;)
The Commentariat -- May 22, 2018
Bill Barrow of the AP: "Four states will cast ballots Tuesday as the 2018 midterm elections take shape. Voters in Arkansas, Georgia and Kentucky hold primaries, while Texans settle several primary runoffs after their first round of voting in March." Barrow reports "some noteworthy story lines." ...
... Ed Gilgore has more on today's primary races.
*****
Afternoon Update:
Alan Rappeport & Emily Flitter of the New York Times: "A decade after the global financial crisis tipped the United States into a recession, Congress agreed on Tuesday to free thousands of small and medium-sized banks from strict rules enacted as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law to prevent another meltdown. In a rare demonstration of bipartisanship, the House voted 258-159 to approve a regulatory rollback that passed the Senate earlier this year, handing a significant victory to President Trump, who has promised to 'do a big number on Dodd-Frank.' The bill stops far short of unwinding the toughened regulatory regime put in place to prevent the nation's biggest banks from engaging in risky behavior but represents a substantial watering down of Obama-era rules governing a large swath of the banking system."
Squeaky Wheel Rule to Apply. Karoun Demirjian & Matt Zopotosky of the Washington Post: "Just two Republican lawmakers will be allowed to review classified information about a confidential FBI source who aided the investigation into the Trump campaign at a meeting Thursday with Justice Department and intelligence officials, a White House spokeswoman said Tuesday.... [Sarah Sanders ]said Democrats were cut out because they had not requested the same materials that their Republican colleagues had.... The dispute comes as Trump and conservative lawmakers continue to rail against the FBI, the Justice Department and Mueller's probe. Conservative House Republicans unveiled a resolution Tuesday insisting on the appointment of a second special counsel to investigate their growing list of grievances."
Louis Nelson of Politico: “'A lot of people are saying they had spies in my campaign. If they had spies in my campaign, that would be a disgrace to this country,' Trump told reporters on Tuesday at the White House. 'That would be one of the biggest insults that anyone's ever seen and it would be very illegal, aside from everything else. It would make probably every political event ever look like small potatoes.'"
Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Tuesday that his planned summit meeting next month with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, might be delayed. 'There's a very substantial chance that it won't work out,' Mr. Trump told reporters before a meeting in the Oval Office with South Korea's president, Moon Jae-in. 'It may not work out for June 12.' Mr. Trump expressed continued enthusiasm for the diplomatic encounter, saying he believed it could usher in a period of prosperity for North Korea. But he acknowledged that recent statements by North Korea had cast a pall of uncertainty over the timing of the meeting, which is set for Singapore. He appeared as baffled as anyone else about what might come next." ...
... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on the White House on Tuesday to remove an image of Kim Jong Un from a coin meant to commemorate the planned summit next month between the North Korean dictator and President Trump. Schumer's call, made via Twitter, came a day after media reports surfaced about the design of the 'challenge coin,' which features likenesses of both Trump and Kim, who is described on the coin as his nation's 'Supreme Leader.'"
AP: "The Environmental Protection Agency is barring The Associated Press, CNN and the environmental-focused news organization E&E from a national summit on harmful water contaminants.The EPA blocked the news organizations from attending Tuesday's Washington meeting, convened by EPA chief Scott Pruitt.... Guards barred an AP reporter from passing through a security checkpoint inside the building. When the reporter asked to speak to an EPA public-affairs person, the security guards grabbed the reporter by the shoulders and shoved her forcibly out of the EPA building."
Jonathan Chait: "While serving as secretary of State, Hillary Clinton disregarded an instruction from the Foreign Affairs Manual directing her to use State Department equipment for day-to-day operations. Clinton almost certainly did this for convenience ... but the issue somehow became a first-tier national scandal. The bizarre prominence this story took on is worth revisiting given Monday night's revelation that Donald Trump is doing essentially the same thing.... Notably, Politico's solid report [linked below] landed as a second-tier revelation, at best a distant second-place contender for most-damagin Trump news story of the day. Clinton's sloppy info-sec story blossomed into a narrative that overwhelmed every other aspect of her campaign.... We need to think more critically about the structural disparities that produce this double standard."
Nicholas Casey & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "One day after President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela declared re-election victory, the Trump administration on Monday placed new sanctions on the crisis-ridden country, and nations across the region refused to recognize the election result. President Trump signed an executive order on Monday afternoon imposing the new penalties, which would bar United States companies or citizens from buying debt or accounts receivable from the Venezuelan government. The order extends to Petróleos de Venezuela, the government-owned oil company that is the parent of Citgo Petroleum Corporation.
Sidebar. Lost in Translation. Amber Ferguson of the Washington Post: A proud South Carolina mother went to her local Publix grocery store & ordered a cake to celebrate a family landmark: her son was graduated with top honors. Mom carefully typed out the wording for the cake: "Congrats Jacob! Summa Cum Laude class of 2018." When Mom opened the cake for the party, "In place of cum, three hyphens appeared, as they do for some other profanities in family newspapers: Summa ––– Laude. The Post replicated her experience and got the same result because, according to Publix, Mom used a "profane/special characters not allowed."
*****
"Team" of Rivals. Mark Landler & Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "By the time American negotiators wrapped up high-level talks with a visiting Chinese delegation last week, President Trump's ambitions for a multibillion dollar trade agreement had, for the time being, shriveled into a blandly worded communiqué without any dollar figures. It was not clear that the talks set a path to success. Ceaseless infighting and jockeying for influence on the White House's trade team helped deprive Mr. Trump of a quick victory on his most cherished policy agenda, several people involved in the talks said. The deep internal divisions carried over into how officials characterized the agreement and muddied the outlook for the next phase of the negotiations between Washington and Beijing. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday that the United States would hold off on imposing tariffs on China, putting the trade war 'on hold,' but hours later, the United States trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, warned the Chinese that the Trump administration might yet impose tariffs." ...
... Eileen Sullivan & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "President Trump defended his administration's approach to resolving a trade war with China in a series of tweets Monday, following three-days of negotiations with the Chinese that ended with little clarity. Mr. Trump, in an early morning tweet, initially questioned why Democrats and the previous administration did not 'do something about Trade with China'.... Mr. Trump said on Monday that China agreed to purchase 'massive amounts' of American agriculture products.... However, much remains unresolved, including how much -- and what -- the Chinese will actually agree to purchase.... The president also warned China that it needs to be 'strong and tight' on the border of North Korea while negotiations are in progress.... On Monday, administration officials fanned out on TV to talk up the state of trade negotiations but acknowledged much remains up in the air and undecided." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Keith Bradsher of the New York Times: "China has called President Trump’s bluff. Chinese negotiators left Washington this weekend with a significant win: a willingness by the Trump administration to hold off for now on imposing tariffs on up to $150 billion in Chinese imports. China gave up little in return, spurning the administration's nudges for a concrete commitment to buy more goods from the United States, and avoiding limits on its efforts to build new high-tech Chinese industries.... China's propaganda machine took a victory lap after the talks, proclaiming that a strong challenge from the United States had been turned aside, at least for now.... China's success partly comes from its ability to stick to a single strategy in trade.... By contrast, the United States has shifted its demands and struggled to send out a consistent message.... Mr. Trump, who proclaimed earlier this year that 'trade wars are good, and easy to win,' and his advisers may find that extracting concessions from China is much harder than they expected it would be." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)"
David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Trump will meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House on Tuesday amid signs that his close partnership with Seoul in brokering a historic nuclear deal with North Korea's Kim Jong Un is faltering. Moon's top aides presented Trump in March with the invitation from Kim to hold the unprecedented summit, an offer Trump accepted on the spot. But Moon's visit to Washington coincides with renewed tensions on the Korean Peninsula that have cast doubt on the fate of the meeting, scheduled to take place in Singapore next month." ...
;)
Click on picture to see larger image.... Sideshow. Your Tax Dollars at Work. Benjamin Hart of New York: "There's significant doubt about whether the high-stakes talks between President Trump and Kim Jong-un, planned for June 12 in Singapore, will actually come off. Kim abruptly threatened to back out of the meeting last week, while Trump -- whose strategy for the entire affair consists of winging it -- is reportedly (and rightly) worrying that he's about to get played by the North Korean dictator.... But whatever ends up happening, we'll always have ... this.... Yes, the U.S. government has gone ahead and minted a gaudy, QVC-ready coin to celebrate a meeting that may not actually take place, and is extremely unlikely to lead to the denuclearization Trump has demanded even if it does. The coin, of which 250 have been minted, depicts a notably youthful Trump hunched over in optimum dealmaker posture, glaring at a double-chinned Kim, who is referred to as 'Supreme Leader,' in a nice bit of deference." ...
... Gerry Mullany of the New York Times reports some reactions to the classy coin.
This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.
Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House and the Justice Department have put off a high-stakes confrontation over the FBI's use of a confidential source to aid an investigation into the Trump campaign, after top law enforcement and intelligence officials met with President Trump on Monday to discuss the brewing controversy. A White House spokeswoman said Chief of Staff John F. Kelly plans to convene another gathering between the officials and congressional leaders to 'review highly classified and other information' about the source and intelligence he provided. That could be viewed as something of a concession from the Justice Department, which had been reluctant to turn over materials on the source to GOP lawmakers demanding them. But it also could be a bureaucratic maneuver to buy time and shield actual documents.... The Monday meeting, which included Trump, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray and Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats, lasted about an hour. Trump personally called to confer with the officials.... It was not clear whether [DOJ officials] had backed down from their position and would now allow GOP leaders to look at or keep the documents, or whether there would simply be a follow-up meeting for more discussion." ...
... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "... President Trump has embarked on what amounts to a two-prong strategy to contain the threat and undercut the credibility of the escalating investigations targeting him and his associates. The blizzard of Twitter messages combined with a string of public statements by his lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, in recent days seemed aimed at turning the focus away from the conduct of the president or his team to that of their pursuers while laying out a series of red lines to limit the reach and duration of the primary inquiry.... While he has assailed the investigations for a year, Mr. Trump's latest assertion of bad faith by the Justice Department and the F.B.I. went beyond talk and resulted in an extraordinary meeting on Monday at the White House, where the president pressured intelligence and law enforcement officials to allow congressional Republicans to view highly classified information related to the Russia investigation that they had previously refused to divulge.... In some ways, that mirrors approaches taken by other politicians who came under fire, including Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton." ...
... Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "When President Trump publicly demanded that the Justice Department open an investigation into the F.B.I.'s scrutiny of his campaign contact with Russia, he inched further toward breaching an established constraint on executive power: The White House does not make decisions about individual law enforcement investigations.... By unabashedly ordering the department to open a particular investigation, Mr. Trump has ratcheted up his willingness to impose direct political control over the work of law enforcement officials.... 'Yesterday made explicit what before was implicit, which is that Trump is crossing every line that protects the independence of the Justice Department,' said Neal Katyal, who drafted the department's special counsel regulation in 1999 for the Clinton administration and served as acting solicitor general in the first term of the Obama administration.... Legally, it is ambiguous and contested whether a president has the lawful power to order the attorney general to open or close a case -- especially one involving his personal interests. That is because attorneys general who view a president's request or demand as unjustified can refuse it. But the president can fire and replace the attorney general. The primary check against a president abusing that power is the willingness of Congress to impeach him, as well as potential voter backlash."
... Benjamin Wittes in the Atlantic: "Sunday afternoon, President Trump tweeted an extraordinary threat -- extraordinary even by the standards of Donald Trump's norm-busting use of Twitter and abusive conduct toward the Justice Department and federal investigations: 'I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes -- and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!'... The tweet on its own terms is alarming. It's a statement of intent to issue a specific investigative demand of the Justice Department for entirely self-interested and overtly political reasons. And Trump published it in the absence of a shred of evidence that might support the demanded action.... This is a nakedly corrupt attempt on the part of the president to discredit and derail an investigation of himself at the expense of a human intelligence source to whose protection the FBI and DOJ are committed." ...
... "The President Who Cried Wolf." David Graham of the Atlantic: "Stop me if you've heard this one. The president of the United States is seizing on vague news reports to allege a vast political conspiracy against him, demanding an investigation, and searching for vindication. Of course you've heard this -- it's a trope nearly as old as the Trump administration. The latest recurrence concerns a reported informant who fed information to the FBI about possible Russian interference in the presidential campaign. Wall Street Journal columnist Kim Strassel led the way on the story two weeks ago, and over the weekend The New York Times and The Washington Post added a great deal more detail.... Lack of detail has not stopped the president from leaping on the story -- indeed, the vagueness has enabled him to make some strong charges[.]... Trump first declared that there was political interference in his campaign, and only second asked for a probe to figure out whether there was political interference in the campaign.... Trump has repeatedly cried wolf -- claiming wiretaps, malicious 'unmasking' in intelligence, improper requests for warrants, and now political spying inside his campaign. In the first three cases, each claim has quickly petered out." ...
... New York Times Editors: "As the old saying goes, if the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If both the facts and the law are against you, pound the table and yell. Welcome to the central organizing principle of the Trump White House.... There was a sophisticated, multiyear conspiracy by Russian government officials and agents, working under direct orders from President Vladimir Putin, to interfere in the 2016 presidential election in support of Donald Trump. The American law enforcement and intelligence communities warned the Trump campaign and asked it to report anything suspicious. The campaign didn't do this. To the contrary, at least seven Trump campaign officials met with Russians or people linked to Russia, and several seemed eager to accept their help. As the F.B.I. became aware of these contacts, it began to investigate. And yet the bureau went to great lengths to shield this investigation from becoming public before the election, even as James Comey, then the F.B.I. director, spoke openly about the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server. These facts aren't disputed." ...
... Gene Robinson: "Stop waiting for the constitutional crisis that President Trump is sure to provoke. It's here.... Trump's power play is a gross misuse of his presidential authority and a dangerous departure from long-standing norms.... Rather than push back and defend the rule of law, Justice tried to mollify the president by at least appearing to give him what he wants. The Republican leadership in Congress has been silent as a mouse. This is how uncrossable lines are crossed.... None of this is normal or acceptable. One of the bedrock principles of our system of government is that no one is above the law, not even the president. But a gutless Congress has refused, so far, to protect this sacred inheritance. Trump is determined to use the Justice Department and the FBI to punish those he sees as political enemies. This is a crisis, and it will get worse." ...
... Greg Sargent: "In what can perhaps best be described as an act of appeasement, the Justice Department has announced that its inspector general will examine whether the FBI acted out of political motivation in conducting its investigation into links between Russia and the Trump campaign.... he move by the Justice Department -- which was undertaken at the order of Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein -- is meant to temporarily mollify Trump in the face of what is a dramatic escalation of his ongoing effort to delegitimize special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation. Here are three big takeaways: Nothing will ever be enough.... The system is probably holding -- for now, anyway.... The GOP's enabling of Trump could get even worse." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Rachel Maddow opened last night with a good -- and yeah, overly long -- segment on the Justice Department's multiple capitulations to Trump's demands:
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I've been listening to the "experts," and they are all torn about Justice's responses to Trump. ...
... Jake Tapper of CNN: "A loose and informal group of Trump advisers outside the White House, some of whom think the President is being ill served by White House chief of staff John Kelly and White House counsel Don McGahn, have been aggressively campaigning to attack Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as part of a 'deep state' plot against the President. The campaign has focused on pressing Trump-friendly media and the President himself to push Rosenstein to reveal details about the investigation that both the Justice Department and FBI do not want disclosed.... The members of this group working to persuade the President and Trump-friendly media include ousted former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, former deputy campaign manager David Bossie, President of the Trump Hispanic Advisory Council (and CNN commentator) Steve Cortes and many others.... It was not clear how much [Rep. Devin] Nunes is part of any of these conversations." ...
... Inae Oh of Mother Jones: "Even though Trump was criticized for inappropriately intervening in Justice Department affairs, the president's reelection campaign saw the order as an opportunity for a new fundraising initiative. On Monday, they sent out an email quoting the Sunday evening tweet and inviting supporters to join in 'demanding this abuse of power gets investigated.' In recent days, Trump, along with Rudy Giuliani and conservative talking heads, have misrepresented reports late last week that an FBI informant may have illegally spied on the Trump campaign." ...
... Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump’s latest round of attacks on the FBI has left morale at the Justice Department at a new low, with officials bemoaning what they view as a full-frontal assault on their institution. 'It;s a deliberate campaign to delegitimize institutions where the people who are inside those institutions are professionals and giving up lots of money for the jobs that they're doing and it's extremely demoralizing,' said one current federal prosecutor.... Another DOJ official told The Daily Beast that morale at the FBI has hit rock bottom.... Trump has been pushing a conspiracy theory that the FBI sicced a spy on his campaign during the election season. In reality, a longtime FBI informant -- per numerous reports -- spoke with several Trump campaign officials, including Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, and shared the information with FBI investigators.... Using informants is typical for federal law enforcement, including in large and complex cases like the one involving Team Trump. But the president took to Twitter to assert that something more nefarious may have happened." ...
... Sideshow. Jonathan Swan & Alayna Treene of Axios: "President Trump's top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, recommended appointing Stefan Halper, an academic and suspected FBI informant on the Trump campaign, to a senior role in the Trump administration.... During the presidential transition Navarro recommended Halper, among other people, for ambassador roles in Asia."
... [Former CIA Director John] Brennan started this entire debacle about President Trump. We now know that Brennan had detailed knowledge of the (phony) Dossier...he knows about the Dossier, he denies knowledge of the Dossier, he briefs the Gang of 8 on the Hill about the Dossier, which.... ...they then used to start an investigation about Trump. It is that simple. This guy is the genesis of this whole Debacle. This was a Political hit job, this was not an Intelligence Investigation. Brennan has disgraced himself, he's worried about staying out of Jail.' Dan Bongino -- Donald Trump, in tweets Monday ...
... Linda Qiu of the New York Times: "False. Quoting a conservative commentator >who appeared on Fox and Friends on Monday morning, Mr. Trump claimed that the F.B.I. began investigating links between his presidential campaign and Russian election meddling based on a dossier compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British spy. As The New York Times reported in December, the investigation began in July 2016 — after George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, told an Australian diplomat that Russia had political 'dirt' on Hillary Clinton. Australian officials then alerted their American counterparts. The information provided by Mr. Steele did not reach the F.B.I. officials charged with investigating Mr. Trump's campaign until mid-September, The Times reported last week. Republicans who hold the majority vote on the House Intelligence Committee have also stated that the investigation was opened because of information linked to Mr. Papadopoulos -- not Mr. Steele's dossier."
Dan Mangan of CNBC: "Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani's claim that special counsel Robert Mueller is hoping to end his investigation into whether the president obstructed justice in the Russia probe by Sept. 1 is 'entirely made up,' a new report says. A U.S. official familiar with the case said Giuliani's assertion in a New York Times article on Sunday about Mueller's supposed target date was 'another apparent effort to pressure the special counsel to hasten the end of his work,' Reuters reported. 'He'll wrap it up when he thinks he's turned every rock," the unidentified source said, referring to Mueller's inquiry into possible obstruction by ... Donald Trump into the question of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.... The source added that Mueller's investigation into possible obstruction -- which is just one facet of his ongoing probe -- will not end based on 'some arbitrary, first-of-the-month deadline on of the president's attorneys cooks up.'"
** Brian Beutler of Crooked: "The countries that helped see to it that Trump became president, all of which are heavily corrupt, have been rewarded with extraordinary geopolitical spoils that have rendered U.S. interests an afterthought. Trump has frayed the western alliance more in a year and a half than the Russian government was able to do from the outside over the course of decades. He has at the same time thrown the weight of the White House behind a Saudi-Emirati effort to consolidate power in the Middle East a the expense of other U.S. allies. The scandal of Russian meddling in the 2016 (to hurt Clinton, to help Trump, to weaken the U.S.) may be transforming into a larger story of the corruption of U.S. foreign policy writ large by a transnational consortium of authoritarians, who saw value in having one of their own in control of the American government, and found in Trump a willing coconspirator."...
...** Desmond Butler & Tom Lobianco of the AP: "In return for pushing anti-Qatar policies at the highest levels of America's government, [Elliott] Broidy [a top fundraiser for President Donald Trump and fellow pornstar hush money bro] and [Lebanese-American 'businessman' George Nader expected huge consulting contracts from Saudi Arabia and the UAE.... A new cache of emails obtained by the AP reveals an ambitious, secretive lobbying effort to isolate Qatar and undermine the Pentagon's longstanding relationship with the Gulf country.... Neither Broidy nor Nader registered with the U.S. government under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.... Summaries written by Broidy of two meetings he had with Trump -- one of which has not been disclosed before -- report that he was passing messages to the president from the two princes and that he told Trump he was seeking business with them.... The cache also reveals a previously unreported meeting with the president.... Broidy and Nader proposed multiple plans to the princes for more than $1 billion of work." Read on. --safari
Conservative Max Boot in the Washington Post: "... look at all of the significant norms [Trump] has transgressed in the past week: Revealing intelligence sources.... It's safe to say that lickspittle Republicans such as Nunes care more about protecting Trump than they do the American people. Politically motivated prosecutions.... There is zero evidence of any political surveillance. The FBI was not trying to help the Democrats but to protect the country from Russian subversion -- something that Republicans evidently couldn't care less about.... Mixing private and government business. Did Beijing bribe the president? We need an independent investigation -- from either Congress, the existing special counsel, or a new one -- to find out. Foreign interference in U.S. elections. It's not just the extensive, unexplained contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia-linked operatives -- 75 contacts that we know of -- or the unseemly eagerness of the Trump high command to get Russia's help. Now we are also learning of efforts by the Saudi and Emirati governments to help Trump.... Undermining the First Amendment.... Trump demanded that Postmaster General Megan Brennan double the rate charged to Amazon and other large shippers.... This is part of his vendetta against what he has called the 'Amazon Washington Post.' (The Washington Post's owner, Jeffrey P. Bezos, is also CEO of Amazon.)" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Everything us naysayers predicted a President* Trump might do, he has done. In fact, he does them all the time. Hardly a day has gone by when Trump has not violated the Constitution, the law and/or a well-established norm. A responsible Congress would have begun writing articles of impeachment just for the things Boot points out came to light in one week; instead, GOP members of Congress are aiding & abetting him.
Adam Serwer of the Atlantic writes a long laundry list of Trump scandals, tho he admits even this list is abbreviated. But, he writes, "There is one Trump scandal. Singular: the corruption of the American government by the president and his associates, who are using their official power for personal and financial gain rather than for the welfare of the American people, and their attempts to shield that corruption from political consequences, public scrutiny, or legal accountability.... The president's opponents have yet to craft a coherent narrative about the Trump administration's corruption, even though the only major legislative accomplishment Trump has to his name is cutting his own taxes." Serwer does point out that some of Trump's actions are not corrupt but merely immoral -- like his immigration policy. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "At a meeting in Miami on April 5, Franklin Haney, the owner of an inoperative nuclear power plant in Hollywood, Alabama, sought a major investment for his facility.... His target ... was Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani, Qatar's minister of economy and commerce and deputy chairman of the Qatar Investment Authority, the $300 billion sovereign wealth fund of the natural gas-rich Persian Gulf state. Also at the meeting, according to the sources, was Michael Cohen [who apparently arranged the meeting].... The Miami meeting came the week before an April 10 Oval Office meeting between Trump and the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.... During this White House meeting, in a sharp reversal, Trump praised the emir for cracking down on terror funding.... Haney has aggressively courted the Trump administration. After giving heavily to Democrats for years, he donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural committee through one of his companies. He has also contributed at least $125,000 to the Republican National Committee this year.... Bloomberg reported last year that Haney had bragged to associates that he has dined with Trump at least a dozen times since the election. Haney is also a member of Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Florida club, according to the report." --safari...
... Coincidences. David Kocieniewski & Stephanie Baker of Bloomberg: "Cadre, a real estate technology startup co-founded and partly owned by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner,& is seeking an investment of at least $100 million from a private fund that receives much of its capital from the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to people familiar with the discussions.... Kushner ... hasn't divested his Cadre stake, valued at $5 million to $25 million on his most recent financial disclosure form...The nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed an ethics complaint against Jared Kushner last year for failing to report his interest in Cadre on his original financial disclosure form.... Separately, Kushner Cos. has turned to a unit of Brookfield Asset Management Inc. to salvage its stake in the office tower on Fifth Avenue. The Qatar Investment Authority is the largest outsider investor in the [Brookfield] unit." --safari
Forget the E-Mails! Eliana Johnson, et al., of Politico: "... Donald Trump uses a White House cellphone that isn't equipped with sophisticated security features designed to shield his communications, according to two senior administration officials -- a departure from the practice of his predecessors that potentially exposes him to hacking or surveillance. The president, who relies on cellphones to reach his friends and millions of Twitter followers, has rebuffed staff efforts to strengthen security around his phone use, according to the administration officials.... While the president has the authority to override or ignore the advice provided by aides and advisers for reasons of comfort or convenience, [Nate] Jones..., former director of counterterrorism on the National Security Council..., said, 'doing so could pose significant risks to the country.' Trump campaigned in part on his denunciations of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state -- a system that made classified information vulnerable to hacking by hostile actors."
Trump, Congress 
Racism. Again. Sylvan Lane of the Hill: "President Trump has repealed auto-lending guidance from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), revoking a rule that was put in place to protect minority customers from predatory practices. Trump's signature on a congressional resolution erases the CFPB's 2013 guidance targeting 'dealer markups,' the additional interest that is added to a customer's third-party auto loan as compensation for the dealer. The president signed the resolution in a private White House signing ceremony. Auto dealers, banks and their allies in Congress said the CFPB policy was an unfair and unfounded attack on an essential and harmless financing tool. The move caps off an unprecedented use of congressional power, as lawmakers had never before passed such a resolution to revoke informal guidance from a federal agency."
Of Crackpots & Special Interests. Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "In the weeks after President Trump chose John Bolton to be his third national security adviser in March, Mr. Bolton ... engaged in his own speeded-up transition process, aided by a handful of longtime associates. Drawn from the world of conservative politics, international consulting and defense contracting, and working out of the downtown Washington offices of Mr. Bolton's political organizations, the group of advisers provided advice on National Security Council operations, while helping to vet prospective new hires for views that would be compatible with his own.... Mr. Bolton's continued reliance on longtime associates in either informal or temporary capacities at the N.S.C. has raised concerns among government watchdog organizations and N.S.C. veterans and scholars, who say it raises questions of conflicts of interest, and creates an echo chamber of identical views with little room for dissent...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Vulture Moves to Belgium. Daniel Boffey & Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "A major financial backer of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, who once owned a housing estate in which low-income tenants were said to endure 'inhumane' living standards, has been nominated as the US ambassador to Belgium. Ron Gidwitz, a 73-year-old businessman from Chicago gave Trump and other Republicans $700,000 in 2016, and acted as the presidential candidate's campaign finance chair in Illinois." --safari ...
... The Swamp in Its Glory. Greg Hinz of Crain's Chicago: "Gidwitz's appointment requires Senate confirmation, and may be asked about a 2017 incident in which he was ordered to pay $5.7 million in disputed law fees in a case involving his family's investment in a low-income housing complex in Joliet. But given his closeness to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Gidwitz should not have much trouble winning confirmation."
Jon Anderson of the New Yorker profiles John Feeley, who quit in March as ambassador to Panama. Mrs. McC: Superfluous reading, maybe, but heartening in a way. The country is full of decent people, & some of them are conservatives.
Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "White House budget director Mick Mulvaney acknowledged having discussions with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy about replacing House Speaker Paul D. Ryan before Ryan retires from Congress next year, a conservative newsmagazine reported Monday. The Weekly Standard reported that Mulvaney made the remarks Sunday during a conference sponsored by the publication in Colorado Springs. Fox News Channel anchor Bret Baier asked Mulvaney about the prospect of McCarthy succeeding Ryan this year, before the midterm elections, and Mulvaney suggested that it would become a referendum on the top Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi.... The comment constitutes a remarkable admission from a member of President Trump's Cabinet that could be interpreted as conspiring to remove a sitting House speaker belonging to the president's own party. It comes against the backdrop of a freshly roiled House Republican Conference, thanks to moderate members who have recently defied both Ryan (Wis.) and McCarthy (Calif.) to force a potentially divisive debate on immigration."
Congressional Races
Jamelle Bouie of Slate: "On Monday, Democrats unveiled an anti-corruption message meant to highlight the kinds of graft and self-dealing we've seen from Donald Trump and other Republican lawmakers. The message echoes Democrats' successful campaign in 2006, when they recaptured the House by running against George W. Bush and a host of GOP scandals in Congress. But the new message is still too focused on a broad 'Washington' and not enough on the singular figure of Donald Trump. Before Monday's announcement, conventional wisdom had it that Democrats should spend less time talking about Trump.... This is too clever for its own good. Trump is the central issue in American politics, and Democrats should spend more time on him, his administration, and the threat they pose to the country at large. In fact, Democrats can have the best of both worlds, offering their own vision for the country, while tying the president's agenda to his scandals and his corruption...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Actually, as Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post describes it, the Democrats' message sounds fairly anti-Trumpy: "Democrats plan to highlight allegations of corruption surrounding the Trump administration -- and a legislative agenda to prevent future abuses -- as they continue rolling out their party platform ahead of November's midterm elections. The first planks of the 'A Better Deal' platform, released last year, focused on the party's economic agenda. Now, with questions about pay-to-play politics swirling around President Trump and his current and former aides, Democrats introduced new anti-corruption proposals Monday billed as 'A Better Deal for Our Democracy.' 'Instead of delivering on his promise to drain the swamp, President Trump has become the swamp,' said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) during a rollout event on the Capitol steps." I would say Democrats need to sound more alarmist, because what Trump is doing is truly alarming, IMO.
Jamie Lovegrove of the Charleston, S.C. Post & Courier: "Archie Parnell, a Democratic congressional hopeful who earned national attention after nearly winning in deep red South Carolina last year, is resisting pleas to withdraw after his campaign staff discovered that he physically abused his ex-wife in the 1970s.... In October 1973, Archie Parnell, then a University of South Carolina student, was locked out of some friends' apartment to protect Kathleen Parnell, who was staying there. At 2 a.m., Archie Parnell used a tire iron to break a glass door, the complaint said. He ... [struck] her several times. She said she was beaten again later that evening.... [Kathleen obtained a restraining order & a divorce.] Confronted with the court records by aides last week, Parnell did not deny the allegations. But even as his staff fled the campaign en masse, he refused to drop out of the race Monday.... South Carolina Democratic Party chairman Trav Robertson called on Parnell to drop out of the race Monday."
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that companies can use arbitration clauses in employment contracts to prohibit workers from banding together to take legal action over workplace issues. The vote was 5 to 4, with the court's more conservative justices in the majority. The court's decision could affect some 25 million employment contracts. Writing for the majority, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch said the court's conclusion was dictated by a federal law favoring arbitration and the court's precedents. If workers were allowed to band together to press their claims, he wrote, 'the virtues Congress originally saw in arbitration, its speed and simplicity and inexpensiveness, would be shorn away and arbitration would wind up looking like the litigation it was meant to displace.' Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg read her dissent from the bench, a sign of profound disagreement. In her written dissent, she called the majority opinion 'egregiously wrong.' In her oral statement, she said the upshot of the decision 'will be huge under-enforcement of federal and state statutes designed to advance the well being of vulnerable workers.'" ...
... Terri Gerstein & Sharon Block, in a New York Times op-ed: "This decision, Epic Systems Corporation v. Lewis, would be a blow at any moment, but it's especially harmful now. The rights of workers are under attack. Wage theft is rampant through violations of minimum-wage laws, refusal to pay overtime and forcing employees to work off the clock. Our crude national discourse encourages all types of discrimination. And we now know better than ever how pervasive sexual harassment is.... The proportion of American workers in a union is at an 80-year low. State and local government agencies that enforce laws to protect workers are chronically underfunded. And the federal government is doing everything it can to lend a hand to predatory employers.... Congress has the power to open the courthouse doors again for workers."
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Former President Barack Obama formally announced on Monday a multiyear production deal with Netflix in which he and the former first lady, Michelle Obama, will produce television shows and films for the streaming service. The deal will give Mr. Obama an international television platform during his post-presidency, allowing him to reach millions of people in the United States and internationally. The couple has created 'Higher Ground Productions,' a company to produce content for Netflix, the streaming service announced.... A release from Netflix said the Obamas will produce 'scripted series, unscripted series, docu-series, documentaries and features' that highlight issues and themes the president pursued during his eight years in office." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McC: What? No "You're fired!" or other acts of humiliation? "Higher ground" indeed. Altho Shear writes, "The former president has told associates that he does not intend to use the new platform to wage a public campaign against his successor in the Oval Office, or to fight against conservative media outlets like Fox News," in fact, just the name of the Obamas' production company is a clear signal they are contrasting President Obama's legacy with Trump's.
Alan Pyke of ThinkProgress: "If elected leaders won't tighten gun laws in response to school shootings..., 'Maybe it's time for America's 50 million school parents to simply pull their kids out of school until we have better gun laws,' former Assistant Secretary of Education Peter Cunningham tweeted on Friday as news of the Texas school-shooting broke.... Cunningham's old boss, former Education Secretary Arne Duncan, gave the idea an immediate signal boost when he tweeted: 'This is brilliant, and tragically necessary.'... Duncan elaborated on the idea in television interviews over the weekend. 'It's a radical idea, it's controversial, it's intentionally provocative,' he told MSNBC's Kasie Hunt on Sunday.... Any political tactic predicated on kids staying home from school is also destined to collide with the realities of American economic and social inequality." --safari...
... Lois Beckett of the Guardian: "American high school students are organizing a National Die-In Day on 12 June to protest continued government inaction on gun control laws. The action will take place on the second anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, and will include a die-in at noon in front of the Capitol in Washington DC and another in Orlando.... The founder of the die-in day, Amanda Fugleberg, is an 18-year-old high school senior from Orlando who previously organized a walkout to protest gun violence at her high school in March." --safari
Robert McFadden of the New York Times: "Richard N. Goodwin, a senior adviser and speechwriter for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson whose later work as an author, journalist and political consultant reflected his unswerving liberal outlook, died on Sunday at his home in Concord, Mass. He was 86. Mr. Goodwin's wife, Doris Kearns Goodwin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and historian, said he died after a brief bout with cancer."
News Lede
CNN: Hawaii's Kilauea volcano is erupting "again as Hawaii residents struggle with toxic gas, lost income.... The latest eruption happened early Tuesday morning, Hawaii County's civil defense agency said.... Officials have been handing out particulate masks to help residents on southeast Big Island breathe. But now they're warning about other hazards and even more eruptions.... Relentless lava flow has now reached the Puna Geothermal Venture property, the civil defense agency said. The plant produces electricity by bringing steam up from underground wells and funneling it to a turbine generator. Officials are trying to prevent possible explosions or the release of toxic fumes by 'quenching' most of the wells.... Since Kilauea's massive eruption, rivers of fire have swallowed at least 40 structures, hurled lava through cracks in the earth's surface and devastated livelihoods."
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