The Commentariat -- August 27, 2018
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Breaking News @ 4 pm ET Monday. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "After flying at half-staff for barely a day in tribute to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), U.S. flags at the White House and many other federal properties were raised Monday morning, sparking criticism that President Trump was not properly honoring the senator. He reversed that decision Monday afternoon. 'Despite our differences on policy and politics, I respect Senator John McCain's service to our country and, in his honor, have signed a proclamation to fly the flag of the United States at half-staff until the day of his interment,' Trump said in a statement. This story is developing and will be updated." ...
...As Benjamin Hart of New York pointed out, the White House's lowering the flag Monday morning also violated the U.S. flag code.
When is a deal not a deal? When Trump tweets this: A big deal looking good with Mexico!
... Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "The United States and Mexico have reached agreement to revise key portions of the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement and a preliminary deal could be announced on Monday, a crucial step toward revamping a trade pact that has appeared on the brink of collapse during the past year of negotiations. Reaching an agreement on how to revise some of the most contentious portions of what President Trump has long called the worst trade pact in history would give Mr. Trump a significant win in a trade war he has started with countries around the globe.... Still, a preliminary agreement between the United States and Mexico would fall far short of actually revising Nafta. The preliminary agreement still excludes Canada, which is also a party to Nafta but has been absent from talks held in Washington in recent weeks. The agreement with Mexico centers on rules governing the automobile industry, resolving a big source of friction, but leaves aside other contentious issues that affect all three countries. The revised Nafta would also need congressional approval before it can go into effect, including votes by Republican lawmakers who have criticized some of the president's plans for remaking the deal."
Chico Harlan, et al., of the Washington Post: "A former Vatican ambassador to the United States has alleged in an 11-page letter that Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis -- among other top Catholic Church officials -- had been aware of sexual misconduct allegations against former D.C. archbishop Cardinal Theodore McCarrick years before he resigned this summer.... Speaking to reporters on the papal plane while returning [from Ireland] to Rome, Francis declined to address the claims but said the letter 'speaks for itself.' 'I read the statement this morning and, sincerely, I must say this to you and anyone interested: Read that statement attentively and make your own judgment,' Francis told reporters, according to the Catholic News Service. Asked when he first learned of allegations about McCarrick, Francis declined to comment. 'This is a part of the statement on McCarrick. Study it, and then I'll speak,' the pope said, according to Crux, another Catholic outlet."
Russell Berman of the Atlantic on the McCain-Trump feud that Trump started. ...
... Franklin Foer of the Atlantic: McCain had a history of making mistakes, owning up to them & rectifying them. "One of John McCain’s mistakes, which he would belatedly rectify, was a relationship with the just-convicted lobbyist Paul Manafort.... At the same time as [McCain] sincerely railed against influence-peddlers ... his inner circle contained the very forces he decried. One of these loyalists was the man who eventually managed his campaign in the 2008 presidential race, Rick Davis. For nearly a decade, Davis was the named partner in Paul Manafort's lobbying firm, Davis, Manafort.... Manafort ... hoped to leverage his relationship with Rick Davis to enrich himself.... Davis Manafort's most prized client in 2006 was the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, one of the richest men in the world.... [The] story [of McCain & Deripaska] is fully told in an outstanding investigative piece, published by The Nation.... Manafort lobbied desperately to become manager of the Republican National Convention [of 2008].... But McCain didn't want any further association with Manafort, so he denied him the job.... All the evidence for rejecting Paul Manafort as a man of dubious character was amply available in 2008 -- and McCain acted upon it."
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Donald Trump -- Even Worse than You Thought. Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump nixed issuing a statement that praised the heroism and life of Sen. John McCain, telling senior aides he preferred to issue a tweet before posting one Saturday night that did not include any kind words for the late Arizona Republican.... 'My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you!' Trump posted Saturday evening shortly after McCain's death was announced. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and other White House aides advocated for an official statement that gave the decorated Vietnam War POW plaudits for his military and Senate service and called him a 'hero,' according to current and former White House aides, who requested anonymity.... The original statement was drafted before McCain died Saturday, and Sanders and others edited a final version this weekend that was ready for the president, the aides said. But Trump told aides he wanted to post a brief tweet instead, and the statement praising McCain's life was not released." ...
... Margaret Hartmann: "... it did not go unnoticed that the president offered no kind words about [John McCain], and memorialized him on Instagram with a photo of himself[.]... All three GOP candidates in the race to replace Arizona's other senator, Jeff Flake, have embraced Trump and distanced themselves from McCain. Representative Martha McSally, the front-runner, had avoided mentioning McCain while campaigning, but offered kind words in recent days. However, her opponent Kelli Ward ... mused in a Facebook post that his announcement about discontinuing treatment was timed to distract from the kickoff of her statewide bus tour. [More on the lovely Dr. Ward linked under Congressional Races below.] Similarly, after tweeting his well wishes to the McCains, Joe Arpaio lashed out at Cindy McCain for blocking him on Twitter.... Living presidents and first ladies usually make a show of unity when a prominent political figure dies, and McCain made it clear he wants that tradition to continue, without Trump. He asked that the two men who defeated him in his quest for the presidency -- George W. Bush and Barack Obama -- deliver eulogies." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I believe in showing respect to the recently-deceased, even if I didn't much do so when they were alive. Their grieving families have enough to handle without having to read cheap criticism of their loved ones. If I'm still around when Trump dies, I'll make an exception for him. I hope you'll do the same. He is cruel in life, and we all should return the favor on the day he dies. ...
... digby: "There was no way this deranged cretin could rise above personal feelings to lead the nation.... As McCain's friend John Weaver said, 'if we heard something today or tomorrow from Trump, we know it'd mean less than a degree from Trump University.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Even all-around jerk Dan Scavino, Trump's former golf caddy & current White House social media director, has more class than the boss. BTW, according to a commenter on Scavino's Twitter feed, the flag atop the White House is back at full mast now that Trump is back in residence. Traditionally, flags stay at half-mast until the honored person is buried. ...
... Update. Joseph Lyons of Bustle confirms the commenter's account: "Flags in Washington D.C. remain at half-staff in honor of the late Sen. John McCain -- or at least some of them do. In what is being seen as another potential slight to McCain, the White House flags were raised back to full-staff on Monday morning, Aug. 27. That puts the White House at odds with not only recent precedent but also the U.S. Capitol, where flags continue to fly at half-mast."
Trump Plays "Find the Collusion." So Funny. Julie Davis of the New York Times: "... Mr. Trump, a president facing the most serious of threats, has sought to minimize and trivialize what is happening in and around his White House, and in the process, to desensitize his supporters to grave charges.... It's a way of mocking what is in fact a serious allegation, of muddying the waters of what is a clear-cut question that Mr. Mueller is working to answer.... If the issues looming over his presidency are a kind of game, then perhaps voters will consider themselves nothing more than popcorn-munching spectators in a drama, rather than people deeply invested in the outcome." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, if only Bill Clinton had told some dick jokes, we would not have had to go through that impeachment thing. Back in the day, it was late-night comedians who trivialized Clinton's bad behavior; today it's comedians like Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers & Trevor Noah who inform the public on what's happening & the POTUS* & his Party of Craven Opportunists who downplay it.
Trump Has a Problem Bigger than Bob Mueller. Noah Feldman of Bloomberg: "Trump is now facing a two-front war against the Justice Department. The team led by special counsel Robert Mueller is supposed to focus on Russian interference in the 2016 election. But the Southern District can investigate any aspect of Trump's behavior that took place in its jurisdiction, at any time. And unlike Mueller, who could in principle be fired, the Southern District isn't one man; it's a whole office of career lawyers. It can't be fired. Even if Robert Khuzami, the acting U.S. attorney in this case, were removed, no new U.S. attorney could realistically call off the prosecutors.... It remains to be seen how far the Southern District will go. But its opening salvo -- [Michael] Cohen's statement against the president ... made in consultation with the Southern District prosecutors ... -- already went further than any part of the Justice Department has gone since Richard Nixon's administration." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Alan Dershowitz Agrees. Feliciz Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Trump should be more worried about federal prosecutors in New York than about the Russia probe led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, retired Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz said Sunday. Dershowitz, an informal Trump adviser, said in an appearance on ABC News's 'This Week' that the expanding probe by prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York could spell the greatest peril for Trump because of the lack of constitutional protections for the president at that level. 'I think he has constitutional defenses to the investigation being conducted by Mueller,' Dershowitz said. 'But there are no constitutional defenses to what the Southern District is investigating. So, I think the Southern District is the greatest threat.'... 'Look, my advice to the president --; I never gave it to him privately because I'm not his lawyer, but on television -- is: Don't fire, don't pardon, don't tweet and don't testify. And if he listened to those four things, he'd be in less trouble than he is today,' Dershowitz said."
Tom Hamburger & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "An attorney for Michael Cohen ... is backing away from confident assertions he made that Cohen has information to share with investigators that shows Trump knew in 2016 of Russian efforts to undermine Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Lanny Davis, a spokesman and attorney for Cohen, said in an interview this weekend that he is no longer certain about claims he made to reporters on background and on the record in recent weeks about what Cohen knows about Trump's awareness of the Russian efforts. Davis did not rule out that his claims were correct but expressed regret that he did not explain that he could not independently corroborate them, saying that he now believes he 'should have been more clear.'... The information in the Post story, which was attributed to one person familiar with discussions among Cohen's friends, came from Davis, who is now acknowledging his role on the record.... 'Michaels Cohen's attorney clarified the record, saying his client does not know if President Trump knew about the Trump Tower meeting (out of which came nothing!),' Trump tweeted Saturday. 'The answer is that I did NOT know about the meeting. Just another phony story by the Fake News Media!'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: No, the original stories were not "phony" & the media outlets that reported them are not "fake." If a credible source (like an attorney representing the supposed speaker) makes a statement, on or off the record, then it is responsible, not "phony" or "fake," to report that information, as long as the reporters indicate -- as they did -- that the information is a statement of fact by a source, not a statement of fact. Today's Post report demonstrates that Lanny Davis is unreliable, not that the Post (& CNN) were. I have no idea if Trump understands the difference, but you should.
Jeannie Gersen of the New Yorker: Michael Cohen's statement to the court "made clear that he engaged in this conduct in order to influence the Presidential election.... But ... Cohen's confession of a criminal motive does not necessarily establish Trump's. In fact, a lifetime habit of behaving sleazily may very well help the President.... This is presumably why Rudy Giuliani, Trump's current lawyer, has suggested, since May, that there was a 'longstanding agreement' that Cohen 'takes care of situations like this, then gets paid for them sometimes.' What would seem like a puzzling admission is likely part of a legal strategy to make the payments from 2016 seem indistinguishable from those that Trump has made for reasons other than winning an election." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Commentators seem to be forgetting this WSJ story (open in private window) of August 16, 2018: "Michael Cohen initially balked at the idea of buying the silence of a former adult-film star who says she had sex with Donald Trump, but he did an about-face after a video of Mr. Trump talking about groping women became public in October 2016. A day after the recording surfaced of outtakes of Mr. Trump speaking to a host of NBC's 'Access Hollywood,' Mr. Cohen, then Mr. Trump's senior counsel, told a representative for the performer that he was open to a deal, according to a person familiar with the conversation.... Mr. Cohen had resisted paying [Stephanie] Clifford when it was floated in September 2016, the person said. Federal prosecutors in New York view the 'Access Hollywood' tape as a trigger that spurred Mr. Cohen to bury potentially damaging information about his boss...." The conversations re: Clifford are not laid out in the criminal Information that accompanied Cohen's plea deal, but the "catch and kill" arrangement to deal with negative stories "during the course of the campaign," made in August 2015, between David Pecker & Cohen/Trump/Trump campaign is. Assuming the SDNY has some documentation to back up the assertions in the WSJ story & the Information, it's pretty clear that the payments to Clifford & Karen McDougal were related not to protecting Melanie but to protecting Donald from more public scrutiny of his extramarital relationships.
Presidents Behaving Badly -- But Not as Badly as Trump. Jill Lepore of the New Yorker: In 1974, at the request of John Dohr, the special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, the historian C. Van Woodward & a team of historians quickly pulled together a compendium of presidential malfeasance, from the dawn of the republic to Richard Nixon. Nixon, Woodward concluded, was worse than all the rest. BUT "These days, even Nixon's underhandedness begins to look upstanding. William McFeely, now eighty-seven, and retired from the University of Georgia, covered Andrew Johnson and [Ulysses] Grant. 'I think Nixon was pretty bad, but I think that even he had a respect for the Constitution, and for a constitutional sense of the value of the Presidency,' McFeely says. 'Trump trounces on those.'... Trump has already done some of [Nixon's bad deeds] -- not secretly but publicly, gleefully, and without consequence -- and is under investigation for more."
Yvonne Sanchez of the Arizona Republic: Arizona "Gov. Doug Ducey [R] will wait to name a successor to John McCain until after the late senator has been buried at the U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery in Maryland, an aide to the governor told The Arizona Republic on Saturday.... Ducey is required by law to appoint a Republican to fill McCain's seat, and he understands it is viewed as the most consequential decision he has faced. McCain's successor would serve until the 2020 general election.... Ducey, who is seeking re-election, will be measured by the performance of the person he chooses to fill the state's Senate vacancy...." ...
... David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "Today's Republican Party is the biggest threat to the country that McCain served and loved. He offered an alternative."
Congressional Races
Jonathan Swan of Axios describes this as a "scoop": "Axios has obtained a spreadsheet that's circulated through Republican circles on and off Capitol Hill -- including at least one leadership office -- that meticulously previews the investigations Democrats will likely launch if they flip the House." Swan goes on to list "some of the probes it predicts.... Lawyers close to the White House tell me the Trump administration is nowhere near prepared for the investigatory onslaught that awaits them, and they consider it among the greatest threats to his presidency." ...
... Beware of Republicans Airing Woes. Steve M.: "... left-leaning sites are gleefully quoting ... Swan.... I'd like to savor the schadenfreude, but this isn't really a scoop, as Swan claims. He's not exposing a secret that Republicans tried to conceal. Republicans wanted him to publish this story. This is a GOP campaign ad and fund-raising pitch. It's an extension of a central Republican message for the midterms: If the Democrats take the House, impeachment is inevitable.... Even the bit about Trump being unprepared is part of the message. Trump, to the GOP faithful, is an innocent outsider, unschooled in the sinister ways of Washington. He has no idea what tortures the enemy has in store for him -- unless the voters save him."
The Nastiest Candidate Ever. Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kelli Ward suggested Saturday that the Friday statement issued by Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) family about ending medical treatment for brain cancer was intended to hurt her campaign. McCain died Saturday hours after she made the suggestion on Facebook." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... OR, as Martin Cizmar of the Raw Story put it, "Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kelli Ward accuses John McCain of dying to push -negative narrative' about her.... 'I wonder if John McCain's trying to steal attention from Ward's bus tour by announcing his life is coming to an end,' [a Ward] staffer wrote. Ward, a Trump-loving extremist who primaried McCain in 2016, had a contentious relationship with McCain, who she frequently slammed. Ward ... agreed that McCain was trying to have a 'negative' effect on her by dying. 'I think they wanted to have a particular narrative that was negative to me,' Ward wrote in response to the conspiracy theory." ...
... Yesterday, James Arkin of Politico reported that on the campaign trail, Ward kept up her criticism of McCain after the family announced he was discontinuing cancer treatment. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... AND last summer, after McCain announced he had cancer, Ward said, "'the medical reality of [McCain's] diagnosis is grim,' and he should consider stepping down and having her take his place." Ward is in a primary race against Martha McSally -- the "establishment" candidate -- and that nice Joe Arpaio. to replace Sen. Jeff Flake (R), who is retiring. Mrs. McC: My guess is that McSally will win because Ward & Arpaio will split the white nationalist/crazy person/sadist vote. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Mrs. McCrabbie BTW: McCain's death pretty much ensures Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court, not that it wasn't already nearly a done deal. McCain was a "not-vote"; his replacement will be a "yea" vote.
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