The Commentariat -- June 15, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort will await his trial for foreign lobbying crimes from jail. Two weeks after Robert Mueller's prosecutors dropped new accusations of witness tampering on him, a federal judge Friday revoked Manafort's current bail, which allowed him out on house arrest. Judge Amy Berman Jackson's order marks an end to months of attempts from Manafort to lighten his house arrest restrictions after he was charged and pleaded not guilty to foreign lobbying violations."

** Kathryn Watson of CBS News: "President Trump declared in a spur-of-the-moment interview with 'Fox and Friends' Friday morning that he wants people to sit at attention for him like they do for North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.... Kim stands accused of leading a murderous regime that starves its own people. But Mr. Trump has heaped praise on Kim since meeting with him in Singapore, saying repeatedly that the two have 'good chemistry.' 'Hey, he is the head of a country and I mean he is the strong head,' Mr. Trump told Fox News' Steve Doocy on the White House lawn Friday. 'Don't let anyone think anything different. He speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.' Pressed by a reporter about those remarks moments later, Mr. Trump said he was 'kidding.' 'I'm kidding, you don't understand sarcasm,' the president said." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See his commentary below. ...

     ... Mrs. McC: I don't think Trump was kidding, & -- rather than insult a reporter, as Trump did -- I'm going to assume the reporter does understand sarcasm, AND s/he can tell when Trump isn't kidding. ...

... Peter Baker & Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump went on offense on Friday with a withering series of attacks on the F.B.I., congressional Democrats, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Canada's prime minister, football players, the media, the special counsel and other favorite targets even as he hailed his relations with the leaders of North Korea, China and Russia. After a couple of days out of sight following his trip to Singapore to meet with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, Mr. Trump delivered a blizzard of pointed messages on Twitter, gave an interview to his preferred Fox News show and then engaged in a typically freewheeling encounter with reporters on the White House driveway.... The ]Justice Department IG's] report, he said, exposed what he called 'the scum on top' of the F.B.I. as 'total thieves,' and he insisted that Peter Strzok, a senior F.B.I. agent who had spoken privately against him, should be fired. 'They were plotting against my election,' he said. When it was pointed out that the report actually found that no decisions were made out of political bias, he dismissed the conclusion.... [In his Fox News interview, he said,] 'If you read the I.G. report, I've been totally exonerated.' But the report dealt only with the handling of the investigation into Mrs. Clinton and did not address allegations against Mr. Trump and his campaign related to contacts with Russia during the election and possible obstruction of justice after he took office." Read on, if you haven't had lunch.

Jill Abramson of the Guardian: "Reading ... the IG report and the lawsuit [against the Trump Foundation, et al.,], fills any sane person with the deepest regret that Donald Trump is president. This is a tragedy that could have been prevented, according to my reading of the Justice Department's report. And anyone needing more evidence that Trump lacks the moral or ethical moorings to be president need only peruse the New York lawsuit eviscerating the Trump Foundation. Despite his sanctimony, his best-selling book and his claims to martyrdom after Trump fired him, ames Comey is a singular villain. Though the IG report states that he had no political motive in doing so, he upended the 2016 election and all but destroyed Clinton's candidacy.... The inescapable conclusion of the report is that the FBI under Comey was a ship of fools."

Don Lee & Jonathan Kaiman of the Los Angeles Times: "China on Wednesday matched dollar for dollar the Trump administration's plan to slap tariffs on $50 billion of imported Chinese goods, issuing its own list of U.S. products of comparable value that would be subject to hefty duties should the White House follow through with its tough trade sanctions. Beijing's swift and broad retaliatory response at first seemed to confirm fears that the world's two largest economies were hurtling toward a trade war that would be costly for consumers and companies, and damage the global economy. Anxious U.S. businesses pleaded for cooler heads, and investors panicked. But after sinking sharply when markets opened Wednesday, U.S. stocks not only recovered, but the Dow ended the day up 231 points. The rebound followed assurances by White House officials that despite President Trump's sharp rhetoric and threats, chances are good that the tit-for-tat trade salvos will end in settlement rather than much further escalation." See more on Trumpy tariffs, linked below.

Today in Scott Pruitt Scandals. Eric Lipton, et al., of the New York Times: "Senior staff members at the Environmental Protection Agency frequently felt pressured by Scott Pruitt, the administrator, to help in personal matters and obtain special favors for his family, according to interviews with four current and former E.P.A. officials who served as top political aides to Mr. Pruitt. The officials said that Mr. Pruitt, who 'had a clear sense of entitlement,' in the words of one of them, indicated that he expected staff members' assistance with matters outside the purview of government, including calling on an executive with connections in the energy industry to help secure tickets to a sold-out football game in January at the Rose Bowl. The aides said the administrator ... had also made it clear that he had no hesitation in leveraging his stature as a cabinet member to solicit favors himself. As an example, Mr. Pruitt, shortly after taking the E.P.A. job, reached out to the former speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates seeking help for his daughter, McKenna, in securing admission to the University of Virginia School of Law. William Howell, the former speaker, appears on Mr. Pruitt's official E.P.A. calendar, and he confirmed in an interview that he was approached by Mr. Pruitt and subsequently wrote a letter to the school';s dean on the daughter's behalf.... Separately, at least three E.P.A. staff members were dispatched to help Ms. Pruitt obtain a summer internship at the White House, the current and former staff members said." ...

     ... But Pruitt still has Trump's support.

*****

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump said he 'did a great service' to the American people by firing James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, in tweets on Friday marking his first public comments about an internal Justice Department report into the bureau's handling of an investigation of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign.... Mr. Trump also lashed out about communications between F.B.I. agents that were disclosed in the highly anticipated report, saying, 'Doesn't get any lower than that!'" ...

... Chris Strohm of Bloomberg: "Former FBI Director James Comey 'deviated' from bureau and Justice Department procedures in handling the probe into Hillary Clinton, damaging the agencies' image of impartiality even though he wasn't motivated by politics, the department's watchdog found in a highly anticipated report.... Among topics the inspector general reviewed was Comey's announcement in July 2016 that no prosecutor would find grounds to pursue criminal charges against Clinton for improperly handling classified information on her private email server, as well as Comey's decision to inform Congress only days before the election that the Clinton investigation was being re-opened. Comey's public announcement of findings angered Republicans, while his reopening of the inquiry outraged Democrats." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... John Wagner, et al., of the Washington Post: "A highly anticipated report from the Justice Department's inspector general criticizes former FBI director James B. Comey for his actions during the Hillary Clinton email investigation and includes new text messages from FBI personnel conveying political opposition to President Trump.... Perhaps the most damaging new revelation in the report, according to multiple people familiar with it, is a previously unreported text message in which Peter Strzok, a key investigator on both the Clinton email case and the investigation of Russia and the Trump campaign, assured an FBI lawyer in August 2016 that 'we'll stop' Trump from making it to the White House.... Though the inspector general condemned individual FBI officials, the report fell significantly short in supporting the assertion by the president and his allies that the investigation was rigged in favor of Clinton, according to a person familiar with its content...." Also linked yesterday; the story has been updated, with Devlin Barrett as the lead reporter on the byline. ...

... The IG's report is 500 pages long, but the Washington Post has posted the executive summary. Update: Vox has the full report here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Matt Apuzzo, et al., of the New York Times: "The former F.B.I. director James B. Comey was insubordinate in his handling of the investigation of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election, a critical Justice Department report has concluded, according to officials and others who saw or were briefed on it. But the report, by the department's inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, does not challenge the decision not to prosecute Mrs. Clinton. Nor does it conclude that political bias at the F.B.I. influenced that decision, the officials said.... Then in late October, over the objection of top Justice Department officials, Mr. Comey sent a letter to Congress disclosing that agents were scrutinizing new evidence in the Clinton case. That evidence did not change the outcome of the inquiry, but Mrs. Clinton and many of her supporters blame Mr. Comey's late disclosure for her defeat.... The findings sharply criticize the judgment of Mr. Comey, who injected the F.B.I. into presidential politics in ways not seen since at least the Watergate era.... The report criticizes the conduct of F.B.I. officials who exchanged texts disparaging Mr. Trump during the campaign. The officials, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, were involved in both the Clinton and Russia investigations, leading Mr. Trump's supporters to suspect a conspiracy against him.... The inspector general said that, because of his views, Mr. Strzok may have improperly prioritized the Russia investigation over the Clinton investigation during the final weeks of the campaign." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "The FBI leaked like a sieve in 2016, and those disclosures helped Donald Trump, according to a newly released inspector general's report on former FBI Director James Comey's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. The 500-page report from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz suggests anti-Clinton leaking from the bureau's New York office likely influenced Comey's decision to announce the resumption of the email probe less than two weeks before the presidential election -- a step that may have thrown the race to Trump. The FBI could be in for a bloodbath over these leaks: Horowitz says his office plans to report on multiple investigations into extensive 'unauthorized media contact by FBI personnel.'" ...

... James Comey, in a New York Times op-ed: "I do not agree with all of the inspector general's conclusions, but I respect the work of his office and salute its professionalism." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... ** David Graham of the Atlantic: "A report by the Justice Department's internal watchdog found no political bias in the conduct of an investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server and account, but it offers a scathing condemnation of how former FBI Director James Comey and other FBI employees handled aspects of the investigation, including extensive violations of Justice Department rules and protocols. The report from Inspector General Michael Horowitz is a blow to both Comey and President Trump.... For Comey, the report is a harsh indictment of his judgment and decision-making that tarnishes his long career in law enforcement. The report also criticizes former Attorney General Loretta Lynch and several other Justice Department officials.... The major takeaway is this: Trump's comments about Comey run counter to the IG report in every major respect. Trump alleged political bias where Horowitz finds none, and lauded Comey where Horowitz condemns him." This is quite a helpful summarization of the IG's findings. ...

... David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "The report addresses one question that's more important than any other: Did the Justice Department and F.B.I. use their power, as Trump has repeatedly claimed, to help Clinton's campaign and hurt his?... And the report's answer is clear: No.... The most significant mistake in the investigation ... hurt her, badly. It was James Comey's decision to violate department policy and talk publicly about the investigation. If it weren't for that decision, the polling data suggests Clinton would be president.... [The report] finds that Trump's claims of a 'rigged system' to protect Clinton are outright fabrications. They are, as is so often the case with Trump, lies." ...

...  "DOJ Report Confirms That the President Is a Dishonest Conspiracy Theorist." Eric Levitz of New York: "Donald Trump has claimed that a secret cabal of 'deep state' Democrats within the FBI 'rigged' the bureau's investigation into Hillary Clinton -- thereby allowing her to escape accountability for violations of information-security protocol that should have landed her in prison -- even as said cabal orchestrated a 'WITCH HUNT' into his campaign's nonexistent ties to Russian hacking.... In light of these (alternative) 'facts,' the president maintains that the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election -- and his own alleged attempts to interfere with that investigation -- is so 'corrupt' and baseless, it should be ended as soon as possible.... [However,] a new report from the Justice Department’s inspector general 'found no evidence that the conclusions by department prosecutors' in the Clinton email investigation 'were affected by bias or other improper considerations ... Rather, we concluded that they were based on the prosecutor's assessment of facts, the law, and past department practice.'... The broader DOJ report finds no evidence that [FBI agent Peter] Strzok did anything to undermine the integrity of the Clinton investigation.... Finally, the report concludes that [FBI Director James] Comey's decision to publicly announce the discovery of new Clinton emails in October 2016 -- a development that correlated with a drop in Clinton's poll numbers -- was an inappropriate act of insubordination. (It also, ironically, finds that Comey repeatedly conducted official FBI business from his personal Gmail account, in violation of protocol.)" Emphasis added. There's more. ...

... Steve M.: "Some liberals would now like to believe that the right has no more justification for conspiracy-mongering.... But that's silly. There are just too many anecdotes for the right to seize on, the most obvious one being this: 'Perhaps the most damaging revelation in the report is a previously unreported text message in which Strzok ... assured an FBI lawyer in August 2016 that 'we'll stop' Trump from making it to the White House.'... The report's conclusion lacks the emotional punch of the anecdotes -- and we know how much the right likes to weaponize anecdotes. (Anecdotes are the primary way they've persuaded themselves that immigrants are a criminal class.) So this is not going to be a public relations win for the forces of reason -- far from it." Mrs. McC: Steve is so right. The entire Republican political apparatus relies on "weaponizing anecdotes" to justify all forms of bad governance. ...

... Well, Okay, Some Mostly Rant Senselessly. Margaret Hartmann: "Despite the conclusion that the FBI's investigation was not influenced by political bias, and the fact that Horowitz wasn't even looking at the Mueller probe, Trump and his allies proceeded with their plan to declare that the IG report proves the special counsel's investigation should be shut down[.]... On Fox News, Giuliani and Sean Hannity tackled the broader theme of anti-Trump bias at the FBI, cherrypicking details from the IG report to make their case, while simultaneously suggesting that Horowitz can't be trusted because he didn't conclude that Clinton should have been prosecuted." Here's kinda the best part of Giuliani's rant: he wants a new investigation because Horowitz, we must infer, is not "honest": "(Giuliani explained that this investigation should be conducted by 'honest FBI agents from the New York office who I can trust implicitly.' The IG report contained details that support the rumor that the New York office was a major source of anti-Clinton leaks.)... [Peter] Strzok played a major role in the investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia. He was initially assigned to Mueller's investigation, which started in May 2017, but he was removed in July 2017, immediately after the anti-Trump texts came to light. Nevertheless, multiple Republican lawmakers argued on Wednesday that Strzok's involvement in the early days of the Trump-Russia investigation, and the few weeks he spent on Mueller's team, call the whole operation into question." ...

... Two Crazy Man Vent on National Teevee:

... The Hill: "On the eve of the release of a potentially explosive new report, Attorney General Jeff Sessions defended the termination of the FBI's top two former executives and warned that the forthcoming report on the FBI's handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe could result in more people being fired.... Sessions said he is certain that Comey's firing was justified. 'It was the right thing to do. The facts were pretty clear on it. He made a big mistake and he testified only a few weeks before that termination that he would do it again if he had the opportunity. So we felt like there was a serious breach of discipline within the department if we allowed him to continue.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "The New York State attorney general's office filed a scathingly worded lawsuit on Thursday taking aim at the Donald J. Trump Foundation, accusing the charity and the Trump family of sweeping violations of campaign finance laws, self-dealing and illegal coordination with the presidential campaign. The lawsuit, which seeks to dissolve the foundation and bar President Trump and three of his children from serving on nonprofit organizations, was an extraordinary rebuke of a sitting president. The attorney general also sent referral letters to the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Election Commission for possible further action, adding to Mr. Trump's extensive legal problems. The lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, culminated a nearly two-year investigation of Mr. Trump's charity, which became a subject of scrutiny during and after the 2016 presidential campaign. While such foundations are supposed to be devoted to charitable activities, the complaint asserts that Mr. Trump's was often used to curry political favor or settle legal claims against his various businesses, and even spent $10,000 on a portrait of Mr. Trump that was hung at one of his golf clubs." (Also linked yesterday.)

Whiney-Baby-in-Chief. Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "Some of the most intense drama surrounding President Trump's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un came not across the negotiating table, but in the days and hours leading up to Tuesday's historic meeting -- a behind-the-scenes flurry of commotion prompted by Trump himself. After arriving in Singapore on Sunday, an antsy and bored Trump urged his aides to demand that the meeting with Kim be pushed up by a day -- to Monday -- and had to be talked out of altering the long-planned and carefully negotiated summit date on the fly, according to two people familiar with preparations for the event. 'We're here now,' the president said, according to the people. 'Why can't we just do it?'... Ultimately, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders persuaded Trump to stick with the original plan, arguing that the president and his team could use the time to prepare, people familiar with the talks said. They also warned him that he might sacrifice wall-to-wall television coverage of his summit if he abruptly moved the long-planned date to Monday in Singapore...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's hard to decide if Trump has delusions of grandeur or he's just reflexively lying: The WashPo team reports, "The language in the agreement that Trump announced with Kim, for instance, was almost entirely prewritten before Trump arrived in Singapore -- a standard diplomatic practice for leaders' meetings, which are normally preceded by extensive negotiations and discussions between lower-level officials. But Trump repeatedly asserted that the final agreement was based on his ability to size up Kim in person and build a working relationship with him." Also, you kinda wonder if Trump has any idea of what a "relationship" is. Nobody who has proximity to Trump likes him. He's a nasty, demanding boor. He's not someone with whom anyone has a "relationship" of the kind most of us experience, where there's mutual bonding, good will & camaraderie.

... Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "North Korean state television aired a 42-minute documentary on Thursday that offered a different view of Kim Jong Un's meeting with President Trump in Singapore. Notably, the documentary appears to have captured several scenes that international news organizations missed -- including one awkward moment when Trump was saluted by a North Korean military leader. The U.S. president then salutes in return.... 'This is a moment that will be used over and over in North Korea's propaganda as 'proof' that the American president defers to the North Korean military,' said [Jean H. Lee, a North Korea scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington]. 'It will be treated as a military victory by the North Koreans.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie BTW: If you watch Seth's "Closer Look," you may notice that, as Steve M. asserted, Republicans rely on weaponized anecdotes to rationalize their policies, BUT if Trump doesn't have an anecdote for the occasion, he just makes up one. And it doesn't have to be plausible or even remotely possible.

Alberto Nardelli & Julia Ioffe of BuzzFeed: "... Donald Trump told G7 leaders that Crimea is Russian because everyone who lives there speaks Russian, according to two diplomatic sources. Trump made the remarks over dinner last Friday during a discussion on foreign affairs at the G7 summit in Quebec, Canada, one of the diplomats told BuzzFeed News.... During the dinner, Trump also seemed to question why the G7 leaders were siding with Ukraine. The president told leaders that 'Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world,' the source said.... Russia invaded and then annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, leading to widespread international condemnation and sanctions. It also directly led to Russia being kicked out of the then-G8." Mrs. McC: Also, England, Australia & most of Canada are U.S. territories because everyone who lives there speaks English. Anyhow, Comrade Putin thanks you, Donald, you sniveling traitor. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Susan Glasser of the New Yorker: "Fresh off his closely watched Singapore summit with the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un, President Trump is pushing his team to arrange another dramatic one-on-one meeting, this time with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, as soon as this summer. Negotiations with the Kremlin have been under way for weeks. 'There’s no stopping him,' a senior Administration official familiar with the internal deliberations said.... Ever since Putin's reëlection to another six-year term in March, Trump has been pressing for a Putin summit, dismissing advisers' warnings about the political dangers of such a meeting, given the ongoing special counsel investigation.... With the Russia allegations swirling, Trump never had the formal meeting he wanted with Putin last year -- settling for just two brief encounters on the sidelines of international gatherings -- but he has clearly never given up on his campaign vision of closer ties with the Russian strongman, whose autocratic rule he has often praised."

Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "White House Counsel Don McGahn recused his entire staff last summer from working on the Russia investigation because many of his office's lawyers played significant roles in key episodes at the center of the probe, former White House attorney Ty Cobb said on Wednesday. McGahn made the decision to halt his staff's interactions with Special Counsel Robert Mueller because many of his own attorneys 'had been significant participants' surrounding the firings of national security adviser Michael Flynn and FBI Director James Comey, Cobb said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Trumpy & the Football. Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday said he would not sign the compromise immigration bill House Republicans unveiled on Thursday." Mrs. McC: Trump had indicated last week that he would sign the bill if it came to his desk, & it was for that reason Paul Ryan agreed to allow the bill to move.

Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "With the number of migrant children in government custody rising fast, the Trump administration said Thursday that it will open an additional temporary shelter in the desert outside El Paso. The shelter site, at the Tornillo-Marcelino Serna port of entry, is about 20 miles east of El Paso along the Mexico border. It was last used in 2016 to house migrant children and families in large, dormitory-style canvas tents. Children will begin arriving in the next few days, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for their care. The site will have 360 beds, according to HHS officials, with the potential to add more. The Tornillo site will be the only location, to date, where HHS plans to put children in tents, or what the agency calls 'semi-permanent structures.'... The Tornillo site belongs to the Department of Homeland Security. It will have recreation areas and educational programming, and its tents are air-conditioned, according to HHS spokesman Kenneth Wolfe." ...

... Keith McMillan & Julie Zauzmer of the Washington Post: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions used a Bible verse on Thursday to defend his department's policy of prosecuting everyone who crosses the border from Mexico, suggesting that God supports the government in separating immigrant parents from their children. 'I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes,' Sessions said during a speech to law enforcement officers in Fort Wayne, Ind. 'Orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves. Consistent and fair application of the law is in itself a good and moral thing, and that protects the weak and protects the lawful.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The chapter Sessions cites forms the notorious basis for claims of the divine right of kings. Our country is founded on the rejection of these verses. ...

... Here's Colbert's take. Thanks to Nisky Guy for the link:

... Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: "White House media briefings are often contentious, but Thursday's question-and-answer session got personal.... During one exchange, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said to CNN reporter Jim Acosta, a frequent sparring partner, 'I know it's hard for you to understand even short sentences.' Acosta had asked Sanders about Attorney General Jeff Sessions's attempt, earlier in the day, to use the Bible to justify the Trump administration's immigration policies, which include splitting up families that arrive at U.S. borders seeking asylum.... On a telecast of the briefing, another reporter could be heard scolding Sanders for a 'cheap shot.' Sanders then falsely asserted that the Trump administration is separating children from their parents 'because it's the law, and that's what the law states.' In fact, separation is not required by law but is a Trump administration practice that White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly calls a 'tough deterrent.'" It got worse: ...

It's the law, and that's what the law states. -- Sarah Huckabee Sanders, at a news briefing, June 14

The Trump administration seems to be caught inside a 'Twilight Zone' episode, insisting without evidence that its own policy of separating undocumented immigrant children from their parents is somehow a long-standing law and that any blame should go to Democrats. The president got this ball rolling himself in a series of tweets and statements over the past few months.... [Here's one:] 'We have to break up families. The Democrats gave us that law,' Trump said during a roundtable on sanctuary cities in California on May 16.... These claims are violently divorced from reality.... Reporters at the June 14 briefing fact-checked Sanders on the spot, but she stuck to her guns.... The bottom line is that nothing required the Trump administration to separate children from their families until Sessions's zero-tolerance policy made it a practical necessity. -- Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post

... Laurie Goldstein of the New York Times: "Conservative religious leaders who have long preached about the sanctity of the family are now issuing sharp rebukes of the Trump administration for immigration policies that tear families apart or leave them in danger. The criticism came after recent moves by the administration to separate children from their parents at the border, and to deny asylum on a routine basis to victims of domestic abuse and gang violence. Some of the religious leaders are the same evangelicals and Roman Catholics who helped President Trump to build his base and who have otherwise applauded his moves to limit abortion and champion the rights of religious believers.... Leaders of many faiths -- including Jews, Mainline Protestants, Muslims and others -- have spoken out consistently against the president's immigration policies. What has changed is that now the objections are coming from faith groups that have been generally friendly to Mr. Trump." ...

... Jacob Soboroff of NBC News: "Life inside the biggest licensed child care facility in the nation for undocumented immigrant children looks more like incarceration than temporary shelter. The kids, a mix of those who crossed into the U.S. unaccompanied and those who were separated from their parents under Attornye General Jeff Sessions' new zero-tolerance policy, spend 22 hours per day during the week (21 hours on weekends) locked inside a converted former Walmart, packing five into rooms built for four.... NBC News was among the first news organizations granted access to the overcrowded Casa Padre facility. The average stay at the center in Brownsville, Texas, is 52 days. Minors are subsequently placed with a sponsor.... Dr. Juan Sanchez, the president of the nonprofit that operates the facility, South West Key, warned that the temporary locations might not have to be licensed or staffed by trained child welfare professionals if they are established on federal land, which the Trump administration has been considering." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Michael Miller, et al., of the Washington Post: "Casa Padre now houses more than 1,400 immigrant boys, dozens of them forcibly separated from their parents at the border by a new Trump administration 'zero-tolerance' policy. On Wednesday, for the first time since that policy was announced, and amid intense national interest after a U.S. senator was turned away, federal authorities allowed a small group of reporters to tour the secretive shelter, the largest of its kind in the nation." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "Where there were once racks of clothes and aisles of appliances, there were now spotless dorm-style bedrooms with neatly made beds and Pokemon posters on the walls. The back parking lots were now makeshift soccer fields and volleyball courts. The McDonald's was now the cafeteria. All this made it difficult to visualize what the sprawling facility used to be -- a former Walmart Supercenter. The converted retail store at the southern tip of Texas has become the largest licensed migrant children's shelter in the country -- a warehouse for nearly 1,500 boys aged 10 to 17 who were caught illegally crossing the border. The teeming, 250,000-square-foot facility is a model of border life in Trump-era America, part of a growing industry of detention centers and shelters as federal authorities scramble to comply with the president's order to end 'catch and release' of migrants illegally entering the country. Now that children are often being separated from their parents, this facility has had to obtain a waiver from the state to expand its capacity." (Also linked yesterday.)"

Noah Lanard of Mother Jones: "The [US Customs and Border Protections] agency is having so much trouble hiring enough border agents that it's now spending huge sums -- potentially hundreds of millions of dollars -- to recruit applicants and help them complete the application process.... Last November, CBP awarded a five-year, $297 million contract with Accenture Federal Services, a subsidiary of the global consulting company Accenture. That comes to nearly $40,000 for each of the 7,500 workers Accenture is supposed to help recruit and hire. The per-hire cost exceeds the base salary of many CBP officers.... But it is still not clear that CBP will be able to hire them, because Congress has refused to provide the funding." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

David J. Lynch & Damian Paletta of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Friday will announce a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion of Chinese products, the latest move in his intensifying campaign to rewrite the rules of global trade. The action will come one day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Beijing for talks with Chinese leaders about the president's recent meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The tariffs, which Trump set in motion in March, are a response to China's practice of compulsory technology licensing for foreign companies and its efforts to steal U.S. trade secrets via cybertheft, administration officials have said." ...

... Tariffs Are Not Your Friends -- Another Stupid Trump Trick. Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "It seems almost quaint today, but the U.S. washer industry was one of the first sectors that Trump decided to rescue through an aggressive, no-holds-barred tariff. And now that a few months have passed, the industry offers a useful preview for how Trump's tough-on-trade strategy can backfire for many of the U.S. companies, consumers and workers...." Read on. It's quaint. Unless you want to buy a washing machine. "This spring, laundry equipment prices skyrocketed 17 percent, the biggest increase on record.... When you aggregate all those price increases across the 10 million washers sold annually in the United States, consumers will collectively pay hundreds of thousands of dollars per year for each job supposedly created or saved. Which is many multiples of what factory workers typically earn. And it's not even clear how safe their jobs are at this point, given the rest of Trump's trade agenda."

Swamp mikey. Michael Scherer, et al., of the Washington Post: "Vice President Pence has transformed his office into a new entry point for lobbyists seeking to influence the Trump administration across federal agencies, according to federal records and interviews. About twice as many companies and other interests hired lobbyists to contact the vice president's office in Pence’s first year than in any single year during the tenures of Vice Presidents Joe Biden and Richard B. Cheney, filings show.... The approach has allowed Pence, a former congressman and Indiana governor, to emerge as a key ally for corporations inside the Trump White House even as the president vows to 'drain the swamp.'... In several cases, the relationships are mutually beneficial, with lobbyists who have charged clients millions of dollars to access his office donating money to Pence-backed political causes.... Pence was also responsible for staffing many of the federal agencies that lobbyists seek to influence.... In some cases, donations to Mike Pence's political causes can provide a platform for companies seeking to influence federal policy."

** Nickles and Dimes! Ryan Koronwoski of ThinkProgress: "The federal government just admitted that workers are earning lower wages since the passage of the GOP tax cuts.... On Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued a new release detailing the 'real earnings summary' through May 2018...: 'From May 2017 to May 2018, real average hourly earnings decreased 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted,' it read." --safari (Also linked yesterday.) ...

.. Josh Boak of TPM: "[On Wednesday] the head of the world's most powerful central bank was asked a question weighing on the minds -- and the checking accounts -- of Americans everywhere: When will people finally start getting meaningful pay raises? Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, had no satisfactory answer. He called it a 'puzzle.' And then, as if measuring his words, he said he wasn't prepared to call it a 'mystery.'... Powell acknowledged that he couldn't say for sure why wage growth remains generally tepid. He said he 'certainly would have expected pay raises to react more' to falling unemployment." --safari (Also linked yesterday.)

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down Minnesota's ban on wearing 'political' apparel to polling places, saying that the state's intentions may be good but that its law was too broad and open to differing interpretations. The 7-to-2 decision, written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., was careful not to cast constitutional doubt on restrictions every state imposes to protect the solemnity of the voting booth. But Minnesota's prohibition on the wearing of a 'political badge, political button or other political insignia' raised more questions than it answered, Roberts wrote, and gave too much discretion to volunteer election judges trying to figure out what counted as 'political' and what did not. 'The state must be able to articulate some sensible basis for distinguishing what may come in from what must stay out,' Roberts wrote. 'Here, the unmoored use of the term "political" in the Minnesota law, combined with haphazard interpretations the state has provided in official guidance and representations to this court, cause Minnesota's restriction to fail even this forgiving test.'... Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen G. Breyer dissented, partly because of the route the case took. The challengers went to federal court with their complaint, alleging it violated their free speech rights."

Juan Cole: "In a blow to the Trump administration and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted, by 120 votes in favor, a resolution introduced by Algeria and Turkey condemning Israel for deploying excessive force against Palestinians at rallies near the border of Gaza.... In another important international vote, the 4 million strong Indian Student Federation has voted to boycott Hewlett Packard computers and other equipment on the grounds that the company is involved in the oppression of Palestinians by the Israeli occupiers. This step seems to me among the more significant victories for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement promoted by Palestinian civil society." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

New York Times: "Dorothy Cotton, a confidante of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who was the only woman in his inner circle of aides, marched in perilous civil rights demonstrations and was a driving force in getting Southern black people to vote, died on June 10 at a retirement home in Ithaca, N.Y. She was 88."

How to Tell the POTUS* Is a Fascist

Under the daily blitz of Donald Trump's remarks & actions, it is easy to let slip the overarching theme of his presidency. You may prefer a term other than fascist -- autocrat, tyrant, authoritarian, totalitarian -- but what I mean by "fascist" is a dictatorial leader who "exalts nation and often race above the individual and [who] stands for a centralized autocratic government, severe economic and social regimentation, and ... suppression of opposition." Flag Day seems an appropriate occasion to zero in on the thrust of the day's news. Limiting myself to the links I've posted as of 7 am ET, let's see what just today's news tells us of Donald Trump's adherence to fascist principles:

Makes "truth" and "facts" subjective by repeatedly making false, rosy claims. "... there is 'no longer' a nuclear threat from" North Korea.

Makes conflicting, situational statements, rendering meaningless every utterance: "[Kim's] country does love him"/"The horror of life in North Korea is so complete that citizens pay bribes to government officials to have themselves exported abroad as slaves."

Makes false, empty promises to boost his popularity. "I think we’re going to have some of the big drug companies in two weeks, and they’re going to announce – because of what we did – they’re going to announce voluntary massive drops in prices…. That’s going to be a fantastic thing."

Lies constantly. See Glenn Kessler's report.

Excuses massive human-rights abuses by other dictators. "So have a lot of other people done some really bad things."

Engages in human-rights abuses. See reports by Pete Williams & Jason Soboroff and Dana Milbank's column.

Makes on-the-spot military decisions that favor totalitarian enemies of the U.S. over our own country & our allies. Without gaining any concessions from North Korea, Trump said he was ending joint U.S.-South Korea military defense exercises, a long-held wish of North Korea, China & Russia.

Denigrates former U.S. leaders, falsely claiming they lacked his "superior" skills. "I don’t think they honestly could have done it," "it" being the Singapore summit.

Makes his own propaganda videos.

Installs propaganda murals featuring himself, trying to indoctrinate even children he has separated from their parents. See Jacob Soboroff's reporting.*

Disowns former allies & factotums when they are no longer useful to him. Michael Cohen. ...

... But retains demonstrably corrupt allies who remain helpful. Scott Pruitt. ...

... And hires unqualified people. See Axios story about Andrew Giuliani.

Demands absolute, lock-step loyalty of organizations & of administration employees, including career civil servants. Keeps an "enemies" list of those merely suspected of not supporting him personally. See digby's report on Mari Stull.

Demands absolute, lock-step loyalty from elected officials. See reports on Rep. Mark Sanford, who in fact supported most Trump-approved legislation.

Promotes racist policies. see, for instance, Pete Williams' report on the DOJ's continuing effort to end the DACA program.

Supports racist politicians. See reports on Virginia Senate candidate & long-time racist Corey Stewart, who Trump says "has 'a major chance of winning" the general election.

Repeatedly denigrates & undermines American democratic institutions like the free press, describing true news reports as "fake," and publicly labeling the press "enemies of the people." "Our Country's biggest enemy is the Fake News so easily promulgated by fools!"

Has underlings try to silence specific reporters. Trump's 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale said the press credentials of CNN's Jim Acosta should be "immediately' suspended" because Trump and he have determined that Acosta's questions to Trump during a press conference were not "polite" enough.

We should keep in mind that there is no factual counter-narrative: the news gives us no reason to hope that Trump is just an honest, if incompetent, fellow who is doing the best he can for the American people.

Of course today's news is but a tiny slice of the picture. Today, for instance, unlike many days, I have not linked stories about any of Trump's infamous efforts to subvert the rule of law vis-a-vis the Russia investigation. And there is nothing about his corrupt practices -- like the way he & his close family members are using their government positions to rake in millions. Yet even within the confines of today's news, like many a single day's news reports, one theme is apparent: the current President* of the United States is a fascist.

* It turns out the facility, Casa Padre in Brownsville, Texas, also features murals of other presidents, including Barack Obama, so this was not a fair criticism of Trump.

The Commentariat -- June 14, 2018

Afternoon Update:

News of conclusions by the DOJ's inspector general on the FBI's handling of the 2016 election, which has been released to Trump & Congress, is starting to trickle in. ...

... Chris Strohm of Bloomberg: "Former FBI Director James Comey 'deviated' from bureau and Justice Department procedures in handling the probe into Hillary Clinton, damaging the agencies' image of impartiality even though he wasn't motivated by politics, the department's watchdog found in a highly anticipated report.... Among topics the inspector general reviewed was Comey's announcement in July 2016 that no prosecutor would find grounds to pursue criminal charges against Clinton for improperly handling classified information on her private email server, as well as Comey's decision to inform Congress only days before the election that the Clinton investigation was being re-opened. Comey's public announcement of findings angered Republicans, while his reopening of the inquiry outraged Democrats." ...

... John Wagner, et al., of the Washington Post: "A highly anticipated report from the Justice Department's inspector general criticizes former FBI director James B. Comey for his actions during the Hillary Clinton email investigation and includes new text messages from FBI personnel conveying political opposition to President Trump.... Perhaps the most damaging new revelation in the report, according to multiple people familiar with it, is a previously unreported text message in which Peter Strzok, a key investigator on both the Clinton email case and the investigation of Russia and the Trump campaign, assured an FBI lawyer in August 2016 that 'we'll stop' Trump from making it to the White House.... Though the inspector general condemned individual FBI officials, the report fell significantly short in supporting the assertion by the president and his allies that the investigation was rigged in favor of Clinton, according to a person familiar with its content...." ...

... The IG's report is 500 pages long, but the Washington Post has posted the executive summary. Update: Vox has the full report here. ...

... Matt Apuzzo, et al., of the New York Times: "The former F.B.I. director James B. Comey was insubordinate in his handling of the investigation of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election, a critical Justice Department report has concluded, according to officials and others who saw or were briefed on it. But the report, by the department's inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, does not challenge the decision not to prosecute Mrs. Clinton. Nor does it conclude that political bias at the F.B.I. influenced that decision, the officials said.... Then in late October, over the objection of top Justice Department officials, Mr. Comey sent a letter to Congress disclosing that agents were scrutinizing new evidence in the Clinton case. That evidence did not change the outcome of the inquiry, but Mrs. Clinton and many of her supporters blame Mr. Comey's late disclosure for her defeat.... The findings sharply criticize the judgment of Mr. Comey, who injected the F.B.I. into presidential politics in ways not seen since at least the Watergate era.... The report criticizes the conduct of F.B.I. officials who exchanged texts disparaging Mr. Trump during the campaign. The officials, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, were involved in both the Clinton and Russia investigations, leading Mr. Trump's supporters to suspect a conspiracy against him.... The inspector general said that, because of his views, Mr. Strzok may have improperly prioritized the Russia investigation over the Clinton investigation during the final weeks of the campaign." ...

... James Comey, in a New York Times op-ed: "I do not agree with all of the inspector general's conclusions, but I respect the work of his office and salute its professionalism."

... The Hill: "On the eve of the release of a potentially explosive new report, Attorney General Jeff Sessions defended the termination of the FBI's top two former executives and warned that the forthcoming report on the FBI's handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe could result in more people being fired.... Sessions said he is certain that Comey's firing was justified. 'It was the right thing to do. The facts were pretty clear on it. He made a big mistake and he testified only a few weeks before that termination that he would do it again if he had the opportunity. So we felt like there was a serious breach of discipline within the department if we allowed him to continue.'"

Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "North Korean state television aired a 42-minute documentary on Thursday that offered a different view of Kim Jong Un's meeting with President Trump in Singapore. Notably, the documentary appears to have captured several scenes that international news organizations missed -- including one awkward moment when Trump was saluted by a North Korean military leader. The U.S. president then salutes in return.... 'This is a moment that will be used over and over in North Korea's propaganda as 'proof' that the American president defers to the North Korean military,' said [Jean H. Lee, a North Korea scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington]. 'It will be treated as a military victory by the North Koreans.'"

Alberto Nardelli & Julia Ioffe of BuzzFeed: "... Donald Trump told G7 leaders that Crimea is Russian because everyone who lives there speaks Russian, according to two diplomatic sources. Trump made the remarks over dinner last Friday during a discussion on foreign affairs at the G7 summit in Quebec, Canada, one of the diplomats told BuzzFeed News.... During the dinner, Trump also seemed to question why the G7 leaders were siding with Ukraine. The president told leaders that 'Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world,' the source said.... Russia invaded and then annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, leading to widespread international condemnation and sanctions. It also directly led to Russia being kicked out of the then-G8." Mrs. McC: Also, England, Australia & most of Canada are U.S. territories because everyone who lives there speaks English.

Noah Lanard of Mother Jones: "The [US Customs and Border Protections] agency is having so much trouble hiring enough border agents that it's now spending huge sums -- potentially hundreds of millions of dollars -- to recruit applicants and help them complete the application process.... Last November, CBP awarded a five-year, $297 million contract with Accenture Federal Services, a subsidiary of the global consulting company Accenture. That comes to nearly $40,000 for each of the 7,500 workers Accenture is supposed to help recruit and hire. The per-hire cost exceeds the base salary of many CBP officers.... But it is still not clear that CBP will be able to hire them, because Congress has refused to provide the funding." --safari

Juan Cole: "In a blow to the Trump administration and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted, by 120 votes in favor, a resolution introduced by Algeria and Turkey condemning Israel for deploying excessive force against Palestinians at rallies near the border of Gaza.... In another important international vote, the 4 million strong Indian Student Federation has voted to boycott Hewlett Packard computers and other equipment on the grounds that the company is involved in the oppression of Palestinians by the Israeli occupiers. This step seems to me among the more significant victories for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement promoted by Palestinian civil society." --safari

Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "White House Counsel Don McGahn recused his entire staff last summer from working on the Russia investigation because many of his office's lawyers played significant roles in key episodes at the center of the probe, former White House attorney Ty Cobb said on Wednesday. McGahn made the decision to halt his staff's interactions with Special Counsel Robert Mueller because many of his own attorneys 'had been significant participants' surrounding the firings of nationa security adviser Michael Flynn and FBI Director James Comey, Cobb said."

Late Morning Update:

Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "The New York State attorney general's office filed a scathingly worded lawsuit on Thursday taking aim at the Donald J. Trump Foundation, accusing the charity and the Trump family of sweeping violations of campaign finance laws, self-dealing and illegal coordination with the presidential campaign. The lawsuit, which seeks to dissolve the foundation and bar President Trump and three of his children from serving on nonprofit organizations, was an extraordinary rebuke of a sitting president. The attorney general also sent referral letters to the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Election Commission for possible further action, adding to Mr. Trump's extensive legal problems. The lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, culminated a nearly two-year investigation of Mr. Trump's charity, which became a subject of scrutiny during and after the 2016 presidential campaign. While such foundations are supposed to be devoted to charitable activities, the complaint asserts that Mr. Trump's was often used to curry political favor or settle legal claims against his various businesses, and even spent $10,000 on a portrait of Mr. Trump that was hung at one of his golf clubs."

** Nickles and Dimes! Ryan Koronwoski of ThinkProgress: "The federal government just admitted that workers are earning lower wages since the passage of the GOP tax cuts.... On Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued a new release detailing the 'real earnings summary' through May 2018...: 'From May 2017 to May 2018, real average hourly earnings decreased 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted,' it read." --safari ...

.. Josh Boak of TPM: "[On Wednesday] the head of the world's most powerful central bank was asked a question weighing on the minds -- and the checking accounts -- of Americans everywhere: When will people finally start getting meaningful pay raises? Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, had no satisfactory answer. He called it a 'puzzle.' And then, as if measuring his words, he said he wasn't prepared to call it a 'mystery.'... Powell acknowledged that he couldn't say for sure why wage growth remains generally tepid. He said he 'certainly would have expected pay raises to react more' to falling unemployment." --safari

Jacob Soboroff of NBC News: "Life inside the biggest licensed child care facility in the nation for undocumented immigrant children looks more like incarceration than temporary shelter. The kids, a mix of those who crossed into the U.S. unaccompanied and those who were separated from their parents under Attorney General Jeff Sessions' new zero-tolerance policy, spend 22 hours per day during the week (21 hours on weekends) locked inside a converted former Walmart, packing five into rooms built for four.... NBC News was among the first news organizations granted access to the overcrowded Casa Padre facility. The average stay at the center in Brownsville, Texas, is 52 days. Minors are subsequently placed with a sponsor.... Dr. Juan Sanchez, the president of the nonprofit that operates the facility, South West Key, warned that the temporary locations might not have to be licensed or staffed by trained child welfare professionals if they are established on federal land, which the Trump administration has been considering." ...

... Michael Miller, et al., of the Washington Post: "Casa Padre now houses more than 1,400 immigrant boys, dozens of them forcibly separated from their parents at the border by a new Trump administration 'zero-tolerance' policy. On Wednesday, for the first time since that policy was announced, and amid intense national interest after a U.S. senator was turned away, federal authorities allowed a small group of reporters to tour the secretive shelter, the largest of its kind in the nation." ...

... Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "Where there were once racks of clothes and aisles of appliances, there were now spotless dorm-style bedrooms with neatly made beds and Pokemon posters on the walls. The back parking lots were now makeshift soccer fields and volleyball courts. The McDonald's was now the cafeteria. All this made it difficult to visualize what the sprawling facility used to be -- a former Walmart Supercenter. The converted retail store at the southern tip of Texas has become the largest licensed migrant children's shelter in the country -- a warehouse for nearly 1,500 boys aged 10 to 17 who were caught illegally crossing the border. The teeming, 250,000-square-foot facility is a model of border life in Trump-era America, part of a growing industry of detention centers and shelters as federal authorities scramble to comply with the president's order to end 'catch and release' of migrants illegally entering the country. Now that children are often being separated from their parents, this facility has had to obtain a waiver from the state to expand its capacity."

*****

The bar is so low for Trump. 'At least a nuclear bomb is not flying over as we speak' is the most popular sentiment I have heard since the end of the summit. -- RAS, in yesterday's Comments ...

... Peter Baker & Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that the Trump administration hopes to complete 'major disarmament' of North Korea within the next 2½ years, even as conflicting accounts of discussions between the two sides left unclear what had actually been agreed to. A day after President Trump's landmark meeting with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, in Singapore, the two leaders and their governments sought to shape the understanding of their talks to their advantage. But the contours of the vague agreement remained unclear and open to divergent interpretations." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Two-and-a-half years. Huh. What else is scheduled to happen in 2-1/2 years? I'd be shocked, shocked if President* Trump insisted that he alone can effect the denuclearization of North Korea, so anyone who votes against him is a treasonous threat to world peace.

... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Returning to Washington on Wednesday, President Trump amped up claims of a highly successful summit with the North Korean leader as Democrats and even some Republicans grew increasingly skeptical about what had been accomplished in Singapore. In a series of tweets that began as Air Force One landed, Trump declared that there is 'no longer' a nuclear threat from the rogue regime and lashed out at those who questioned what he had achieved, branding the media as 'Our County's biggest enemy.'... Trump's rosy assessment was ridiculed by Democratic lawmakers and some analysts, who suggested that North Korea remains a serious threat. 'This is truly delusional,' Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) wrote on Twitter. 'It has same arsenal today as 48 hours ago. Does he really think his big photo-op ended the DPRK's nuclear program? Hope does not equal reality.' Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) also mocked Trump, writing: 'One trip and it's "mission accomplished," Mr. President?'... Richard N. Haas, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said 'the summit changed nothing.'" Read on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "In an interview with Bret Baier of Fox News as he was leaving Singapore following the denuclearization summit with the North Korean leader, Trump declined to condemn the record of [Kim Jong-un]. International bodies have accused Kim of crimes against humanity including assassinations of political rivals, public executions and holding captive tens of thousands of political prisoners. Speaking in a wood-paneled office aboard Air Force One, Baier put it to the US president that Kim was 'a killer. He's executing people.' Trump replied by praising Kim ... as a 'tough guy', a 'smart guy' and a 'great negotiator'.... Baier, sounding taken aback by the president's flippant response, pressed Trump on the issue: 'But he's still done some really bad things.' To which Trump said: 'Yeah, but so have a lot of other people done some really bad things. I could go through a lot of nations where a lot of bad things were done.'... The issue of human rights was notably absent from the joint statement signed by Trump and Kim at their five-hour summit on Tuesday."

His country does love him. His people, you see the fervor. They have a great fervor. -- Donald Trump, speaking of Kim Jong-un to George Stephanopoulos, Tuesday

The horror of life in North Korea is so complete that citizens pay bribes to government officials to have themselves exported abroad as slaves. They would rather be slaves than live in North Korea.... Leaders imprison their people under the banner of tyranny, fascism and oppression.... Citizens spy on fellow citizens, their homes are subject to search at any time, and their every action is subject to surveillance. In place of a vibrant society, the people of North Korea are bombarded by state propaganda practically every waking hour of the day. North Korea is a country ruled as a cult. -- Donald Trump, at a speech before the South Korean National Assembly in Seoul, November 2017

Did Mr. Trump not believe or understand those words he read in his speech in Seoul last November? Has he forgotten them, now that he has looked the cult leader in the eye? Or does he know his latest statement is hogwash? -- Washington Post Editors

... Matthew Lee of the AP: "... Donald Trump's triumphant assertions about the success of the unprecedented Singapore summit are being met with skepticism and outright derision from critics seizing on the contradiction between his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and his willingness to accept vague pledges from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.... For Iran deal proponents..., the Singapore summit was evidence of Trump's lack of preparedness and poor negotiating skills. Iran deal opponents, meanwhile, seemed willing to wait and see.... In the case of the Iran deal, even the most generous assessors of the Singapore summit sought to remind the White House that intense diplomacy preceded the agreement with Tehran." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: President Obama's "secret weapon" in negotiating the Iran deal was Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, an MIT physicist. Trump's got Rick Perry, who couldn't even remember the name of the Energy Department years before he accepted the top job there. As Trump tucks us into bed, I'm sure we'll all follow his soothing advice to "Sleep well tonight." ...

... Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post imposes a reality chek [linked fixed; thanks, MAG & Ken W.] on some of the outlandish claims Trump made regarding his Very Successful Singapore Swing. It's a damning analysis. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... A Gift to China & Russia, Too, Opens the Door for More Such Gifts. Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "The former deputy defense secretary for both Barack Obama and Donald Trump is criticizing the substance and framing of Trump's abrupt cancellation of joint military exercises with South Korea as a 'pretty substantial concession' to North Korea -- something that both Russia and China could turn to their advantage elsewhere. 'This seems like a pretty substantial concession on our part,' Robert O. Work, the number-two official at the Pentagon from April 2014 to July 2017, told The Daily Beast.... Work warned that Trump's language could be a lever for Russia and China to press the U.S. on similar military exercises with allies far from the Korean Peninsula. 'The Russians could easily say that exercises in Europe with NATO are provocative, and they are also expensive. So I think the president has opened a door that he didn't need,' [Work said].... 'Under normal circumstances, this is something that would have been discussed intensively within the administration, and also discussed intensively with our allies before it was announced,' Work said. [Instead, Trump surprised, well, everybody with his concession to Kim.]... In announcing the pause, Trump called what he termed exercises 'very expensive' and 'very provocative,' something that struck Work as an adoption of Pyongyang's language."

... "You're the Mark." William Saletan of Slate: "Trump is ... a skilled salesman, and his presentation of the new U.S.-North Korean denuclearization agreement is a fine sales job. But the target of that sales job isn't Kim. It's you. Trump and Kim are working together to pass off their toothless pact as a milestone. It's a con, and you're the mark.... Trump isn't competing with Kim or even trying to win him over. He's using Kim to compete for status with previous American presidents.... In a post-summit interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, Trump said Kim had explained that 'he was let down by the United States.' Far from challenging this statement, Trump used it to bolster his argument that no other American president could have worked with North Korea as Trump has. 'I don't think they honestly could have done it,' said Trump.... The summit, too, was an entertainment success. For that, Trump is happy to praise Kim and collaborate in the pretense of landmark concessions Thanks for watching." ...

... Troy Patterson of the New Yorker on "The Sensational Idiocy of Donald Trump's Propaganda Video for Kim Jong Un.... The nature of the film -- its grandiosity, its gaudiness, its chaotic logic, its indiscriminate idiocy -- is such that we must understand Trump as its author.... The narrator insists that the fate of the world hangs in the balance, in sentences that combine pompous syntax, palatial rhetoric, and dodgy grammar." Mrs. McC: Thanks to having read some of Tim O'Brien's biography of Trump, which came to me via a generous Reality Chex reader, I'm aware that Trump fancies himself a great movie critic, & having watched Trump's stupid propaganda video, I find Patterson's IDing of the video's auteur to be highly likely & his criticisms of the whole production to be right on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... The Plot Thickens. Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The National Security Council has said that it made the video Donald Trump showed to Kim Jong-un at their Singapore summit on Tuesday in an unorthodox effort to persuade him of the benefits of denuclearisation.... The video, which Trump showed to the press after playing it on an iPad for Kim, is credited to 'Destiny Pictures Productions'..., [but] the company's founder, said in an email it had 'no involvement in the video'.... When asked about the decision to present the video as made by a non-existent company, an NSC spokesman said there would be no further comment. 'From my understanding, they were just using "Destiny Pictures" as a play on words. It just so happens there's a studio by that name in California,' said Ned Price, a former NSC spokesman. 'Leave it to this White House to fail to conduct basic due diligence. And that, of course, leaves aside the fact they thought it prudent to try to out-North-Korea North Korea in the propaganda department. The whole enterprise reeks of amateurism and comes off as an attempt to check the box on a harebrained idea that presumably originated in the oval office,' Price added.... When asked about the film at a press conference on Tuesday, Trump defended it as a masterstroke which he had sprung on Kim and his entourage." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Trailer 2. The New York Times' Opinion section video team liked Trump's little video so much, they made one, too. Mrs. McC: I hope, I hope, I hope Trump sees this & his head explodes:

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

Rosalind Helderman & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "Michael Cohen, President Trump's personal attorney, is facing mounting pressure from two active federal investigations, contending with skyrocketing legal bills and planning to change lawyers in the near future, according to people familiar with the situation. Amid his escalating legal concerns, Cohen is feeling neglected by the president, his longtime patron for whom he has long professed his loyalty, the people said.... Cohen is under intensifying scrutiny from federal prosecutors in Manhattan who are examining his business practices, as well as special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.... Andrii V. Artemenko, a former member of the Ukrainian parliament, said in an interview that many of the questions he faced during several hours of testimony Friday were focused on his interactions with Cohen. Artemenko met with Cohen in January 2017 to discuss a back-channel peace initiative for Ukraine. 'I realized that Michael Cohen is a target' of special interest to Mueller, Artemenko told The Washington Post.... The dual investigations of Cohen are fueling anxiety inside the White House.... For his part, the Trump attorney has been frustrated by the lack of outreach by the president...." ...

... ** Uh-Oh. George Stephanopoulos of ABC News: "As attorneys for Michael Cohen rush to meet Judge Kimba Wood's Friday deadline to complete a privilege review of over 3.7 million documents seized in the April 9 raids of Cohen's New York properties and law office, a source representing this matter has disclosed to ABC News that the law firm handling the case for Cohen is not expected to represent him going forward.... No replacement counsel has been identified as of this time. Cohen, now with no legal representation, is likely to cooperate with federal prosecutors in New York, sources said. This development, which is believed to be imminent, will likely hit the White House, family members, staffers and counsels hard." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "Shortly after the ABC News report appeared, the Wall Street Journal, too, reported that Cohen's lawyers were set to leave the case. But the Journal added that Cohen hasn't yet decided whether he'll cooperate." The WSJ report, which is firewalled, is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: "But as the investigation widens, and with Mr. Cohen's legal team in turmoil, the chances increase that Mr. Cohen could cooperate with prosecutors.... The dispute between Mr. Cohen and his lawyers involves the payment of his legal bills, part of which are being financed by the Trump family." Also linked yesterday, but the story has been updated. ...

... Emily Fox of Vanity Fair: "The switch reflects the changing nature of Cohen's case moving forward [a], friend [of Cohen's] suggested. With privilege designations coming to a close, Cohen has been in talks with lawyers who have close ties to the Manhattan U.S. attorneys office. He is close to hiring one of them, according to three people familiar with the situation. The breakup was also spurred by a disagreement over payment, and how much the Trump Organization was expected to foot on Cohen's behalf, according to two sources with knowledge of the dispute." ...

... Martin Longman in the Washington Monthly: "The widespread assumption is that this indicates that Cohen is preparing to cut a deal with the Special Counsel's office, but it could be as simple as Cohen not being able to pay his lawyers' fees. Maybe all that money from AT&T and Novartis really doesn't go very far when the Feds come knocking.... I think it's too early to say what's really going on here, although I can't fail to mention that there is now more than one media outlet reporting that Cohen has told friends he expects to be arrested at any moment. I don't think he'll be arrested before the prosecutors have combed through all his records which they'll be able to do starting sometime on Friday. Of course, Cohen has to be considered a substantial flight risk, and there should be considerable concern about his physical safety. So, he could be arrested at the soonest practicable moment, even before the Feds know all they've got on him." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's probably worth pointing out here thatCohen has been cooperating with Trump all along, & in a very significant way. This whole costly exercise of combing through those millions of Cohen documents -- in which, as far as we know, very few are attorney-client-privileged -- is really an exercise in providing Trump's lawyers -- who are combing right alongside Cohen's lawyers -- with access to every single piece of evidence Mueller's team found in their raids of Cohen's offices & homes.

Surprise! Trump Made Another Empty Promise. Steve Benen: "... on May 30..., the president declared with pride, '... I think we're going to have some of the big drug companies in two weeks, and they're going to announce -- because of what we did -- they're going to announce voluntary massive drops in prices. That's going to be a fantastic thing.' Many of the nation's largest pharmaceutical companies had absolutely no idea what Trump was talking about, but the White House made no effort to walk back the president's vow.... Two weeks after Trump talked up the 'fantastic thing' that would happen on June 13 ... Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pressed Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar [-- a former drug company CEO --] for an update on the presidential promise. It didn't go especially well." All Azar could come up with was to claim that "several drug companies" were "looking at" lowering prices. Meanwhile, the WashPo reported on numerous hikes in drug prices.

From the Horse's Mouth. stonehenge of Daily Kos: "Justify won the Belmont Stakes, becoming the 13th triple Crown winner, and turned down an invitation to the White House. Asked why, the winner neighed, 'If I wanted to see a horse's ass, I would've finished second.'" Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

Annie Karni of Politico: "The White House -- which has been having trouble filling positions as it bleeds staffers -- is now trying to find recruits at a conservative job fair on the Hill. 'Interested in a job at the White House?' is the subject line of an email that was blasted out widely to Republicans on the Hill late Wednesday advertising the upcoming event.... The flyer lists positions open in the White House as well as a handful of government agencies including Defense, Interior, Commerce, Homeland Security, Health & Human Services, NASA, Energy, and Treasury. The 'Executive Branch Job Fair' is scheduled for Friday afternoon in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, according to a flyer attached to the email.... A job fair is seen as an unusual step for a White House to take. Typically jobs in the executive branch are coveted career-making opportunities." ...

... Jacqueline Alemany of CBS News: "Two of the most visible members of the Trump administration are planning their departures, the latest sign of upheaval in a White House marked by turmoil. Press secretary Sarah Sanders and principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah are both heading for the exits, according to sources inside the White House and close to the administration. Sanders, who has become a confidante of President Trump since the departure of former communications director Hope Hicks, has told friends that she plans to leave the administration at the end of the year. Shah is also considering his exit, but he has not yet settled on an exact date. Neither Sanders nor Shah responded to repeated requests for comment before this story was published. When reached Wednesday evening, both declined to comment on the record, and Sanders tweeted that she is 'honored to work for @POTUS.'" ...

... Margaret Hartmann of New York: "Sanders ... disputed [the report of her retirement plans] on Twitter. (Sanders isn't known for her dedication to the truth, so make of this what you will.)... These days, it seems like everyone in the Trump administration is thinking of quitting (except Scott Pruitt)." ...

... Umair Irfan of Vox: "Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt's nonstop scandals are finally beginning to test the patience of some of his staunchest political allies. The latest Republican to question whether Pruitt should remain in office is one of his biggest patrons, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK).... One of Inhofe's former aides, Andrew Wheeler, is now Pruitt&'s second-in-command at the EPA. But on Wednesday, in a conversation about Pruitt with conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, Inhofe said, '... I would say this that there's a guy behind him, Andrew Wheeler, who's really qualified too, so that might be a good swap,' Inhofe added. Ingraham also called on Pruitt to resign following reports that the administrator had pressed lobbyists and donors to get a job for his wife, the latest in a long, long list of alleged transgressions.... Four House Republicans have also openly called for Pruitt to step down.... A right-wing dark money group called the American Future Fund released a withering attack ad on Tuesday calling on President Trump to fire Pruitt." ...

... Kyla Mandel of ThinkProgress: "In what some legal experts view as an unusual move, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has started referring reporters to Administrator Scott Pruitt's outside legal counsel when inquiring about his numerous scandals. Recent revelations have raised questions about whether Pruitt broke federal law by using public office for personal gain.... Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University..., explained, the job of the EPA spokesperson is to speak on behalf of the agency, not on behalf of Pruitt in his personal capacity." The reason for the referral to his personal counsel is that Pruitt's scandals now involve potential criminal activity as opposed to simple bad judgment....

A Chip off the Old Blockhead. Jonathan Swan & Alayna Treene of Axios. "Several months ago, Donald Trump ordered the promotion of Rudy Giuliani's son. But instead of getting promoted, he has lost his West Wing pass.... [White House Chief-of-Staff John] Kelly and others, including Office of Public Liaison director Justin Clark, won't promote Andrew [Giuliani] because they think he 'subverts the chain of command' and claim he had other issues in the workplace that they weren't happy about.... According to a source familiar, Kelly took away Andrew's blue staff pass about two weeks ago, revoking his West Wing access. He now only has a green pass, which means he can't enter the West Wing without an escort." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Worse Than McCarthy. digby reproduces part of a Foreign Policy report: "A senior advisor to the State Department appointed just two months ago has been quietly vetting career diplomats and American employees of international institutions to determine whether they are loyal to ... Donald Trump and his political agenda, according to nearly a dozen current and former U.S. officials. Mari Stull, a former food and beverage lobbyist-turned-wine blogger under the name 'Vino Vixen,' has reviewed the social media pages of State Department staffers for signs of ideological deviation. She has researched the names of government officials to determine whether they signed off on Obama-era policies -- though signing off does not mean officials personally endorsed them but merely cleared them through the bureaucratic chain. And she has inquired about Americans employed by international agencies, including the World Health Organization and the United Nations, asking their colleagues when they were hired and by whom, according the officials." There's more. digby: "This is a form of Trumpism that takes McCarthyism to a new level. Even Joseph McCarthy wanted to purge the State Department of people he deemed traitorous to the country, not himself."

Katie Benner of the New York Times: "On Thursday, [DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz] will issue the highly anticipated findings of his examination of the F.B.I.'s handling of its investigation into strong>Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. He is expected to castigate the decision making by the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey; his deputy, Andrew G. McCabe and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch." Benner profiles Horowitz. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jim Tankersley & Neil Irwin of the New York Times: "The Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday and signaled that two additional increases were on the way this year, as officials expressed confidence that the United States economy was strong enough for borrowing costs to rise without choking off economic growth. Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chairman, speaking in unusually blunt terms at a news conference on Wednesday, said the economy had strengthened significantly since the 2008 financial crisis and was approaching a 'normal' level that could allow the Fed to soon step back and play less of a hands-on role in encouraging economic activity. The Fed's optimism about the state of the economy is likely to translate into higher borrowing costs for cars, home mortgages and credit cards over the next year as the central bank raises interest rates more quickly than was anticipated."

Dana Milbank: "Donald Trump's America has taken on a Dickensian pall.... The news is full of ugly accounts about the consequences of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, including reports about the tent cities for unaccompanied minors (McClatchy News), the 'dreamer' killed after his forced return to Mexico (Des Moines Register) and the suicide of the Honduran father (The Post's Nick Miroff). Vulnerable Republicans, seeking shelter from the gruesome consequences of the administration's actions, tried to force a vote on the Dream Act -- but conservatives prevailed. The House will instead take up alternatives next week that are unlikely to pass.... Republican lawmakers aren't willing to stand up to the source of their Dickensian dilemma. Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) spoke out against Trump — and lost his primary Tuesday. Rep. Martha Roby (R-Ala.) once expressed concern about Trump -- and was forced into a runoff. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who is retiring, complains his GOP colleagues won't defend their own trade principles because they don't want to 'poke the bear.' Republicans may be afraid voters will see them as heartless — but they are more afraid of crossing Trump." ...

... House Republicans, Including Speaker, Pretend They Have Hearts. Rebecca Shabad, et al., of NBC News: "The compromise House GOP immigration bill will include a provision that children will not be separated from their parents at the border. Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., one of the moderate Republicans involved in negotiations over the legislation, said the provision will be part of the yet-to-be-written text of the measure. A senior GOP aide confirmed the provision to NBC and said Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., briefed House Republicans last week that it would be included in any bill that's considered. In addition to protecting the 1.8 million Dreamers who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children, the compromise bill would also eliminate the diversity lottery and include $25 billion for border security, Denham told reporters Wednesday. He said leadership is committed to completing the text of the bill this week.... The speaker told House Republicans on Wednesday morning that he had spoken to ... Donald Trump about the plan, and that the president was excited about it...." Emphasis added. ...

... How "Excited" Is Trump? He & JeffBo Are Not Even Pretending to Have Hearts. Pete Williams of NBC News: "The Trump administration is urging a federal court in Texas to declare DACA illegal, setting up a potential conflict that could allow the government to shut the program down within a matter of weeks. While this latest development has received little attention, it could suspend or stop a federal initiative that has allowed 700,000 young people, known as Dreamers, to avoid deportation. In a motion filed late Friday, Justice Department lawyers told a judge in Texas that the program violates federal immigration law. Assuming, as expected, that the judge grants the request from DACA opponents and orders the government to stop enforcing DACA, the ruling would conflict with orders from two other federal courts that require continued enforcement of the program. If faced with competing court orders, the Justice Department said it would then rush to the U.S. Supreme Court.... If the justices agreed [with the DOJ], the Trump administration would be free to shut DACA down immediately, because nothing would be in effect to prevent the government from taking that action." ...

... They're All Steve King Now. Arthur Delaney of the Huffington Post: "On Tuesday, [Rep. Steve] King [R-Confederacy] ... retweeted Mark Collett, a prominent British white supremacist, with a comment about the need for America to wake up to the perils of immigration. It was at least the second time King had retweeted Collett, who makes YouTube videos ranting about Jews and downplaying the historical significance of slavery and the Holocaust. King's office ignored requests for comment, so HuffPost asked King in person if he knew he'd been retweeting a gu with clear Nazi sympathies. 'I'm going to follow her advice right here,' King said, referring to an aide who said the congressman wouldn't stop to talk after a HuffPost reporter identified himself. Members of Congress talk to reporters in Capitol Hill hallways every day, and King is usually one of the chattier ones...." Delaney tried twice more to get a comment from King, with no success. ...

... "Putinesque." Daily Beast: "A Texas shelter housing child immigrants who are separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border is reportedly overcrowded, highly structured, and full of murals featuring President Trump. The Casa Padre shelter in Brownsville was opened up to a group of journalists Wednesday for the first time since the Department of Homeland Security announced a controversial new family separation policy. According to MSNBC reporter Jacob Soboroff, who live-tweeted about his tour of the shelter, visitors are almost immediately greeted by a massive Trump mural featuring a quote that reads, 'Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war' [Mrs. McC: in Spanish]. Soboroff said on Twitter that similar presidential murals are 'everywhere' throughout the facility. Nearly 1,500 boys between the ages of 10 and 17 are currently held in the facility and reportedly get only two hours a day of fresh air." Mrs. McC: Also, if the photo is any indication, filthy towels.

GOP = Cult of Trump. Dave Weigel, et al., of the Washington Post: "Fiercely and undeniably, the Republican Party this week confirmed its rebranding as the party of Trump. Buoyed by a late Tuesday presidential tweet, voters in South Carolina cast out Rep. Mark Sanford, a firmly conservative member of Congress who had survived earlier scandal, in favor of a state legislator who had condemned Sanford for publicly criticizing the president. In Virginia, Republicans nominated for senator a Trump-like candidate with a history of embracing, as the president has, Confederate symbols and white nationalists. The week was marked by continued deference to Trump on the part of congressional leaders.... Legislative efforts by some in the party to wrest trade authority back from Trump and rewrite the nation's immigration laws in ways he has opposed both fell in defeat. Meanwhile, many in the party who in the past have opposed talks with North Korea&'s leader this week praised Trump for his summit with Kim Jong Un.... His hotel, down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, has become the requisite gathering place for Republican groups, political donors and foreign visitors, a visual and, for the president, financially rewarding symbol of demonstrated loyalty.... 'It's becoming a cultish thing, isn't it?' Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee told reporters Wednesday morning." ...

... Jonathan Martin & Michael Tackett of the New York Times: "The president's transformation of the G.O.P. -- its policies, its tone, even the fate of its candidates -- has never been so evident.... Mr. Trump's harsh attacks, including describing the news media as 'the country's biggest enemy' Tuesday, draw muted responses or silence from most Republicans these days.... The president exulted over [the defeat of Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) & the victory or Corey Stewart (R-Confederacy)] Wednesday, crowing about his last-minute help torpedoing Mr. Sanford, a reference to an 11th-hour tweet that called Mr. Sanford 'nothing but trouble' and endorsed [Sanford's Trumpy primary opponent Katie] Arrington. And Mr. Trump argued that Mr. Stewart has 'a major chance of winning' in a state that has not elected a statewide Republican in nearly a decade."

Senate Race

Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Corey Stewart, the provocative conservative who won Tuesday's Republican primary to challenge Democratic Senator Tim Kaine in Virginia in November, has spent years courting voters on the rightward fringes of his party, often by playing to anti-immigration sentiment.... In January 2017, as Mr. Stewart ran for governor, he met with and praised Paul Nehlen, an outspoken anti-Semite who is now making his second run for Congress in Wisconsin. He called Mr. Nehlen 'one of my personal heroes' and said he was 'so honored' to have Mr. Nehlen's endorsement. And in a June 2017 campaign finance filing reported by CNN, he disclosed a $759 payment to Mr. Nehlen, described as a 'fund-raising commission.' Mr. Stewart was also endorsed last year by the white nationalist Jason Kessler, who later organized the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. In February 2017, Mr. Stewart appeared with Mr. Kessler at an event sponsored by Mr. Kessler's group Unity and Security for America.... Mr. Stewart has since distanced himself from both men.... Mr. Stewart has been a vocal defender of Confederate monuments, including the statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville around which last year's rally was organized.... After the 'Unite the Right' rally in Charlottesville in August..., Mr. Stewart adopted similar language to President Trump, saying that 'half the violence' was the fault of the counterprotesters, including 'far-left nut cases.'" ...

... Charles Pierce: "The Republicans in Virginia, like their co-religionists in Alabama, have picked themselves a real winner to run against incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Tim Kaine in the fall. This time, though, it's not an aging scuzball like the Gadsden Mall Creeper, Roy Moore. This time it's an unreconstructed Confederate meat bag named Corey Stewart. And ... The New York Times, [CNN, & others] already []are in unfortunate soft-pedal on the whole business..... Stewart is not a ... 'hard-right firebrand,' [as the NYT described him.] He is an unapologetic public racist, and damned proud of it, who goes out of his way to associate with other unapologetic public racists, who are damned proud of it, too.... Stewart is not ... a 'bombastic conservative,' [as CNN labeled him]. He is an unapologetic public racist, and damned proud of it, who goes out of his way to associate with other unapologetic public racists, who are damned proud of it, too.... Doug Jones' surprise win in Alabama wasn't enough to keep Republican voters in Virginia from nominating Zombie Jeff Davis, despite the fact that doing so might turn out to be a termination notice for a Republican majority in Congress." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Primary Elections, Ctd. -- Maine

Kevin Miller of the Portland Press Herald: "The winner of Tuesday's Democratic gubernatorial primary was unclear Wednesday and likely won't be known until early next week. But with 90 percent of precincts statewide reporting, [Janet] Mills was maintaining a roughly 5,000-vote lead over [Adam] Cote on Wednesday evening. Yet Mills' 33 percent share of the vote totals – compared to Cote’s 29 percent -- was well below the 50 percent threshold needed to win the race outright. As a result, Maine will see its first ranked-choice voting tabulation for a statewide race starting Friday." ...

... Scott Thistle of the Portland Press Herald: Shawn "Moody captured the party's nomination [for governor] in stunning fashion, as he quickly took and never relinquished a dominating lead in an election that featured two state lawmakers and a former member of Gov. Paul LePage's inner circle. With 90 percent of the precincts reporting Wednesday evening, Moody had strong majority support with 56 percent of the vote.

Edmund Lee & Brooks Barnes of the New York Times: "Comcast announced an offer worth $65 billion for the bulk of 21st Century Fox's businesses on Wednesday, setting up a showdown with the Walt Disney Company for Rupert Murdoch's media empire. The all-cash bid by Comcast, the largest cable company and broadband provider in the United States, came a day after a federal judge approved a merger between AT&T and Time Warner. Comcast executives had awaited the decision in that case before mounting their bid for 21st Century Fox. The one-upmanship reflects an industry under threat from Silicon Valley, where deep-pocketed technology companies like Netflix and Amazon are stealing audiences, ad dollars and big name creative talents. In December, Disney struck an all-stock deal, worth $52.4 billion at the time, for Fox's assets, shortly after Fox rebuffed an offer from Comcast that was worth roughly $60 billion, all in stock. Now Comcast is back -- creating a likely bidding war for a conglomerate that Mr. Murdoch has spent a lifetime building...."

Brian Stelter of CNN: "Hours after returning from a trip where he lavished praise on one of the world's worst dictators, President Trump declared that ... 'Our Country's biggest enemy is the Fake News so easily promulgated by fools!'... He singled out NBC and CNN in his angry tweet on Wednesday. Trump frequently portrays the news media as one of his enemies, but rarely has he been this blunt about it. Wednesday's tweet harkens back to February 2017, when he called several news outlets 'the enemy of the American People!'... No modern American president has publicly spoken this way about the press. Richard Nixon sometimes talked this way, but only in private.... Trump officials and their allies in the media attacked [CNN reporter Jim] Acosta for asking Kim and Trump questions during a signing ceremony at the Singapore nuclear summit. In plainer words, Acosta was assailed for doing his job. Brad Parscale, the Trump 2020 campaign manager, said Acosta's press credentials should be 'immediately' suspended'... New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman translated the tweet this way: 'Someone is unhappy with headlines reflecting what happened instead of what he wants to say happened.' MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell asked: 'What deal? There is no deal with North Korea.'" ...

... Trump Has Lost Blitzer. David Rutz of the Washington Free Beacon: "CNN host Wolf Blitzer said on behalf of the media 'we love the American people' on Wednesday in response to ... Donald Trump's latest broadside against the profession.... Blitzer went on to say a lot of Trump's supporters believed the charge, which was 'a really, really awful situation.'"

Kendra Pierre-Lewis of the New York Times: "Antarctica is ... melting, and a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature shows that the melting is speeding up. The rate at which Antarctica is losing ice has tripled since 2007, according to the latest available data. The continent is now melting so fast, scientists say, that it will contribute six inches (15 centimeters) to sea-level rise by 2100. That is at the upper end of what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated Antarctica alone could contribute to sea level rise this century."

Beyond the Beltway

Molly Beck of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Wisconsin Democrats came one step closer to gaining control of the state Senate by picking up a seat held by Republicans for more than 40 years, while the GOP held on to an Assembly seat in a pair of special elections Tuesday. Caleb Frostman topped Rep. Andre Jacque in the 1st Senate District and Jon Plumer defeated Ann Groves Lloyd in the 42nd Assembly District. Frostman will be the first Democrat to represent the northeast Wisconsin district since the 1970s -- a win Democrats are hailing as more evidence of a so-called blue wave ready to flip more Republican-held seats i elections later this year."

Way Beyond

Margaret Coker & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "An Arab military coalition invaded Yemen's main Red Sea port on Wednesday, worsening what is already the world's most severe humanitarian disaster by disrupting the delivery of food and other supplies to millions of Yemenis. The air and ground attack by forces loyal to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates was aimed at tipping the balance in Yemen’s long-running civil war and driving Iranian-backed rebels out of the port of Al Hudaydah. Although fighting appeared to be limited to the outskirts of the city on Wednesday, the prospect of sustained fighting there stands to produce one of the bloodiest urban battles of the war, deepening what is already a catastrophic humanitarian situation. After years of war, eight million of Yemen's estimated 28 million people are at risk of starvation, according to the United Nations and aid agencies.... The war between the Saudi-Emirati coalition and the Houthis is just one facet of the unrest that has splintered the impoverished country. In the south, Emirati-backed local forces, assisted by American drones, are battling the Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda. A southern insurgency wants to secede from the north. And the country’s internationally recognized president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, has no natural constituency in the country and instead lives in exile in Saudi Arabia."