybe not jail, but exile....to a s---hole country.
WAY-WORD WITH WOODWARD:
Once upon a time a reporter trying to get dirt on a president of the U.S. received information from an FBI informant in an underground garage. Today this same journalist ( he has since risen to that status) and writer of many books about presidents––has revealed in his new book the sickening truth about this president's dereliction of duty–-and this time HE'S got the tapes to prove it.
No longer can the cover be that Fatty "just didn't get how serious this is" nor the lie "I didn't want people to panic"––it's out now–-and should be the reason for his resignation.
Sylvia Plath's poem comes to mind––"All The Dead Dears"––- thousands of dead, dear to their families and friends no longer have a voice and I wonder if those still alive and wear the red hat and carry the "I'm for Trump" signs will change their minds about their "savior."
"He lied to you! He thinks you are stupid––do you understand that?? "
And how does one live with the knowledge that if things had been otherwise, those thousands would still be alive.
Wait...so the dangerous psychopath who encourages violence, applauds those who kill to support his racist jihad, and holds murderous dictators in the highest regard is nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize? If that horrible née-groe, the guy who thinks he’s so smart, can get a Nobel, certainly the Great Donald, best human being to ever walk the planet—and he did too earn all that money himself so stop saying his daddy gave him everything—should be able to win one. Why, he should get three or four!
Nonetheless, despite the ridiculousness of this fear mongering thug bring nominated, the insignificance of this clearly outrageous nomination will not keep Whiny Boy from wallowing in self pity when he doesn’t win. Everyone is out to get him. No one appreciates his greatness. Time to let another twenty of thirty thousand Americans die of the Trump virus, and foment a few more violent demonstrations by his gun toting sycophants, just to show everyone exactly how peace loving he really is.
And might have to start a war too, just to get their attention (and steal the election).
That’ll show ‘em.
And let's make sure it won't come to this and fight like hell to make sure it doesn't:
"The U.S. might stop treating the pandemic as the emergency that it is. Daily tragedy might become ambient noise. The desire for normality might render the unthinkable normal. Like poverty and racism, school shootings and police brutality, mass incarceration and sexual harassment, widespread extinctions and changing climate, COVID-19 might become yet another unacceptable thing that America comes to accept." (The Atlantic)
The other night, Michael Cohen suggested Trump's get-out-of-jail plan should he have to leave his current digs next year: resign on, say, January 19, 2020, at which point newly-minted President* pence pardons him.
If pence will go along, it could work, except in regard to any state charges against Trump. Would pence do it? I'm guessing yes, but it would be fitting if Trump resigned, pence became president-for-a-day (and a fun asterisk for the history books, should the country survive) & told Donald re: the pardon part of the plan that he was only kidding.
Bea,
As delightful as it would be, I don't think it likely.
The Pretender won't resign. That would be the right thing to do--and he always does the wrong thing.
But were he to step down early next year, angling for the Presidential Pardon's universal solvent, there could be a bedrock of psychologic truth in the Pretender-Pence relationship that could make it happen that way.
Pence must at some level (don't know how close to the surface) just hate the Pretender, who has rendered all his pretentions to righteousness obvious bullshit. Here he is, allied to the biggest liar, the most immoral, the greatest fool in American presidential history, and cognitive dissonance must be ripping him (or his public persona) apart.
Given the chance, he might jump at the chance for revenge and a modicum of public redemption or its appearance.
I know I wouldn't trust the guy...As the Pretender probably sensed from the beginning, Pence is a con man, too.
Regarding Woodward’s keeping mum on the existential lies of the Orange Menace, as much as I wish he had at least broached the subject months ago, no real difference would have come of it without Trump acting in a serious way on the knowledge he clearly had about the dangers of Covid-19. He was never going to do that. However...one thing that might have changed, could have been the level of pressure put on Republicans to, for once in their misbegotten lives, act responsibly.
As long as they could hide behind Fatty’s bullshit about miracle cures and “no worse than a cold” lies, they could disavow any knowledge, run with the lies, and shirk all responsibility (their usual MO). But having clear and indisputable evidence that Trump knew all along how bad this thing was and still did nothing as tens of thousands died, may have prompted some small level of action.
It also would put all the Foxbots on notice that their attempts to paper over such willfully malicious malfeasance wouldn’t be easy. True, the MAGA morons would believe only what Trump spoon fed them, but the heat under his fat ass would have been much more uncomfortable, perhaps leading to full scale public meltdowns.
I dunno. I’m not even sure, at this late date, anything will matter. But it should. In any moral universe, this prick should be in handcuffs right now.
But he’s right about one thing. He actually could murder someone in cold blood in Times Square and none of his drooling idiot supporters would care. In fact, he murdered about 50,000 people (and counting) and they still don’t care.
Having a hard time not being furious with Mr. Watergate Hero, but also can see that if he had let this drop months earlier, the way things work (add scandal, mix, completely bake, consume, forget--)and assuming that the repugs might be "responsible citizens" and address any of this, it would be buried and Dumpface would be declaring victory already. So far, I have heard exactly zero of the repugs even reacting to this news. Hating Congress is simply routine. They never do anything right, despite the House at least responsibly voting. The president of these "united" states is a disgusting pig, and deserves leg irons. Hope he has a revolting toad with him, side by side. And the senate repugs can all go hang themselves. A girl can dream, I guess...
Trump: “I still like playing it down because I don’t want to create a panic,”
I've gotten hung up on the word "like," Trump's enjoyment of lying to the American people. It is sick, but also explains much of what has gone on the last four years.
RAS,
Interesting point. Words do matter, even if the speaker doesn’t actually have all the best ones, as often claimed, like referring to members of the military as “suckers”, which, to a career con man like Trump means “marks, easily fooled and fleeced”.
The use of “like” in the sentence to which you refer seems to indicate Fatty’s approval for a strategy that’s best for him. There’s no sense that he has any concern for the tens of thousands dead and dying. They are, after all, merely incidental. Something to consider purely as a PR problem. His rationale about not wanting to cause a panic is undermined by “like” because it indicates that he’s choosing the option that best suits him.
In this situation (American citizens dying because of lack of leadership) there are no “options”. There’s only one course of action. Act to save as many as possible and prevent others from becoming infected.
As with my earlier metaphor of a burning house, there are no “options” to mull over, with one being liked more than all the others. There’s just “Save everyone you can”. No other way to go.
Unless you’re a debauched psychopath.
PD wrote, of DiJiT, to his supporters: "He thinks you are stupid––do you understand that??"
She put her finger right on the problem, there. Too stupid to understand it. Hopeless.
The mention above of "then-DHS Deputy Chief of Staff Miles Taylor" shows how deep the Trump swamp must be cleaned if we can get his crime syndicate out of the White House.
This Miles Taylor fella has been making the media rounds these days raising the alarms about Drumpf's unfitness, which is an important service, but now his name keeps coming up that he has blood all over his hands too. Working for DHS and trying to get intel to fudge the numbers? Way to go buddy.
If there were ever a definitive account of "could it happen here", Republicans of every stripe are all tying up their boot laces and sharpening their bayonets.
Now Giuliani & Johnson are all directly related to active Russian measures activity and they''ll double down too, with Lindsey Graham banging the gavel. Reality is a hell of a drug.
Trumps reply to his C-19 lies being published is basically: "So?"
And from all I can see the PoT is buying it.
@Akhilleus: We all know that Trump feels no sympathy for the victims of Covid-19, just as he feels no sympathy for the "students" at fake "Trump University" or for the millions of boobs who voted for him believing he would give them better & cheaper health insurance & bring back their wonderful jobs in the coal mines.
In fact, he cannot. If a grifter felt sorry for his marks, he wouldn't run the grift in the first place. I suppose it's a chicken-and-egg question -- which came first, his callous nature or his cruelty? But they go hand-in-hand. You can't have one without the other. Trump's entire life has been centered on hurting others -- from the black people he wouldn't rent apartments to, to the women he assaulted, to the hundreds (or thousands) of mom-and-pop vendors he stiffed, to the rest of us taxpayers he cheated, etc. If Trump took stock of the harm he has done, he would crumble. He cannot take responsibility; he cannot care. It's a matter of self-preservation. He is locked in a vicious cycle of cruel & careless behavior.
So of course he doesn't give a damn about the tens of thousands he has killed or the millions he has sickened. As @RAS points out, Trump "likes" to bamboozle the "weak" "suckers" and "losers."
And it is not our job to feel sorry for him because he is beyond being able to experience "normal" human emotions. It's our job to curb his ability to so liberally exercise the cruelty that accompanies his hollow self.
Patrick,
Yes stupid and deplorable both.
Sent this response to the WAPO Michael Gerson (what have I wrought?) op-ed.
In it Gerson lists a number of recent revelations that should raise the question of how anyone could possibly continue to support this man, but he skipped this big one.
"All true, but the glaring omission here is the race issue.
The anti-Obama, pretend president is not saving western civilization.
Aside from saving himself first of all, he's saving white western civilization, and his supporters know that and approve.
And if he has to wreck civil society with all its revered institutions in the process, that means nothing at all to him or to them.
Call it white nihilism, for that's what it is."
When it comes to racial animus, stupidity is only part of the answer.
Oh, Ken. So close.
Call it white nihilism. It is what it is.