The Commentariat -- Nov. 28, 2018
Afternoon Update:
John Wagner & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "House Democrats, poised to take control of the chamber next year, are meeting behind closed doors on Wednesday to nominate a speaker and choose other members of their leadership team. The gathering provides a key test of strength for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), who is unopposed in her bid to become speaker again but faces opposition from nearly two dozen Democrats who argue the party needs fresh leadership.... Pelosi is on the cusp of finalizing a deal with a group of holdout centrists pushing for House process reforms.... The full House, including Republican members, will choose a speaker on Jan. 3. If Democrats win two uncalled races where their candidates are leading, they will have won 235 seats, meaning Pelosi can weather as many as 17 defections. In their first action Wednesday, House Democrats picked Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) as their new caucus chair." This story is being updated. ...
... Update. Julie Davis of the New York Times: "Representative Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday handily won the Democratic nomination to be speaker when her party claims the House majority in the new Congress, but with 32 Democrats voting no, she was well short of the number she will need to reclaim the gavel in January. In a secret-ballot vote that dramatized rifts among Democrats only weeks after midterm election victories handed them House control, Ms. Pelosi, who is the first woman to be speaker, won support from 203 Democrats. Beyond the 32 no votes, three ballots were blank. To become speaker, she must win 218 votes in a House floor vote on Jan. 3, so the tally will touch off what promises to be an intensive period of arm-twisting and cajoling to reach her goal. It also gives some time for a serious challenger to emerge."
Mark Landler, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump is projecting a steely facade as he prepares for a critical meeting on trade this weekend with President Xi Jinping of China. But behind his tough talk and threats of higher tariffs is a creeping anxiety about the costs of a prolonged trade war on the financial markets and the broader economy. That could set the stage for a truce between the United States and China, several American officials said, in the form of an agreement that would delay new tariffs for several months while the world's two largest economies try to work out the issues dividing them.... Mr. Trump has signaled a new willingness to make a deal with Mr. Xi, a leader he has treated solicitously and will meet over dinner on Saturday in Buenos Aires, after a summit meeting of leaders of the Group of 20 industrialized nations."
Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "Emerging signs of weakness in major economic sectors, including auto manufacturing, agriculture and home building, are prompting some forecasters to warn that one of the longest periods of economic growth in American history may be approaching the end of its run. The economy has been a picture of health, expanding at a 3.5 percent annual pace during the third quarter and driving the unemployment rate to 3.7 percent, the lowest level in almost half a century. But General Motors' plan to cut 14,000 jobs and shutter five factories reinforces other recent indications that the better part of the expansion is now in the rearview mirror."
Jake Sherman & Anna Palmer of Politico: "Nine days ahead of a deadline that could trigger a partial government shutdown, with no solution in sight, the president told Politico in a Tuesday Oval Office interview that he is unflinchingly firm Congress must send him a bill approving $5 billion for his wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, and said he would 'totally be willing' to shut down the government if he doesn't get it. Democratic leaders -- including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) -- have said they would approve $1.6 billion for the wall, placing the two sides billions of dollars apart as the lame-duck session begins."
Uh-oh. Dana Bash, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump told special counsel Robert Mueller in writing that Roger Stone did not tell him about WikiLeaks, nor was he told about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between his son, campaign officials and a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton, according to two sources familiar with the matter. One source described the President's answers without providing any direct quotes and said the President made clear he was answering to the best of his recollection.... These written answers could be subject to criminal charges if false." Mrs. McC: Neither of these assertions is believable. ...
... Asawin Suebsaeng & Scott Bixby of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump, who built his political rise on promoting far-right birther claims against President Barack Obama, does in fact have a joint defense agreement with leading birther conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, The Daily Beast has confirmed. Rudy Giuliani ... said in a brief phone interview Wednesday morning that the joint defense agreement that Corsi had earlier claimed existed does actually exist. Giuliani said he confirmed this with Jane Raskin, another member of the Trump legal team, adding that the agreement is a recent development. Giuliani also said he has talked about the agreement and Corsi with President Trump in recent days, and that Trump told him he 'vaguely knows' Corsi, but 'doesn't remember the last time they spoke.'" ...
... Aaron Blake of Washington Post: In the NYT story by Michael Schmidt & others, linked below, "Rudolph W. Giuliani practically brags about having pulled one over on Mueller by gleaning key information from the arrangement.... The Trump team is saying this highly unusual arrangement was used to gain a strategic advantage. It isn't even pretending these were harmless status updates. Giuliani is gloating about having gamed the legal system.... Mueller's team could decide that this arrangement has amounted to witness tampering or obstruction, or that it adds to a mountain of evidence on that latter count.... 'If the purpose was to gather information about what's going on in the investigation and share it back with others who are potential subjects of the investigation so that they can take steps to ensure that the investigation does not come to fruition,' former federal prosecutor Barbara McQaude said Tuesday night on MSNBC, 'I think that could amount to obstruction of justice.' Some former federal prosecutors offered similar takes.... Mueller may now have reason to probe the contacts between the two legal teams, and those contacts became no longer privileged after Manafort signed his cooperation deal." ...
... Ken Meyer of Mediaite: "ABC News chief legal analyst and Mediaite founder Dan Abrams says Paul Manafort might be trying to pull a double bluff with his plea deal with Robert Mueller and his apparent coordination with President Trump's legal team.... 'It's starting to feel like he was on a fact-finding mission for the Trump team to figure out exactly what do they want, what kind of questions are they asking, et cetera.' [Abrams said.]... Manafort might be banking on a presidential pardon. 'By saying "I'm with you, prosecutors," and then not just not cooperating, but -- according to prosecutors -- lying repeatedly ... You have to believe he thinks he's got another option here,' Abrams explained."
Way Too Much Executive Time:
... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Wednesday hinted he may support new tariffs on auto imports as his latest response to General Motors' decision to shutter U.S. factories and lay off workers. In a series of tweets, Trump argued that a longstanding 25 percent tariff on light trucks has boosted U.S. auto manufacturers and that the same approach could work for cars. 'If we did that with cars coming in, many more cars would be built here and G.M. would not be closing their plants in Ohio, Michigan & Maryland. Get smart Congress,' Trump wrote. The president said major auto exporting countries 'have taken advantage of the U.S. for decades" and warned 'that the president has great power on this issue.' 'Because of the G.M. event, it is being studied now!' he wrote." ...
... Kyle Cheney of Politico: "... Donald Trump appeared to accuse his own deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, of treason on Wednesday, posting a meme to his Twitter feed that shows an image of Rosenstein and a slew of Trump critics behind bars. The image also included special counsel Robert Mueller, former FBI Director James Comey, former national intelligence director James Clapper and Bill and Hillary Clinton. Their picture was overlaid with the words, 'Now that Russia collusion is a proven lie, when do the trials for treason begin?'" ...
... Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Donald Trump suggested without evidence on Wednesday that special counsel Robert Mueller and his team are bullying witnesses into lying about collusion in order to be spared punishment, marking the president's latest attempt to discredit the Russia probe. The president on Wednesday complained in a tweet that 'While the disgusting Fake News is doing everything within their power not to report it that way, at least 3 major players are intimating that the Angry Mueller Gang of Dems is viciously telling witnesses to lie about facts & they will get relief.'" ...
... Rebecca Morin of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday shared a post from a parody account of Vice President Mike Pence giving thanks 'for every day Hillary Clinton is not president.' The post was originally shared by @MikePenceVP, a profile that uses the same photo as one of Pence's verified accounts but describes itself as a 'fan account. My Goal is to expose liberal hypocrisy and Fake News Bias.' The vice president's official Twitter accounts are @VP and @Mike_Pence."
Dana Milbank: "... after two long years, the truth is finally catching up with Trump and his winged whoppers. In recent days, Trump's bogus claims about the economy, the Russia inquiry, the judiciary, climate change, the midterms, race and national security have been crumbling, publicly, for all to see.... It is too late to undo much of the damage caused by Trump's deceptions. But recent days give hope that, though limping and bedraggled, the truth still is the truth."
Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "A key Senate committee on Wednesday postponed a vote on President Trump's pick to lead the main agency handling immigration enforcement, as a coalition of unions ... representing Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel ... raised 'serious concern' about Ronald D. Vitiello's ability to effectively oversee the agency. The delay comes at a time when the nation is facing a crisis on the borde and Trump is pressuring agencies and Congress on an immigration crackdown. The timing is also critical, because all nominations will expire at the end of the year if the Senate doesn't act on them." Mrs. McC: Ha Ha Ha. One of the unions' "serious concerns" was that in March 2016 Vitiello reportedly compared Trump to Dennis the Menace. Very unfair to Dennis, IMO.
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "The Senate advanced a controversial judicial pick for President Trump on Wednesday after Vice President Pence cast a tie-breaking vote for the nomination. Senators were deadlocked 50-50 to end debate on Thomas Farr's nomination to be a district judge for the eastern district of North Carolina. Pence, presiding over the chamber, then cast the tie-breaking vote.... Farr's nomination has drawn intense opposition from Democrats and their outside group allies, who warn that, if confirmed, he'll use his position as a federal judge to rule against minorities. Part of their opposition dates back to the 1990s, when Farr defended Jesse Helms' campaign after the Justice Department investigated it for mailing postcards to more than 120,000 North Carolinians, most of whom were black voters, suggesting they were ineligible to vote and could be prosecuted for voter fraud.... Farr was also part of a group of lawyers hired to defend congressional and legislative boundaries approved by the North Carolina legislature, some of which were later struck down in federal court."
Caitlin Oprysko: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday said that in his view, there is no 'direct reporting' that would link Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month. Pompeo spoke to reporters after briefing senators on the incident along with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, telling the press gaggle that his assessment was well-informed.... CIA Director Gina Haspel, who traveled to the region to investigate Khashoggi's killing, and who has listened to an audio recording of the murder, was not present at Wednesday's briefing." ...
... Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The Trump administration has attempted to persuade the Senate not to cut off US military support to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, arguing that it was in the US national interest and was helping to limit civilian casualties. The defence secretary, James Mattis, and the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, presented a classified briefing to the full Senate, in a last-minute effort to block a bipartisan measure that invokes the War Powers Resolution to end US involvement in the Yemen war. However, several senators who had opposed the same measure in March declared themselves unconvinced, with several complaining about the absence of the CIA director, Gina Haspel, who they wanted to brief the Senate about the murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The CIA has reportedly assessed that the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, most likely ordered the killing of the dissident journalist in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October. Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, said Haspel's failure to appear was 'outrageous' and a 'cover-up'. Tells me volumes about what's really going on here,' Menendez told reporters after the briefing, indicating he would support the Yemen bill, which he had opposed in March."
EPA Head Pushes an Anti-Science Conspiracy Theory. Uh, Without Evidence, Natch. Alex Guillen of Politico: "Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler on Wednesday accused the Obama administration of tilting last week's federal climate change report to focus on the worst-case outcomes -- and indicated that the Trump administration could seek to shape the next big study of the issue.... The report, released on the day after Thanksgiving, was the first major climate assessment produced predominantly during Trump's presidency. But Wheeler still maintained that Trump's predecessor was the driving force behind it. 'The drafting of this report was drafted at the direction of the Obama administration,' Wheeler said. 'And I don't know this for a fact -- I wouldn't be surprised if the Obama administration told the report's authors to take a look at the worst case scenario for this report,' added Wheeler, who said he had not discussed the report with Trump.... The Obama White House official who initiated the assessment flatly denied Wheeler's contention. 'Mr. Wheeler's insinuation is absolutely false,' John Holdren, who served as Obama's science adviser, told Politico in an email. Holdren says he called on the U.S. Global Change Research Program to conduct a thorough study, and that he had no role in selecting the report's authors."
*****
The New York Times has live election results for the special election race for the U.S. Senate in Mississippi. ..
... Update: The AP & NBC News have called the race for the racist white lady. Mrs. McC: Congratulations, Mississippi! You have shown us your true colors -- and they're mighty pale.
Trump Is Smarter Than Anybody -- Just Ask Him. Philip Rucker & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump placed responsibility for recent stock market declines and this week's General Motors plant closures and layoffs on the Federal Reserve during an interview Tuesday, shirking any personal responsibility for cracks in the economy and declaring that he is 'not even a little bit happy' with his hand-selected central bank chairman. In a wide-ranging and sometimes discordant 20-minute interview with The Washington Post, Trump complained at length about Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome H. 'Jay' Powell.... He argued that rising interest rates and other Fed policies were damaging the economy ... though he insisted that he is not worried about a recession. 'I'm doing deals and I'm not being accommodated by the Fed,' Trump said. 'They're making a mistake because I have a gut and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else's brain can ever tell me.' Trump also dismissed the federal government's landmark report released last week that found damages from global warming are intensifying around the country.... 'One of the problems that a lot of people like myself, we have very high levels of intelligence but we're not necessarily such believers,' Trump said. 'You look at our air and our water and it's right now at a record clean.' Trump also threatened to cancel his scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a global summit later this week because of Russia's maritime clash with Ukraine.... When pressed whether he would commit to letting the [Mueller] probe continue until its conclusion, Trump stopped short of making an explicit pledge." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump's argument is that since he's the smartest person around, he is right about everything. I think I'll try that; for one thing, it's charming: "I'm smarter than you are, so your opinion is meaningless. You're an expert on the subject? So what? As a person with a very high level of intelligence, my gut tells me more than you brain can ever tell me." Jeesh! ...
... Here's the full transcript of the interview, which Aaron Blake has annotated.
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Besides being a person with a very high level of intelligence, Trump is a person with a very high level of discernment. According to Rucker & Dawsey's report, "Trump considered reappointing [Fed Chair Janet] Yellen to the post, and she impressed him greatly during an interview.... But ... the president ... told aides on the National Economic Council on several occasions that the 5-foot-3-inch economist was not tall enough to lead the central bank, quizzing them on whether they agreed, current and former officials said."
This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.
** Obstruction in Plain Sight, Ctd. Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: "A lawyer for Paul Manafort, the president's onetime campaign chairman, repeatedly briefed President Trump's lawyers on his client's discussions with federal investigators after Mr. Manafort agreed to cooperate with the special counsel, according to one of Mr. Trump's lawyers and two other people familiar with the conversations. The arrangement was highly unusual and inflamed tensions with Mr. Mueller's office when prosecutors discovered it after Mr. Manafort began cooperating two months ago, the people said. Some legal experts speculated that it was a bid by Mr. Manafort for a presidential pardon even as he worked with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, in hopes of a lighter sentence. Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of the president's personal lawyers, acknowledged the arrangement on Tuesday and defended it as a source of valuable insights into the special counsel's inquiry and where it was headed.... For example, Mr. Giuliani said, Mr. Manafort's lawyer Kevin M. Downing told him that prosecutors hammered away at whether the president knew about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting where Russians promised to deliver damaging information on Hillary Clinton to his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. The president has long denied knowing about the meeting in advance. 'He wants Manafort to incriminate Trump,' Mr. Giuliani declared of Mr. Mueller." ...
... Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump on Tuesday lobbed familiar insults and accusations at the special counsel investigation, a day after prosecutors said his former campaign chairman repeatedly lied to investigators in breach of a previous plea agreement. The continuing investigation is a 'Phony Witch Hunt,' carried out by a 'conflicted' prosecutor and a staff of 'Angry Democrats,' the president said in three morning Twitter posts." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Carl Bernstein & Devan Cole of CNN: "... Robert Mueller's team has been investigating a meeting between former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno in Quito in 2017 and has specifically asked if WikiLeaks or its founder, Julian Assange, were discussed in the meeting, a source with personal knowledge of the matter tells CNN. In November 2017, The Associated Press reported that Moreno publicly acknowledged meeting with Manafort and a group of Chinese businessmen who wanted to privatize the country's electric corporation. Moreno said the proposal was rejected." ...
... digby: "Josh Marshall notes that [Manafort] met with the Ecuadoran governments on the same day that Trump fired Comey which may be coincidence but is intriguing nonetheless." Marshall's post is subscriber-firewalled." ...
... Uh-oh. Luke Harding & Dan Collyns of the Guardian: "... Paul Manafort held secret talks with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and visited around the time he joined Trump's campaign, the Guardian has been told. Sources have said Manafort went to see Assange in 2013, 2015 and in spring 2016 -- during the period when he was made a key figure in Trump's push for the White House. It is unclear why Manafort would have wanted to see Assange and what was discussed. But the last apparent meeting is likely to come under scrutiny and could interest Robert Mueller.... A well-placed source has told the Guardian that Manafort went to see Assange around March 2016. Months later WikiLeaks released a stash of Democratic emails stolen by Russian intelligence officers. Manafort, 69, denies involvement in the hack and says the claim is '100% false'." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Oops. safari linked this earlier Tuesday, but I hadn't seen it. ...
... Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "... if it is true that Manafort met with Assange in the spring of 2016, it would be almost ludicrous to think they didn't discuss the Democratic emails stolen by Russia that WikiLeaks was soon to release in order to damage Hillary Clinton's candidacy. And if that were true, it would mean the Trump campaign -- or at least the Trump campaign chairman -- had advance knowledge of the centerpiece of the Russian effort to manipulate the 2016 election.... Today might turn out to be [a]... blockbuster [day], because we have not one but two new and potentially vital developments. Both of them involve ... Paul Manafort, and while it's always possible they'll turn out to be inconsequential, the fact that the president himself is highly distressed suggests otherwise[.]" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Jeet Heer: "There are genuine grounds to be cautious about the report. It is based on anonymous sources, some of whom are connected with Ecuadorian intelligence. The logs of the embassy show no such meetings. The information about the most newsworthy meeting (in the spring of 2016) is vaguely worded, suggesting a lack of certitude." Mrs. McC: But if it is true, there's a good chance Mueller already knows about it because Rick Gates. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Update. Matt Naham: Julian "Assange has 'instructed his lawyers to sue the Guardian for libel over [the] fabricated Manafort story.'" He's established a GoFundMe account to help cover his legal fees. The suit is not farfetched in the UK, where libel laws place the burden of proof on the accused libeler rather than the claimant victim. Anyhow, I guess Julian there is not so free-pressy when it comes to stories about him. ...
... Sara Murray & Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Draft court filings obtained by CNN outline significant insights into what special counsel Robert Mueller may know about Roger Stone's efforts to seek documents from WikiLeaks in 2016.... the documents made public Tuesday are the strongest signal yet that Stone could be charged with a crime.... If Stone were to be charged with a crime for seeking the stolen documents, others who discussed with him reaching WikiLeaks could also face legal risk in a criminal conspiracy case or if they attempted to shield information from Congress, the FBI, prosecutors or the grand jury.... Mueller's office was preparing to tell a federal court that Stone pushed an associate to get documents from WikiLeaks -- information that is now known to be stolen from the Democrats by Russian hackers -- that could help the Trump campaign, according to a draft of a court filing and other documents shared with CNN by Stone associate and conservative author Jerome Corsi. Corsi said he received the drafts, mostly dated this month, as part of his negotiations with Mueller's team regarding a plea of making a false statement to federal investigators. According to Corsi and the documents he provided, prosecutors offered him a plea deal, which Corsi says he plans to reject because he doesn't believe he knowingly lied.... In the draft court papers, prosecutors outline how Corsi allegedly lied three times to the FBI and special counsel's office." ...
... Anna Schecter of NBC News: "Two months before WikiLeaks released emails stolen from the Clinton campaign..., Jerome Corsi sent an email to former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone anticipating the document dump, according to draft court papers obtained by NBC News. 'Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps,' Corsi wrote on Aug. 2, 2016, referring to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, according to the draft court papers. 'One shortly after I'm back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging.'... In ... interviews [with investigators], the draft court papers say, Corsi said that his claims to Stone, beginning in 2016, that he had a way of obtaining confidential information from WikiLeaks were false." ...
... Sharon LaFraniere & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: Jerome Corsi "released documents on Tuesday showing that as the presidential campaign heated up in the summer of 2016, [Roger] Stone tried to dispatch him to find out what information WikiLeaks had that could prove damaging to Hillary Clinton's campaign.... Mr. Corsi's dealings with Mr. Mueller's prosecutors have caused alarm among the president's legal team, who were informed of developments by Mr. Corsi's lawyer. President Trump's lawyers were especially troubled by a draft statement of offense against Mr. Corsi that was passed on to them, according to people familiar with the situation. In it, prosecutors claimed that Mr. Corsi understood that Mr. Stone was 'in regular contact with senior members of the Trump campaign, including with then-candidate Donald J. Trump' when he asked Mr. Corsi in late July 2016 to 'get to' Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks.... Only after Mr. Mueller's team reassured Mr. Trump's lawyers that they were not trying to lure the president into a trap did they forward his answers [to Mueller's written questions] on Nov. 20." ...
... Jonathan Chait: "Jerome Corsi ... asserted yesterday that his knowledge of the timing and content of stolen Democratic emails in 2016 was simply the product of his own brilliant analysis.... Piecing together public information, he sifted through 1,000 pages of information about the Democratic party's computer systems and, via 'forensic analysis,' inferred that John Podesta's emails had been stolen and would soon be published. Corsi also explained that his misstatements to the special counsel about his actions were simply inadvertent mistakes due to 'terrible' memory.... Shockingly, this account appears not to be, uh, true.... Corsi was in contact with WikiLeaks and, more importantly, that he passed on what he knew to Roger Stone.... Stone repeatedly flaunted inside knowledge of WikiLeaks' stolen emails during the campaign, but, like Corsi, has denied having had any inside information about this. These denials also appear to be not, uh, true.... Stone, by his own account, communicated with Trump regularly throughout the campaign. The odds that the self-proclaimed 'dirty trickster' declined to share his delicious secret about the stolen emails during those conversations with Trump are very, very low." ...
... Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "The draft filing, first reported by NBC News and provided by [Jerome] Corsi to The Washington Post, provides a remarkable look at the case [Robert] Mueller is building related to WikiLeaks and the most detailed allegations yet that a key associate in Trump's orbit was provided advance knowledge of the group's plans.... Rudolph W. Giuliani ... said the president does not recall ever speaking to either [Roger] Stone or Corsi about WikiLeaks. He said the president's legal team obtained a copy of the Corsi document earlier this month and lodged a complaint with the Justice Department about the inclusion of Trump's name in the draft filing. The episode delayed the delivery of Trump's written responses to questions posed by the special counsel.... Making such documents public before a court filing would infuriate most prosecutors, because sharing such details could compromise ongoing investigative work and tip off other suspects about what the FBI knows." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's a coincidence: Manafort's and Corsi's pleas collapsed at the same time. You might think somebody was kinda muscling Corsi into tearing up his plea deal. As Yogi Berra might say, "That's too coincidental to be a coincidence." Speaking of such "coincidences," Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out on his MSNBC show that Corsi's gift of his draft plea agreement to Trump's lawyers coincidenced with Trump's tweet earlier this month wherein he claimed, "The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess. They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts. They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want." At the time, I figured friendly acting AG Matt Whitaker was Trump's source about the "inner workings" but I think O'Donnell is right: Corsi was the source. BUT ..
... Update: Matt Naham ties this & other Trump tweets to revelations he gleaned from Manafort's attorneys.
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This much is clear: all of the principals here (and maybe all the lawyers, too) are mobsters. Their lies and double dealing & backroom shenanigans -- much less their underlying criminal activities -- surely have infuriated Mueller & his team. BTW, why do you think Trump isn't upset MBS ordered a hit on Jamal Khashoggi? Because he'd do the same damned thing if he thought he could get away with it. The head of the U.S. government is Tony Soprano (who, you may recall, is a comic character), but less complex, dumber, less introspective & less empathetic. Bada bing, bada boom.
Nicole Guadiano of USA Today: "A blocked number in Donald Trump Jr.'s phone records may be among the first targets for Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee in January as they investigate possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Rep. Adam Schiff, who is poised to lead the committee when Democrats take over the House majority, told USA Today that his committee will have to prioritize the most important witnesses and records that Republicans blocked them from pursuing. The 'clearest example' of that obstruction, he said, is phone records that would show whether the blocked phone number -- logged as Trump Jr. was arranging a meeting with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower -- belonged to then-candidate Donald Trump. Trump's son arranged the June 2016 meeting after being promised 'dirt' on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. At first, Trump Jr. said he never told his father of the meeting, but then later told Senate investigators that he couldn't recall who he spoke with that night." (Also linked yesterday.)
Jeremy Kahn & Nate Lanxon of Bloomberg: "Facebook Inc. knew that Russian-linked entities were using a feature on the social network that let advertisers harvest large amounts of data as early as October 2014, according to an internal email a U.K. lawmaker said he had reviewed. Previously, Facebook has said it was unaware of this sort of Russian activity on the social network untilafter the 2016 election.... Facebook said that the document ... was taken out of context. 'The engineers who had flagged these initial concerns subsequently looked into this further and found no evidence of specific Russian activity,' the company said in an email to Bloomberg Tuesday." --s (Also linked yesterday.)
Josh Marshall of TPM: "With a highly dangerous situation unfolding between Russia and Ukraine over the weekend [and the Saudi Arabia debacle], it's important to return to a basic point about President Trump and the danger he represents to the United States.... The problem in both cases is that Trump appears to be pursuing some definition of his own personal interests over national interests. It's not always clear just what that personal interest is, whether it is a narrow financial interest or some kind of threat-influence or whether he's just been buttered up by the strongman in question. But it makes the conduct of US policy almost impossible to predict or trust.... As a country we remain in a state of shadow paralysis, not even able to adequately discuss or devise responses to critical foreign policy because the President's actions are opaque and almost certainly corrupt." --s (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... The Chickenshits in Charge. Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "John R. Bolton, President Trump's national security adviser, defended on Tuesday the fact that neither Mr. Trump nor top national security officials had listened to audio of the killing of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying that they did not speak Arabic and would not be able to understand what was on the tape." Mrs. McC: In a "normal" White House, if the president & his aides were going to dismiss a brutal murder, they would at least have the guts to thoroughly review the evidence of the heinous crime. "I don't speak Arabic" is right up there with "the dog ate my homework" excuse. Lame. As Aunt Hattie suggested near the end of yesterday's thread, "Really? Maybe re-hire all of those (fired!) gay translators who were fluent in Arabic (and other languages), yet subject to your - and your 'brethren's' - hateful, ignorant bigotry." The reporters in the room with Bolton also suggested Bolton could find a translator. ...
... Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The White House [-- in this case, John Bolton --] has denied preventing the CIA director, Gina Haspel, from briefing the Senate on the murder of Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi. The secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and the defence secretary, James Mattis, are due to give a briefing on US relations with Saudi Arabia to the entire Senate behind closed doors on Wednesday, ahead of a vote that could cut off US support for Riyadh's military campaign in Yemen. On a national security issue of such importance, it would be customary for a senior intelligence official to take part, Senate staffers said. On this occasion, the absence of the intelligence community is all the more glaring, as Haspel travelled to Istanbul to hear audio tapes of Khashoggi's murder provided by Turkish intelligence, and then briefed Donald Trump. Senior senators including the chairman of the foreign relations committee, Bob Corker, have called for Haspel to appear, but there was no sign on Tuesday evening that she will take part. Officials said that the decision for Haspel not to appear in front of the committee came from the White House...." ...
... Juan Cole: "To forestall ... total war and genocide [in Yemen], the UN Security Council has been attempting to achieve a ceasefire. CNN reported, however, that when Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman saw the resolution, he was absolutely furious and threw a fit. The Saudis have some sort of hold over Trump. He has run interference for Bin Salman with regard to the murder of ... Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Now Riyadh appears to have pulled some sort of strings to get Trump to block the UNSC resolution.... CNN obtained a copy of the British-crafted resolution, which critics of the war had already seen as inadequate. It only calls for a ceasefire at Hodeida port and compliments the Saudi war effort, slamming the Houthis for defending themselves. But even this mild resolution has been deep-sixed." --s (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Andrew Sorkin of the New York Times: "... the president's strong support for the crown prince [of Saudi Arabia] ... may have the opposite effect to the one intended.... Congress is now making noises about doing what the president would not: a public investigation that could lead to real sanctions. (If this sounds familiar, it's because it is a replay of what happened a year ago after Mr. Trump refused to punish Russia for meddling in our elections.)... Not only has Mr. Trump increased the chances that Congress will enact restrictions on the Saudi royal family or make it harder to do business with the kingdom, he has prompted Democrats to question his financial ties to Saudi Arabia. [Rep. Adam] Schiff [D-Calif.], who is expected to take over as chairman of the Intelligence Committee when Democrats take control of the House in January, has promised to investigate those, too." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Uki Goñi & Julian Borger of the Guardian: "Argentine prosecutors are considering charging Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman with war crimes and torture if he flies to Buenos Aires for the G20 summit this week. The move comes after advocacy group Human Rights Watch wrote to a federal prosecutor arguing that the Argentinian courts should invoke a universal jurisdiction statute in Argentinian law...Judicial sources were quoted as saying that the likelihood that this will happen 'is very difficult', the newspaper Clarín reported, adding that Khashoggi's murder might not qualify as a 'crime against human rights.' However, the HRW submission is based on a wider pattern of torture as well as military operations in Yemen." --s (Also linked yesterday.)
Trump Threatens GM. Neal Boudette of the New York Times: "When General Motors announced that it would idle five North American plants and eliminate thousands of jobs, it said the move would ease the burden of spending billions of dollars to develop the battery-powered vehicles of the future. But the White House put a question mark over those plans on Tuesday when President Trump -- irate over the G.M. cutbacks -- threatened an end to federal tax credits that have helped underwrite that automaker's electric-vehicle fleet.... Apparently referring to G.M.'s federal rescue from bankruptcy in 2009, the president [wrote ina tweet]: 'The U.S. saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get! We are now looking at cutting all @GM subsidies, including for electric cars.' And at a White House news briefing, Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, said..., 'We're going to be looking at certain subsidies regarding electric cars and others and whether they should apply or not,' Mr. Kudlow added. 'Can't say anything final about that, but we are looking into it.'"
Revelling in Misery. Erin Banco & Asawin Suebsaeng of The Daily Beast: "When border agents fired canisters of tear gas into a crowd of unarmed migrants in Tijuana over the weekend, officials in the Department of Homeland Security and White House quietly cheered. It was exactly the fodder they needed in the waning days of Republican-controlled Washington to pressure Congress for billions to fund the border wall. That sentiment, which was palpable at DHS in particular, startled some in the highest ranks of Customs and Border Patrol, an official in the agency told The Daily Beast. 'They are totally all in. They have gone batshit crazy,' one former senior official said of leaders inside DHS and the White House." --s (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... "Annals of Journalism", Ctd. Frank Dale of ThinkProgress: "Fox & Friends, President Donald Trump's favorite morning 'news' source, devoted the majority of its three hours of Monday programming to fear-mongering over the migrant caravan and undocumented immigrants.... After claiming the caravan was 'supported by outside sources,' had a 'sense of entitlement,' and shouldn't be considered 'true refugees,' former U.S. Border Patrol deputy chief Ron Colburn said it was pepper spray being used against unarmed migrants and it was actually part of a balanced diet. 'You could actually put it on your nachos and eat it.'" --s (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Ginger Thompson of ProPublica: "The Trump administration has quietly resumed separating immigrant families at the border, in some cases using vague or unsubstantiated allegations of wrongdoing or minor violations against the parents, including charges of illegally re-entering the country, as justification. Over the last three months, lawyers at Catholic Charities, which provides legal services to immigrant children in government custody in New York, have discovered at least 16 new separation cases. They say they have come across such instances by chance and via their own sleuthing after children were put into temporary foster care and shelters with little or no indication that they arrived at the border with their parents.... Lawyers at the ACLU and Catholic Charities said that the DOJ responded that it wasn't obligated to report the new separations to the ACLU because they hadn't been done as a part of the zero-tolerance policy. The DOJ said that in 14 of the 17 cases flagged in the ACLU's letter, the children were removed from their parents' custody because authorities suspected the parents had some kind of criminal background that made them unfit -- even dangerous. But the agency would not specify what crimes the parents were suspected of committing and what evidence authorities had to support these allegations." ...
... Garance Burke & Martha Mendoza of the AP: "The Trump administration has put the safety of thousands of teens at a migrant detention camp at risk by waiving FBI fingerprint checks for their caregivers and short-staffing mental health workers, according to an Associated Press investigation and a new federal watchdog report. None of the 2,100 staffers at a tent city holding more than 2,300 teens in the remote Texas desert are going through rigorous FBI fingerprint background checks, according to a Health and Human Services inspector general memo published Tuesday. 'Instead, Tornillo is using checks conducted by a private contractor that has access to less comprehensive data, thereby heightening the risk that an individual with a criminal history could have direct access to children,' the memo says. In addition, the federal government is allowing the nonprofit running the facility -- BCFS Health and Human Services -- to sidestep mental health care requirements. Under federal policy, migrant youth shelters generally must have one mental health clinician for every 12 kids, but the federal agency's contract with BCFS allows it to staff Tornillo with just one clinician for every 100 children." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So what with Trump's no-asylum policy jamming up Mexico in the worst way, Trump's border patrol lobbing tear gas into Mexico (which would be against international law), Trump's separating immigrant children (no doubt some of them Mexican children) from their parents, & Trump's endangering teenagers in federal custody, this seems like a perfect time for Mexico to give a Big Prize to a member of Trump's family:
... AP: "The Mexican government said Tuesday that it will award ... Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner the highest honor the country gives to foreigners, the Order of the Aztec Eagle. The Foreign Relations Department said Kushner earned the award 'for his significant contributions in achieving the renegotiation of the new (trade) agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada.'" ...
... Update. David Agren of the Guardian: "Outgoing Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto has stunned the country by bestowing the nation’s highest honour for foreigners on Jared Kushner.... Mexicans on Tuesday voiced their outrage over Kushner receiving the Order of the Aztec Eagle, whose past recipients include Queen Elizabeth, Nelson Mandela and Walt Disney.... Peña Nieto leaves office as a loathed figure on 30 November after six years of corruption and conflict-of-interest scandals. His approval rating hovers at just 24%, according to pollster Consulta Mitofsky."
Why the Trade Deficit Is Growing. David Lynch of the Washington Post: "The merchandise trade deficit ... hit a monthly record in September.... Trump promised during the 2016 campaign that he would act against China for manipulating the yuan’s value, and he repeatedly has called the dollar 'too strong.'... In January, Trump abandoned his earlier worries about a rising greenback..., telling CNBC: 'The dollar is going to get stronger and stronger, and ultimately I want to see a strong dollar.'... He has taken no direct action on currencies, instead relying on tariffs to battle trade barriers that he says hurt American companies.... Some labor and business groups are calling on the president to take action to weaken the U.S. currency. Yet his economic policies are making it stronger. A stronger dollar acts as a price increase for U.S. goods sold abroad while making imported products less expensive for Americans."
Juliet Eilperin & Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "The Interior Department's Office of Inspector General has cleared Secretary Ryan Zinke in a probe of whether he redrew boundaries of a national monument in Utah to aid the financial interests of a Republican state lawmaker and stalwart supporter of President Trump. In a Nov. 21 letter to Zinke's deputy, David Bernhardt, Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall wrote that her office 'found no evidence' that the secretary or his aides changed the boundaries of Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in an effort to help former Utah state representative Mike Noel.... Last December, Trump shrank the monument, established by Bill Clinton in 1996, by 46 percent based on Zinke's recommendation. Noel owns 40 acres that had been surrounded by the monument but now lies outside its boundaries.... The inspector general's office still has at least two ongoing probes of the secretary, including one focused on his real estate dealings in Whitefish, Mont., and another regarding his decision to deny a permit to two Connecticut tribes who were hoping to jointly run a casino after MGM Resorts International lobbied against it."
"Strategic Messaging." Alex Thompson & Eliana Johnson of Politico: "Mary Kissel often took a dim view of ... Donald Trump's foreign policy. As a Wall Street Journal editorial writer, she tweeted about his 'frightening ignorance,' criticized his approach on Syria and China, and said Putin 'scored a great propaganda victory' at the Helsinki summit in July. And Trump swatted back. After Kissel said in a March 2016 appearance on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' that Trump has 'no principles, he has no policies,' the president counter punched on Twitter. 'Major loser!' then-candidate Trump wrote, adding that Kissel had 'no clue!' Now, Kissel is Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's new senior adviser for policy and strategic messaging."
Sarah Kliff of Vox: "Obamacare's marketplaces are having a surprisingly good year. Two years into the Trump administration, more health plans are signing up to sell coverage. Premiums for mid-level plans actually went down 1 percent. This is after years of double-digit increases, many under the Obama administration. This all really surprises me. These positive changes are happening the same year that Obamacare’s individual mandate — the penalties for not carrying health coverage -- is& going away.... I called up two of the experts I trust the most when it comes to understanding Obamacare marketplaces -- Chris Sloan at Avalere Health and Larry Levitt at the Kaiser Family Foundation -- to figure out what was going on. Both of them agree: The Obamacare marketplaces seem to be pretty resilient to policy headwinds." --s (Also linked yesterday.)
Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "In April 2009, the Obama administration’s Department of Homeland Security released a report warning [about the dangers of rising right-wing extremism].... Conservatives went ballistic.... Most notably, then-Republican Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) attacked Obama's Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano for releasing the report at all.... As a result, the administration pulled back the report. Napolitano apologized for the portrayal of veterans and the report was removed from the DHS website.... In the time since, it has become clear that the warnings in the report were indeed warranted." --s (Also linked yesterday.)
Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "The nation's leading gun-rights organization saw its income drop by $55 million last year, after a record-breaking 2016 in which the group and its political affiliates spent unprecedented sums to elect ... Donald Trump. The National Rifle Association of America reported $98 million in contributions in 2017, down from nearly $125 million in 2016, according to new tax records obtained by The Daily Beast. Nearly one-fifth of its contributions last year came from a single anonymous donor, who chipped in nearly $19 million to the group. More noteworthy than its drop in contributions, though, was its decline in membership dues. The NRA took in more than $128 million in dues last year -- a significant sum, but down considerably from the $163 million it took in the year prior. That decline, more than the drop in direct contributions, appears to indicate a dwindling, if still formidable, base of public support."
Nesar Azadzoi & Rod Nordland of the New York Times: "American forces experienced the worst loss of life so far this year in Afghanistan when three soldiers were killed in a Taliban bombing on Tuesday. Three more soldiers and an American contractor were wounded. The deaths took place when a roadside bomb went off near Ghazni City, in the southeastern province of the same name, killing Special Forces soldiers three months after they were sent to save that city from falling to the Taliban. The Pentagon declared an end to American combat operations in Afghanistan in 2014, but since that time, the Taliban have expanded their reach, and the Americans have rejoined the fray."
Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Maxwell Tani of the Daily Beast: "Former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt was clearly taken aback last year when occasional Fox & Friends fill-in host Ed Henry grilled him about a number of ethical scandals facing his administration. And Pruitt had a good reason to be surprised. In past interviews with President Trump's favorite cable-news show, the then-EPA chief's team chose the topics for interviews, and knew the questions in advance. In one instance..., Pruitt's team even approved part of the show's script.... 'Every American journalist knows that to provide scripts or articles to the government for review before publication or broadcast is a cardinal sin. It’s Journalism 101,' said David Hawkins, a CBS News and CNN veteran who teaches journalism at Fordham University. 'This is worse than that. It would and should get you fired from any news organization with integrity.'" --s (Also linked yesterday.)
Beyond the Beltway
Mike Elk of the Payday Report: In the wake of the Tree of Life synagogue massacre, "many in the Pittsburgh community [have] rallied behind the cause of immigrant rghts, [but] the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership is still allowing a prominent anti-immigrant group, the Colcom Foundation, to sponsor Pittsburgh's Downtown Holiday Market. The Colcom Foundation, founded by the family of right-wing banking and publishing heir Richard Mellon Scaife, is one of the largest funders of anti-immigration groups in the country.... The logo of Colcom Foundation appears prominently over the main stage in Pittsburgh's Market Square, a public park.