The Commentariat -- May 18, 2019

Ana Swanson & Jack Ewing of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday said he would delay a decision on whether to impose tariffs on automobiles imported from Europe, Japan and other countries for six months, setting a tight deadline for the United States to reach trade agreements that have so far proved elusive." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... The story has been updated. New Lede: "President Trump agreed on Friday to lift tariffs on metal imports from Mexico and Canada, removing a major irritant for two important allies that in exchange agreed to stop punishing American farmers with their own taxes on pork, cheese and milk. At the same time, Mr. Trump postponed a decision on whether to impose tariffs on automobiles...."

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Alan Rappeport & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Friday refused to comply with a congressional subpoena to hand over President Trump's tax returns, a move that is likely to be the final step before the matter heads to the courts.... [Rep. Richard] Neal [(D-Mass), chair of the Ways & Meand Committee,] told reporters that he saw little value in trying to hold Mr. Mnuchin or Charles P. Rettig, the I.R.S. commissioner, in contempt of Congress. Instead, he said, he would go straight to the courts to try to enforce his subpoena, potentially as soon as next week. The case could take months or years to resolve.... That did not sit well among Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee, who have consistently pushed a more aggressive approach toward getting Mr. Trump's returns." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out last night, this is the most brazen of all of TrumpCo's refusals to comply with Congressional requests in that it breaks a specific, clearly-written law that no previous administrations have defied. That the refusal comes with the imprimatur of Bill Barr's Justice* Department makes it all the worse.

Barr Goes All in on Trump's FBI Conspiracy Theory. Kate Riga of TPM: "Attorney General William Barr is loyally carrying out ... Donald Trump's pet project, leaning hard into the President's tweeted screams to 'investigate the investigators' who he believes launched the Russia probe to undermine his candidacy. In a clip of an interview with Fox News, Barr said he was probing if 'government officials abused their power and put their thumb on the scale.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "Attorney General William Barr said his review into the origins of the Russia investigation could result in rule changes for the FBI's counterintelligence investigations of political campaigns. 'Government power was used to spy on American citizens,' Barr told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Friday. 'I can't imagine any world where we wouldn't take a look and make sure that was done properly.' The attorney general also told Fox News that 'people have to find out what the government was doing during that period.'... Barr indicated he's interested in the underlying intelligence that led to the FBI's decision to launch the investigation, along with the steps officials took based off of the intelligence, the Journal reported. He cited the surveillance of anti-Vietnam War protesters in the '60s and early '70s as a reason for concern, according to the newspaper, which is something he also brought up at a recent congressional hearing.... 'I've been trying to get answers to questions and I've found that a lot of the answers have been inadequate and I've also found that some of the explanations I've gotten don't hang together, in a sense I have more questions today than I did when I first started,' Barr told Fox News." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "Former FBI Director James Comey said Attorney General William Barr is 'sliming his own department' by questioning the inception of the Justice Department's probe into Russian election interference and if the Trump campaign conspired with Moscow. 'The AG should stop sliming his own Department. If there are bad facts, show us, or search for them professionally and then tell us what you found. An AG must act like the leader of the Department of Justice, an organization based on truth. Donald Trump has enough spokespeople,' Comey tweeted Friday." ...

... Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "Reacting to a Fox News interview with Attorney General William Barr that included Barr essentially threatening Democrats who criticize him and justifying the president calling the Mueller probe a 'witch hunt,' Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said Friday that Trump now has a new fixer. In the interview that was aired Friday, Barr told Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer that House Democrats who have accused him of contempt of Congress are discrediting him because they're likely 'concerned about the outcome of a review of what happened during the election.' Furthermore, the attorney general said he wants to see if FBI officials 'put their thumb on the scale' during the Russia investigation.... [Wallace said,] '... he [Barr] clearly is protecting this president and advocating his point of view on a lot of these issues.... I suspect that as President Trump, who probably has watched some of this interview himself, is saying: "Finally no Jeff Sessions, Bill Barr instead."'" ...

... digby: "Basically, Barr is signaling that his 'review' is going to be favorable to Trump and that former FBI officials (and the rest of us, for that matter) should be looking over our shoulders. This new sheriff in town is is a banana republican. Bigly.... It's obvious that if anyone is counting on the FBI and the Intelligence agencies to stop any foreign interference on behalf of Trump in the next election they had better get over it. Barr is sending a clear message to the troops to lay off Trump no matter what they see." ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "During his confirmation hearings..., [one] of [William Barr's] curious arguments got short-shrifted. It was the time he suggested there was less evidence to support a Russia-collusion investigation than there was to support some other investigations. Except some of the potential investigations he cited were largely regarded as conspiracy theories.... That William Barr is beginning to rear his head.... In a couple of new interviews, Barr leans in on the idea that ... 'various "national security" activities' were nefarious -- pretty hard.... So here we have a guy who emailed a reporter [-- Peter Baker of the NYT --] in 2017 raising questions about 'various "national security" activities.' (Note the quotation marks he himself used there, suggesting skepticism.) And He did this even before the Nunes memo came out and at a time when many in the GOP weren't embracing this kind of rhetoric. He then adopts President Trump's 'spying' rhetoric while announcing the Justice Department would look into such allegations.... And now he's calling the use of the Steele dossier both 'strange' and 'unusual,' and saying the answers he's getting aren't adding up. It sounds a lot like the guy who believed in the plausibility of this conspiracy theory even before many in his own party adopted it. And it sounds like he's gradually becoming more comfortable saying so." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe, to be charitable, we should consider Barr just another crazy old uncle, albeit one who is the chief law enforcement official in the country. MEANWHILE, of course, Barr's toadying to Trump is only encouraging & agitating that other crazy old uncle, the one who has an even more powerful job than Barr's:

... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump warned Friday of the possibility of 'long jail sentences' for law-enforcement and intelligence officials involved in the early stages of the investigation into possible coordination between Russia and members of his 2016 campaign. 'My Campaign for President was conclusively spied on,' Trump claimed in a morning tweet. 'Nothing like this has ever happened in American Politics. A really bad situation. TREASON means long jail sentences, and this was TREASON!'... At a Senate hearing earlier this month, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray -- also a Trump appointee -- said he had not seen any evidence that illegal surveillance was conducted on individuals associated with Trump's campaign. He also said 'spying' was not a term he would use. Trump subsequently called Wray's testimony 'ridiculous.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Pamela Brown, et al., of CNN: "While he was cooperating with ... Robert Mueller's investigation, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn contacted at least one member of Congress who was publicly criticizing the special counsel probe, according to messages obtained by CNN. Flynn sent Twitter direct messages to Rep. Matt Gaetz, encouraging the Florida Republican to 'keep the pressure on'" It's not clear if Flynn sent additional messages to other lawmakers. 'You stay on top of what you're doing. Your leadership is so vital for our country now. Keep the pressure on,' Flynn wrote in an April 2018 message to Gaetz.... On the evening Flynn sent the message to Gaetz, the lawmaker had appeared on Fox Business' 'Lou Dobbs Tonight,' where he criticized the Mueller investigation.... Gaetz did not have a prior relationship with Flynn, [Gaetz] said. The messages raise fresh questions about Flynn's contact with politically powerful people following his guilty plea in the Mueller probe. They add to a perception that has played out in Flynn's courtroom proceedings that he has modulated between helping the special counsel and stoking Mueller's critics...."

Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: "Hundreds of migrants are being flown from South Texas to holding cells in California by the Department of Homeland Security, in a move that officials said on Friday could be expanded by sending asylum seekers to processing centers throughout the United States, including the border with Canada. Customs and Border Protection officials said they began flying migrant families from overcrowded facilities in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas to San Diego on Tuesday. It is expected that as many as three flights, each carrying up to 135 migrants, will be scheduled each week. The agency also recently started flying migrants five times each week from the Rio Grande Valley to Del Rio, Tex. Nearly all of the migrants are traveling as families, including some with young children." ..

... Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "Florida officials are raising alarm and pressing for details about the purported intention of the Trump administration to send hundreds of immigrants a week to two heavily Democratic counties in South Florida. Customs and Border Protection has not publicly disclosed its plans. But a partial picture of a new approach to managing a record influx of immigrants at the southern border came into view on Thursday based on the accounts of local leaders in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Even allies of the president were nonplussed. The state's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, joined federal lawmakers from Florida -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- in questioning the apparent effort to foist the immigration and asylum burden on two local jurisdictions without equipping them with the resources to house, feed, educate and protect new arrivals." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I am totally in with Broward County Mayor Mark Bogen: "Citing the president's threat to 'send people who illegally cross the border to communities that are considered immigrant friendly,' the mayor called the plans 'inhumane.' And he issued a threat of his own, saying that the county should bring those who couldn't find shelter 'to the Trump hotels and ask the President to open his heart and home as well.' Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort is located in Palm Beach County."

Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "A split federal appeals court on Friday ruled that President Trump's decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was unlawful because 'it was not adequately explained.' The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia found that the administration's termination of the program was 'arbitrary and capricious,' in line with a prior ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals." (Also linked yesterday.)

Nick Miroff & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "An attempt by President Trump's senior adviser Stephen Miller to engineer a new shake-up at the Department of Homeland Security was blocked this week by Kevin McAleenan, the department' acting secretary, who said he might leave his post unless the situation improved and he was given more control over his agency, administration officials said. The closed-door clash flared over the fate of Mark Morgan, the former FBI official the president has picked to be the new director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. With Morgan eager to move into the top job at ICE, Miller on Wednesday urged the president to have Morgan installed as the new commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) instead. McAleenan the next day told senior White House officials that he -- not Miller -- was in charge of the department, said three Trump administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal tensions one Trump aide likened to an 'immigration knife fight.' McAleenan also argued that he should make personnel decisions at his agency, or at least be involved in them, these people said, and that communication needed to improve. McAleenan met with Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, among others, the officials said." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Morgan is the guy who thinks he has super-powers to look into immigrant children's eyes & determine they will become gangsters. They're all a bunch of dangerous, racist reprobates.

Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm a day late with linking the story below, but it is both funny & revealing of Trump's horrible character, so possibly worth a look. At any rate, you may remember that about a week ago, a one-time Trump ghostwriter, Charles Leerhsen, claimed that back in the day, "flipping through fabric swatches seemed at times to be [Trump's] main occupation." He did this, Leerhsen inferred, because he couldn't understand more complex business matters. So ...

Nick Miroff & Josh Dawsey report that Trump is obsessed with the appearance of the border wall/fence: "The bollards, or 'slats,' as he prefers to call them, should be painted 'flat black,' a dark hue that would absorb heat in the summer, making the metal too hot for climbers to scale, Trump has recently told White House aides, Homeland Security officials and military engineers. And the tips of the bollards should be pointed, not round, the president insists, describing in graphic terms the potential injuries that border crossers might receive. Trump has said the wall's current blueprints include too many gates -- placed at periodic intervals to allow vehicles and people through -- and he wants the openings to be smaller. At a moment when the White House is diverting billions of dollars in military funds to fast-track construction, the president is micromanaging the project down to the smallest design details. But Trump's frequently shifting instructions and suggestions have left engineers and aides confused, according to current and former administration officials. Trump has demanded Department of Homeland Security officials come to the White House on short notice to discuss wall construction and on several occasions woke former secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to discuss the project in the early morning, officials said. Trump also has repeatedly summoned the head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Lt. Gen. Todd T. Semonite, to impart his views on the barrier's properties, demanding that the structure be physically imposing but also aesthetically pleasing." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So not only is Trump micromanaging the design of the wall -- and repeatedly changing his mind about elements of that design -- he wants to make sure it physically harms desperate immigrants. What a nasty bastard.

A Very Trumpy Presidential* Address. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday railed against the use of anonymous sources in news reports about his administration, calling it 'bullshit.' The president went on a tangent during remarks to the National Association of Realtors in Washington, D.C., complaining about news coverage of his administration's approach to Iran. He disputed that he is at odds with some of his top advisers on the subject, before mocking the way some of the reports use unnamed administration officials. 'Do you ever notice they never write the names of people anymore?' Trump said. 'Everything is "a source says." There is no source. The person doesn't exist. The person's not alive. It's bullshit, OK? It's bullshit.'... While Trump claimed the media reporting has led to confusion over his plans for addressing the conflict with Iran, lawmakers in both parties have voiced frustration over the lack of information coming from the White House."

"The Kiddie Tax." Erica Green of the New York Times: "A little-noticed provision in President Trump's sprawling new tax law is treating middle- and low-income college students as if they are trust-fund babies, taxing sizable financial aid packages at a rate first established 33 years ago to prevent wealthy parents from funneling money to their children to lower their tax burdens. Higher-education leaders are calling on Congress to fix the provision, which drastically raised the tax rate on so-called unearned income for children with assets and young adults in school. Students with large financial aid packages are finding their nontuition assistance for items such as room and board taxed by as much as 37 percent, even if their family income tax rates are much lower.... [The provision also is] hitting tribal funds dispensed to Native American children and young adults, and the families of service members who died in combat, some of whom saw hefty tax bills for their children's survivor benefits this past spring.... Republicans now say they did not anticipate that it would raise taxes on low-income scholarship winners.... After unanimously opposing the law..., [Democrats] are likely to demand a price for getting Republicans out of a political jam. Any fix would need to roll back some provisions of the law, Democrats say."

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "A major investigation into sexual abuse at Ohio State University found no hard evidence that coaches like Jim Jordan, now a prominent Republican in Congress, knew of a team doctor's rampant sexual misconduct. But the 182-page report released on Friday said dozens of other coaches acknowledged that rumors of the doctor's predatory behavior were rife. Mr. Jordan, a former assistant wrestling coach who has denied knowing of the abuse or hearing any locker-room talk about it, claimed complete vindication on Friday.... The actual findings, however, were more ambiguous than that. The report said that the university physician, Richard H. Strauss, was 'infatuated' with the wrestling team and timed his workouts so he could shower with the wrestlers.... '... the Investigation Team received allegations from numerous student-athletes indicating that they talked about Strauss's inappropriate genital exams and complained about Strauss&'s locker-room voyeurism directly to -- or in front of -- O.S.U. coaching staff.' Wrestlers who worked with Mr. Jordan in the late 1980s and early 1990s continue to say that he did know of Dr. Strauss's predatory behavior, and his claims of exoneration rankled some wrestlers. 'How can he be vindicated? What he's doing now is throwing salt in the wound,' said Dunyasha Yetts, a wrestler at the university in 1992 and 1993, who was one of the first and most outspoken victims to come forward." Related story linked below.

Presidential Race 2020

Alice Ollstein of Politico: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Thursday unveiled a series of steps to defend abortion rights and reproductive health care, citing strict new curbs on abortion recently imposed in states including Alabama. The plan relies heavily on Congress to pass laws that protect access to reproductive health services, including policies blocking states from interfering a health provider's ability to give care. Warren would call on Congress to pass laws enshrining the right to an abortion that would preempt any state attempt to ban the procedure or impose onerous regulations on abortion providers. She would also push for the repeal of the Hyde amendment, a long-time prohibition on federal funding for abortion and sign executive orders rolling back recent Trump administration moves aimed at cutting Planned Parenthood out of the Title X family planning program."

Lachlan Markay & Sam Stein of the Daily Beast: "Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard's campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination is being underwritten by some of the nation's leading Russophiles.... Gabbard is one of her party's more Russia-friendly voices in an era of deep Democratic suspicion of the country over its efforts to tip the 2016 election in favor of ... Donald Trump. Her financial support from prominent pro-Russian voices in the U.S. is a small portion of the total she's raised. But it still illustrates the degree to which she deviates from her party's mainstream on such a contentious and high-profile issue."

Anyone But Trump. Daniel Strauss & Stephanie Murray of Politico: "Vermont Gov. Phil Scott [R] signaled support for former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld over ... Donald Trump in the 2020 Republican primary. Scott, during his weekly news conference Thursday, was asked whether he would prefer Weld, the only declared Republican primary challenger to Trump, over the incumbent president. 'Oh sure,' Scott said. But the Vermont governor said he wasn't ready to formally endorse any Republican and that he hoped Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan or Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker would consider jumping into the primary."

Beyond the Beltway

The March of the States to Subjugate Women Continues. ...

Louisiana. Melinda Deslatte of the AP: Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat "who has repeatedly bucked national party leaders on abortion rights, is about to do it again. He's ready to sign legislation tha would ban the procedure as early as six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant, when the bill reaches his desk. Louisiana's proposal, awaiting one final vote in the state House, would prohibit abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, similar to laws passed in Kentucky Mississippi, Georgia and Ohio that aim to challenge the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion. Alabama has gone even further, enacting a law that makes performing abortions a felony at any stage of pregnancy with almost no exceptions." ...

... Missouri, Etc.  Elisha Fieldstadt of NBC News & the AP: "Missouri's Republican-led House passed a bill banning abortions at eight weeks of pregnancy with an exception for medical emergencies but not for rape or incest. Republican Gov. Mike Parson is likely to sign the bill, following the governors of Alabama, Georgia and several other states who have also recently signed stringent abortion legislation. 'Until the day that we no longer have abortions in this country, I will never waiver in the fight for life,' Parson said during a rally Wednesday. Under the bill, which passed in the House by 110 to 44, doctors who perform an abortion after the eight-week cutoff could face five to 15 years in prison. Women who receive abortions would not be criminally penalized. Missouri's Republican-led Senate passed that state's bill, called Missouri Stands With the Unborn, by a vote of 24-10 on Thursday morning." (Also linked yesterday.)

Ohio. Victor Mather of the New York Times: "Ohio State said Friday that an investigation had confirmed -- in voluminous details gleaned from hundreds of interviews -- that a team doctor had sexually abused at least 177 men, including many varsity athletes, while working for the university in the 1970s, '80s and '90s. The university also revealed that dozens of Ohio State officials, including more than 50 athletic department staff members, were aware of the doctor's actions during his nearly two-decade tenure yet did not act to stop them. In a 182-page report issued on Friday, Ohio State detailed how the doctor, Richard H. Strauss, had groped students, required them to strip unnecessarily during examinations, and asked intimate questions about sexual practices under the guise of providing medical treatment."

News Lede

New York Times: "Herman Wouk, whose taut shipboard drama 'The Caine Mutiny' lifted him to the top of the best-seller lists, where he remained for most of a career that extended past his 100th year thanks to page-turners like 'Marjorie Morningstar,' 'Youngblood Hawke' and the World War II epics 'The Winds of War' and 'War and Remembrance,' died early Friday at his home in Palm Springs, Calif. He was 103."

The Commentariat -- May 17, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Ana Swanson & Jack Ewing of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday said he would delay a decision on whether to impose tariffs on automobiles imported from Europe, Japan and other countries for six months, setting a tight deadline for the United States to reach trade agreements that have so far proved elusive."

Elisha Fieldstadt of NBC News & the AP: "Missouri's Republican-led House passed a bill banning abortions at eight weeks of pregnancy with an exception for medical emergencies but not for rape or incest. Republican Gov. Mike Parson is likely to sign the bill, following the governors of Alabama, Georgia and several other states who have also recently signed stringent abortion legislation. 'Until the day that we no longer have abortions in this country, I will never waiver in the fight for life,' Parson said during a rally Wednesday. Under the bill, which passed in the House by 110 to 44, doctors who perform an abortion after the eight-week cutoff could face five to 15 years in prison. Women who receive abortions would not be criminally penalized. Missouri's Republican-led Senate passed that state's bill, called Missouri Stands With the Unborn, by a vote of 24-10 on Thursday morning."

Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "A split federal appeals court on Friday ruled that President Trump's decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was unlawful because 'it was not adequately explained.' The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia found that the administration's termination of the program was 'arbitrary and capricious,' in line with a prior ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals."

Barr Goes All in on Trump's FBI Conspiracy Theory. Kate Riga of TPM: "Attorney General William Barr is loyally carrying out ... Donald Trump's pet project, leaning hard into the President"s tweeted screams to 'investigate the investigators' who he believes launched the Russia probe to undermine his candidacy. In a clip of an interview with Fox News, Barr said he was probing if 'government officials abused their power and put their thumb on the scale.'" ...

... Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "Attorney General William Barr said his review into the origins of the Russia investigation could result in rule changes for the FBI's counterintelligence investigations of political campaigns. 'Government power was used to spy on American citizens,' Barr told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Friday. 'I can't imagine any world where we wouldn't take a look and make sure that was done properly.' The attorney general also told Fox News that 'people have to find out what the government was doing during that period.'... Barr indicated he's interested in the underlying intelligence that led to the FBI's decision to launch the investigation, along with the steps officials took based off of the intelligence, the Journal reported. He cited the surveillance of anti-Vietnam War protesters in the '60s and early '70s as a reason for concern, according to the newspaper, which is something he also brought up at a recent congressional hearing.... 'I've been trying to get answers to questions and I've found that a lot of the answers have been inadequate and I've also found that some of the explanations I've gotten don't hang together, in a sense I have more questions today than I did when I first started,' Barr told Fox News." ...

... Barr's toadying is only encouraging & agitating our mentally unstable president*:

... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump warned Friday of the possibility of 'long jail sentences' for law-enforcement and intelligence officials involved in the early stages of the investigation into possible coordination between Russia and members of his 2016 campaign. 'My Campaign for President was conclusively spied on,' Trump claimed in a morning tweet. 'Nothing like this has ever happened in American Politics. A really bad situation. TREASON means long jail sentences, and this was TREASON!'... At a Senate hearing earlier this month, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray -- also a Trump appointee -- said he had not seen any evidence that illegal surveillance was conducted on individuals associated with Trump';s campaign. He also said 'spying' was not a term he would use. Trump subsequently called Wray's testimony 'ridiculous.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

Eric Schmitt, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump has told his acting defense secretary, Patrick Shanahan, that he does not want to go to war with Iran, according to several administration officials, in a message to his hawkish aides that an intensifying American pressure campaign against the clerical-led government in Tehran must not escalate into open conflict. Mr. Trump's statement, during a Wednesday morning meeting in the Situation Room, came during a briefing on the rising tensions with Iran. American intelligence has indicated that Iran has placed missiles on small boats in the Persian Gulf, prompting fears that Tehran may strike at United States troops and assets or those of its allies. No new information was presented to the president at the meeting that argued for further engagement with Iran, according to a person in the room.... The president has sought to tamp down reports that two of his most hawkish aides -- the national security adviser, John R. Bolton, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo -- are spoiling for a fight with Iran and are running ahead of him in precipitating a military confrontation. 'There is no infighting whatsoever,' Mr. Trump said in a tweet on Wednesday evening.... Mr. Trump added he was confident Iran 'will want to talk soon,' signaling an openness to diplomacy that officials said is not shared by Mr. Bolton or Mr. Pompeo." ...

... ** Betsy Woodruff & Adam Rawnsley of the Daily Beast: "... U.S. intelligence officials assess that Iran's aggressive moves came in response to the administration's own actions. Three U.S. government officials familiar with the situation told The Daily Beast that officials in multiple U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Iran's new, threatening activity -- which the administration points to in justifying its military presence in the Persian Gulf -- is in response to the administration's aggressive steps over the last two months.... In addition, multiple lawmakers on Capitol Hill familiar with American intelligence about Iran told The Daily Beast that Tehran's aggressive moves -- reportedly planning attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Iraq and loading missiles on fishing boats in the Gulf -- appear to be in response to Washington's moves to press the Islamic Republic and its leadership. The Trump administration's decisions to tighten oil sanctions and to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group were particularly provocative, lawmakers said." ...

... Susan Glasser of the New Yorker: "... one thing this week's Iran-war scare has shown is the extent to which the Trump Presidency has blown up the old way of American foreign-policymaking, which makes the risk of a miscalculation higher than ever.... The removal of constraints on Trump ... is what is so striking at this moment.... And with all the turnover on his staff, a normal decision-making process on national-security matters seems to have been abandoned.... Instead, amazingly enough, we are now at a moment in the Trump Presidency when the capricious President himself is being touted as the possible constraint on his hawkish advisers like [John] Bolton.... The one constant here is that Trump appears, once again, at odds with his advisers.... All of which is to say, I wouldn't discount the chance that a series of mistakes could lead to a conflict that Trump himself doesn't want. The brakes on Trump are shredded. There are fewer and fewer people around the President to stop him or to offer him options that avert worst-case scenarios."

Seung Min Kim, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Thursday unveiled an outline for reshaping how immigrants are admitted into the country -- seeking to promote a more comprehensive approach to immigration ahead of a reelection campaign where Democrats plan to portray his hard line approach at the border as racist. The new proposal, an effort led primarily by his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, appears destined for the congressional dustbin, with no clear strategy from the White House to turn it into law and essentially no support from Democrats who control one-half of Capitol Hill.... In campaign rallies, Trump has continued to paint many immigrants as dangerous, and his bid Thursday to balance his hard line tone exposed him to criticism from conservatives, while failing to insulate him from attacks among Democrats.... [Meanwhile,] Trump's advisers continue to look at measures behind the scenes such as the Insurrection Act, an arcane law that allows the president to employ the military to combat lawlessness or rebellion, to remove illegal immigrants, officials said.... A number of White House aides ... believe the president holding a Rose Garden speech on it was a waste of his time...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'd say Trump agrees with those aides. Listen to a few seconds of the speech embedded in the WashPo story. Trump reads it in that sleepy sing-song voice that says, "I'm doing this so my daughter's husband can feel he's useful, but we all know the whole thing is ridiculous." ...

... Besides, Trump does need an immigration policy; he can have Mark Morgan take a look at aspiring immigrants & pick the very best ones:

... The Eyes Have It. Ted Hesson of Politico: "Mark Morgan, the White House choice to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said during a Fox News interview earlier this year that he can judge the likelihood that an unaccompanied minor will become a gang member by looking into that child's eyes. 'I've been to detention facilities where I've walked up to these individuals that are so-called minors, 17 or under,' Morgan said on Tucker Carlson Tonight' in January. 'I've looked at them and I've looked at their eyes, Tucker -- and I've said that is a soon-to-be MS-13 gang member. It's unequivocal.'" Mrs. McC: This, of course is a skill just like the one Dubya boasted, when he said he had looked into Vladimir Putin's eyes & got "a sense of his soul." Years later, Bush more-or-less walked back his super-eye-contact powers, but Morgan believes his superpower is "unequivocal"; i.e., perfect.

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Thursday that House Democrats could always open an impeachment inquiry to pry free documents and testimony from stonewalling Trump administration officials -- a sharp response to the White House's blanket claim that House requests served no 'legitimate' legislative purpose. 'The courts would respect it if you said we need this information to carry out our oversight responsibilities -- and among them is impeachment,' Ms. Pelosi said during her weekly news conference at the Capitol. 'It doesn't mean you're going on an impeachment path, but it means if you had the information you might,' Ms. Pelosi said.... Her threat was the first time Ms. Pelosi suggested using impeachment as an information-gathering tool, although she had made the suggestion in private before, according to a person familiar with her thinking." ...

... Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff announced on Thursday that the panel will consider an 'enforcement action' against Attorney General William Barr for defying the chairman's subpoena for special counsel Robert Mueller's unredacted report and its supporting intelligence materials. Schiff's announcement came a day after the Justice Department put a counteroffer on the table as it negotiates with the panel for lawmakers' access to the full report, according to a letter obtained by Politico."

Katelyn Polantz & Tammy Kupperman of CNN: "Less redacted versions of memos released Thursday from the court record in Michael Flynn's criminal case reveal more details of Flynn's cooperation with special counsel Robert Mueller. A voicemail recording exists of a member of the Trump administration reaching out to Flynn and his lawyers while he was cooperating with Mueller, according to unsealed documents in Flynn's criminal case Thursday. Flynn had told Mueller about multiple examples of this type of outreach, the newly revealed court filings say, and it became a significant part of Mueller's inquiry into whether the President obstructed justice. Other documents show that Flynn was among 'a select few people' who heard statements among campaign officials about WikiLeaks and spoke to Mueller about those conversations.... '... the prospect of reaching out to WikiLeaks was discussed [among Trump campaign officials]," according to the newly unredacted documents.... The newly unsealed documents in the Flynn case also highlight just how important he was as a source to prosecutors investigating Russian interactions with the Trump political operation during the campaign and transition." ...

... Tom Winter, et al., of NBC News: "... Michael Flynn told investigators that people linked to the Trump administration and Congress reached out to him in an effort to interfere in the Russia probe, according to newly-unredacted court papers filed Thursday.... In a separate court filing, Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered federal prosecutors to file a transcript of the voicemail message, as well as transcripts of any other recordings of Flynn including his conversations with Russian officials.... Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein determined that there was insufficient evidence to pursue the matter further." ...

... Carol Leonnig & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post have more on Judge Sullivan's order: "The transcripts, which the judge ordered be posted on a court website by May 31, would reveal conversations at the center of two major avenues of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. So far they have been disclosed to the public only in fragments in court filings and the Mueller report. Sullivan also ordered that still-redacted portions of the Mueller report that relate to Flynn be given to the court and made public." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Sure sounds as if it would be helpful to Congressional investigators to get their hands on the full array of Mueller's documentation. No, Mitch, it's not "case closed." ...

... CNN has the "less redacted" court filings here.

Devan Cole of CNN: "Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday said he is not preventing special counsel Robert Mueller from testifying before the House Judiciary Committee. 'It's Bob's call whether he wants to testify,' Barr told The Wall Street Journal. Barr's comment comes just days after ... Donald Trump said he was leaving the decision to his attorney general on whether Mueller could testify." Mrs. McC: Very nice of you, Bill.

Jeff Stein, in the New Republic, interviews Barry Sussman, the editor for Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein's Watergate work at the Washington Post, on Trumpgate. Sussman: "The problem is the media have allowed Trump to set the agenda.... He leads the press around by the nose.... [Trump] won't plummet [in the polls] the way Nixon did. At the same time, he won't stay popular as the enormity of the things he's done becomes clearer and clearer to more and more people. Even though we now have a Republican Senate, even there, we're going to see inroads.... One thing that could happen is exactly what happened to Nixon. It's his taxes could become public.... Mueller had a very broad mandate. He could have done a lot more than he did. He, for example, could have looked at Trump's taxes himself, had he been allowed to....

Emoluments, Etc. Dareh Gregorian & Jonathan Allen of NBC News: "... the Trump presidency has been taking a modest economic toll on his businesses, according to annual financial disclosure forms released Thursday. Financial disclosure forms made public by the Office of Government Ethics show overall income from Trump's businesses in 2018 was roughly in line with the revenue he raked in in 2017 -- but some of them took some big hits. While Trump reported making over $17 million in 'management fees and other contract payments' from his Trump International Hotels Management LLC in New York in 2017, he made just $1.5 million in fees there in 2018, the filing shows.... The reports show revenue, not profits, and some of the figures are given in ranges, giving only a partial picture of his finances. But the financial news wasn't all bad for Trump, who told reporters in November that '... being president has cost me a fortune -- a tremendous fortune like you've never seen before.' His Washington, D.C., hotel near the White House, a favorite of Republicans, lobbyists and diplomats, generated revenue of over $40.8 million, up from $40.4 million in 2017." ...

... Russ Choma of Mother Jones: "... Donald Trump's latest personal financial disclosure was just released, showing that Trump, who already owed more money than any other president in history, borrowed millions more in 2018. According to the disclosure, Trump borrowed between $5 million and $25 million from Professional Bank, a small Florida outfit that specializes in construction and real estate loans.... The loan was used to finance the purchase of 1125 South Ocean Avenue, a mansion located next door to Trump's Mar-a-Lago club and owned by the president's sister, Maryanne Trump Barry.... Though assets and liabilities are reported in ranges on financial disclosure forms, land records show that the value of Trump's newest loan $11.2 million."

Pardon Me. Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "As with much of Trump's presidency, it's tempting to overthink things when it comes to pardons, to see them as being chess moves in a larger assault on the rule of law. Trump's willingness to pardon allies and, particularly, well-known conservative figures like [Dinesh] D&'Souza, [Conrad] Black, and the Hammond brothers -- two ranchers whose imprisonment inspired a long, tense takeover of an Oregon wildlife reserve by anti-government militia groups -- points to Trump's unwavering commitment to his own base.... Although he has not yet shown interest in pardoning figures involved in the Russia investigation, he has not exactly been shy about encouraging them to keep quiet.... Trump may very well be 'sending a signal' or hoping to instill goodwill in allies with these pardons, but the path for each of these criminal figures has been straightforward. Exploit existing connections to the president. Make regular public comments about Trump's greatness (writing a book or making a movie seems to help!). Then profit."

Trump's Man in Moscow Really Was an FBI Informant. Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "A federal judge has confirmed for the first time that Felix Sater, a former Donald Trump business associate who drove Trump Tower Moscow negotiations during the 2016 election, helped the U.S. government track down Osama bin Laden. During a hearing on Thursday in the Eastern District of New York -- held as part of a lawsuit brought by First Look Media to unseal records related to Sater's longtime cooperation with the government on various national security issues -- Judge I. Leo Glasser said [to the plaintiffs]..., 'He cooperated... And you know what he did over the 10, 11 years, because you told me that you know. He provided the telephone number of Osama bin Laden. He has done an awful lot of very interesting and dangerous things."

The Education of Donald Trump. Ryan Struyk, in a tweet: "Trump says he had support on criminal justice reform from 'Democrats, Republicans, conservatives, liberals... I guess we could also use the word "progressives" ... a new word that's come about...'" Mrs. McC: You may remember the term from your high-school American history book, and/or maybe from the past decade or so of reading the news, but I guess it doesn't get much play in the New York Post's "Page Six."

Trump Admin Sends $62MM in "Subsidies" to Brazilian Criminals. Chris Sommerfeldt of the New York Daily News: "The Trump administration has forked over more than $62 million -- taxpayer cash that was supposed to be earmarked for struggling American farmers -- to a massive meatpacking company [JBS] owned by a couple of corrupt Brazilian brothers.... The bailout ... was sourced from a $12 billion program meant for American farmers harmed by President Trump's escalating trade war with China and other countries.... Industry watchdogs ... question how subsidizing a deep-pocketed, Brazilian-owned company would help farmers in the American heartland.... Moreover..., the company's exports to China ballooned to more than 24% in 2018, compared to less than 21% the previous year, according to public records, raising questions about the need for the Trump subsidy.... 'It is clear the president is not the least bit knowledgeable about trade policy, nor aware of the chaos his failed approach has caused' said Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who introduced a bill earlier this year restricting the administration's bailouts to American-owned companies." ...

     ... Update: Chris Sommerfeldt: "The Trump administration on Thursday defended its $62 million bailout to a Brazilian meatpacking company controlled by a pair of corrupt brothers, arguing the private pork payout will eventually trickle down to struggling U.S. farmers.... '... regardless of who the vendor is, the products purchased are grown in the U.S. and benefit U.S. farmers,' a spokesperson for the department said.... 'JBS qualifies as a bidder under this criteria. This is similar to someone buying JBS bacon in a grocery store. Regardless of the packaging, the bacon inside is from a hog grown on an American farm.'"

Juliet Eilperin & Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "The Environmental Protection Agency should consider recovering nearly $124,000 in improper travel expenses by former EPA chief Scott Pruitt, the agency's inspector general recommended Thursday. The findings, issued nearly a year after Pruitt resigned amid controversy over his spending, travel and ties to lobbyists and outside groups, highlight the fiscal impact of his penchant for high-end travel and accommodations. Investigators concluded that 40 trips Pruitt either took or scheduled during a 10-month period, between March 1 and Dec. 31, 2017, cost taxpayers $985,037. The bulk of those expenses were for Pruitt's round-the-clock security detail, which billed $428,896 in travel costs. The agency spent an additional $339,894 on staffers traveling with the former administrator. The 'questioned amount' the inspector general's office identifies for possible recovery is the $123,941 that taxpayers spent on flying both Pruitt and a security agent in first- or business class, instead of coach. The report also highlights the extent to which Pruitt's official travel revolved around trips to Tulsa, Okla., where he maintained a home while a member of President Trump's Cabinet.... The EPA watchdog details a litany of other problems with the way Pruitt and his entourage rang up 'excessive costs' using taxpayer money...."

MEANWHILE. Katy O'Donnell of Politico: "Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson broke the law when he failed to report an order for a $31,561 dining room table set for his office as well as the installation of an $8,000 dishwasher in the office kitchen, the Government Accountability Office found in a report published Thursday. Agencies are required to notify Congress of expenditures over $5,000 to furnish an executive's office. Carson canceled the table order after it surfaced in news reports in early 2018, and he appeared to blame the fiasco on his wife, Candy, in congressional testimony. HUD spokespeople offered conflicting accounts of what Carson knew about the order."

Marianne Levine of Politico: "The Senate on Thursday confirmed Jeffrey Rosen to replace embattled Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, despite Democratic criticism he wasn't ready for the job. The Senate voted 52-45 to confirm Rosen, along party lines.... Rosen is currently deputy Transportation secretary. He was general counsel at the Department of Transportation and at the Office of Management and Budget under President George W. Bush. He also worked at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis where he overlapped briefly with [AG William] Barr.... 'We need a Deputy Attorney General who knows the Justice Department,' Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said in a statement after Rosen's confirmation. 'Mr. Rosen simply does not have the qualifications for this critical assignment.'"

Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "The Senate on Thursday confirmed Wendy Vitter's appointment to the federal bench, as Republicans overcame strong opposition from Democrats who criticized the nominee's stand against abortion. Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) was the only Republican to join Democrats and independents in opposing Vitter's nomination, in the 52-to-45 vote.... Vitter drew ire from Democrats after a judicial watchdog group found statements she had made against abortion that were not included in the extensive background disclosure forms she was required to provide to the Senate.... During a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing in April 2018, Vitter faced intense questioning from Democrats over those comments -- which included claiming Planned Parenthood killed over 150,000 women a year -- and her moderating an event called, 'Abortion Hurts Women's Health.'... They also have criticized Vitter for refusing to say during her confirmation hearing whether she agreed with the Brown v. Board of Education decision that desegregated schools.... Vitter stood by her husband, former senator David Vitter (R-La.), in 2007 when he was named in connection with a D.C. prostitution ring." Thanks to PD Pepe for the heads-up. See her commentary below. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: According to Rachel Maddow, Wendy Vitter has claimed that abortions cause cancer. (Um, they don't.) What this country needs is another forever-judge who puts no store in facts.

Adam Cancryn & Sarah Owermohle of Politico: "House Democrats [Thursday] evening passed the session's first legislation aimed at lowering drug prices, as the party looks to solidify its political advantage on a key issue for voters ahead ahead of 2020. The health care vote -- the House's second in two weeks -- came over bitter protests from Republicans, who accused Democratic leaders of politicizing once-bipartisan drug price proposals by pairing them with polarizing measures to strengthen Obamacare. The bill is unlikely to survive the GOP-controlled Senate." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes but impeachment is stupid because the Senate will never convict.

Presidential Race 2020

Jeffery Mays & William Neuman of the New York Times: "Bill de Blasio, the Democratic mayor of New York City, announced on Thursday that he was running for president, seeking to show that his brand of urban progressive leadership can be a model for the rest of the nation. It will be a steep challenge: He becomes the 23rd Democrat to enter the presidential race, and he does so against the counsel of many of his trusted advisers, and in the face of two centuries of history. No sitting mayor has been elected to the presidency, and if Mr. de Blasio, 58, is to be the first, he must overcome daunting deficits in polls and fund-raising." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Finally, a Feel-Good Story. Ben Kesslen of NBC News: "A Missouri teenager stole the spotlight from Bill de Blasio's presidential campaign announcement Wednesday when he scooped the New York City mayor's announcement. Gabe Fleisher ... sends out his newsletter 'Wake Up to Politics,' a rundown of political happenings that often includes campaign schedules and what the 2020 candidates are up to.... Fleisher [found] a Friday event for de Blasio in Sioux City that was billed as 'his first stop on his Presidential announcement tour.' But de Blasio had not yet officially thrown his hat in the ring. Shortly after Fleisher tweeted this news, the de Blasio campaign confirmed the mayor was indeed running. Reports had hinted at a de Blasio run for the past few weeks, but Fleisher's find was seemingly the official confirmation."

Marisa Endicott of Mother Jones: "So far in 2019, seven states have passed laws to limit abortion well before fetal viability, which is somewhere around 24 weeks, though all of the laws have yet to take effect or are held up by the courts.... The Missouri Senate, meanwhile, is currently debating an omnibus abortion bill that already passed the House and includes a 'fetal heartbeat' ban, while Louisiana's own six-week abortion bill is about to pass its second legislative chamber. Mother Jones looked at the gender breakdown in these nine state legislatures and found a common thread: All have striking gender imbalances. Each legislature -- with the exception of Georgia -- has a lower than average percentage of women serving in its chambers. The national average is about 29 percent, but in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, women make up just 16 percent or less of the states' legislators." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Update. Summer Ballentine of the AP: "Missouri's Republican-led Senate has now passed a bill to ban abortions at eight weeks of pregnancy. Senators approved the legislation 24-10 early Thursday with just hours left before a Friday deadline to pass bills. It needs at least one more vote of approval in the GOP-led House before it can go to Republican Gov. Mike Parson, who voiced support for it on Wednesday. Parson called on state senators to take action, joining a movement of GOP-dominated state legislatures emboldened by the possibility that a more conservative Supreme Court could overturn its landmark ruling legalizing the procedure." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I realize Republican men have several incentives to push these draconian measures, namely the well-organized anti-abortion groups urging them to do so & the hope that the Trumpy Supremes will overturn Roe. I think the#MeToo movement is yet another impetus. These men can't stand the power the movement has given women -- specifically in relation to curbing sexual aggression -- & the men are punishing women for making "demands."

Jacey Fortin of the New York Times: "Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst who provided secret military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks in 2010, was sent to jail again on Thursday after refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating the organization.... Ms. Manning was jailed for similar reasons in March, but was released last week when the term of the grand jury that had served her with a subpoena in January expired."

Beyond the Beltway

New York. Ali Winston of the New York Times: "A police commander reacted with seemingly little concern after being told by an officer that Eric Garner was likely dead, according to text messages shown on Thursday at a disciplinary hearing.... After acknowledging the message [that was dead], Lieutenant [Christopher] Bannon wrote a follow-up note: 'Not a big deal. We were effecting a lawful arrest.' The previously unseen text messages provoked gasps in the room where the hearing was being held for Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who faces possible termination over charges of reckless use of a chokehold and intentional restriction of breathing.... A medical examiner who performed an autopsy on Mr. Garner testified on Wednesday at the hearing that the chokehold 'set into motion a lethal sequence' that resulted in his death."

The Commentariat -- May 16, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Marisa Endicott of Mother Jones: "So far in 2019, seven states have passed laws to limit abortion well before fetal viability, which is somewhere around 24 weeks, though all of the laws have yet to take effect or are held up by the courts.... The Missouri Senate, meanwhile, is currently debating an omnibus abortion bill that already passed the House and includes a 'fetal heartbeat' ban, while Louisiana's own six-week abortion bill is about to pass its second legislative chamber. Mother Jones looked at the gender breakdown in these nine state legislatures and found a common thread: All have striking gender imbalances. Each legislature -- with the exception of Georgia -- has a lower than average percentage of women serving in its chambers. The national average is about 29 percent, but in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, women make up just 16 percent or less of the states' legislators."

Jeffery Mays & William Neuman of the New York Times: "Bill de Blasio, the Democratic mayor of New York City, announced on Thursday that he was running for president, seeking to show that his brand of urban progressive leadership can be a model for the rest of the nation. It will be a steep challenge: He becomes the 23rd Democrat to enter the presidential race, and he does so against the counsel of many of his trusted advisers, and in the face of two centuries of history. No sitting mayor has been elected to the presidency, and if Mr. de Blasio, 58, is to be the first, he must overcome daunting deficits in polls and und-raising."

~~~~~~~~~~

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump will unveil on Thursday a plan to overhaul parts of the nation's immigration system that would impose new security measures at the border and significantly increase the educational and skills requirements for people who are allowed to migrate to the United States, senior White House officials said Wednesday. The proposal would vastly scale back the system of family-based immigration that has for decades allowed immigrants to bring their spouses and children to live with them, the officials said. In its place, it would provide new opportunities for immigrants who have specific skills or job offers to work in the United States, provided that they can demonstrate English proficiency, educational attainment and pass a civics exam. But the plan is expected to be deeply unpopular with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Currently, about 12 percent of immigrants qualify based on their skills, while more than half are given permission to enter the United State because of a family connection. Under Mr. Trump's proposal, those numbers would be reversed.... The president will reveal some details about the proposal, which was developed by Jared Kushner.... The plan calls for construction of some of the president's border wall.... And it contains no provision for providing legal status to people brought to the United States as children, known as Dreamers, or other undocumented immigrants." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Sounds more like a Stephen Miller pipe-dream than a plan. ...

Hypothetical Kushner Power Point slide. (Actually, I got this from a tweet @RealDonaldTrump, in which the writer warned Trump not to break his campaign promises.)... Alison Durkee of Vanity Fair: "... Jared Kushner headed to Capitol Hill Tuesday, where he met with Republican senators to answer questions about his new immigration plan. And, unsurprisingly, the man who's been trying to frame his political inexperience as an 'asset' didn't do a great job. Per a report in The Washington Post, G.O.P. senators present at the staff luncheon said Kushner had trouble answering questions about the proposal, and was frequently interrupted by fellow adviser Stephen Miller to fill in the gaps.... Though Kushner has been toting the plan around town — reportedly with the help of a PowerPoint slideshow that's been described as 'laughably simplistic' -- he apparently doesn't fare so well when he has to go off-script, even among a friendly G.O.P. crowd.... While Kushner and the more hard-line Miller's joint appearance at the luncheon was supposed to signify 'unity' between the various White House factions, senators present also noted that they didn't exactly see the duo as a united front. 'Miller interrupted him a lot,' one source said.... Kushner [has] set a low bar for himself that aims not so much for success as just failing in an original way. 'If we are going to fail, we don't want to fail doing it the same way it's been done in the past, Kushner [said] ... at a recent event." Thanks to safari for the link. ...

... Thank You for Your Service. Now ... Get Out! Tara Copp of McClatchy News: "Immigrants serving in the U.S. military are being denied citizenship at a higher rate than foreign-born civilians, according to new government data that has revealed the impact of stricter Trump administration immigration policies on service members. According to the same data, the actual number of service members even applying for U.S. citizenship has also plummeted since ... Donald Trump took office, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reported in its quarterly naturalization statistics. 'The U.S. has had a long-standing tradition of immigrants come to the U.S. and have military service provide a path to citizenship,' said retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, a senior adviser to the liberal veterans advocacy group VoteVets.org. 'To have this turnaround, where they are actually taking a back seat to the civilian population strikes me as a bizarre turn of events.'" Thanks to safari for the link.

Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "The intelligence that caused the White House to escalate its warnings about a threat from Iran came from photographs of missiles on small boats in the Persian Gulf that were put on board by Iranian paramilitary forces, three American officials said. Overhead imagery showed fully assembled missiles, stoking fears that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps would fire them at United States naval ships. Additional pieces of intelligence picked up threats against commercial shipping and potential attacks by Arab militias with Iran ties on American troops in Iraq. But just how alarmed the Trump administration should be over the new intelligence is a subject of fierce debate among the White House, the Pentagon, the C.I.A. and America's allies." Mrs. McC: AND, as the reporters point out, we cannot help but be reminded of this "slam dunk":

... Heather Caygle, et al., of Politico: "Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle warned ... Donald Trump on Wednesday to avoid plunging the United States into another Iraq-like war in the Middle East, demanding more information about vague warnings that Iran might be planning attacks on U.S. personnel and facilities in the region. Congressional leaders will get more information about the situation on Thursday during a confidential briefing with Trump officials, according to two Democratic sources. On Capitol Hill and on the campaign trail, politicians fretted that the situation felt eerily similar to the run-up to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq." ...

... Edward Wong of the New York Times: "The State Department ordered a partial evacuation of the United States Embassy in Baghdad on Wednesday, responding to what the Trump administration said was a threat linked to Iran, one that has led to an accelerated movement of American ships and bombers into the Persian Gulf. The department ordered 'nonemergency U.S. government employees,' at both the embassy in Baghdad and the consulate in Erbil, to leave the country. The order applies primarily to full-time diplomats posted to Iraq by State Department headquarters in Washington, and an embassy statement said that visa services in Iraq would be suspended as a result. Contractors who provide security, food and other such services will remain in place for now." ...

... Josh Marshall: "... John Bolton is a unique and uniquely dangerous character. To give some perspective, back during George W. Bush's second term, Bush nominated Bolton to serve as UN Ambassador. That was in 2006 and with a GOP majority in the Senate. Bolton was seen as so manifestly ill-suited to the position that he couldn't get confirmed. He had to settle for a pity recess appointment.... Bolton is a caricature of a militarist and warmonger.... He's no fool. He's a very bright guy. And -- critically important -- he's a master of bureaucratic politics.... Bolton ... is precisely the kind of person ... to goad the President into issuing [intemperate] orders.... What seems to have been happening over the last year is that Bolton has been trying to push Iran into a corner and force a military confrontation. That hasn't worked. So now they appear to be cooking up 'threats' from Iran to force the confrontation they've been unable to force to date."

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

** "Starrs & Barrs." Jonathan Chait: "Trump's official position is that Congress has no business looking into whether the president has broken the law. When you combine this position with the long-standing Department of Justice policy that it cannot indict a sitting president, and Attorney General William Barr's position that the president is entitled to shut down any investigation he considers unfair, you have built a wall of legal impunity for the president.... Republicans don't merely swing back and forth on executive power like a pendulum, they race from one extreme position to the other.... Trump, like his party, simply refuses to recognize the legitimacy of sharing power. Power in their minds is unitary: unquestionable when in their hands, illegitimate when wielded by the opposition. Trump grew naturally out of, and fit comfortably within, the party of Starr's and Barr's."

Get Real, Democrats! Walter Dellinger, in a Washington Post op-ed: "I have become increasingly concerned about how the country has received the Mueller report. The Republican talking point is that it exonerated the president. The message from the Democratic House, meanwhile, is that the report is inconclusive. Those responses, one mendacious, one tepid and both erroneous, have shaped public understanding.... The more I review the report, the more absurd and misleading the we-need-to-know-more response seems to be.... How different would it have been if a unified chorus of Democratic leaders in Congress and on the campaign trail had promptly proclaimed the actual truth: This report makes the unquestionable case that the president regularly and audaciously violated his oath and committed th most serious high crimes and misdemeanors. Mueller's extraordinary 2,800-subpoena, 500-search-warrant, two-year investigation fully established not merely crimes but also the betrayal of the president's office: a failure to defend the country's electoral system from foreign attack and acts of interference with justice that shred the rule of law.... The House's focus on process -- such as requesting redacted material -- constitutes a strong, implicit suggestion that what we have seen from Mueller is not enough to assess the president. That is just false."

John Bresnahan & Heather Caygle of Politico: "House Democrats will not hold floor votes on contempt resolutions against Attorney General William Barr or any other Trump administration officials until at least June, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Wednesday. Hoyer's comments made official what has already been clear inside the House Democratic Caucus -- Hoyer, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other party leaders are still wrestling with how to respond to ... Donald Trump's broad refusal to cooperate with subpoenas for documents and testimony related to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, as well as his own personal finances."

Carol Leonnig & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "The White House’s top lawyer told the House Judiciary Committee chairman Wednesday that Congress has no right to a 'do-over' of the special counsel's investigation of President Trump and refused a broad demand for records and testimony from dozens of current and former White House staff. White House Counsel Pat Cipollone's letter to committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) constitutes a sweeping rejection -- not just of Nadler's request for White House records, but of Congress's standing to investigate Trump for possible obstruction of justice. In his letter, Cipollone repeated a claim the White House and Trump's business have begun making: that Congress is not a law enforcement body and does not have a legitimate purpose to investigate the questions it is pursuing. But Cipollone stopped short of asserting executive privilege. Instead, he told Nadler he would consider a narrowed request if the chairman spells out the legislative purpose and legal support for the information he is seeking." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... As Dana Milbank of the Washington Post wrote yesterday re: the administration's argument that Congress had no right to examine Trump's finances, "Forget about the Unitary Executive Theory. This one is closer to the Divine Right of Kings." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Update. Jeremy Herb, et al., of CNN: House Judiciary Chair Jerry "Nadler responded to the latest Trump administration rejection by accusing the White House of 'claiming that the President is a king.' 'No President, no person in the United States is above the law. This is preposterous,' Nadler told CNN. 'They are saying we should end the investigation. We are not ending the investigation. If we were to agree to that, then no president would ever be subject to any kind of investigation for misconduct of any type.'... Nadler told reporters Tuesday he was seriously considering the idea of fining officials. 'Very large,' Nadler said when asked how large of fines the House might consider. Asked if they would seek to impose such fines on the attorney general, Nadler said: 'It would be for anybody who is held in inherent contempt.'"

... BUT Stiffing Congress Is So Hilarious. Laurie Kellman of the AP: At the National Peace Officers Memorial Day service Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol, Bill "Barr approached [Nancy] Pelosi, shook her hand and said loud enough to be overheard, 'Madam Speaker, did you bring your handcuffs?'... A smiling Pelosi let Barr know the House Sergeant at Arms was present at the ceremony, should any arrest be necessary, according to a person who witnessed the exchange.... Barr chuckled and walked away, this person said."

Michael Isikoff of Yahoo! News: "Senior FBI officials were concerned then director James Comey would appear to be blackmailing then President-elect Trump -- using tactics notoriously associated with J.Edgar Hoover -- when he attended a fateful Jan. 6, 2017, meeting at which he informed the real estate magnate about allegations he had consorted with prostitutes in Moscow, according to Jim Baker, the bureau's chief counsel at the time. But he and Comey determined the bureau had an obligation to tell Trump of the uncorroborated allegations because 'the press has it; it's about to come out. You should be alerted to that fact. We were quite worried about the Hoover analogies, and we were determined not to have such a disaster happen on our watch,' said ... Baker ... in an interview with the Yahoo News podcast Skullduggery.... In the podcast interview, Baker also pledged to cooperate with a new investigation into the origins of the Russia probe, emphasizing that he believes he and his FBI colleagues did nothing wrong."

Cecilia Kang & David Sanger of the New York Times: "President Trump moved on Wednesday to ban American telecommunications firms from installing foreign-made equipment that could pose a threat to national security, White House officials said, stepping up a battle against China by effectively barring sales by Huawei, the country's leading networking company. Mr. Trump issued an executive order instructing the commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, to ban transactions 'posing an unacceptable risk' but did not single out any nation or company."

Matthew Choi of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday pardoned Conrad M. Black, a friend and former business associate who wrote a flattering book about the president last year. Black, a Canadian-born citizen of Britain, was found guilty of mail fraud and obstruction in 2007 in a ploy to swindle millions of dollars from investors in his media company. Black served more than three years in prison and was legally barred from re-entering the United States, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. In a statement, the White House praised Black as 'an entrepreneur and scholar,' citing his many published works. It also stated the Supreme Court overturned many of the charges against Black and that several people, including former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Elton John, Rush Limbaugh and William F. Buckley Jr. [Mrs. McC: who is dead] all vouched for Black. However, the statement did not mention Black's book 'Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other,' which praised the president and was published last year. Nor did it mention the many columns Black has written lauding Trump." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Uh, anyone who writes a flattering book about Trump usually would be characterized as a "hack," not a "scholar." But it turns out it's a great get-out-of-jail card (okay, Black was already out of jail), so not a bad idea. ...

... More Fun Facts about Conrad Black. Sophie Weiner of Splinter: Black "is also known -- and we are not making this up -- as Lord Black of Crossharbour. Black formerly ran a company that included major newspapers like the Chicago Sun-Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Jerusalem Post. He was convicted in the U.S. of fraud for stealing millions of dollars from his own business, Hollinger International.... Two of Black's three fraud convictions were already voided, and he was released from prison after serving about half his sentence in May 2010. He was subsequently deported.... 'I was innocent,' he added. 'There was no substance to any of the charges. There never was. The whole thing gradually disintegrated.'" Mrs. McC: Say, aren't you supposed to take responsibility for your bad deeds as a condition of getting a pardon? ...

... Jared's Friend Gets a Pardon, Too! Eli Watkins & Allie Malloy of CNN: "The White House said Trump offered clemency to Patrick Nolan, a former Republican legislator who allied with ... Jared Kushner on prison revisions last year.... Nolan is the director of the Center for Criminal Justice Reform at the American Conservative Union Foundation, and, according to his biography page from that group, he pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge after an FBI sting and spent 29 months in federal custody. The White House said the experience 'changed his life' and formed his later career as a conservative advocate for criminal justice revisions, including with the First Step Act, the criminal justice bill Trump signed into law last year." Mrs. McC: This is kind of sweet: just as in a regular crime family, the Trump family's friends are forgiven for past wrongdoing, as long as the crimes they've committed are not against Trump family members themselves.

Tony Romm & Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "The United States on Wednesday broke with 18 governments and top American tech firms by declining to endorse a New Zealand-led response to the live-streamed shootings at two Christchurch mosques, saying free-speech concerns prevented the White House from formally endorsing the largest campaign to date targeting extremism online. The 'Christchurch Call,' unveiled at an international gathering in Paris, commits foreign countries and tech giants to be more vigilant about the spread of hate on social media. It reflects heightened global frustrations with the inability of Facebook, Google and Twitter to restrain hateful posts, photos and videos that have spawned real-world violence. Leaders from across the globe pledged to counter online extremism, including through new regulation, and to 'encourage media outlets to apply ethical standards when depicting terrorist events online.' Companies including Facebook, Google and Twitter, meanwhile, said they'd work more closely to ensure their sites don't become conduits for terrorism. They also committed to accelerated research and information sharing with governments in the wake of recent terrorist attacks.... White House officials raised concerns that the document might run afoul of the First Amendment." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... That's Rich. Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "'Freedom of the press' is an eyebrow-raising reason for the White House to cite, considering ... Donald Trump's constant rants against' fake news' media and the fact that the White House recently slapped new restrictions on press access." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Sara Fischer of Axios: "The White House launched a tool on Wednesday that will allow any U.S. citizen to submit a complaint if they think they were unfairly censored on social media platforms.... Social media bias has become a major talking point for President Trump and conservatives who argue that Silicon Valley companies are biased against their viewpoints. Skeptics were quick to point out that the online form was not very sophisticated and could be easily gamed by anyone who wanted to troll the administration. For example, the 'captcha' response test used at the end of the survey to determine if the respondent is a bot asks users to type the year the Declaration of Independence was signed. 'I tried it with "1945," it cleared it. You just need to type four numbers,' tweeted Quentin Hardy, head of editorial at Google Cloud.... The online form where users can submit requests also appears to be an email collection mechanism. 'We want to keep you posted on President Trump's fight for free speech,' the form states after a few questions. 'Can we add you to our email newsletters so we can update you without relying on platforms like Facebook and Twitter?'... The White House launched the tool just hours after it broke with more than a dozen world leaders and top technology companies in an international call to action around the rise of online extremism on social platforms."

Capitalism Is Awesome, Especially with Help from Republicans. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "The U.S. aviation system needs urgently to restore the world's confidence after two crashes of Boeing 737 Max jets. Instead, the Trump administration's top aviation official, goaded by some Republican lawmakers, informed the world Wednesday that the problem isn't that Boeing put a faulty aircraft into the skies, nor that the Federal Aviation Administration's lax oversight kept it flying. The trouble, they argued, comes from lousy foreign pilots -- particularly the ones on Ethiopian Airlines and Indonesia's Lion Air who died struggling to pull the Max jets from death plunges.... The acting FAA administrator, Daniel Elwell, [told the House transportation committee] that the problem should have been 'immediately recognizable' to the pilots, but there was 'apparent lack of recognition.' He blamed the Indonesians for failing to disable the system and said the Ethiopian crew 'didn't adhere to the emergency [advisory] we put out' and 'never controlled their air speed.'... [Rep.] Sam Graves [(R-Mo.), the ranking member] rejoined the denunciation. 'I hate to disparage another country and what their pilot training is, but that is what scares me in all of this: climbing on an aircraft or airline that is outside U.S. jurisdiction,' he said. 'It just bothers me that we continue to tear down our system based on what has happened in another country.' Yep. Nothing makes foreigners want to buy Boeing jets like a little jingoism."

The Clueless Electorate. Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "A majority of registered voters believes President Trump is a successful businessman despite recent news reports about significant losses, according to a new Politico/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday. About 54 percent of respondents said they believe Trump has been successful in his business ventures, while 36 percent say he's been unsuccessful. Another 10 percent have no opinion. The results are starkly divided along partisan lines, with 85 percent of Republicans saying Trump is a success while only 30 percent of Democrats agreed. Nearly half, 49 percent, of Independents said Trump is a successful businessman, while 34 percent say he's been unsuccessful. The poll was conducted after the release of a New York Times report showing that Trump reported over $1 billion in losses from 1985 to 1994, citing IRS documents. Trump responded, calling the article 'a highly inaccurate Fake News hit job....'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

In yesterday's commentary, Akhilleus summed up the current state of U.S affairs: "The mad advising the incompetent leading the stupids, all relying on the obsequious."

Presidential Race 2020. Alex Seitz-Wald of NBC News: "New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio will declare his bid for the presidency on Thursday, a campaign spokesperson said Wednesday, joining the almost two dozen other candidates already competing for the Democratic nomination. De Blasio will make the formal announcement Thursday morning and then travel to Iowa and South Carolina for multiple stops over four days. His wife, Chirlane McCray, who has been a highly visible presence and close adviser during his six years at City Hall, will join him for part of the trip." Mrs. McC: Forgive me cynicism, but I'm guess that McCray, who is black, will "join him" on the South Carolina leg of the two-state trip.

Mike Cason of al.com: "Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has signed the bill to make abortion a felony in Alabama, the governor’s office announced." Mrs. McC: Ivey looks like a sweet little ole grandma. Appearances are deceiving. ...

... Kate Riga of TPM: “The Alabama abortion ban sent to the governor's desk Tuesday is even too severe for televangelist Pat Robertson, who called it an 'extreme law.' 'I think Alabama has gone too far, they've passed a law that would give a 99-year prison sentence to those who commit abortions,' he said Wednesday on 'The 700 Club.' 'There's no exception for rape or incest. It's an extreme law and they want to challenge Roe v. Wade, but my humble view is that this is not the case we want to bring to the Supreme Court because I think this one'll lose.'" ...

... BUT. Chip, Chip, Chipping Away. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Abortion rights are at risk at the Supreme Court, but the short-term threat may not come from extreme measures like the one passed by Alabama lawmakers on Tuesday. The court led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is more likely to chip away at the constitutional right to abortion established in 1973 in Roe v. Wade than to overturn it outright. It will have plenty of opportunities to do so. As soon as Monday, the court could announce whether it will hear challenges to three provisions of Indiana abortion laws on issues like the disposal of fetal remains and an 18-hour waiting period after state-mandated ultrasound examinations. The court will in the coming months almost certainly agree to hear a challenge to a Louisiana law that could reduce the number of abortion clinics in the state to one.... Lower courts will almost certainly strike down the Alabama statute and other direct bans on abortion.... The Supreme Court ... can simply deny review after lower courts strike down laws squarely at odds with Roe." ...

... A Modern Horror Story. Julian Borger & Liz Ford of the Guardian: “C-Fam has emerged from the extreme right fringe on the issue of abortion, sexual orientation and gender identity to become a powerful player behind the scenes at the UN. With a modest budget and a six-strong staff led by the president Austin Ruse, it has leveraged connections inside the Trump administration to enforce a rigid orthodoxy on social issues, and helped build a new US coalition with mostly autocratic regimes that share a similar outlook. And that coalition has already significantly shifted the terms of the UN debate on women's and LGBT rights." The details in this story are flabbergasting. This is a hate group. Fer instance, "In 2015, a Catholic priest on the organization's board resigned in protest at Ruse's comment that 'the hard-left human hating people that run modern universities should be taken out and shot.'" Nikki Haley, whom Republicans imagine as the first U.S. female president, seemed to be in lock-step with the group when she was U.N. ambassador. Thanks to safari for the link.

News Lede

New York Times: "I. M. Pei, the Chinese-born American architect who began his long career working for a New York real-estate developer and ended it as one of the most revered architects in the world, has died. He was 102."