The Commentariat -- May 31, 2018

Afternoon Update:

** Jonathan Swan of Axios: "President Trump pressured Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reclaim control of the Russia investigation on at least four separate occasions, three times in person and once over the phone, according to sources familiar with the conversations.... Four sources with direct knowledge told me Trump has been obsessed by the Mueller investigation over the past year.... Trump takes out much of his anger on the White House Counsel Don McGahn, according to sources who've watched them interact."

Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "The Trump administration said on Thursday that it would impose tariffs on metals imported from its closest allies, a measure certain to strain diplomatic relationships and provoke retaliation against businesses and consumers in the United States. Tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum from the European Union, Canada and Mexico, which together supply nearly half of America's imported metal, are to take effect at midnight Thursday, Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, said on a call with reporters. The move follows months of uncertainty during which the Trump administration dangled potential exemptions to the tariffs in return for concessions on other fronts, including voluntary limits on metal shipments to the United States and reduced tariffs on imports from America." ...

... David Lynch, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump Thursday imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum from the European Union, Canada and Mexico, triggering immediate retaliation from U.S. allies against American businesses and farmers. The tariffs -- 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum -- will take effect at midnight Thursday, marking a major escalation of the trade war between the U.S. and its top trading partners. In response, the E.U. said it would impose duties 'on a number of imports from the United States,' referring to a 10-page list of targets for retaliation it published in March, which included Kentucky bourbon and Harley-Davidson motorcycles. European leaders also vowed to proceed with a complaint to the World Trade Organization.... The Mexican government said it would levy import taxes on U.S. exports of pork bellies, blueberries, apples, grapes, certain cheeses, and various types of steel."

Eileen Sullivan & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Thursday that he planned to issue a pardon to Dinesh D[Souza, a conservative author, commentator and filmmaker, and was strongly considering commuting the sentence of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois, a Democrat. Flexing his clemency power as he and his team face multiple criminal investigations of their own, Mr. Trump also said that he was looking at the case of Martha Stewart, the lifestyle mogul who spent five months in prison for lying to investigators about the timing of a stock sale. The pardon for Mr. D'Souza, who pleaded guilty in 2014 to making illegal campaign contributions, represents a victory for one of the president's most vocal bases of support, the conservative media. Mr. D'Souza has argued that he was singled out for prosecution because of his conservative politics." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: See today's Comments for apt opinions on the D'Souza pardon. As for my opinion -- what they said.

Trump Tries to Dig out of an Obstruction Charge. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump again insisted Thursday that he did not fire former FBI director James B. Comey because of the Russia investigation, blaming the 'Corrupt Mainstream Media' for pushing a false storyline.... Trump made a similar assertion last month, writing that Comey 'was not fired because of the phony Russia investigation.'... The president's assertion, in a morning tweet, is at odds with comments he made in a television interview last year in which he said Comey's stewardship of the Russia inquiry was on his mind when he decided to dismiss him.... In a separate tweet Thursday, Trump continued to insist that the FBI had spied on his 2016 campaign and claimed that the media 'is working overtime' to avoid reporting about it." Mrs. McC: How do you "work overtime" by doing nothing? Of course none of this makes sense, which is what we have come to expect from the Worst President* Ever. ...

... Louis Nelson of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Thursday peppered his Twitter feed with falsehoods, claiming the media is ignoring a controversy he's dubbed 'spygate' and is maliciously pushing the idea that he fired FBI director James Comey because of the Russia probe -- an explanation the president himself offered in the days after the ousting. It was another example of Trump hammering the media as he tries to beat back damaging stories about special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election, the Trump campaign and whether the president tried to obstruct justice." ...

... Kevin Johnson of USA Today writes a more damning take than does the NYT article linked below on Andrew McCabe's memo regarding his conversation with Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein concerning Trump's firing of Jim Comey: "Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe authored a memo claiming that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said President Trump asked him to refer to the Russia investigation as a reason for recommending the dismissal of FBI Director James Comey, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday." Mrs. McC: Congratulations, Kevin. You are now a card-carrying member of the "Corrupt Mainstream Media." And thank you. ...

... Frank Rich: "If Trump is innocent of all potential charges in the Russia probe, why would he want a loyal puppet in charge of the Mueller investigation except to obstruct it? His continued wail about Sessions, not just on Twitter but to anyone in earshot, is so patently self-incriminating that it's laughable. Not to mention over-the-top. Look at our president's priorities: He is now spending more time vilifying Sessions (and Rod Rosenstein and Robert Mueller) than he is on his putative summit with Kim Jong-un, in which America's national security is at stake. He now professes a far lower opinion of Sessions, his own choice for our country's chief law-enforcement officer, than he does of North Korea's murderous dictator.... Trump is so anxious about his legal exposure as Mueller closes in that he just can't help betraying his guilt in public like a bargain-basement Macbeth. Or he's batshit crazy. Or both." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "President Trump has been making the novel argument that the real flaw in the Russia scandal lies with the FBI, which allegedly failed to warn Trump that his campaign was being targeted by Russian intelligence. 'Why didn't the crooked highest levels of the FBI or "Justice" contact me to tell me of the phony Russia problem?,' he complained last weekend. Today, Trump approvingly quotes Rush Limbaugh repeating his argument[.]... In fact, the FBI did tell Trump. As NBC reported last December, in 'a high-level counterintelligence briefing by senior FBI officials' the candidate 'was warned that foreign adversaries, including Russia, would probably try to spy on and infiltrate his campaign.' At the time, of course, Trump was publicly dismissing the FBI's warnings that Russia had stolen Democratic emails, insisting it might be China or a 400-pound man, while also publicly asking Russia to expand its email theft. His campaign was also swarming with secret Russia contacts, most prominently a meeting in Trump Tower with Russian spies promising dirt on his opponent."

Trump endorses Rep. Dan Donovan (R-N.Y.) in his primary race against ex-con & ex-Rep. Michael Grimm (and a guy who threatened -- on camera -- to throw a reporter over a balcony to his death). In a tweet, Trump promoted Donovan because he "voted for Tax Cuts and is helping me to Make America Great Again." Anna Palmer of Politico:" THERE'S ONLY ONE PROBLEM. Donovan voted against the tax-cut bill. He voted against it three times. He voted against it in every incarnation. The only material reason Trump gave to support Donovan was incorrect. Not only did Donovan vote against it, he was vocally opposed to it. He called it a 'tax hike on the people I represent.'... What is going on in the White House? It's tough to think of a mistake easier to avoid than whether a lawmaker voted for the largest legislative achievement of the past two years."

"Trump Turns to Victimhood Politics." Brian Stelter of CNN: "For a second straight day, President Trump has found a way to talk about the 'Roseanne' controversy without condemning Roseanne Barr's racist remark. He is targeting ABC and its parent company Disney, whose chief executive is Bob Iger. He is expressing resentment that ABC took swift action when Barr attacked former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett, but didn't take equivalent action when other ABC stars assailed Trump.... But Trump is tapping into a potent strain of grievance politics. It's the same thing that drives countless segments on his favorite Fox News talk shows: the notion of a double standard that hurts conservatives.... 'Iger, where is my call of apology? You and ABC have offended millions of people, and they demand a response,' Trump tweeted [Thursday]. Then he added: 'How is Brian Ross doing? He tanked the market with an ABC lie, yet no apology. Double Standard!'... Brian Ross, the ABC News correspondent who made a serious reporting error on the day that former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI. Ross was suspended and later reassigned.... ABC may not have apologized directly to Trump, but the network did issue a full apology for the faulty reporting."

Carol Morello & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a senior North Korean official abruptly ended two days of talks Thursday with no immediate announcement of progress toward reinstating a potential summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Trump. The State Department said Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol, the right-hand man to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, concluded their meetings before noon, roughly 90 minutes earlier than expected. Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert did not immediately explain why the schedule changed, and it was not clear whether the two men had hit an impasse in efforts to set the agenda for a leader summit in Singapore next month. Pompeo gave no indication of trouble with a short tweet after the talks broke up."

Washington Post: "The American Federation of Government Employees on Thursday took the Trump administration to court to block a new executive order that severely restricts the time employees can spend on union activity, claiming it violates the First Amendment guarantee of the right to freedom of association and oversteps the president's constitutional authority." This is a developing story.

*****

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

Another Smoking Gun? Matt Apuzzo, et al., of the New York Times: "The former acting F.B.I. director, Andrew G. McCabe, wrote a confidential memo last spring recounting a conversation that offered significant behind-the-scenes details on the firing of Mr. McCabe's predecessor, James B. Comey, according to several people familiar with the discussion.... In the document, whose contents have not been previously reported, Mr. McCabe described a conversation at the Justice Department with the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, in the chaotic days last May after Mr. Comey's abrupt firing. Mr. Rosenstein played a key role in the dismissal, writing a memo that rebuked Mr. Comey over his handling of an investigation into Hillary Clinton. But in the meeting at the Justice Department, Mr. Rosenstein added a new detail: He said the president had originally asked him to reference Russia in his memo, the people familiar with the conversation said. Mr. Rosenstein did not elaborate on what Mr. Trump had wanted him to say. To Mr. McCabe, that seemed like possible evidence that Mr. Comey's firing was actually related to the F.B.I.'s investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia, and that Mr. Rosenstein helped provide a cover story by writing about the Clinton investigation. One person who was briefed on Mr. Rosenstein's conversation with the president said Mr. Trump had simply wanted Mr. Rosenstein to mention that he was not personally under investigation in the Russia inquiry. Mr. Rosenstein said it was unnecessary and did not include such a reference. Mr. Trump ultimately said it himself when announcing the firing." ...

... Margaret Hartmann: "Some have suggested that the Trump camp leaked the details of McCabe's memos in an attempt to further discredit Rosenstein, and the FBI in general. If true, Trump is scraping the bottom of the barrel. There are ways to justify the deputy AG's recusal from the Russia probe, or even his firing, that don't involve Trump accusing Rosenstein of covering up his own attempt to obstruct justice." ...

... The Campaign to Save JeffBo. Jonathan Lemire, et al., of the AP: "Days after ... Donald Trump deemed Jeff Sessions 'beleaguered' and threatened to fire him last July, members of the president's inner circle made a desperate case to save the attorney general's job. The White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and the president's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, pleaded with Trump during a heated Oval Office meeting to keep Sessions, warning that his dismissal would only pour gasoline on the Russia investigation. And, they said, it could alienate those in Trump's conservative base, supporters enamored with the attorney general's tough stances on law enforcement and immigration. Priebus and Bannon both lost their jobs within the month. But Sessions survived, his reprieve delivered by John Kelly as one of his first acts as chief of staff. Ten months later, the Republican campaign to save Sessions has continued and -- at least for now -- succeeded.... The effort is one of the few effective Republican attempts to install guardrails around a president who delights in defying advice and breaking the rules." ...

... S.V. Date of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani said that he can fully understand why Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from investigations related to Russia and the presidential election and that he might have done the same, had he accepted that job, as Trump wanted. Giuliani said he would have had the same conflict of interest as Sessions because they were both major players in Trump's campaign, although, unlike Sessions, he never met with the Russian ambassador."

Alan Feuer & Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "A federal judge in Manhattan on Wednesday ordered lawyers for Michael D. Cohen, President Trump's longtime fixer, to complete within just over two weeks their review of a huge trove of documents and data that the F.B.I. seized from Mr. Cohen last month and that prosecutors are eager to use in their continuing investigation of him. The judge, Kimba M. Wood, said that if the lawyers did not meet her June 15 deadline, she would allow the government to take control of the review, which is seeking to determine whether any of the seized paperwork or electronic files should be protected under the lawyer-client privilege. A court-appointed special master has been overseeing scrutiny of the materials with Mr. Cohen's lawyers, but Judge Wood suggested in a hearing in United States District Court that the process was moving too slowly." ...

... Tom McCarthy of the Guardian: "Cohen's lawyers also clashed in the courtroom with Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for Stormy Daniels, the actor and producer of pornographic films, who alleges she had an affair with Trump more than a decade ago and was paid $130,000 in hush money by Cohen, which was later reimbursed to Cohen by Trump. Avenatti is an active thorn in the side of the White House and had come to court to press for his inclusion in the proceedings. Judge Kimba Wood warned Avenatti, who has frequently discussed the Cohen case on TV and social media, that if he joined the proceedings he would have to shrink his media profile. Public discussion of the case by participants could 'potentially deprive him [Cohen] of a fair trial by potentially tainting a jury pool', Wood said, calling the proceedings a 'potential precursor to a criminal proceeding if charges are filed'. Avenatti withdrew his request for inclusion after the hearing had ended." ...

... Tom Winter, et al., of NBC News: "Federal prosecutors sorting through materials seized from Michael Cohen ... said Wednesday they needed more time to piece together the contents of a shredder taken in an FBI raid. At a court hearing in New York, prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood that they'd turned over most of the materials seized during the April 9 raids of Cohen's office and Park Avenue hotel room to Cohen's legal team, with the exception of two BlackBerry devices and the shredded documents. Prosecutors [also] explained ... that they were still trying to access the BlackBerrys."

Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "The Senate intelligence committee has asked to interview Roger Stone, Donald Trump's longtime political adviser and self-described dirty trickster. Stone's lawyer, Grant Smith, told The Daily Beast that the committee last week sent them an email with a list of search terms for communications to use to determine which electronic communications to turn over to the Senate Intelligence Committee. At the same time, according to Smith, the committee said its members would like to question Stone after receiving the documents. Smith said the process has been amicable and that the interview date has not yet been set." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Fox Foils Loon. Samantha Schmidt of the Washington Post: "... three voices on Fox News pushed back against the president's most recent conspiracy theory. A Fox News guest, commentator and anchor all rebuked claims from the president and his allies that the FBI planted a 'spy' in his campaign in an effort to undercut his candidacy. Outgoing Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the House Oversight Committee chairman and a Trump supporter, said in an interview on Fox that the FBI was justified in using a secret informant to assist in the Russia investigation. Gowdy, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, attended a classified Justice Department briefing last week on the FBI's use of the confidential source, identified as Stefan A. Halper.... Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano (better known and often quoted by Trump as Judge Napolitano) said claims that the FBI placed an undercover spy on Trump's campaign 'seem to be baseless.'... Napolitano's reluctance to back Trump's claims was surprising in part because of Napolitano's previous tendency to peddle conspiracy theories with no evidence.... Also on Fox News on Tuesday, anchor Shepard Smith ripped apart the president's 'conspiracy theories' that Mueller and his team are meddling in the midterms, calling the allegations 'unfounded, not based in fact or reason, with no evidence to support them.'" Fortunately for Trump, Hannity is still solidly in Trump Conspiracy World. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Dana Milbank: Trey Gowdy "has been one of the most partisan, vitriolic and conspiracy-minded legislators in his eight years here. As recently as January, he was demanding answers about a bogus 'secret society' within the FBI and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's probe. But since then, Gowdy has contracted a case of late-onset honesty.... [Why?] He announced at the end of January that he was leaving Congress, which freed him to speak his mind without fear of a political price.... Better late than never, he's speaking up on his way out. If only incumbent Republicans were courageous enough to do the same." ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "There "are three pretty high-profile rebukes from fellow Republicans -- Trey Gowdy, Lindsey Graham & Marco Rubio -- of the entire basis for Trump's ['Spygate'] claim, and we really haven't seen the inverse: Republicans lending credence to Trump's theory.... Even House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) ... has been quiet since receiving the briefing alongside Gowdy. That, perhaps more than anything, speaks volumes. But ... the lack of any real backup for Trump's claims hasn't stopped the GOP base from buying into them. Few top Republican members of Congress are calling the Russia investigation a 'witch hunt,' as Trump has, yet 82 percent of Republican voters and 44 percent of all Americans believe it is." ...

... Kyle Cheney of Politico: With all the pushback from influential Trumpies, "Spygate" is fizzling. BUT "The White House declined to directly rebut Gowdy on Wednesday, but made clear the president hasn't backed off his concern. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that 'clearly, there's still cause for concern' about the president's 'spy allegations.'"

AND Jonathan Chait: "Roger Stone, a longtime confidante to Donald Trump, appeared on the Alex Jones show to ask listeners to fund his legal defense. Stone's associates have been questioned by Robert Mueller's investigators, and Stone has casually mentioned he might be indicted for what he called 'extraneous crimes.' But, Stone promises, he 'will never roll on Donald Trump.'... Of course, rolling on Trump would not be a choice he had to disavow if Trump and Stone had not committed any crimes."

David Lynch & Damian Paletta of the Washington Post: "President Trump plans to announce as soon as Thursday the imposition of sweeping tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union, three people familiar with the plan said. Frustrated over the failure of those U.S. trading partners to agree to a range of demands, the president chose to sharply escalate his global trade war rather than grant further tariff waivers. The import taxes could take effect as soon as Friday. The move is likely to have an immediate impact on global trade in steel and aluminum, particularly between the United States and Canada, the nation's largest source of imported steel. The decision also invites retaliation from each of the trading partners, which have vowed to erect new barriers to a range of U.S. products."

The Oval Office as Set for Ridiculous Spectacle. Marisa Schultz & Nikki Schwab of "Page Six" of the New York Post: "It was the commander and cheeks! Kim Kardashian strutted into the Oval Office on Wednesday for a sit-down with ... Donald Trump to discuss criminal justice issues -- including an imprisoned drug offender she discovered on Twitter. The reality queen donned high heels and an all-black ensemble for the highly anticipated White House meeting.... She spoke with both Trump and Jared Kushner, whom she met through Ivanka Trump...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: My original plan was to link to a sensible story on this topic by German Lopez of Vox, but somehow a "Page Six" take -- commander and cheeks! -- seemed more appropriate. When this is all over, we need Mozart to score a Lorenzo da Ponte libretto for this opera buffa. Gold damask curtains & lots of laughs. There's not a single character in this real-life Trumpian farce whom I cannot picture in costume, belting out a comic aria bemoaning some personal grievance or misunderstanding. Or in duets, singing over each other:

Trump Complains ABC Is Nicer to Valerie Jarrett than to Trump. Bob Iger of ABC called Valerie Jarrett to let her know that 'ABC does not tolerate comments like those' made by Roseanne Barr. Gee, he never called President Donald J. Trump to apologize for the HORRIBLE statements made and said about me on ABC. Maybe I just didn't get the call? -- Donald Trump, in a tweet ...

... Katie Rogers & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Later in the day, Sarah Huckabee Sanders ... followed up on the president's tweet by furnishing a list of expanded gripes that members of the Trump administration have against those in the news media who have slighted the president or his supporters. Ms. Sanders ticked off notable names who she said had not apologized. That included several media personalities who work or have worked under the Disney umbrella, like Jemele Hill, the former ESPN host who called Mr. Trump a white supremacist; Keith Olbermann, the liberal commentator recently hired by ESPN, who has described the president as a 'Nazi' on Twitter; and [Joy] Behar of 'The View,' for suggesting that Vice President Mike Pence's Christian beliefs were a sign of mental illness. (She later apologized to Mr. Pence, who called the exchange 'sincere.') Kathy Griffin, the comedian who posed for a photo shoot with a model of a severed head that resembled the president's, was also a target of Ms. Sanders's ire.... 'This is a double standard that the president is speaking about,' Ms. Sanders said. 'No one is defending her comments.' But neither she nor Mr. Trump condemned them either." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I imagine Bob Iger would have apologized if a major ABC star had called a previous president a Nazi or a white supremacist. (Although I would not call Trump a Nazi per se, I would say that his attacks on Muslims, Mexicans & people from "shithole countries" show strong Nazi tendencies, & he has praised neo-Nazis. Trump's "final solution" is not mass murder but mass incarceration & deportation.) Iger has not apologized to Trump because the shoe fits. ...

... ** Greg Sargent: "Only hours after ABC abruptly dumped Roseanne Barr's TV series in the wake of her disgustingly racist tweet, President Trump went before a large rally crowd and put on a show similar to the one Roseanne stages regularly -- full of bigotry, lies and conspiracy theories, topped off with Trump's usual crowd-pleasing dehumanization of others combined with seething resentment over invented levels of victimization." Read on. ...

Part of what Rev. DiJiT is doing is getting his flock to repeat his hate-words, ('animals') as part of a crowd, in a hate-cheer. After which they incorporate that into their drill (a la 'lock her up'), and the stupid hate-thought becomes part of their belief frame. And they bond when they do that as a group -- if you hate who I hate, you're my broder, we're in the same bund. Look around, see how happy we all are ... More like real Nazis every day. Goebbels vud be zo proud! -- Patrick, in yesterday's Comments ...

... No Surprises. Caitlin Dewey of the Washington Post: "White Americans are increasingly critical of the country's social safety net, a new study suggests, thanks in part to a rising tide of racial resentment. White Americans are more likely to favor welfare cuts when they believe that their status is threatened and that minorities are the main beneficiaries of safety net programs, the study says. The findings suggest that political efforts to cut welfare programs are driven less by conservative principles than by racial anxiety, the authors conclude. That also hurts white Americans who make up the largest share of Medicaid and food-stamp recipients.... Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans have proposed deep cuts to both programs.... [Other] researchers have also shown that white Americans' racial prejudice affects their views on everything from healthcare policy to the death penalty to dogs. On the same day [this] paper [was] published, a separate study in the journal Environmental Politics found that people with high levels of 'racial resentment' are more likely to believe that the scientific consensus on climate change is false." ...

... Tyler McCarthy of Fox "News": "Roseanne Barr made it clear on Wednesday she's considering fighting ABC's move to cancel her revival after her racist tweet -- and the comic even pushed an accusation that former first lady Michelle Obama was behind her ouster. Despite initially saying she would be quitting Twitter after posting a negative and racially charged comment about former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett, the star returned Tuesday and let loose on social media." Mrs. McC: You knew it would be Obama's fault; it's just a different Obama's fault. Nice to see Barr is an equal-opportunity accuser.

Adam Rawnsley of the Daily Beast: "President Trump is still hoping he can meet with Kim Jong Un and convince him to give up his nukes. But new satellite imagery of North Korea's nuclear test site suggests that the North's may not be game for the 'complete, verifiable and irreversible' dismantling of their nuclear program Washington has called for. North Korea destroyed its Punggye-ri nuclear test site on Friday in front of an audience of reporters after unilaterally offering to destroy the site in mid-May. North Korean state media hailed the move as 'an important process for global nuclear disarmament' carried out with 'high-level transparency,' and President Trump praised it as 'a very smart and gracious gesture.' But some experts suspect the site may have been sanitized by the North Koreans before reporters arrived. Well before the dismantlement ceremony, satellite imagery of the south entrance obtained by the Middlebury Institute for International Studies show activity at the site as the North began to remove guard structures."

Ivanka Got Her Fee-Fees Hurt & Walked out in a Huff. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Ivanka Trump abruptly left a conference call on Tuesday about a coming fitness event after receiving questions about her company's trademarks in China and her father's exercise regimen. White House officials insisted that she had always been scheduled to leave." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Lachlan Markay & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast on White House feuds: "Leaks ... have decimated morale. But factionalism was the real poison, with aides growing more and more convinced that enemies within are spreading gossip and innuendo to enhance their own standing.... sources close to the president suggested that firings would come sometime soon and that they would be targeting members of the communications team." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... The White House Communications Staff Is Remarkably Incompetent. Annie Karni of Politico: "An unusual peek at the White House list of [foreign-policy] 'influencers' came courtesy of communications aide Kelly Sadler, who failed to blind-copy recipients in a May 22 email blast highlighting the administration's new Iran strategy. The email, reviewed by Politico, suggested to its recipients ways to amplify the White House's message and show support. But many who received the email said they were left deeply confused about what the White House expected them to do with the information.... Some recipients said it wasn't the first time they've been included in Trump administration blasts.... Along with Democrats and liberals the list includes members of the foreign policy establishment who are deeply associated with the George W. Bush administration that Trump purports to revile.... Sadler told the [recipients]: 'We encourage you to tweet, and write op-eds on this new strategy. If you need any assistance or more information, please let me know. Also send me your stuff so we can amplify!' Some of the unlikely recipients said ... it was the paper-thin level of content [of the e-mail] that was [most] troubling...."

Another Dangerous Lunatic Gets a Top White House Job. Eric Levitz of New York: "While less flamboyant in fear and loathing of Muslims than [Michael] Flynn was, [John] Bolton is one of many fringe neoconservatives who's taken up residence in the alt-right-wing foreign-policy think tanks erected by the Islamophobia industry: Since 2013, Bolton has served as chairman of the Gatestone Institute, an organization that claims Muslims have established hundreds of 'microstates governed by Islamic Sharia law' (a.k.a. 'no-go zones') throughout France; that Muslim refugees have brought 'a rape epidemic' and 'exotic diseases' with them to Germany; and that the United Kingdom is on the cusp of becoming an 'Islamist colony..' And now, Bolton is remaking the National Security Council in his image. On Tuesday, Trump's latest national security adviser named former CIA analyst Fred Fleitz as his chief of staff. Here are a few things worth knowing about the man who will now play a lead role in coordinating America's national security policy[.]" ...

... Martin Longman in the Washington Monthly: "To get a sense of what it means that Fred Fleitz has been chosen as the National Security Council's chief of staff, you need to understand both the role of Frank Gaffney and his Center for Security Policy in the international neo-Nazi movement and the way that movement is seamlessly connected to and promoted by Vladimir Putin." Mrs. McC: To appreciate Longman's argument, it's helpful to picture something I learned in International Relations 101 50 years ago: the left-right continuum is not a straight line but a circle, with extremists of left & right meeting.

Emily Flitter & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Big banks are getting a big reprieve from a postcrisis rule aimed at curbing risky behavior on Wall Street. Federal bank regulators on Wednesday unveiled a sweeping proposal to soften the Volcker Rule, a cornerstone of the 2010 law that was enacted after the financial crisis to rein in risky trading. The change would give Wall Street banks more freedom to make their own complex bets -- activities that can highly profitable but also leave them more vulnerable to losses. The rule, part of the broader Dodd-Frank law, was put in place to prevent banks from making unsafe bets with depositors' money. It took five agencies three years to write it and has been criticized by Wall Street as too onerous and harmful to the proper functioning of financial markets. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve proposed easing several parts of the rule, and four other regulators are expected to soon follow suit, kicking off a public comment period that is expected to last 60 days."

Peter Baker of the New York Times gets an advance copy of a memoir by Ben Rhodes, President Obama's long-time advisor. Baker concentrates on Rhodes' account of Obama's reactions to Trump's election. "Mr. Obama and his team were confident that Mrs. Clinton would win and, like much of the country, were shocked when she did not. 'I couldn't shake the feeling that I should have seen it coming,' Mr. Rhodes writes. 'Because when you distilled it, stripped out the racism and misogyny, we'd run against Hillary eight years ago with the same message Trump had used: She's part of a corrupt establishment that can't be trusted to bring change.'" An interesting read.

John DiStaso of WMUR (Manchester, NH): "An exhaustive review by state election officials, including a first-time comparison of voter information shared with 27 other states, has turned up virtually no evidence of possible voter fraud in New Hampshire, those officials said Tuesday.... In February 2017, less than a month after taking office, President Trump, in a private meeting with officials, including former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, claimed without evidence that he and Ayotte lost in New Hampshire in the 2016 general election because thousands of people were 'brought in on buses' from Massachusetts to 'illegally' vote in New Hampshire.... Gov. Chris Sununu, as a candidate in October 2016, charged in an interview with Boston radio talk show host Howie Carr that Democrats 'gamed the system to their advantage' because, he charged, 'when Massachusetts elections are not very close, they're busing them in all over the place' to the Granite State. Sununu, after being elected, later walked back the claim and said there was no voter fraud in the 2016 election.... [Associate Attorney General Anne Edwards said] that in fact there were buses from out-of-state in the 2014 midterm election, but the people they carried were legitimate New Hampshire voters." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Joy Reid Was Nuts Before She Wasn't. Joseph Bernstein & Charlie Warzel of BuzzFeed: "MSNBC host Joy Reid encouraged readers of her now-defunct blog to watch an infamous 9/11 conspiracy documentary, according to recently discovered posts shared with BuzzFeed News. A March 22, 2006, post to her weblog, Reidblog, archived by the Wayback Machine and titled 'The official story,' links to Loose Change 9/11, a viral 80-minute web video originally released in 2005. Loose Change, which was produced in part by Infowars' Alex Jones, alleged that the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center were in fact planned by the US government. The central claims in Loose Change have been widely debunked.... The Loose Change post isn't the only skepticism on her blog about the attacks that killed 3,000 people."

Dominic Patten of Deadline: "Hours after Harvey Weinstein's lawyer said the producer would not testify before a grand jury, the same panel has now indicted the disgraced Oscar winner on two sets of rape charges and a sex crime charge. 'A Grand Jury has voted to indict Harvey Weinstein on charges of Rape in the First and Third Degrees, and Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree,' Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said [Wednesday] afternoon. (Read the two-page indictment here, but be warned there are graphic descriptions of sex acts in it.)"

Michelle Boorstein & Sarah Bailey of the Washington Post: "A major Southern Baptist seminary has fired one of the movement's giants of the last quarter-century, Paige Patterson, after new information came to light regarding how Patterson handled a sexual abuse allegation while he led another institution, the school said in a statement Wednesday night. Patterson was demoted one week ago from his position as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary following the publication of a flurry of statements he made starting in 2000 about the Bibl's view of women and his beliefs about spousal abuse and why it's not grounds for divorce. The school's trustees moved him from being president to president emeritus, framin it as a desire for change and fresh blood."

** Tina Sfondeles of the Chicago Sun-Times: "The Illinois House made history on Wednesday, allowing for the state to become the 37th in the country to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment designed to protect Americans against discrimination based on their sex. Nearly a century after the amendment was drafted, the Illinois House voted 72-45 to ratify it.... The Illinois Senate voted to approve it in April. While the vote may be symbolic -- the country needs one more state to ratify the amendment -- the state's passage creates a window of opportunity for the embattled constitutional amendment.... The ERA was drafted by Alice Paul, a lawyer, in 1923, who also had a heavy hand in helping to get the 19th Amendment ratified.... Nevada became the 36th state to approve the amendment earlier this year. With Illinois, that means only one more is needed. But five of the original 35 later claimed to withdraw their support — a change ERA supporters insist is not allowed. And Congress would have to extend the original deadline [-- 1979, later extended to 1982 --] needed to ratify."

Beyond the Beltway

Abby Goodnough of the New York Times: "Virginia's Republican-controlled Senate voted Wednesday to open Medicaid to an additional 400,000 low-income adults next year, making it all but certain that the state will join 32 others that have already expanded the public health insurance program under the Affordable Care Act. Republican lawmakers in the state had blocked Medicaid expansion for four straight years, but a number of them dropped their opposition after their party almost lost the House of Delegates in elections last fall and voters named health care as a top issue. The vote, on a budget bill that included the Medicaid expansion, came almost three months after the House approved a similar plan. Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat also elected last fall, has been a vocal proponent of the expansion and can now claim a victory that his predecessor, Terry McAuliffe, desperately wanted but never got."

Lindsay Wise & Joseph Bustos of the Kansas City Star: "Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens offered to resign as part of an agreement to dismiss a felony computer-tampering charge against him, according to the St. Louis prosecutor's office. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner announced Wednesday that she would dismiss the charge.... The agreement settles a felony charge brought by Gardner based on evidence uncovered by the office of Missouri's Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley, who essentially accused Greitens of electronic theft for his use of a donor list belonging to a veterans charity he founded.... Although the agreement between Gardner and Greitens resolves the tampering charge, a separate investigation will continue into allegations of wrongdoing by Greitens during his affair with his hairdresser in 2015. Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker is leading that probe.... Gardner dropped [an] invasion-of-privacy charge earlier this month after the judge in the case ruled that he would allow Greitens' attorneys to depose Gardner about whether she had knowledge of perjury committed by a private investigator hired by her office.... Legal experts interviewed by The Star characterized the agreement reached between Gardner and Greitens as unusual. It reads a bit more like a civil settlement than what is typically seen in a criminal case, with both the governor and the circuit attorney seeking mutual releases...."

William Cummings of USA Today: "Jesse Duplantis, a televangelist with viewers across the globe, says God told him he needs a new jet. Specifically, God told Duplantis he needs a Dassault Falcon 7X, a three-engine private jet capable of carrying 12 to 16 passengers at speeds up to 700 miles per hour. The Falcon 7X, which would be the fourth plane owned by Jesse Duplantis Ministries, has a range of almost 6,000 miles and costs about $54 million new, according to SherpaReport (although used ones are listed online for as little as $20 million).... He showed off a photo of the three planes currently owned by his ministry, bearing the caption, 'It's not about possessions, it's about priorities.'" Cummings reports Duplantis's conversations with God. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "European leaders thought they had broken free from doubts about the future of the European Union that plagued them after Britain voted to leave two years ago. Instead, a fast-moving political crisis in Italy this week has come as a gut punch, reviving fears of a fresh assault on unity. The worries came after Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Sunday blocked an academic who once called Italy's adoption of the euro a 'historic error' from becoming finance minister. That appeared to blow up a coalition deal between two populist parties that have been seeking to form a government since Italy's March elections."

Amie Ferris-Rotman of the Washington Post: "A fierce Kremlin critic and prominent Russian war correspondent, Arkady Babchenko, showed up alive at a press conference on Wednesday in Kiev, one day after he was reportedly shot and killed in the same city. Ukraine’s chief of security services, Vasyl Gritsak, said Babchenko had faked his own death as a ruse to foil a real plot against his life. Babchenko, 41, fled his native Russia for Ukraine last year after receiving death threats for criticizing Russian military involvement in Syria. He told reporters Wednesday that his fake death was part of an operation with the security services in Ukraine that took two months to prepare. Russia had demanded on Tuesday that Ukraine conduct a full investigation into his death, though many suspected that Moscow was behind the attack." Mrs. McC: Nothing in the story indicates whether or not the ruse worked. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Here's the Answer. Dmytro Vlasov & Nataliya Vasilyeva of the AP: "The movie-like twist came as Gritsak convened the news conference to announce that the security agency and the police had solved Babchenko's reported slaying.... Before ushering Babchenko into the room, Gritsak said investigators had identified a Ukrainian citizen who allegedly was paid $40,000 by the Russian security service to organize and carry out the hit. The unidentified Ukrainian man in turn allegedly hired an acquaintance to be the gunman, Gritsak said. The man allegedly paid to organize Banchenko's killing was detained Wednesday, he said, showing a video of the arrest." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Commentariat -- May 30, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Trump Complains ABC Is Nicer to Valerie Jarrett than to Him. Bob Iger of ABC called Valerie Jarrett to let her know that 'ABC does not tolerate comments like those' made by Roseanne Barr. Gee, he never called President Donald J. Trump to apologize for the HORRIBLE statements made and said about me on ABC. Maybe I just didn't get the call? -- Donald Trump, in a tweet

Fox Foils Loon. Samantha Schmidt of the Washington Post: "... three voices on Fox News pushed back against the president's most recent conspiracy theory. A Fox News guest, commentator and anchor all rebuked claims from the president and his allies that the FBI planted a 'spy' in his campaign in an effort to undercut his candidacy. Outgoing Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the House Oversight Committee chairman and a Trump supporter, said in an interview on Fox that the FBI was justified in using a secret informant to assist in the Russia investigation. Gowdy, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, attended a classified Justice Department briefing last week on the FBI's use of the confidential source, identified as Stefan A. Halper.... Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano (better known and often quoted by Trump as Judge Napolitano) said claims that the FBI placed an undercover spy on Trump's campaign 'seem to be baseless.'... Napolitano's reluctance to back Trump's claims was surprising in part because of Napolitano's previous tendency to peddle conspiracy theories with no evidence.... Also on Fox News on Tuesday, anchor Shepard Smith ripped apart the president's 'conspiracy theories' that Mueller and his team are meddling in the midterms, calling the allegations 'unfounded, not based in fact or reason, with no evidence to support them.'" Fortunately for Trump, Hannity is still solidly in Trump Conspiracy World.

Lachlan Markay & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast on White House feuds: "Leaks ... have decimated morale. But factionalism was the real poison, with aides growing more and more convinced that enemies within are spreading gossip and innuendo to enhance their own standing.... sources close to the president suggested that firings would come sometime soon and that they would be targeting members of the communications team."

Ivanka Got Her Fee-Fees Hurt. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Ivanka Trump abruptly left a conference call on Tuesday about a coming fitness event after receiving questions about her company's trademarks in China and her father's exercise regimen. White House officials insisted that she had always been scheduled to leave."

Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "The Senate intelligence committee has asked to interview Roger Stone, Donald Trump's longtime political adviser and self-described dirty trickster. Stone's lawyer, Grant Smith, told The Daily Beast that the committee last week sent them an email with a list of search terms for communications to use to determine which electronic communications to turn over to the Senate Intelligence Committee. At the same time, according to Smith, the committee said its members would like to question Stone after receiving the documents. Smith said the process has been amicable and that the interview date has not yet been set."

John DiStaso of WMUR (Manchester, NH): "An exhaustive review by state election officials, including a first-time comparison of voter information shared with 27 other states, has turned up virtually no evidence of possible voter fraud in New Hampshire, those officials said Tuesday.... In February 2017, less than a month after taking office, President Trump, in a private meeting with officials, including former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, claimed without evidence that he and Ayotte lost in New Hampshire in the 2016 general election because thousands of people were 'brought in on buses' from Massachusetts to 'illegally' vote in New Hampshire.... Gov. Chris Sununu, as a candidate in October 2016, charged in an interview with Boston radio talk show host Howie Carr that Democrats 'gamed the system to their advantage' because, he charged, 'when Massachusetts elections are not very close, they're busing them in all over the place' to the Granite State. Sununu, after being elected, later walked back the claim and said there was no voter fraud in the 2016 election.... [Associate Attorney General Anne Edwards said] that in fact there were buses from out-of-state in the 2014 midterm election, but the people they carried were legitimate New Hampshire voters."

Amie Ferris-Rotman of the Washington Post: "A fierce Kremlin critic and prominent Russian war correspondent, Arkady Babchenko, showed up alive at a press conference on Wednesday in Kiev, one day after he was reportedly shot and killed in the same city. Ukraine's chief of security services, Vasyl Gritsak, said Babchenko had faked his own death as a ruse to foil a real plot against his life. Babchenko, 41, fled his native Russia for Ukraine last year after receiving death threats for criticizing Russian military involvement in Syria. He told reporters Wednesday that his fake death was part of an operation with the security services in Ukraine that took two months to prepare. Russia had demanded on Tuesday that Ukraine conduct a full investigation into his death, though many suspected that Moscow was behind the attack." Mrs. McC: Nothing in the story indicates whether or not the ruse worked. ...

... Here's the Answer. Dmytro Vlasov & Nataliya Vasilyeva of the AP: "The movie-like twist came as Gritsak convened the news conference to announce that the security agency and the police had solved Babchenko' reported slaying.... Before ushering Babchenko into the room, Gritsak said investigators had identified a Ukrainian citizen who allegedly was paid $40,000 by the Russian security service to organize and carry out the hit. The unidentified Ukrainian man in turn allegedly hired an acquaintance to be the gunman, Gritsak said. The man allegedly paid to organize Banchenko's killing was detained Wednesday, he said, showing a video of the arrest."

William Cummings of USA Today: "Jesse Duplantis, a televangelist with viewers across the globe, says God told him he needs a new jet. Specifically, God told Duplantis he needs a Dassault Falcon 7X, a three-engine private jet capable of carrying 12 to 16 passengers at speeds up to 700 miles per hour. The Falcon 7X, which would be the fourth plane owned by Jesse Duplantis Ministries, has a range of almost 6,000 miles and costs about $54 million new, according to SherpaReport (although used ones are listed online for as little as $20 million).... He showed off a photo of the three planes currently owned by his ministry, bearing the caption, 'It's not about possessions, it's about priorities.'" Cummings reports Duplantis's conversations with God.

*****

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.
A Bad Day for Trumpkin

Michael Schmidt & Julie Davis of the New York Times: In March 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions flew to Mar-a-Lago to talk to President Trump "about a pressing decision on his travel ban.... Mr. Trump [would not talk] ... about the travel ban.... Mr. Trump, who had told aides that he needed a loyalist overseeing the [Russia] inquiry, berated Mr. Sessions [for recusing himself] and told him he should reverse his decision, an unusual and potentially inappropriate request. Mr. Sessions refused. The confrontation, which has not been previously reported, is being investigated by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, as are the president's public and private attacks on Mr. Sessions and efforts to get him to resign. Mr. Trump dwelled on the recusal for months, according to confidants and current and former administration officials who described his behavior toward the attorney general. The special counsel's interest ... suggests that the obstruction investigation is broader than it is widely understood to be -- encompassing not only the president's interactions with and firing of the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, but also his relationship with Mr. Sessions.... Before the recusal, the president and his attorney general were friends, often sharing meals and talking on the phone. Today, they rarely speak...." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Whatever the legal consequences, his demands that Sessions take the extraordinary step of reversing a recusal that was obviously needed show how deeply Trump believes the law does not apply to him." ...

... NEW. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Wednesday that he wished he had picked someone other than Jeff Sessions to be attorney general, renewing a slight of the former senator who recused himself from the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump is tweeting this morning, citing Trey Gowdy to berate Jeff Sessions once again: (1) "Rep.Trey Gowdy, 'I don't think so, I think what the President is doing is expressing frustration that Attorney General Sessions should have shared these reasons for recusal before he took the job, not afterward. If I were the President and I picked someone to be the country's.... (2) ...chief law enforcement officer, and they told me later, 'oh by the way I'm not going to be able to participate in the most important case i the office, I would be frustrated too...and that's how I read that - Senator Sessions, why didn't you tell me before I picked you..... (3) ....There are lots of really good lawyers in the country, he could have picked somebody else!' And I wish I did!"

David Boucher of the Tennessean: "Despite a Twitter pledge Tuesday morning from ... Donald Trump 'to start focusing my energy' on policy, Trump lambasted the ongoing federal investigation into his campaign during a rally Tuesday evening in Nashville. Trump repeated an incorrect claim the FBI tried to infiltrate his campaign -- something he calls 'spygate' -- in an attempt to undermine the investigation of U.S. Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert Mueller. 'So how do you like the fact they had people infiltrating our campaign? Can you imagine? Can you imagine people infiltrating our campaign?' Trump said to cheers from several thousand people at Municipal Auditorium in downtown Nashville.... The comments came moments after The New York Times reported U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is a focal point of the obstruction investigation by Mueller."

Maegan Vazquez of CNN: "... Donald Trump alleged Tuesday -- without providing any evidence -- tha special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation will meddle in the midterm elections to benefit Democrats. Trump's claim is his latest attack on the credibility of the Russia investigation as being politically motivated, though it's a significant new step in his attacks on what is intended to be an independent probe working to get to the bottom of Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. 'The 13 Angry Democrats (plus people who worked 8 years for Obama) working on the rigged Russia Witch Hunt, will be MEDDLING with the mid-term elections, especially now that Republicans (stay tough!) are taking the lead in Polls'" Trump tweeted. 'There was no Collusion, except by the Democrats!'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Asawin Suebsaeng & Sam Stein of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump spent his long Memorial Day weekend ... lob[bing] innuendo and unfounded accusations at the man who occupied the office before him. Barack Obama, Trump declared over the course of several days, 'did NOTHING' on trade, let the sanctioned Chinese phone company ZTE 'flourish with no security checks,' employed various lawyers on special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, ignored Russian election meddling, and, above all, authorized 'spying' on the Trump 2016 campaign. What stood out about the weekend's salvo was the vitriol, perhaps panic, behind it.... According to two White House officials, Trump has been privately wondering whether Obama is actively working behind the scenes to undermine or undercut his presidency.... The most senior members of successive administrations usually adopt a muted approach to one another out of a sense of professional courtesy." ...

... Byron Wolf of CNN: Trump's witch-hunt charges are working. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: Trump has defined (and redefined) the word "collusion" & what is legal & illegal as it relates to "collusion." "Trump has insisted on dozens of occasions that he has been cleared of all charges of collusion and that the Mueller investigation is thus a 'witch hunt' that persists despite his proven innocence.... Now it has recently emerged that Mueller is refining what he sees as collusion, and that the scope of his investigation has sprawled beyond collusion into other areas.... Even so, some journalists -- left and right -- continue to follow Trump's cues, arguing that collusion is some pre-defined thing.... It's important to recall that this sort of claim accepts Trump's legal framing, and Trump has been wrong on that framing for more than a year."

Josh Dawsey & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "... Rudolph W. Giuliani said Tuesday that Trump will not agree to an interview with the special counsel until prosecutors allow the president's legal team to review documents related to the FBI's use of a source to interact with members of Trump's 2016 campaign. 'We need all the documents before we can decide whether we are going to do an interview,' Giuliani said in an interview with The Washington Post, using Trump's term 'spygate' to refer to the FBI actions, which former officials have said were well within bounds. Giuliani's latest demand further ratcheted up the pressure that Trump and his lawyers are trying to place on special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's team as his investigation into alleged coordination between Trump's campaign and Russia reaches a key juncture."

... But There Must Be an Explanation! Steven Dennis of Bloomberg: "Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley said Donald Trump Jr.'s lawyers should be asked about possible discrepancies between his private testimony to the committee and press reports, but he didn't endorse a Democratic proposal to bring him in for a public hearing. 'I would suggest Mr. Trump Jr.'s attorneys be asked about these press accounts,' Grassley said Tuesday in a letter to Senator Chris Coons.... 'While it is possible there could be contradictions, there are potentially innocuous explanations.'... The Democrat who serves on the committee had urged Grassley to investigate whether the president's son had lied to the panel -- a crime -- when he denied knowledge of any offers of help to his father's 2016 campaign from foreign governments or foreign nationals other than Russia. Coons cited a May 19 story in the New York Times saying that Trump Jr. met with emissaries who told him that princes who led Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates were eager to help the campaign."

Why Devin Nunes Has Disappeared. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said last week's [classified] briefing, convened by the Justice Department under pressure from Trump, convinced him even further that the FBI's information-gathering steps were appropriate. 'I am even more convinced that the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information they got,' he said in an interview on Fox News. He added that the information also suggested that the effort had 'nothing to do with Donald Trump.'... He noted that the current top officials at the agencies, including FBI Director Chris Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, 'now are all Trump appointees.'... Moments after Gowdy's interview, Trump took the stage at a rally in Nashville, Tennessee, and insisted that his campaign had been 'infiltrated' by political opponents...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Gowdy, the valiant knight who led the most prominent Benghaaazi! probe, is retiring, and his retirement plans seem to have begun with his taking a small dose of truth serum. His Fox "News" interview blows the lid off "Spygate." Trump is evidently ignoring Gowdy's inconvenient brush with the truth, but Nunes -- who, alongside Gowdy, attended the Extra-Special DOJ Briefing -- is laying way low.

Joe Schneider of Bloomberg: "U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan will get a vast array of data seized from three phones belonging to ... Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen by Wednesday, according to a filing from a retired judge reviewing materials taken by the FBI."

Andrew Harris of Bloomberg: "Paul Manafort’s defense team can't review an unredacted affidavit that supported warrants used to search his Alexandria residence, a judge ruled. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington denied a request by Manafort's lawyers to review documents that could help them challenge the legal basis for the warrant. The ruling allows Special Counsel Robert Mueller to shield the names of confidential sources." Open in private window.

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "... Robert Mueller's prosecutors indicated Tuesday that they're ready to move toward sentencing of another defendant who pleaded guilty in the ongoing probe of Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election. Prosecutors asked a federal judge to order a pre-sentencing report for Richard Pinedo, a Santa Paula, California, man who admitted in February to a felony identity fraud charge relating to the sale of bank account numbers that apparently helped Russian internet trolls pay for social media ads related to the U.S. presidential race."

Leaker-in-Chief. Eliana Johnson of Politico: "The White House has tried to avoid discussing a February skirmish between U.S. troops and Russian mercenaries in Syria, but that didn't stop ... Donald Trump from bragging about the Pentagon's performance at a recent closed-door fundraiser. The details of the battle remain classified, but speaking to donors in midtown Manhattan last Wednesday, Trump said he was amazed by the performance of American F-18 pilots. He suggested that the strikes may have been as brief as '10 minutes; and taken out 100 to 300 Russians, according to a person briefed on the president's remarks, which have not previously been reported.... According to The New York Times, which last week provided the first detailed description of the battle, the confrontation lasted four hours and left between 200 and 300 pro-Assad forces dead." Mrs. McC: The price of getting classified information? -- $50,000. Unless you're a top Russian diplomat. Then it's free.

Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "President Trump went after former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) at a campaign rally Tuesday night, calling him a 'total tool' of Democratic leaders while attempting to boost his Republican challenger Rep. Marsha Blackburn. 'So [Rep.] Marsha [Blackburn]'s [R-Tenn.] very liberal Democrat opponent, Phil Bredesen, I never heard of this guy, who is he?' Trump said at a rally in Nashville, Tenn. 'He's an absolute total tool of Chuck Schumer ... and of course the MS-13 lover Nancy Pelosi. She loves MS-13, can you imagine,' the president continued. ...

... NEW. Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump accused Democrats on Tuesday of siding with brutal immigrant gang members over American citizens and implored Republican voters to turn out in November's midterm elections or risk the safety of their country. During a raucous rally in Nashville, Mr. Trump invoked fears of crimes committed by illegal immigrants, particularly by the transnational gang MS-13, to argue for stricter border policies, including his long-promised wall, and charged that Democrats were standing in the way.... He worked his audience of about 1,000 into a frenzy by recalling the term he used this month during a discussion of how difficult it was to target suspected undocumented immigrants, including criminal gang members, for deportation. 'What was the name?' Mr. Trump asked. 'Animals!' his cheering supporters screamed back." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The whole idea here is to equate all Central American immigrants with inhuman/animal gang members. It's beyond disgusting. ...

... Matthew Nussbaum & Christopher Cadelago of Politico: "... Donald Trump spreads misinformation. A lot of it. Really, a lot. But every once in a while he will come out guns blazing in defense of the truth, demanding corrections and consequences for spreading falsehoods told by others, and using incorrect news reports to undercut the media as a whole. He executed the well-practiced maneuver once again on Tuesday, seizing on images of detained migrant children in bare-bones holding areas that had been spread on Twitter to attack his immigration policies but turned out to have been taken in 2014 while President Barack Obama was still in office.... In recent months Trump has called for the firing of a Washington Post reporter over an inaccurate tweet, slammed the media for mischaracterizing his characterization of some immigrants as 'animals' and called for ABC to fire Brian Ross over an incorrect report concerning the Russia investigation. This kind of rhetoric is emerging as a central element of his 2018 and 2020 campaign strategies.... But whereas mainstream media outlets correct false reports, Trump and his White House refuse to back down from exaggerations, falsehoods and outright lies." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: House Democrats should collect some of Trump's most egregious lies -- like where he claims Nancy Pelosi "loves" Mexican gangs -- and demand that Trump be censured for lying to the American public & defaming the intelligence community & members of Congress with false accusations. A censure resolution would never pass, of course, but it would create some "official noise." Remember when the Senate censured Moveon.org for an ad in which the liberal group described David Petraeus as "General Betray Us"? Ironically, a few years later it came out that Petraeus had in fact betrayed us by giving classified documents to his girlfriend.

Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "The Trump administration said on Tuesday that it would proceed with plans to impose a series of punitive trade-related measures on China in the next month, intensifying pressure on Beijing as trade talks between the countries continue. The White House said in a statement that the United States would move ahead with its plan to levy 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion of imported Chinese goods, despite recent remarks by Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, and other administration officials that the tariffs would be suspended while the countries continued their negotiations.... The White House said it would detail the final list of goods that will be subject to the tariffs by June 15, and the duties would be imposed shortly after that...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Denuclearization, No. McDonald's, Yes. Courtney Kube, et al., of NBC News: "A new U.S. intelligence assessment has concluded that North Korea does not intend to give up its nuclear weapons any time soon, three U.S. officials told NBC News -- a finding that conflicts with recent statements by ... Donald Trump that Pyongyang intends to do so in the future.... In an odd twist, a list of potential concessions by North Korea in the CIA analysis included the possibility that Kim Jong Un may consider offering to open a Western hamburger franchise in Pyongyang as a show of goodwill, according to three national security officials.... The CIA report came as a top nuclear expert argued in a new paper that the nuclear disarmament process in North Korea could take as a long as 15 years. Siegfried Hecker, a Stanford professor who once directed the federal government's Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico -- and who has toured North Korean nuclear facilities four times -- argued that the sprawling nature of the North Korean program means it will take a long time to dismantle."

Greg Sargent: "What's notable about [Trump's] new spin [on immigration policy] -- that Democrats are to blame for the policy change -- isn't just that it's flatly false on its face. It's also that, by making this claim, Trump and the White House are basically admitting that their own policy is a moral abomination.... What is actually driving the change is that Trump and administration officials don't want high numbers of people to be crossing the border to apply for asylum at all, no matter what they are fleeing." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Dana Milbank: "Even by President Trump's standards, this Memorial Day weekend was memorable for the sheer volume of balderdash, bunk, poppycock and patent nonsense flowing from the White House.... Calling him a liar lets him off easy. A liar, by definition, knows he's not telling the truth. Trump's behavior is worse: With each day it becomes more obvious he can't distinguish between fact and fantasy. It's an illness, and it's spreading.... (The White House held a briefing Tuesday to support Trump's attempt to blame Democrats for immigrant family separation.) Trump may not be able to separate fact from fiction, but those who knowingly back up his falsehoods are liars." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The person who held that White House briefing was Stephen Miller. Ted Hesson of Politico: "White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller bashed Democrats on Tuesday for not repealing laws and overriding court rulings that he said encourage Central American migrants to seek refuge in the United States.... But the new policy to prosecute all suspected border-crossers -- and therefore separate more families -- came directly from Trump's own administration.... During the briefing, Miller argued that Democrats 'have tried to starve the government of detention space, as part of their crusade for open borders.' But although many Democrats oppose expanding detention, funding for detention beds has risen significantly during the Trump administration." Gosh, Hesson's report makes it sound as if Miller was just lying.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court refused on Tuesday to hear a challenge to an Arkansas law that could force two of the state's three abortion clinics to close. As is their custom, the justices gave no reasons for turning away the appeal. The case will continue to be litigated in the lower courts. The law concerns medication abortions, which use pills to induce abortions in the first nine weeks of pregnancy. The law, enacted in 2015, requires providers of the procedure to have contracts with doctors who have admitting privileges at a hospital in the state. Abortion clinics in Arkansas said they were unable to find any doctors willing to sign such contracts. After the Supreme Court's action, Planned Parenthood said it would for now stop providing medication abortions in the state." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

"That Was Quick." Daily Beast: "ABC on Tuesday afternoon announced it has canceled its popular Roseanne reboot after its eponymous star, Roseanne Barr, went on a racist Twitter tirade. 'Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,' ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey said in a statement." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... David Bauder of the AP: "ABC canceled its hit reboot of 'Roseanne' on Tuesday following star Roseanne Barr's racist tweet that referred to former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett as a product of the Muslim Brotherhood and the "Planet of the Apes." ABC Entertainment President Channing Dungey said the comment "is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values." Barr apologized and deleted her Monday-night tweet, calling it a 'bad joke,' but the damage had already been done. Late Tuesday, Barr tweeted a second apology to the writers and co-stars of the show and urging people not to feel sorry for her. She also highlighted supporters' tweets that criticized ABC and two of its personalities, Joy Behar and Keith Olbermann. She also retweeted a meme that juxtaposed shots of ... Donald Trump next to orangutans, and an image of Jarrett next to a picture of a 'Planet of the Apes' actress."

... Tony Maglio of the Wrap: "Viacom is pulling 'Roseanne' reruns from its Paramount Network, TV Land and CMT channels, a person with knowledge of the decision told TheWrap on Tuesday.... Additionally, Laff, a digital network that programs reruns of sitcoms spanning the past few decades, has made the same call.... Later Tuesday, Hulu confirmed it would be dropping episodes of the 'Roseanne' revival." ...

... Rebecca Sun of the Hollywood Reporter: "ICM Partners [-- a top talent agency --] has dropped Roseanne Barr following her racist tweet about former Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett." ...

... Niraj Chokshi of the New York Times: "The racist tweet that cost Roseanne Barr her hit ABC sitcom was not the only hateful message that the actress and outspoken conservative shared on Tuesday. In a flurry of tweets and retweets, Ms. Barr dabbled in far-right conspiracy theories old and new that included falsehoods about a frequent bogeyman, George Soros, the billionaire and progressive philanthropist. In an exchange with Chelsea Clinton, Ms. Barr falsely accused Mr. Soros, 87, of being a Nazi 'who turned in his fellow Jews 2 be murdered in German concentration camps & stole their wealth.' In another tweet, Ms. Barr accused Mr. Soros of wanting to 'overthrow' the United States by backing candidates for district attorney 'who will ignore U.S. law & favor "feelings."' Ms. Barr also retweeted a user who asserted that Black Lives Matter and anti-fascist activists are Soros-sponsored front groups. The user referred to Mr. Soros as the 'terrorist in chief.' The assertions about Mr. Soros that appeared throughout Ms. Barr's timeline are baseless." ...

... Erik Wemple of the Washington Post criticizes reports that call Barr's tweet "racially charged" or have written "what some call racist." Mrs. McC: I'm certain reporters do that because they think naming a racist remark "racist" lacks "objectivity." ...

... Sally Persons of the Washington Times: "Roseanne Barr announced Tuesday she's leaving Twitter after comparing a former Obama adviser to an ape." ...

... Anne Clark of Vulture: Roseanne Barr "never deleted her account, and as soon as it was obvious the promise to leave Twitter wouldn't get her out of this one, she was back at it the same day retweeting every conspiracy theory and double-standard argument she could find to avoid taking responsibility for her show's demise." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: In one of the tweets-after-she-quit-Twitter which Clark cites, Barr said she thought Jarrett was Saudi. An easy mistake to make: Jarrett was born in Iran to African-American parents while her father ran a hospital there. ...

... Big Pharma Made Her Do It. Now Barr has tweeted that Ambien was responsible for her racist tweet. John Berman of CNN tweeted that he didn't recall that racism was a side-effect of Ambien. Mrs. McC: So I checked out an Ambien ad, and though it does not specifically cite racism as a side-effect, its disclaimer does say, "abnormal behavior, such as being more outgoing or aggressive than normal..., agitation ... may occur." ...

... James Poniewozik of the New York Times: "Credit where due: ABC canceled its highest-rated show, a linchpin of its fall schedule, as a stand against its star's racism. That decision will probably cut into the network's advertising profits.... But it is not a step you can take for granted. Take Donald Trump.... He began peddling the birther slur -- that Mr. Obama, the first black president, was not born in the United States -- while the fourth 'Celebrity Apprentice' was on NBC. The network kept him as host for three more seasons, and aired one more on which he was executive producer. In 2013, the 'Duck Dynasty' star Phil Robertson gave an interview likening 'homosexual behavior' to bestiality and suggesting that black people in the South were more content before the civil rights movement. The A&E network suspended him for nine days before reversing its decision, less a slap than a tap on the wrist.... Even if the president, who praised 'Roseanne' to his supporters as being 'about us,' doesn't weigh in, even if Ms. Barr herself stays off Twitter, recent history tells us people will seize on the opportunity to say that the p.c. thought police are repressing us, because a rich woman lost her job for calling a black woman an ape." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Neither Mrs. Huckleberry nor her boss would say anything about Roseanne yesterday. But Valerie Jarrett was Barack Obama's closest advisor. Sooner or later, Trump will blow. ...

... Casey Michel of ThinkProgress: "With reactions ranging from claims of ignorance -- including questions about how commentary about 'apes' could ever be construed as racist -- to pledges of support for whatever Barr's next venture may be, some of the most prominent voices among the conspiratorial right offered their full-throated support for Barr's racist commentary, as well as their opposition to ABC’s decision." Michel provides numerous examples, including a retweet from Donnie Jr., in which Barr pegged George Soros as a Nazi who turned Jews over to the Germans, then stole the victims' money. ...

... MEANWHILE, Megyn Kelly Is Outraged She & Her Kids Might See a Homeless Person. David Edwards of the Raw Story: "NBC host Megyn Kelly on Tuesday lashed out at Starbucks over a policy that allows anyone to sit in the store or use the bathrooms -- even if they are not paying customers.... 'For the paying customers who go in with their kids, do you really want to deal with a mass of homeless people or whoever is in there -- could be drug addicted, you don't know when you're there with your kids paying for the services of the place.'” Mrs. McC: Megyn may have left Fox "News," but Fox has not left Megyn. If you can't pop for a $5 Peppermint Mocha, you don't belong in a restroom where Megyn sets her Skinny Vanilla Latte ass. No word NBC News is upset with that. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I find Kelly's performance worse than Barr's. Roseanne was making another of her signature tasteless "jokes," & she was doing it on her own time. Kelly was voicing her insensitive opinion on air on what is ostensibly an NBC News show. Roseanne apologized. Kelly did not. P.S. Let's ask Kelly if Jesus & Santa are still white.

Capitalism is Deadly. Barry Meier of the New York Times: "Purdue Pharma, the company that planted the seeds of the opioid epidemic through its aggressive marketing of OxyContin, has long claimed it was unaware of the powerful opioid painkiller’s growing abuse until years after it went on the market. But a copy of a confidential Justice Department report shows that federal prosecutors investigating the company found that Purdue Pharma knew about 'significant' abuse of OxyContin in the first years after the drug's introduction in 1996 and concealed that information. Company officials had received reports that the pills were being crushed and snorted; stolen from pharmacies; and that some doctors were being charged with selling prescriptions.... Prosecutors recommended that three top Purdue Pharma executives be indicted on felony charges, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, that could have sent the men to prison if convicted. But top Justice Department officials in the George W. Bush administration did not support the move.... Instead, the government settled the case in 2007.... That decision followed meetings with a Purdue Pharma defense team whose advisers included Rudolph W. Giuliani...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

** Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "Gov. Eric Greitens of Missouri announced on Tuesday that he will resign, bowing to months of pressure as he faced a felony charge, a scandal tied to an extramarital relationship and the threat of impeachment. Mr. Greitens, a newcomer to politics and former member of the Navy SEALs whose political fortunes rose and fell with remarkable speed, remains under indictment in St. Louis on a charge of tampering with computer data. Prosecutors contend that Mr. Greitens, a Republican, illegally obtained a donor list from a veterans' charity he founded and used it for his 2016 campaign. A separate felony invasion-of-privacy charge against Mr. Greitens was dropped just before trial in May.... Lt. Gov. Michael L. Parson, a Republican from rural southwestern Missouri who previously served as a sheriff and state senator, is next in line for the governorship." ...

... Jason Hancock & Bryan Lowry of the Kansas City Star: "Eric Greitens ... resigned Tuesday -- effective at 5 p.m. Friday -- just as abruptly as he had arrived on Missouri's political scene, his career buried under an avalanche of scandal and felony charges. Even as he announced his historic decision to step down, Greitens asserted his innocence and argued that he was the victim of a political conspiracy.... A Rhodes scholar and former Navy SEAL, Greitens was once considered one of the brightest stars in the Republican Party -- a rock star who traveled the country campaigning for his fellow GOP governors, all while building his national profile and donor base for an almost inevitable run at the White House.... His political persona was based on a pledge to rid state government of 'corrupt career politicians.'... His first year in office was dominated by a steady stream of corruption allegations, most stemming from his reliance on anonymous campaign contributions routed through secretive nonprofits."

** Sheri Fink of the New York Times: "As hurricane season begins this week, experts are still trying to count the number of deaths caused by last year's devastating Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. The latest estimate: roughly 4,600, many of them from delayed medical care. Residents of Puerto Rico died at a significantly higher rate during the three months after the hurricane than they did in the previous year, according to the results of a new study by a group of independent researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and other institutions. The researchers say their estimate, published Tuesday in The New England Journal of Medicine, remains imprecise, with more definitive studies still to come.... The findings, which used methods that have not been previously applied to this disaster, are important amid widespread concerns that the government's tally of the dead, 64, was a dramatic undercount."

Way Beyond

Andrew Roth of the Guardian: "A dissident Russian journalist has been shot at his apartment in Kiev in a high-profile murder that police said may have been tied to his reporting. Arkady Babchenko, a veteran Russian war correspondent, was shot three times in the back as he left his apartment to buy bread. He was found bleeding by his wife. Babchenko, 41, died in the ambulance to the hospital, a government official said. The killing appeared to be targeted. The gunman had apparently lain in wait for him outside his apartment. The head of Ukraine's police force said that two motives were being considered: his 'professional work and civil position'. Police on Wednesday evening had not named a suspect, but did post a sketch of a bearded man in a baseball hat."

The Commentariat -- May 29, 2018

Afternoon Update:

"That Was Quick." Daily Beast: "ABC on Tuesday afternoon announced it has canceled its popular Roseanne reboot after its eponymous star, Roseanne Barr, went on a racist Twitter tirade. 'Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,' ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey said in a statement." ...

... AP News: "Roseanne Barr has apologized for suggesting that former White House adviser Valerie Jarrett is a product of the Muslim Brotherhood and the 'Planet of the Apes.'... Meanwhile, comic Wanda Sykes, who is a consulting producer on 'Roseanne,' tweeted that she would not be returning to the show. Barr's now-deleted tweet read: 'muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.' It was part of a busy period on Twitter for Barr, who wrote tweets or retweeted attacks on Michael Moore, Chelsea Clinton and George Soros." ...

... MEANWHILE, Megyn Kelly Is Outraged She & Her Kids Might See a Homeless Person. David Edwards of the Raw Story: "NBC host Megyn Kelly on Tuesday lashed out at Starbucks over a policy that allows anyone to sit in the store or use the bathrooms -- even if they are not paying customers.... 'For the paying customers who go in with their kids, do you really want to deal with a mass of homeless people or whoever is in there -- could be drug addicted, you don't know when you're there with your kids paying for the services of the place.'" Mrs. McC: Megyn may have left Fox "News," but Fox has not left Megyn. If you can't pop for a $5 Peppermint Mocha, you don't belong in a restroom where Megyn sets her Skinny Vanilla Latte ass. No word NBC News is upset with that. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I find Kelly's performance worse than Barr's. Roseanne was making another of her signature tasteless "jokes," & she was doing it on her own time. Kelly was voicing her insensitive opinion on air on what is ostensibly an NBC News show. Roseanne apologized. Kelly did not. P.S. Let's ask Kelly if Jesus & Santa are still white.

Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "The Trump administration said on Tuesday that it would proceed with plans to impose a series of punitive trade-related measures on China in the next month, intensifying pressure on Beijing as trade talks between the countries continue. The White House said in a statement that the United States would move ahead with its plan to levy 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion of imported Chinese goods, despite recent remarks by Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, and other administration officials that the tariffs would be suspended while the countries continued their negotiations.... The White House said it would detail the final list of goods that will be subject to the tariffs by June 15, and the duties would be imposed shortly after that...."

Greg Sargent: "What's notable about [Trump's] new spin [on immigration policy] — that Democrats are to blame for the policy change -- isn't just that it's flatly false on its face. It's also that, by making this claim, Trump and the White House are basically admitting that their own policy is a moral abomination.... What is actually driving the change is that Trump and administration officials don't want high numbers of people to be crossing the border to apply for asylum at all, no matter what they are fleeing."

Maegan Vazquez of CNN: "... Donald Trump alleged Tuesday -- without providing any evidence -- that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation will meddle in the midterm elections to benefit Democrats. Trump's claim is his latest attack on the credibility of the Russia investigation as being politically motivated, though it's a significant new step in his attacks on what is intended to be an independent probe working to get to the bottom of Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. 'The 13 Angry Democrats (plus people who worked 8 years for Obama) working on the rigged Russia Witch Hunt, will be MEDDLING with the mid-term elections, especially now that Republicans (stay tough!) are taking the lead in Polls'" Trump tweeted. 'There was no Collusion, except by the Democrats!'" ...

... Byron Wolf of CNN: Trump's witch-hunt charges are working.

Capitalism is Deadly. Barry Meier of the New York Times: "Purdue Pharma, the company that planted the seeds of the opioid epidemic through its aggressive marketing of OxyContin, has long claimed it was unaware of the powerful opioid painkiller's growing abuse until years after it went on the market. But a copy of a confidential Justice Department report shows that federal prosecutors investigating the company found that Purdue Pharma knew about 'significant' abuse of OxyContin in the first years after the drug's introduction in 1996 and concealed that information. Company officials had received reports that the pills were being crushed and snorted; stolen from pharmacies; and that some doctors were being charged with selling prescriptions.... Prosecutors recommended that three top Purdue Pharma executives be indicted on felony charges, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, that could have sent the men to prison if convicted. But top Justice Department officials in the George W. Bush administration did not support the move.... Instead, the government settled the case in 2007.... That decision followed meetings with a Purdue Pharma defense team whose advisers included Rudolph Giuliani...."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court refused on Tuesday to hear a challenge to an Arkansas law that could force two of the state's three abortion clinics to close. As is their custom, the justices gave no reasons for turning away the appeal. The case will continue to be litigated in the lower courts. The law concerns medication abortions, which use pills to induce abortions in the first nine weeks of pregnancy. The law, enacted in 2015, requires providers of the procedure to have contracts with doctors who have admitting privileges at a hospital in the state. Abortion clinics in Arkansas said they were unable to find any doctors willing to sign such contracts. After the Supreme Court's action, Planned Parenthood said it would for now stop providing medication abortions in the state."

*****

Julie Davis & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Last week, President Trump promoted new, unconfirmed accusations to suit his political narrative: that a 'criminal deep state' element within Mr. Obama's government planted a spy deep inside his presidential campaign to help his rival, Hillary Clinton, win -- a scheme he branded 'Spygate.' It was the latest indication that a president who has for decades trafficked in conspiracy theories has brought them from the fringes of public discourse to the Oval Office. Now that he is president, Mr. Trump's baseless stories of secret plots by powerful interests appear to be having a distinct effect. Among critics, they have fanned fears that he is eroding public trust in institutions, undermining the idea of objective truth and sowing widespread suspicions about the government and news media that mirror his own.... Students of Mr. Trump's life and communication style argue that the idea of conspiracies is a vital part of his strategy to avoid accountability and punch back at detractors, real or perceived, including the news media.... Former aides to the president ... said paranoia predisposed him to believe in nefarious, hidden forces driving events. But they also said political opportunism informed his promotion of conspiracy theories." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: "Deep inside his campaign"? Trump ran a bare-bones campaign with a teeny cadre of top staffers. So I'd like reporters to ask, "Who was the Obama/Clinton/FBI the spy?" The number of possibilities is limited. Tell us who the spy is, Mr. President*. ...

... Why Trump Will Get Worse. Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "Trump is unique in American politics in having no real institutional, ideological or partisan loyalty. He's really out for himself, which makes his threats to bring down American institutions all too plausible.... While Nixon was also willing to attack his enemies' 'witch hunt,' ultimately he was enough of a party man to realize that his fate was tied to the GOP. Once the Republican Congress turned against him in 1974, Nixon resigned.... Nixon was motivated by the fact that he could've lost his government pension if he was impeached and removed from office. For Trump, such a pension would be a minor consideration since he can make much more money through his brand, which would be best preserved by fighting as hard as possible so he keeps the loyalty of his most enthusiastic supporters.... The deeper [Trump] sinks in scandal, the more mud Trump will sling."

Happy Memorial Day! Those who died for our great country would be very happy and proud at how well our country is doing today. Best economy in decades, lowest unemployment numbers for Blacks and Hispanics EVER (& women in 18years), rebuilding our Military and so much more. Nice! -- Donald Trump, Monday morning

On Memorial Day, the president takes some time to remember that dead soldiers are grateful to him. -- Josh Barro ...

This is the most inappropriate comment that a POTUS has ever made. Self-promotion on a day to remember the fallen, and wishing those remembering their deceased loved ones a 'happy' holiday is appalling. -- VoteVets ...

... Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "Social media users criticized President Trump for a Memorial Day tweet claiming that fallen service members 'would be very happy and proud at how well our country is doing today.' Trump sent the tweet on Monday to mark the holiday honoring fallen heroes, and used the opportunity to tout statistics about the economy under his administration.... Twitter users, including several journalists, quickly criticized the president, saying Trump was making the holiday about himself." ...

We can never truly repay the debt we owe our fallen heroes. But we can remember them, honor their sacrifice, and affirm in our own lives those enduring ideals of justice, equality, and opportunity for which generations of Americans have given that last full measure of devotion. -- President Barack Obama, Monday ...

... David Frum of the Atlantic: "Trump's perfect emptiness of empathy has revealed itself again and again through his presidency, but never as completely and conspicuously as in his self-flattering 2018 Memorial Day tweets. . They exceed even the heartless comment in a speech to Congress -- in the presence of a grieving widow -- that a fallen Navy Seal would be happy that his ovation from Congress had lasted longer than anybody else's.... On every Memorial Day, Americans should pray for peace. On this Memorial Day and the next, and the one after that, Americans should pray with extra fervor -- because war, if it comes, will come under the leadership of a man unequal to the job."

David Lynch & Damian Paletta of the Washington Post: "President Trump is merging his national security and trade goals in a blur of tactical improvisation that risks alienating U.S. allies and opening American businesses to costly retaliation, according to several Republican lawmakers, business executives and former U.S. officials. The president last week initiated a Commerce Department investigation that could lead to tariffs of up to 25 percent on foreign cars.... The president's fluid approach to national and economic security ... has left allies and adversaries baffled over U.S. intentions, according to foreign diplomats.... He also engages in freewheeling bargaining that treats vital strategic considerations as the equivalent of commercial factors, leaving negotiating partners unsure of his true priorities.... The auto tariffs are the second time in less than three months that the president has cited national security as a justification for protectionism. Yet his recent call for leniency for ZTE, a Chinese telecom company crippled by its punishment for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran and North Korea, showed that he would bend on a genuine security threat, analysts said." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This sort of analysis is starting to annoy me. It treats Trump's impulsive, erratic "decisions" (which he may or may not change within 24 hours) as if there's some rational strategy or policy principle underlying his moves, rather than "saw it on Fox or CNBC," "can make money on this," and/or "makes me look all-powerful." ...

... ** That said, Paul Krugman's explanation of why Trump's proposed auto tariff is absurd & counterproductive is a must-read for anyone who knows as little about international trade law as Trump & I do.

Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House communications director's job has been vacant for two months. But in practice, it has been filled since the day Hope Hicks said farewell to her unofficial replacement -- President Trump himself. The president also has unofficially performed the roles of many other senior staffers in recent months, leaving the people holding those jobs to execute on his instincts and ideas.... Largely gone are the warring factions that dominated life at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in the first year of Trump&'s term, replaced by solo players -- many with personal connections to the president and their own miniature fiefdoms -- laboring to do their jobs and survive.... Rather than struggling to manipulate the president to follow their personal agendas, the senior staff members of Trump's Year 2 ... focus on trying to curb his most outlandish impulses while generally executing his vision and managing whatever fallout may follow."

Kim Tong-Hyung of the AP: "... Donald Trump confirmed Tuesday that a top North Korean official is headed to New York for talks on an upcoming summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as diplomatic efforts also accelerated in Asia."

Another A-mazing Coincidence. Sui-Lee Wee of the New York Times: "China this month awarded Ivanka Trump seven new trademarks across a broad collection of businesses, including books, housewares and cushions. At around the same time, President Trump vowed to find a way to prevent a major Chinese telecommunications company from going bust, even though the company has a history of violating American limits on doing business with countries like Iran and North Korea.... Mr. Trump himself has more than 100 trademarks in China. Several United States senators have criticized these trademarks, warning it could be a breach of the United States Constitution and that foreign governments could use Mr. Trump's trademarks to influence foreign policy decisions.... The trademarks are not the only Trump-related deal that took place around the time of Mr. Trump's pledge to save ZTE. On May 15, an Indonesian company called MNC Group, which is partnering with the Trump Organization to build a six-star hotel and golf course in Indonesia, said it had struck a deal with an arm of the Metallurgical Corporation of China, a state-owned construction company, to build a theme park next door to the planned Trump properties." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Erika Kinetz of the AP: "Ivanka Trump's brand continues to win foreign trademarks in China and the Philippines, adding to questions about conflicts of interest at the White House.... On Sunday, China granted the first daughter's company final approval for its 13th trademark in the last three months, trademark office records show. Over the same period, the Chinese government has granted Ivanka Trump's company provisional approval for another eight trademarks, which can be finalized if no objections are raised during a three-month comment period.... 'Ivanka Trump's refusal to divest from her business is especially troubling as the Ivanka brand continues to expand its business in foreign countries,' Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said in an email Monday. 'It raises significant questions about corruption, as it invites the possibility that she could be benefiting financially from her position and her father's presidency or that she could be influenced in her policy work by countries' treatment of her business.'... Ivanka Trump and her father ... have pursued trademarks in dozen of countries. Those global trademarks have drawn the attention of ethics lawyers because they are granted by foreign governments and can confer enormous value." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jim Fallows of the Atlantic on why & how the U.S. government should manage trade issues with China, whose economy will rather soon surpass the U.S. as the largest in the world. Fallows' ultimate advice: "Speak softly & carry a big stick." Funny, nothing about insults or taking bribes.

Mrs. McCrabbie: Melania Trump has not been seen in public since May 10. Reporters are beginning to wonder where she is. My guess is that whatever minor kidney surgery she may have had, the 48-year-old First Lady also had some cosmetic surgery, & her bruises are showing. I get that.

A Bronx Cheer for Rudy. Zachary Ripple of the New York Daily News: Rudy Giuliani "was at [Yankee] Stadium to celebrate his 74th birthday on Memorial Day, with the PA announcer sharing the news with the crowd and wishing him a happy birthday. The fans, however, greeted him with hearty boos."

Danielle McLean of ThinkProgress: "U.S. Customs and Border Protection is changing up its story about why one of its officers shot and killed an unarmed 19-year-old last week. Claudia Patricia Gómez González, a Guatemalan migrant hoping to earn money in the U.S., was shot and killed by an unnamed 15-year veteran of the border patrol, after crossing into the U.S. near Laredo, Texas. Initially, the federal agency claimed a group of undocumented immigrants started hitting the officer with 'blunt objects' during an unprovoked attack while he patrolled a residential street searching for 'illegal activity.' Gómez González, who was shot and fatally wounded by the agent, was named as 'one of the assailants,' of that attack according to the New York Times. But in an updated statement on Friday, the agency now says they were told by the officer that a group of immigrants 'rushed him' instead of complying with demands to get on the ground. CBP no longer refers to the deceased woman as an assailant, but merely as a 'member of the group,' the Times wrote."

Congressional Race. Laura Vozzella & Jenna Portnoy of the Washington Post: "Rep. Thomas Garrett (R-Va.) announced Monday that he is struggling with alcoholism and will abandon his run for a second term in Congress so he can focus on recovery and his family. Garrett, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, is the 48th Republican to retire or announce they will not seek reelection to the House this year.... The former Virginia state senator was facing a robust challenge from his Democratic challenger, journalist and author Leslie Cockburn.... In recent days, unnamed former staffers had accused him and his wife of mistreating staff who worked in his congressional office. But in a videotaped statement, Garrett said his departure from politics was spurred by his addiction.... His announcement caps a week of turmoil in Garrett's Washington office, marked by the resignation of his chief of staff, Jimmy Keady; an online news report that Garrett was thinking about dropping his reelection bid; and a news conference Thursday in which he insisted he was running."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Judges appointed by Republican presidents gave longer sentences to black defendants and shorter ones to women than judges appointed by Democrats, according to a new study that analyzed data on more than half a million defendants.... 'These differences cannot be explained by other judge characteristics and grow substantially larger when judges are granted more discretion.'... The new study [by two Harvard law professors] ... find[s] that black defendants are sentenced to 4.8 months more than similar offenders of other races.... Republican appointees are tougher on crime over all, imposing sentences an average of 2.4 months longer than Democratic appointees.' (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... Leonard Greene of the New York Daily News: "Now that the patriot police have turned what was a peaceful protest about police brutality and social injustice into a flag-waving, jingoistic shame fest, the NFL can make amends with the black players it has insulted with its new no-kneel policy by singing a different tune. For just one week of the league's 17-week season, the NFL should bench 'The Star Spangled Banner,' and replace it with -- wait for it -- 'The Negro National Anthem.' 'Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing,' as the anthem is officially known, is every bit as patriotic as the song that kicks off every major professional sporting event in America."

Natalie Kitroeff of the New York Times: Homeownership is an impossible dream for many 20- and 30-something people burdened with large student debt.

Way Beyond the Beltway

... Saskya Vandoorne, et al., of CNN: "A young Malian migrant who rescued a child dangling from a balcony will be made a French citizen and has been offered a job by the Paris fire brigade, the office of the French presidency said. Video of the rescue showed 22-year-old Mamoudou Gassama climbing up four floors of the apartment building in just seconds to rescue the child, to cheers from onlookers. By the time Parisian emergency services arrived at the building, he had already pulled the child to safety. President Emmanuel Macron invited Gassama to the Élysée Palace on Monday, where he was given a certificate and a gold medal for performing an act of courage and dedication." Mrs. McC: I'm guessing Mali counts as a "shithole country." (Also linked yesterday.)

Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura< & Alan Cowell of the New York Times: "Ireland's vote on Friday to end its near ban on abortion, overwhelmingly supporting change in what used to be a bastion of Roman Catholic influence, has inspired many calls in Belfast, London and elsewhere for similar liberalization in British-ruled Northern Ireland, whose draconian laws governing the termination of pregnancy date to the 19th century.... Northern Ireland has blocked all efforts from London to liberalize its abortion law, which permits termination only if the life of the woman is endangered. There are no other exceptions -- not rape, incest or fatal fetal abnormality -- and those violating the ban could in theory ... be given a life sentence."

Apropos to some of today's commentary: