;)
The Commentariat -- September 6, 2018
Delaware is holding primary elections today.
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Vichy, American-Style. Frank Rich: "Mr. Anonymous is a coward so lacking a moral compass that he doesn't realize that the best way to 'preserve our democratic institutions' (as he claims to be doing) is to identify himself, resign, and report any criminal activity he has witnessed by the president or his colleagues." He or she is a collaborator, not a resister. Rich also talks about Kavanaugh & McCain: "But Mr. Anonymous's enlistment in the Trump White House mitigates his self-aggrandizing appropriation of McCain's final message much as McCain's empowering of Palin in 2008, which he never fully disowned, casts a shadow over his subsequent anti-Trumpism."
Seung Min Kim, et al., of the Washington Post: "The fight over access to Kavanaugh's records from his time in the Bush White House intensified in the opening moments of the hearing Thursday morning. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said he is prepared to violate Senate rules and release confidential committee documents -- and to risk the consequences.... 'I openly invite and accept the consequences of releasing that email right now,'Booker said. 'The emails being withheld from the public have nothing to do with national security.' Under the committee's rules, Booker could be expelled from the Senate for releasing such records. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.) angrily responded to Booker and referred to his potential aspirations for higher office, saying 'running for president is no excuse for violating the rules of the Senate.'... After Booker said he was willing to violate Senate rules and release confidential documents, Senate Democrats on the committee appeared in open revolt as Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) read aloud from the rules on expulsion." This is part of the WashPo's liveblog of today's hearing. ...
... Update. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) on Thursday released emails from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's time as a White House counsel, escalating a heated fight over his documents. Booker released approximately 12 pages of emails tied to discussions Kavanaugh had on racial inequality including one email thread titled 'racial profiling.'... Tens of thousands of documents have been given to the committee under the label of committee confidential. Shortly after Booker released the documents, Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley's (R-Iowa) staff released a bulk of new emails, previously marked 'committee confidential,' that had been cleared for public release. Booker's emails were included in the document tranche."
... Here's the New York Times' liveblog of the hearing. ...
... Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "As a White House lawyer in the Bush administration, Judge Brett Kavanaugh challenged the accuracy of deeming the Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision to be 'settled law of the land,' according to a secret email obtained by The New York Times. The email, written in March 2003, is one of thousands of documents that a lawyer for President George W. Bush turned over to the Senate Judiciary Committee about the Supreme Court nominee but deemed 'committee confidential,' meaning it could not be made public or discussed by Democrats in questioning him in hearings this week. It was among several an unknown person provided to The New York Times late Wednesday. Judge Kavanaugh was considering a draft opinion piece.... It stated that 'it is widely accepted by legal scholars across the board that Roe v. Wade and its progeny are the settled law of the land.' Judge Kavanaugh proposed deleting that line, writing: 'I am not sure that all legal scholars refer to Roe as the settled law of the land at the Supreme Court level since Court can always overrule its precedent, and three current Justices on the Court would do so.'... The court now has four conservative justices who may be willing to overturn Roe ... and if he is confirmed, Judge Kavanaugh could provide the decisive fifth vote."
Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "The Trump administration announced a new rule Thursday that would allow immigrant children with their parents to be held in detention indefinitely, upending a ban on indefinite detention that has been in place for 20 years. The rule, proposed by the departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, goes into effect in 60 days and will allow Immigration> and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to keep children with their mothers in detention facilities while their cases for asylum play out in court. A DHS official speaking on the condition of anonymity said the purpose of the rulemaking is to terminate the 1997 Flores settlement agreement that said children could not be held in detention longer than 20 days. The result may mean the issue is taken to appellate courts or even the Supreme Court." ...
... Nick Miroff & Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration said Thursday it is preparing to circumvent limits on the government's ability to hold minors in immigration jails by withdrawing from the Flores Settlement Agreement, the federal consent decree that has shaped detention standards for underage migrants since 1997. The maneuver is almost certain to land the administration back in court, where U.S. District Court Judge Dolly M. Gee, who oversees the agreement, has rejected attempts to extend the amount of time migrant children can be held with their parents beyond the current limit of 20 days. "
Anonymous, Multiplied. Jonathan Swan & Mike Allen of Axios: "President Trump is ... deeply suspicious of much of the government he oversees -- from the hordes of folks inside agencies, right up to some of the senior-most political appointees and even some handpicked aides inside his own White House, officials tell Axios.... In the hours after the New York Times published the anonymous Op-Ed from 'a senior official in the Trump administration'..., two senior administration officials reached out to Axios to say the author stole the words right out of their mouths.... One senior official said, 'A lot of us [were] wishing we'd been the writer, I suspect ... I hope he [Trump] knows -- maybe he does? -- that there are dozens and dozens of us.'... Several senior White House officials have described their roles to us as saving America and the world from this president. A good number of current White House officials have privately admitted to us they consider Trump unstable, and at times dangerously slow."
Friend of Vlad Helped Write Trump's Foreign Policy Speech. Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "In the morning of April 21, 2016, a staffer at the Center for the National Interest, a Washington D.C., think tank, wandered into the office of Dimitri Simes, the group's president. The staffer saw a pile of papers on the desk titled 'FOREIGN POLICY AND DEFENSE OUTLINE.' The staffer realized the papers were the detailed outline, in bullet-pointed paragraphs, of a major foreign-policy address that then-candidate Donald Trump was set to deliver six days later as a guest of the center. The staffer used a cellphone to snap pictures of all five pages of the document.... It isn't unusual for a think-tank chief to preview drafts of a speech presented at their invitation. But Simes' proximity to the speech shows that a person Vladimir Putin once called a 'friend and colleague' had an early view into the crafting of a speech that would have historic significance for American foreign policy. Democrats on the House intelligence committee tried to investigate Simes' relationship to Trump's campaign, but Republican committee chairman Devin Nunes blocked their efforts.... The pictures demonstrate that significant changes were made from the speech's detailed outline to its final version -- including the removal of lines condemning bigotry, praising legal immigration, and disparaging Russia."
Hey, Some Important News from the Daily Mail!: "Four UFOs were spotted flying over ... Donald Trump's golf course in Scotland. A golf fan shared a picture of the mysterious objects, seen in the sky above a Scottish flag at Trump's Turnberry club in Ayshire. Alongside the snap on the UFO Stalker website, he revealed his niece had taken the picture from the balcony of the room at the luxury resort ... August 16." Includes photo! Mrs. McC: Probably just a deep-state convoy.
*****
Interesting Times:
The [New York] Times today is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers. ...
... ** Anonymous, in a New York Times op-ed: "... many of the senior officials in [Donald Trump's] administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations. I would know. I am one of them.... We believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic. That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump's more misguided impulses until he is out of office. The root of the problem is the president's amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.... Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until -- one way or another -- it's over." Read it all. ...
... ** Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump denounced what he called a 'gutless editorial' posted by The New York Times on Wednesday, an essay written by an unnamed administration official claiming that advisers to the president were deliberately trying to thwart his 'reckless decisions' from the inside. At an event at the White House, Mr. Trump angrily assailed The Times for publishing the Op-Ed column, the second time in two days that news reports highlighted the way that some members of his team quietly seek to undermine the president when they believe he may be acting dangerously.... Not long afterward, Mr. Trump turned to Twitter to continue his complaints and posted one message that said simply, 'TREASON?'" ...
... New Lede: "President Trump sought to assert command of his administration on Wednesday amid reports of a 'quiet resistance' among some of his own advisers who have secretly and deliberately tried to thwart from the inside what one official called his 'reckless decisions.' The surreal struggle between Mr. Trump and at least some members of his own team has characterized his tenure from the beginning, but it spilled into public view this week in a way that raised questions about the president's capacity to govern and the responsibilities and duties of the people who work for him."
... Dylan Matthews of Vox explains what the meaning of "treason" is. "Treason is a very limited crime. It's rarely prosecuted outside of wartime.... And it definitely doesn't apply to this case." ...
... Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump and his aides reacted with indignation Wednesday to an unsigned opinion column from a senior official blasting the president's 'amorality' and launched a frantic hunt for the author.... The extraordinary column, published anonymously in the New York Times, surfaced one day after the first excerpts emerged from Bob Woodward's new book, in which Trump's top advisers painted a devastating portrait of the president and described a 'crazytown' atmosphere inside the White House. Taken together, they landed like a thunder clap, portraying Trump as a danger to the country that elected him and feeding the president's paranoia about who around him he can trust. Trump reacted to the column with 'volcanic' anger and was 'absolutely livid' over what he considered a treasonous act of disloyalty, and told confidants he suspects the official works on national security issues or in the Justice Department.... Trump questioned on Twitter whether the official was a 'phony source,' and wrote that if 'the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: There has nevah, evah been anything like this. Instead of having a dimwitted, impulsive, know-nothing president making horrible decisions, we have a gang of unelected, nonaccountable officials secretly running the government. This is not what presidential advisors do. If the muddled rationales this person espouses are any indication, the "cure" is as bad as the disease. ...
... Brian Stelter of CNN: "Several days ago a senior official in the Trump administration used an intermediary to contact New York Times op-ed page editor Jim Dao. Through the go-between, the senior official expressed interest in writing an explosive piece for the paper, describing a 'resistance- to President Trump within the government that works overtime to protect the United States from the president's worst impulses. The result, published on the New York Times' website on Wednesday, prompted speculation all across Washington about who the official is. Dao, of course, isn't saying. In a telephone interview, he was careful not to share any identifying details, even the person's gender." ...
... Lawrence O'Donnell fingered Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats as the anonymous senior official. Mrs. McC: Seems like a good, educated guess to me. ...
... Jeet Heer: "The op-ed makes for very strange reading.... The intent, perhaps, is to shield the Republican Party (and those Republicans who have worked most closely with Trump) from reputational contamination. We're to believe that the real heroes of the Trump era are those who worked most closely with him and tried to constrain his worst impulses.... What is being justified here as an act of heroism is in fact a dereliction of duty. After all, the proper constitutional course to take with an unfit president is the 25th amendment. The path chosen is far worse: an administrative coup that leaves Trump as the figurehead not only makes the United States government look foolish and untrustworthy, it also undermines democracy. Finally, if there is a secret plot to govern competently despite Trump, surely there is nothing more self-defeating than announcing the plot in one of the world's largest newspapers...." ...
... Steve Benen: "He/she acknowledges some behind-the-scenes chatter about a 25th Amendment solution, which was dismissed to avoid a 'constitutional crisis.' But the fact of the matter is that if the head of a global superpower's executive branch is unstable, and White House decisions are being made by an unelected and unaccountable team of aides who are circumventing and undermining a mad president, that is a constitutional crisis." ...
... David Frum of the Atlantic: "If the president's closest advisers believe that he is morally and intellectually unfit for his high office, they have a duty to do their utmost to remove him from it, by the lawful means at hand. That duty may be risky to their careers in government or afterward. But on their first day at work, they swore an oath to defend the Constitution -- and there were no 'riskiness' exemptions in the text of that oath.... The author of the anonymous op-ed is hoping to vindicate the reputation of like-minded senior Trump staffers. See, we only look complicit! Actually, we're the real heroes of the story. But what the author has just done is throw the government of the United States into even more dangerous turmoil. He or she has enflamed the paranoia of the president and empowered the president's willfulness." ...
... David Graham of the Atlantic: "... what the anonymous official says lines up closely with the accounts in Woodward's book, in which officials steal documents, act on their own, and simply disregard orders from the president.... The actions described in the book and in the op-ed are extremely worrying, and amount to a soft coup against the president. Given that one of Trump's great flaws is that he has little regard for rule of law, it's hard to cheer on Cabinet members and others openly thwarting Trump's directives, giving unelected officials effective veto power over the elected president. Like Vietnam War-era generals, they are destroying the village in order to save it. As is so often the case in the Trump administration, both alternatives are awful to consider.... If the price of defending democracy and rule of law is to destroy both, the price is too high." ...
... Jessica Roy of the Los Angeles Times: "The op-ed says ... these 'unsung heroes' are protecting America from Trump's 'erratic behavior.' If they really believe there's a need to subvert the president to protect the country, they should be getting this person out of the White House.... How is it that utilizing the 25th Amendment of the Constitution would cause a crisis, but admitting to subverting a democratically elected leader wouldn't? The truth is, Republicans don't want Trump out of office. They're clearly pleased with this 'two-track' arrangement. They're advancing the right-wing economic agenda that President Jeb Bush or Ted Cruz would have been championing while preserving their popularity with Trump's base. If you're reading this, senior White House official, know this: You are not resisting Donald Trump. You are enabling him for your own benefit. That doesn't make you an unsung hero. It makes you a coward."
... Jeff Zeleny & Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "... Donald Trump, showing his outrage over Bob Woodward's explosive new book, is ordering a real witch hunt in the West Wing and throughout his administration, asking loyal aides to help determine who cooperated with the book. 'The book is fiction,' Trump said Wednesday in the Oval Office alongside the Emir of Kuwait. Even as the President publicly fumes, he's privately on a mission to determine who did -- and didn't -- talk to Woodward, CNN has learned. But no sooner had the search for Woodward's sources begun than yet another devastating portrait of the President emerged, this time via a New York Times op-ed written by an unnamed senior Trump administration official.... '"Gen. Mattis has come out very, very strongly.... He was insulted by the remarks that were attributed to him,' Trump said. 'John Kelly, same thing...."In Trump's eyes, what makes or breaks aides who are reported to have made disparaging comments about him is how strongly they push back on the accusations. Unlike Kelly and Mattis, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson never denied calling Trump a 'moron' and a former senior White House official said Trump 'never forgave him for it.'" ...
... Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "The West Wing came to a virtual standstill yesterday after The Washington Post published the first excerpts of Bob Woodward's upcoming book, Fear.... Woodward's book triggered Trump's wrath on several levels. Two sources told me Trump is furious at the portions of the book that describe administration officials questioning his intelligence and emotional stability.... Trump is also outraged that the book portrays aides as believing they are the grown-ups protecting the country from his dangerous impulses.... An outside adviser added, 'Everybody on the inside knows it's true. It's just Fox News people who don't want to admit how crazy he is.'... Even Trump's family is concerned the president is in deep trouble. After attending John McCain's funeral, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump told Trump he needs to get control of himself." ...
... Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "... the president reacted furiously towards Woodward, questioning his motives and credibility. He specifically spotlighted the passage related to Sessions in a rage-tweet later that evening. 'The already discredited Woodward book, so many lies and phony sources, has me calling Jeff Sessions "mentally retarded" and "a dumb southerner,"' he posted to Twitter. 'I said NEITHER, never used those terms on anyone, including Jeff, and being a southerner is a GREAT thing. He made this up to divide!'... Trump is quite literally on tape calling a 'golf pro' mentally 'retarded'" As The Daily Beast reported during the 2016 campaign, Trump would repeatedly call Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin 'retarded' during her time on NBC's Celebrity Apprentice -- simply because she was deaf. Furthermore, in May 2013, Trump also quote-tweeted someone calling some of his followers 'pure RETARDS!'... [In addition,] Two people with direct knowledge of Trump's comments tell The Daily Beast that they have heard the president mock Sessions ... as mentally deficient, personally annoying, and 'retarded' and a 'retard.'" Emphasis added.
State of De Nile. Mrs. McCrabbie: The Trumpentweeter was consumed Wednesday morning with the Woodward book. (Ole Bob must be right pleased.) You can check out Trump's feed here. AND there's this one: "Almost everyone agrees that my Administration has done more in less than two years than any other Administration in the history of our Country. I'm tough as hell on people & if I weren't, nothing would get done. Also, I question everybody & everything-which is why I got elected!" Just pathetic. (Also linked yesterday.)
** Jamelle Bouie of Slate: "Questions of credibility surround both [Michael] Wolff’s and [Omarosa] Manigault Newman's accounts. But more traditional reporting, including that from Woodward, seems to bolster their claims that the White House is consumed by turmoil, all of it induced by Donald Trump, his compulsions, impulses, and appetites. Together, all of these accounts paint a clear picture: Unable to execute his duties for reasons of temperament, ignorance, and mental decline, President Trump has been sidelined by his aides, who work to mitigate his behavior and keep him from steering the country into catastrophe.... If anything described by Wolff, Manigault, or Woodward is true, then the United States is currently in the midst of an acute political crisis, beset with a functionally incapacitated president and a government branch run on an ad hoc basis.... Donald Trump cannot do his job, and as long as the Republican Party holds power in Washington, there's nothing to be done about it."
Michael Kruse in Politico Magazine: "With special counsel Robert Mueller and his associates quietly and methodically doing their investigatory work, with November's midterms looking for Republicans like a mixed bag at best, and with Bob Woodward's new book Fear painting the president as 'an idiot' and his White House as 'Crazytown,' Donald Trump seems to be on the precipice of disaster like never before in his administration and eve his life.... But what's inarguably true is that he's not unused to this sort of moment. He's not even uncomfortable with it.... The takeaway from Surviving at the Top [-- a book Trump had published after the collapse of his first marriage & his financial empire --] is not even so much that he's good at skirting calamity. It's that a crisis is something he actually enjoys.... 'He is fearless,' Roger Stone .... Stone ... added ...: 'Makes Nixon look like a cream puff.' Nixon? 'Nixon was smarter,' Stone responded, 'but Trump is tougher.'"
Even When Trump Is Right, It's for a Corrupt Reason. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "When Nike announced this week that it would center an advertising campaign around Colin Kaepernick, the football player responsible for starting the protests, it seemed ... the president [could not] resist offering criticism.... Trump demurred.... In an interview with the Daily Caller on Tuesday, Trump ... [said,] 'I think it's a terrible message.... Nike is a tenant of mine. They pay a lot of rent.'... Is that business relationship the reason Trump has decided not to attack Nike directly over the company's embrace of Kaepernick?... That he linked his response as president to his relationship with Nike as a businessman necessarily draws new scrutiny to where a wall has been erected between those two roles.... Something kept Trump from attacking Nike and scoring points with his base (a base which, we'll note, was so incensed at Nike that people were burning their shoes).... Update: Shortly after this article was published, Trump weighed in on Nike's decision on Twitter. Instead of criticizing the company, he emphasized the purported fallout of their decision. 'Just like the NFL, whose ratings have gone WAY DOWN, Nike is getting absolutely killed with anger and boycotts...,' [Trump tweeted.] (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Pathetic & Corrupt from Day 1. Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "A government photographer edited official pictures of Donald Trump's inauguration to make the crowd appear bigger following a personal intervention from the president, according to newly released documents. The photographer cropped out empty space 'where the crowd ended' for a new set of pictures requested by Trump on the first morning of his presidency, after he was angered by images showing his audience was smaller than Barack Obama's in 2009. The detail was revealed in investigative reports released to the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act.... They shed new light on the first self-inflicted crisis of Trump's presidency, when his White House falsely claimed he had attracted the biggest ever inauguration audience. The records detail a scramble within the National Park Service (NPS) on 21 January 2017 after an early-morning phone call between Trump and the acting NPS director, Michael Reynolds. They also state that Sean Spicer ... called NPS officials repeatedly that day in pursuit of the more flattering photographs.... The newly disclosed details were not included in the inspector general's office's final report on its inquiry into the saga, which was published in June last year and gave a different account of the NPS photographer's actions.... Asked to account for the discrepancy, Nancy DiPaolo, a spokeswoman for the inspector general, said the cropping was not mentioned in the final report because the photographer told investigators this was his 'standard artistic practice'. But investigators did not note this in the write-up of their interview."
Donnie Has a BFF. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who once called President Trump 'unfit for office,' emerged as one of his staunchest defenders in Congress in the 24 hours after the first reports about Trump's harrowing portrayal in Bob Woodward's new book. In a string of tweets and on television, Graham sought to minimize the impact of the book and lavished praise on Trump for a string of achievements, including his Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh.... 'President @realDonaldTrumps fate will be determined by the results he achieves for the American people, not by a book about the process,' Graham said in Wednesday morning tweets. 'By any reasonable measure we have one of the strongest economies in modern history, President Trump has rebuilt a broken military, and we are pushing back hard against America's enemies.'... The senator's defense of Trump came as other Southern lawmakers -- from both parties -- were voicing concerns about reporting in Woodward's book that the president had called Attorney General Jeff Sessions a 'dumb Southerner' and mocked his accent. Trump denied Woodward's account in a tweet Tuesday night." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Poor Lindsey! All of his amigos have gone -- McCain died, Lieberman quit his job, & Kelly Ayotte, briefly an amiga, got fired. All he has left is Donnie, whom he once called "the world's biggest jackass," a "kook," and "crazy." Trump, of course, took it in stride: he called "Graham an 'idiot' who is 'probably ... not as bright, honestly, as Rick Perry' and [read] off Graham's cell phone number at one of his televised rallies."
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Jerome Corsi, a conspiracy theorist and political commentator with connections to the former Trump adviser Roger J. Stone Jr., has been subpoenaed to testify on Friday before the grand jury in the special counsel investigation into Russia's election interference and whether Trump associates conspired with the effort, his lawyer said on Wednesday. The lawyer, David Gray, said that he anticipates that investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, plan to ask Mr. Corsi about his discussions with Mr. Stone, who appeared to publicly predict in 2016 that WikiLeaks planned to publish material damaging to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. 'He fully intends to comply with the subpoena,' Mr. Gray said, adding that the subpoena was not specific about the topic.... Mr. Mueller's team appears to be zeroing in on Mr. Stone as a possible nexus between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, which was used by Russian intelligence officers to spread information stolen from Democrats, according to an indictment by Mr. Mueller's team. Another former associate of Mr. Stone, the New York political gadfly Randy Credico, is also expected to testify before the grand jury on Friday."
Perfect. Michelle Kosinski & Jennifer Hansler of CNN: "A Fox News correspondent is a leading candidate to head the State Department agency tasked with combating propaganda and disinformation from foreign adversaries, CNN has learned. Lea Gabrielle is being considered for special envoy and coordinator of the Global Engagement Center, multiple State Department sources and one former senior State official told CNN.Gabrielle is a general assignment reporter for 'Shepard Smith Reporting,' according to her Fox News biography, and was previously a military reporter. She is also a United States Naval Academy graduate and served in the US Navy as fighter pilot for more than a decade, as well as taking part in some intelligence operations."
Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, President Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court, on Wednesday dodged direct questions about whether the Constitution would allow Mr. Trump to use the powers of the presidency to thwart the Russia collusion and obstruction investigations that are swirling around his administration. Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on a grueling second day of hearings, Judge Kavanaugh refused to say whether he believes Mr. Trump, as a sitting president, could be subpoenaed by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, to testify in the sprawling inquiry. Answering questions in public for the first time since his nomination, the judge also declined to say whether Mr. Trump could escape legal jeopardy by pardoning himself or his associates.... At the same time, he did not retreat from views offered in law review articles that revealed a robust conception of presidential power.... Judge Kavanaugh also declined to say he would disqualify himself from cases concerning Mr. Trump." The hearing was still ongoing at 8:30 pm ET. See also Akhilleus's assessment at the end of yesterday's thread. ...
... Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A Democratic senator called into question on Wednesday Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh's testimony a dozen years ago that he knew nothing about two disputed episodes from the George W. Bush era: Republicans' infiltration of computer files belonging to Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats and a warrantless surveillance program created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The senator, Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, cited emails that have not been made public.... Mr. Leahy was referring to Judge Kavanaugh's testimony about the Bush-era disputes as an appeals court nominee during hearings in 2004 and in 2006. At the time, Judge Kavanaugh told the Senate he knew nothing about either episode until they became public knowledge. But Mr. Leahy said that Bush White House emails provided to the Judiciary Committee for Judge Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination -- most of which were deemed 'committee confidential,' meaning he cannot make them public -- raise 'serious questions' about the 'truthfulness' of Judge Kavanaugh's statements to the Senate back then. Judge Kavanaugh, in turn, said his prior testimony had been '100 percent accurate.'" Read on for details. ...
... Liar, Liar. Mark Stern of Slate: "Brett Kavanaugh says he follows every Supreme Court precedent. Don't believe him. 'I don’t get to pick and choose which Supreme Court precedents I get to follow,' Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. 'I follow them all. While that's a nice line, Kavanaugh's record reveals a judge who is eager to warp precedent to fit his ideological preferences -- most flagrantly with regard to guns and abortion. In a pair of major opinions, Kavanaugh proved adept at constraining Roe v. Wade and bolstering D.C. v. Heller, manipulating the law to throttle the liberty of women and aggrandize the rights of gun owners. His precedential chicanery offers clear proof that Kavanaugh will overturn Roe and strike down assault-weapons bans once he reaches the Supreme Court. And he only has to pretend otherwise for a few more weeks." Stern examines Kavagnaw's dissents to prove his point." ...
... Seung Min Kim, et al., of the Washington Post: "Kavanaugh said he was not aware of allegations of domestic abuse against Rob Porter, Trump's staff secretary who was forced to resign in February, until the claims by his ex-wives were reported by the media. Kavanaugh recommended Porter for his White House job, according to Bob Woodward's explosive new book on the Trump administration; the judge challenged that reporting on Wednesday. His answers about the Porter allegations, which Porter has denied, came amid a series of questions about sexual harassment and misconduct from Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii). Kavanaugh repeated that he never witnessed sexual harassment by his ex-boss, former Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, to whom he has remained close, nor heard any allegations of misconduct against Kozinski.... Hirono asked if Kavanaugh was on the email list Kozinski used to circulate sexually explicit material. He said he did not remember 'anything like that,' echoing a similar denial from earlier in the hearing. Then, asked if he believes Kozinski's accusers, Kavanaugh said: 'I have no reason not to believe them.'" ...
... Mrs. McC: Wait. He doesn't remember if Kozinski sent him sexually explicit material?? I think that's a "Yes, yes. He did." There is a lot more in this report, which is a liveblog of the day's Q&A. ...
... New York Times reporters liveblogged Wednesday's Kavanaugh hearing. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "On Tuesday, [President Trump] took his attacks on free speech one step further, suggesting in an interview with a conservative news site that the act of protesting should be illegal. Trump made the remarks in an Oval Office interview with the Daily Caller hours after his Supreme Court nominee, Brett M. Kavanaugh, was greeted by protests on the first day of his confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill. 'I don't know why they don't take care of a situation like that,' Trump said. 'I think it's embarrassing for the country to allow protesters. You don't even know what side the protesters are on.' He added: 'In the old days, we used to throw them out. Today, I guess they just keep screaming.' More than 70 people were arrested after they repeatedly heckled Kavanaugh and senators at Tuesday's hearing. Trump has bristled at dissent in the past, including several instances in which he has suggested demonstrators should lose their jobs or be met with violence for speaking out." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Emily Stewart of Vox: "Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones had a tense exchange in the Senate hallway during a break of the Senate Intelligence Committee's hearing with Facebook and Twitter leaders on Wednesday. Jones, who sat in on the hearing, crashed a scrum Rubio was holding with reporters, and the pair nearly came to blows." ...
Tony Romm & Craig Timberg of the Washington Post: "Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter's Jack Dorsey told lawmakers on Wednesday that they are better prepared to combat foreign interference on their platforms, even as Democrats and Republicans alike expressed doubts that the social media giants had fully cleaned them up ahead of the midterm elections. Sandberg ... and Dorsey ... conveyed their message in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee, almost a year after their companies told the same panel of lawmakers that Russia used inauthentic accounts to spread divisive political messages around the 2016 election. This time, though, lawmakers on the committee came equipped with a roster of fresh complaints -- from the proliferation of fake video online to the heightened need to protect privacy and combat hacking. As they testified, though, some of their most public adversaries sat behind them, including conservative media personalities like Alex Jones, the founder of the conspiracy-minded InfoWars. The presence of Jones, who had been banned from both platforms for violating rules against harassment, seemed all the more striking given a Wednesday afternoon hearing in the House, featuring Dorsey, focused on allegations that tech is biased against right-leaning users." Mrs. McC: The House interrogation will surely bring us some of that chamber's patented thuggery. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Update. No Surprises. Cecilia Kang & Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times: "Republicans accused Twitter of being biased against conservatives on Wednesday, drawing rebukes from Democrats in a congressional hearing that illustrated how partisan lines are increasingly being drawn on social media. The sparring focused on the testimony of Jack Dorsey, Twitter's chief executive, who repeatedly denied the accusations during a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Republicans grilled Mr. Dorsey, suggesting that Twitter's algorithms suppress conservative viewpoints and discriminate against Republican voices.... During the hearing, Mr. Dorsey repeatedly said that Twitter did not exhibit any bias against conservatives, echoing his previous denials.... Before the afternoon hearing, the Justice Department said Attorney General Jeff Sessions planned to hold a meeting with state attorneys general .. to examine how social media companies 'may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms.'" ...
... "Republicans Were Mad at Twitter for Banning Alex Jones. Then They Met Him." Will Oremus of Slate: "Two images will endure from Wednesday's congressional hearings on social media bias and misinformation. Neither one quite captures what the Republican leaders who convened the hearings had in mind. First, far-right conspiracy monger Alex Jones hijacked a press interview with Marco Rubio outside the Senate hearing room, irritating the Republican senator so much that Rubio turned to him, glaring, and threatened to 'take care of you myself.' Later, alt-right provocateur Laura Loomer interrupted a House hearing and was escorted from the room, while Republican Rep. Billy Long of Missouri mocked her from the dais by performing an impressively authentic-sounding auctioneer's call.... The hearing from which Loomer was forcibly removed was motivated partly by Twitter's alleged censorship of those very same obnoxious voices. Turns out it's hard to focus one's outrage at Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for silencing fringe figures while they're being dragged out of the room." ...
Congressional Races
Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Former President Barack Obama is poised to plunge into the fray of the midterm campaign, returning to electoral politics with a frontal attack on Republican power in two states that are prime Democratic targets this fall: California and Ohio.... Mr. Obama's first public event of the midterm election will take place in Orange County, a traditionally conservative-leaning part of California where Republicans are at risk of losing several House seats. And Mr. Obama is expected to be joined by Democratic candidates from all seven of California's Republican-held districts that Hillary Clinton carried in 2016. Mr. Obama intends to campaign next Thursday in Cleveland for Richard Cordray, a former bank regulator in his administration who is the Democratic nominee for Ohio governor. Republicans have held total control of the state government since the 2010 election, and Mr. Obama helped encourage Mr. Cordray, also a former state attorney general, to seek the governorship." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Are They All Crooks? (-- Rhetorical Question.) Patrick Wilson of the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "In a ruling with potentially serious ramifications for the re-election campaign of Rep. Scott Taylor, R-2nd, a judge on Wednesday found 'out-and-out fraud' in signatures Taylor's campaign staff gathered to help get an independent spoiler candidate on the ballot. Richmond Circuit Judge Gregory L. Rupe ruled that independent Shaun Brown should be removed from the 2nd Congressional District ballot. Campaign staffers for Taylor helped gather signatures required to get Brown on the ballot. Investigations by news media and the Democratic Party showed forged signatures, including from voters who had died or no longer lived in the congressional district. The judge's ruling followed testimony in a civil lawsuit the Democratic Party of Virginia brought against state elections officials. Four Taylor staffers and a former campaign consultant signed affidavits invoking their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in response to a series of questions about what happened.... A criminal investigation into ballot fraud by a special prosecutor, Roanoke Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell, is active. A Virginia State Police investigator sat in the courtroom Wednesday to hear evidence from the civil case."
Sopan Deb of the New York Times: "Roy S. Moore, the former Senate candidate from Alabama, has followed through on his threat to sue Sacha Baron Cohen after he was duped into appearing on Mr. Cohen's Showtime series, 'Who Is America?' Mr. Moore said he was seeking more than $95 million in damages for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and fraud in a suit filed on Wednesday in Federal District Court in the District of Columbia. Showtime and CBS, which owns it, are named as defendants along with Mr. Cohen. In July, Mr. Moore said he had been duped by Mr. Cohen before the episode even aired. His admission came around the same time other high-profile conservatives, including Joe Walsh, a former congressman, and Sarah Palin, the former vice-presidential nominee, publicly said the same. But even if the lawsuit's assertions are true, legal experts say, Mr. Moore could have a difficult time winning the case."
If you're wondering if NYT columnist Bret Stephens is a jerk, check with Steve M. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Beyond the Beltway
Justin Moyer of the Washington Post: "A man convicted of assaulting a white-nationalist organizer two days after a white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville last year was fined $1 on Tuesday. Jason Kessler, an organizer of the Unite the Right rally, fled a news conference on Aug. 13, 2017, after he was swarmed by an angry crowd, one day after 32-year-old counterprotester Heather Heyer was run down and killed by a vehicle allegedly driven by another white nationalist. After Kessler fled, Jeffrey Winder of Charlottesville was charged with assault and battery, and prosecutors said he could be seen striking Kessler in a video. Winder was found guilty in Charlottesville General District Court in February, as the Daily Progress reported, and found guilty again Tuesday in Charlottesville Circuit Court after an appeal. Though Winder could have received up to 12 months in jail and $2,500 in fines from a jury, he received a $1 fine."
Way Beyond
Pippa Crerar of the Guardian: "[Britain's] security minister Ben Wallace has said that the Russian president Vladimir Putin is 'ultimately responsible' for the deadly Salisbury nerve agent attack as a result of his firm grip on the Russian state. His remarks are the furthest the British government has gone yet in attributing direct blame on Putin for the attempt by two Russian military intelligence officers to murder Sergei and Yulia Skripal with the military grade nerve agent in March. Britain will seek to intensify diplomatic pressure on the Kremlin by laying out the case against Moscow at the United Nations security council, of which Russia is a member, on Thursday. [Prime Minister] Theresa May did not explicitly blame Putin for authorising the attempted assassination, which resulted in the death of a British woman, when she addressed the Commons in a special statement on Monday, although she pointed the finger at the Kremlin."
News Lede
New York Times: "Burt Reynolds, the wryly appealing Hollywood heartthrob who carried on a long love affair with moviegoers even though his performances were often more memorable than the films that contained them, has died at 82."
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