The Commentariat -- April 5, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday called on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates and take additional steps to stimulate economic growth, his latest attempt to put the traditionally independent central bank under his thumb. Speaking to reporters before traveling to the southern border, Mr. Trump once again criticized the Fed's interest rate increases in 2018, saying 'they really slowed us down.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is Trump asking the supposedly nonpartisan Fed to help his 2020 campaign.

Priscilla Alvarez, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump is pulling the nomination of Ron Vitiello to lead ICE, saying he wants to go in a 'tougher direction.' 'We're going in a little different direction. Ron's a good man but we're going in a tougher direction....,' Trump told reporters Friday at the White House." Mrs. McC: What? Smaller cages? See related AP story linked below.

Joe DePaolo of Mediaite: "For the third straight year, President Donald Trump says he will skip the White House Correspondents' Dinner. In a pool spray outside the White House Friday ahead of his trip to the U.S.-Mexico border, the President ... [said,] 'I'm going to hold a rally,' Trump said. 'Yeah, because the dinner is so boring and so negative that we're going to hold a very positive rally.'"

Manipulating Trump. Jake Sherman & Anna Palmer in Politico Magazine, in an excerpt from their book: "The lawmakers around Trump who wanted a shutdown knew exactly how to bring the president around to their side: threaten that others might perceive him as weak and push that threat around Capitol Hill and, eventually, all the way to Fox News. It helped to have a man on the inside, too -- in this case, acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. As [confederate crackpot Rep. Mark] Meadows was about to find out, following this playbook was enough to get inside the head of the most powerful man in Washington, and use him to get what Meadows and his allies wanted."

Kevin Granville of the New York Times: "The German carmakers BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen colluded for years to restrict the development of clean-emissions technology, the European Commission said on Friday, a finding that could cost the companies billions of dollars in fines. The collusion occurred from 2006 to 2014 during regular technical meetings at which the carmakers agreed to limit the development and production of emissions technology for cars sold in Europe, the commission said."

~~~~~~~~~~

** Paul Krugman: "Even if he's a one-term president, Trump will have caused, directly or indirectly, the premature deaths of a large number of Americans. Some of those deaths will come at the hands of right-wing, white nationalist extremists.... Some will come from failures of governance, like the inadequate response to Hurricane Maria.... Some will come from the administration's continuing efforts to sabotage Obamacare.... But the biggest death toll is likely to come from Trump's agenda of deregulation.... So if you eat meat -- or, for that matter, drink water or breathe air -- there's a real sense in which Donald Trump is trying to kill you. And even if he's turned out of office next year, for many Americans it will be too late." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump doesn't have to go to Fifth Avenue in broad daylight to shoot someone; he does it every day in the comfort of his taxpayer-provided perch at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Trump Scandals, Ctd.

The Woes of Trump (Are Self-Inflicted). Anita Kumar & Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "It was just last week that ... Donald Trump and his allies euphorically celebrated what they called Trump's exoneration after special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe. The apparent absence of proof that Trump's 2016 campaign conspired with the Kremlin produced talk of a fresh start for Trump's presidency ahead of the 2020 election. But misfortune and mayhem almost immediately began piling up. Trump unleashed two new political crises -- one on health care, one on the Mexican border -- and then retreated on both of them. A brief lull in House Democratic oversight action ended abruptly when House investigators demanded his tax returns. And news reports revealed that Mueller's soon-to-be-released findings may be far more damaging than Attorney General William Barr has publicly indicated, suggesting that the Russia scandal is hardly in the president's rear view window.... Meanwhile..., on Thursday, the House approved a Senate measure cutting off U.S. support for Saudi Arabia's military campaign in Yemen, a plan the White House opposed. (Trump has vowed to veto the measure.) A day before, the House released information that showed Jared Kushner ... was denied a security clearance last year ... [Mrs. McC: but Trump arranged to get him a clearance anyway]. The weekend arrest of a Chinese woman carrying a malware-laced device into Trump's Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, only added to the growing questions about presidential information security."

Inae Oh of Mother Jones: "... Donald Trump on Thursday lashed out [in a tweet] at a New York Times story [linked here yesterday] revealing that several members on ... Robert Mueller's team are apparently dissatisfied with the attorney general's portrayal of their findings.... Trump, without evidence, accused the paper of fabricating its sources. He then repeated his false claim that the Times had previously issued an apology to him for inaccurate and 'very bad' reporting on him. 'The New York Times had no legitimate sources, which would be totally illegal, concerning the Mueller Report. In fact, they probably had no sources at all! They are a Fake News paper who have already been forced to apologize for their incorrect and very bad reporting on me!' In his tweet, the president did not mention the two additional stories -- from the Washington Post [also linked here yesterday] and NBC News [linked below] -- that backed the Times' initial reporting. Those subsequent reports went even further...." ...

... Ken Dilanian, et al., of NBC News: "Three government officials have told NBC News that a dispute within the special counsel's office on the facts and the law was one factor behind Mueller's decision not to make a call on the obstruction question. The lawyers and FBI agents on Mueller's team could not reach an agreement about whether Trump's conduct amounted to a corrupt -- and therefore illegal -- effort to impede the probe, the three officials said.... The official who has spoken to members of Mueller's team says they described the evidence on obstruction as compelling and said it includes more information than has been made public.... At least one faction within the office says their intent was to leave the legal question open for Congress and the public to examine the evidence, the U.S. official who has spoken to them said. It's not clear how Mueller himself feels about the matter.... While Mueller found no coordination or criminal conspiracy, [a senior law enforcement] official said, some on the special counsel's team say his findings paint a picture of a campaign whose members were manipulated by a sophisticated Russian intelligence operation. Some of that information may be classified, the official said, so it's not clear whether it will be released in a few weeks when Barr makes public a redacted version of the Mueller report."

... The Stationery Defense. Zachary Basu of Axios: "In a new statement, Department of Justice spokesperson Kerri Kupec defended Attorney General Bill Barr's letter to Congress summarizing his 'principal conclusions' from the Mueller report, reiterating that it was not an attempt to summarize the report itself. 'Every page of the "confidential report" provided to Attorney General Barr on March 22, 2019 was marked "May Contain Material Protected Under Fed. R. Crim. P. 6(e)" - a law that protects confidential grand jury information - and therefore could not be publicly released.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: That's hilarious. Because the report did contain confidential information, Mueller printed it on what I imagine was stationery (or used a typist's macro) that contains the warning. No doubt all of the DOJ & other federal departments use the same or similar stationery out of an abundance of caution even when there may not be any protected content. Mueller works for Barr; they are reportedly old friends. So in a normal environment (i.e., non-Trumpian), Boss Bill would call Employee Bob & say, "Bob, great report. Say, I want to get out a summary for public consumption ASAP; could you knock one out? ... Oh, it's right here on pages 4, 102, 243 & 389? Excellent. I'll get that right out." ...

Barr's handling of this started out weird; it is now absurd. -- Rachel Maddow, Thursday

... Grace Segers of CBS News: "Rep. Jerry Nadler, the Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr Thursday requesting the public release of summaries of ... Robert Mueller's report prepared by his investigators, as well as all communications between the Justice Department and Mueller's office about the document. The demands come after news reports saying some members of Mueller's team were frustrated with Barr's portrayal of the key findings of the Mueller investigation. 'You have already provided an interpretation of the Special Counsel's conclusions in a fashion that appears to minimize the implications of the report as to the President,' Nadler wrote, referring to Barr's March 24 letter to Congress summarizing Mueller's conclusions. 'Releasing the summaries -- without delay -- would begin to allow the American people to judge the facts for themselves.' Nadler said releasing the summaries is 'no substitute for providing to Congress the complete and unredacted report and underlying evidence,' which he and other Democrats had requested in an earlier letter." ...

     ... ** A pdf of Nadler's letter is here, via his office. It's well-worth reading. ...

... We Spent $30MM & All We Got Was 4 Lousy Pages of Bull. Jack Shafer of Politico: "... we all knew that Mueller's people would wave the flag if Barr's interpretation of their report contradicted their intent. Obviously it has, and all of the players are now scrambling to hit their marks.... By releasing the information in a way that placed it on Page 1, the Muellerites have now signaled that they intend to pressure Barr until he coughs up a more comprehensive account of the report on which they spent 22 months and an estimated $30 million." ...

... Matt Miller in a Politico Magazine opinion piece: "Ever since ... Bill Clinton stepped onto Attorney General Loretta Lynch's plane in June 2016, the Justice Department has found itself in the worst position possible for a nonpolitical law enforcement agency -- that of leading actor in the nation's most hotly contested political dramas.... William Barr's confirmation as [Jeff] Sessions' successor was supposed to provide a reset to those turbulent times.... Instead, Barr's handling of the conclusion of the 22-month long investigation by ... Robert Mueller Russian interference in the 2016 election has thrust a new cloud over the Justice Department and his leadership, one that has grown darker with the reports that some members of the special counsel's team believe he has mischaracterized their findings and needlessly inserted himself into the process.... Barr is now in open warfare with the special counsel's office.... The attorney general's actions raise suspicions about whether he is acting primarily to benefit the president because they don't make sense when viewed through any other lens." ...

... Mimi Rocah of the Daily Beast: "At this point, whatever Barr's intentions -- and I am no longer inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt -- in order to salvage what is left if the integrity of the process, he must immediately release the Mueller-prepared summaries and work with Congress to ensure that the whole report is turned over to Congress, and as much as legally and safely possible to the American public. This is Barr's final chance to salvage his reputation and, more importantly, the integrity of the Justice Department he claims to hold so dear." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "[Wednesday] evening, the Wall Street Journal editorialized that reporters and House Democrats were smearing Attorney General William Barr by implying that his summary of the Mueller report was anything other than completely faithful and representative.... The editorial was published at 7:24 p.m. Minutes before..., the New York Times broke the news that Barr was in fact contradicted.'... The Times, apparently relying on Justice Department sources, reports that Mueller's summaries could not be published, because they 'contain sensitive information....' But the special counsel flatly contradicts this in its leak to the Post. The summaries, says a special counsel source, were deliberately written 'so that the front matter from each section could have been released immediately -- or very quickly ... It was done in a way that minimum redactions, if any, would have been necessary, and the work would have spoken for itself.'... Republican messaging in recent days has made it blindingly obvious the Mueller report is not a document Trump fans would enjoy reading around the fireplace.... Devin Nunes, who has largely directed Trump's defense in Congress and the right-wing media, appeared on Fox News last night and introduced a new term: 'Mueller dossier.'... Nunes nonetheless used the term 'dossier' three times in the span of a minute to describe Mueller's conclusion. He is obviously priming the Trump fan base to disregard adverse findings." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Guardian: "William Barr was invited to meet justice department officials last summer, on the same day he submitted an 'unsolicited' memo that heavily criticized special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into obstruction of justice by Donald Trump. Barr, who was a private attorney at the time, met the officials for lunch three weeks later and was then nominated to serve as Trump's attorney general about six months later. The revelation about the meeting, which was arranged by Steve Engel, the head of the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice, and which has not previously been publicly disclosed, raises new questions about whether the White House's decision to hire Barr was influenced by private discussions he had about his legal views on Mueller's investigation." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: See story below on the appointment of Michael Desmond as IRS chief counsel. The fix was in by February. See also safari's comment at the top of today's Comments thread.

But the Dossier! Jordain Carney of the Hill: Conspiracy theorist "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blocked a resolution calling for special counsel Robert Mueller's report on the Russia probe be made public, marking the fifth time Republicans have blocked the House-passed measure. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, asked for unanimous consent on Thursday to pass the resolution, which cleared the House in a 420-0 vote earlier this year.... Paul objected because Warner wouldn't agree to amend the nonbinding House-passed resolution to include provisions calling for the public release of communications between several Obama-era officials including former President Obama, former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan. Paul argued that Congress still needs to figure out the 'entire story' including the origins of the investigation into President Trump's campaign and a controversial research dossier compiled against then-candidate Trump." ...

... digby: "All these principled libertarians, supposedly suspicious of government power, backing the President of the most powerful nation on earth's self-serving corruption, betrayal and abuse of power either out of hatred for Democrats or blindly clinging to the idea that 'deep state' intelligence and law enforcement are, by definition, evil players in all circumstances. It's ridiculous. Trump has massive power and he's using in ways that are just a[s] threatening to individual freedom as the IC [intelligence community]."

Erica Werner, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House could attempt to block the release of President Trump's tax returns to Democrats, senior officials signaled on Thursday, an unprecedented step that might lead to a constitutional challenge and catapult the issue into federal court. In an indication of how the standoff might escalate, Trump himself suggested that the Justice Department could become involved -- even though Democrats directed their request to the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. 'They'll speak to my lawyers and they'll speak to the attorney general,' Trump said during an unrelated event in the Oval Office when asked about the Democrats' request for six years of his personal and business tax returns.... The 1924 law [on which House Ways & Means Chair Richard Neal (D-Mass.) based his request to the IRS] does not appear to give the White House any input into whether the IRS furnishes an individual's tax returns.... Congressional Republicans have unified in opposition to Neal's request, including Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who also has the legal right to request Trump's tax returns." ...

... Oh, Looky Here. Maggie Haberman & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "President Trump earlier this year asked Senator Mitch McConnell ... to prioritize a confirmation vote for his nominee to be the chief counsel of the Internal Revenue Service, indicating that it was a higher priority than voting on the nomination of William P. Barr as attorney general, a person familiar with the conversation said. White House aides insisted for months that the confirmation of the nominee, Michael J. Desmond, a tax lawyer from Santa Barbara, Calif., was a top priority after passage of the tax bill in 2017. But the request by Mr. Trump, made to Mr. McConnell on Feb. 5, raised questions about whether the president had other motivations. For months, the president has seethed over vows by congressional Democrats that they would move to obtain his tax returns from the I.R.S.... In private practice, Mr. Desmond worked for a time alongside William Nelson and Sheri Dillon, who currently serve as tax counsels to the Trump Organization.... Mr. Desmond was confirmed ... on Feb. 27." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Gosh, I wonder if Desmond will advise IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig -- also a Trump appointee -- not to follow the law & release Trump's returns to Neal. ...

... Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "Three powerful House committee chairs asked Capital One for documents last month related to ... Donald Trump's business empire -- and the financial giant said it was already preserving documents but needs a subpoena in order to comply, according to letters obtained by Politico. The March 11 request from House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) comes amid intensifying congressional scrutiny of the president's financial records and tax returns.... In a March 21 response to the committee leaders, Capital One executive Brent M. Timberlake said the corporation is 'preserving the documents and materials,' but could only turn over the information if the committees issue a subpoena."

But the E-Mails! Kurt Bardella in a USA Today op-ed: "Every single person who lives in this country and claims to care about our national security should be terrified by the idea that people who are trusted with our nation's most sensitive secrets were initially rejected to receive a security clearance. This concern with keeping our secrets safe was one of the primary justifications for the House Republicans' prolonged multiyear investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server and the creation of the Benghazi Select Committee. As someone who spent five years working for Republicans on the House Oversight Committee during the Obama presidency, I can tell you that what Trump has done with these security clearances is a far bigger scandal than 'Hillary's emails,' Benghazi, Fast & Furious, IRS 'targeting' of conservative groups or any of the other so-called scandals Republicans obsessed over under the guise of transparency and security." (Also linked yesterday.)

Zolan Kanno-Youngs, et al., of the New York Times: "The arrest of a Chinese woman who carried a malware-laced device into Mar-a-Lago, President Trump's Florida resort, has exposed porous security at the private club and escalating tensions between Secret Service agents and the resort's staff members, who vet guest lists and allow people onto the sprawling grounds. At times neither side has had full clarity on who was entering Mar-a-Lago. Secret Service agents must rely on club receptionists and other employees to crosscheck visitors, former officials said. Communication breakdowns allow for security breaches.... Some of the Chinese promoters of [Mar-a-Lago] events flaunt their connections to China's ruling Communist Party and the department that promotes its foreign policy abroad, the United Front Work Department.... A former employee who worked at Mar-a-Lago from 2016 to 2018 said that ... people have been caught on the property previously. In one notable example, a woman gained access to the Mar-a-Lago computer system and changed the automatic screen saver to the name of the president, preceded by an expletive, according to the employee.... The president has personally instructed members to pack fund-raisers beyond the ticket limit at Mar-a-Lago, according to one event organizer...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jeremy Herb of CNN: "... Michael Cohen is offering Democrats new information in a bid to stay out of jail while he cooperates with Congress. Cohen's attorneys Lanny Davis and Michael Monico told lawmakers in a letter Thursday that Cohen has discovered substantial files on a hard drive that might be helpful to investigators. Cohen is asking for additional time -- and congressional help -- to persuade the Southern District of New York to allow him to postpone reporting to jail in order to review the files. Cohen's lawyers wrote in the letter, obtained by CNN, they hoped Cohen would receive a reduced term, and that the May 6 date Cohen is scheduled to report to prison 'will be substantially postponed while he is fully cooperating with prosecutors and Congress.'" ...

... Emma Loop, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "Attorneys for Michael Cohen ... submitted documents to lawmakers Thursday night accusing Trump and his team of lawyers of instructing Cohen to lie to Congress about when negotiations ended to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. In a 12-page memo sent to top House Democrats, Cohen's attorneys said Trump 'encouraged Cohen to lie and say all Moscow Tower project contacts ended as of January 31, 2016 using "code" language -- telling Cohen during various conversations that there was "no collusion, no Russian contacts, nothing about Russia" after the start of the campaign.'... The more than 100 pages of documents included with Cohen's memo claim to lay bare a 'conspiracy to collude' with the Russian government during the campaign, along with an array of other crimes by the president. Cohen's memo supports BuzzFeed News's earlier reporting that Cohen told investigators Trump had directed him to lie about the timing of real estate negotiations in Moscow."

Avocados! Adam Gabbatt of the Guardian & agencies: "Donald Trump has scrapped his stated plan to close the border with Mexico, saying instead he would give the country a 'one-year warning' and threatening tariffs on cars. Six days ago Trump said he would close the border this week, unless Mexico 'immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States through our southern border'. But, speaking to reporters [Thursday] afternoon, Trump backtracked on his border closure threat, which had been criticized by advisers and business leaders. 'We're going to give them a one-year warning, and if the drugs don't stop or largely stop, we're going to put tariffs on Mexico and products, particularly cars,' Trump said. 'And if that doesn't stop the drugs, we close the border.... Mexico understands that we're going to close the border or I'm going to tariff the cars. I'll do one or the other. And probably start off with the tariffs,' Trump said. He added later: 'I don't think we'll ever have to close the border because the penalty of tariffs on cars coming into the United States from Mexico, at 25%, will be massive.' It was the latest, seemingly sudden attempt at new leverage by a president struggling to solve what his administration has called a border 'crisis'." ...

     ... Rafi Schwartz of Splinter transcribes more of what Trump had to say on the border "crisis" in a post titled, "Trump Brain Status Update: Cheesy Mashed Potatoes." Mrs. McC: No, Rafi, Gaucamole! ...

... "Insulting Our Allies", Ctd. Alex Daugherty of McClatchy DC: "Florida lawmakers went into damage control mode after President Donald Trump attacked Colombian President Ivan Duque during an off-the-cuff comment about closing the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday. Trump said Duque, the U.S.'s most important ally in the ongoing effort to oust Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, 'has done nothing for us' in combating the flow of illicit drugs.... Duque, who ... has held office for less than a year, was 'quite upset' with Trump's remarks, according to two sources.... Colombia has taken in at least 1.5 million Venezuelan refugees who fled Maduro's regime, and the country is a key staging area for humanitarian aid waiting to enter the country." --s ...

... Marines to Trump: F#ck You. Kate Riga of TPM: "Gen. Robert Neller, the commandant of the Marine Corps, let internal Defense Department memos leak recently to show the damage President Donald Trump's wall obsession is doing to military families and combat readiness. According to a Newsweek report, the unexpected influx of troops and costs at the U.S.-Mexico border, a direct result of Trump's fixation on building a wall, have caused languishing repairs on hurricane-damaged bases and a decline in training exercises. Neller reportedly gave the green light on leaks to NBC News and The LA Times." --s ...

... BUT Trump's Muslim travel ban is working out way better. Thanks, Supremes! ...

Muslims Banned. Yeganeh Torbati of Reuters: "The U.S. government granted waivers to just 6 percent of visa applicants subject to its travel ban on a handful of countries during the first 11 months of the ban, new data reviewed by Reuters shows." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This really is shocking. It's impossible to believe that 94 percent of people applying to visit the U.S. from Muslim-dominant countries are terrorism threats or even that such a high percentage are like to accidentally forever overstay their visa limits. The Trump administration has proved Trump's critics' worst suspicions.

Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "President Trump, despite his own history of buying a porn star's silence and bragging about sexual misconduct, on Thursday leveled another broadside at Joseph R. Biden Jr., tweeting a meme that mocked the former vice president for putting his hands on women's shoulders. The 15-second meme, accompanied by the text 'WELCOME BACK JOE!,' doctored a video that Mr Biden released on Wednesday in which the former vice president explained his history of physical contact with women, some of whom say his behavior made them uncomfortable. Mr. Biden has said he tried to comfort people with hugs, kisses and other physical contact when they appeared nervous." ...

... All the Best People, Ctd.

... Speaking of Serial Sexual Misconduct. Alan Rappaport & Neil Irwin of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Thursday that he planned to nominate Herman Cain, who abandoned his 2012 presidential bid in the face of escalating accusations of sexual misconduct, for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board. Mr. Trump, speaking from the Oval Office, called Mr. Cain, the former chief executive of Godfather's Pizza, 'a truly outstanding individual' and said, 'I've told my folks that's the man.' The decision to consider Mr. Cain is the second time in weeks that the president has floated candidates with deeply held political views and past ethical issues to fill a seat on the Fed, signaling his intent to put allies on a traditionally independent body. It comes as Mr. Trump has continued to attack the Fed and his handpicked chairman, Jerome H. Powell, for raising interest rates in 2018, saying those moves slowed economic growth. Last month, Mr. Trump said he planned to nominate Stephen Moore, a conservative economist who advised his presidential campaign and has become a vocal critic of the central bank's recent rate increases, as a Fed governor." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Moore's ex-wife accused him of 'emotional and psychological abuse" & said she fled their home to escape the abuse. Moore admitted to her allegations. Moore is deeply in arrears on money owed under the terms of the couple's divorce settlement. Aside from being rotten human beings, both Cain & Moore are massively ignorant of responsible fiscal policy. ...

... The Gold Standard. Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "Cain dropped out of the 2012 Republican presidential primary after at least four women accused him of sexual misconduct.... If true, such actions alone would be disqualifying for any major government position.... But they're also hardly the only reasons to object to placing Cain in one of the most important economic jobs in the world. To put it bluntly: When it comes to understanding pretty basic policy issues, Cain isn't able. Most people who remember anything about Cain's brief political career might know him for the '9-9-9' tax rate plan. Unfortunately, neither did that plan have rates that were actually 9 percent nor did it turn out to be particularly strong in its arithmetic.... His documented views on [monetary policy & financial regulation] are just as quack-tastic.... Cain has said -- repeatedly -- that the United States should return to the gold standard. This stance is one [Stephen] Moore has also intermittently espoused, and it has been roundly rejected by actual economic experts. That includes, for instance, every single economist surveyed by the University of Chicago's IGM Economic Experts Panel."

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "A 2017 invoice indicates that David Bernhardt, President Trump's choice to lead the Interior Department, continued to lobby for a major client several months after he filed official papers saying that he had ended his lobbying activities. The bill for Mr. Bernhardt's services, dated March 2017 and labeled 'Federal Lobbying,' shows, along with other documents, Mr. Bernhardt working closely with the Westlands Water District as late as April 2017, the month Mr. Trump nominated him to his current job, deputy interior secretary. In November 2016, Mr. Bernhardt had filed legal notice with the federal government formally ending his status as lobbyist. Westlands, a powerful California agribusiness group, was one of Mr. Bernhardt's main lobbying and legal clients between 2011 and 2016. During that time, Westlands paid Mr. Bernhardt's firm $1.3 million for lobbying services. A New York Times investigation this year revealed how Mr. Bernhardt made it a priority at the Interior Department to promote policies long sought by Westlands...." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Sounds a lot like a certain person who continued to lobby for Trump Moscow Tower months after he said, "I have nothing to do with Russia." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... So Naturally... Ellen Knickmeyer of the AP: "A Senate panel voted Thursday to put a veteran former lobbyist in charge of the Interior Department, despite a last-minute round of intense debate on allegations that he was using his federal position to benefit former industry clients. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted 14-6 to approve David Bernhardt's appointment to oversee the country's public lands and resources. Two Democrats and one independent joined Republicans in voting yes.... Democratic senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico voted with Republicans in approving Bernhardt, as did independent Angus King of Maine.... The vote sends ... Donald Trump's nomination to an as yet unscheduled final vote by the full Senate." (Also linked yesterday.)

Kyla Mandel of ThinkProgress: "Barry Lee Myers..., Donald Trump's controversial nominee to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), moved one step closer to confirmation Wednesday after a Senate committee voted swiftly, with no debate, to advance his nomination.... Should he be confirmed to lead NOAA, his role will involve oversight of the National Weather Service, a conflict of interest ... due to Myers' prior role as chief executive of AccuWeather.... AccuWeather sought to restrict public access to data funded by taxpayers and instead make it available exclusively to private companies that would then use the data in products sold to the public. As a result, people would pay twice for the information, once through taxes and a second time to access it through companies." --s

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yet another of many instances of Trump's appointing the Fox to guard the chickenhouse.

NOT the Best Person? Colleen Long of the AP: "The White House on Thursday withdrew the nomination of a longtime border official to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement..., according to people with knowledge of the move. The paperwork on Ron Vitiello was sent to members of Congress Thursday, the people said, and the decision was unexpected and met with confusion. Vitiello had been scheduled to travel with ... Donald Trump to the border on Friday, but was no longer going, one official said. He will still remain acting director, they said.... He had been acting head since June 2018, nominated in August, had a Senate confirmation hearing in November and his nomination had passed one Senate panel, the people said. But because Homeland Security touches on so many topics, a second committee also had jurisdiction and his nomination was still under discussion there. Some Democrats had concerns, and a union representing some ICE agents had opposed his nomination."

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The top federal ethics watchdog said on Thursday that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's sale of his stake in a film production business to his wife did not comply with federal ethics rules, and it would not certify his 2018 financial disclosure report as a result. Although Mr. Mnuchin will not face penalties for failing to comply, he has been required to rewrite his federal ethics agreement and to promise to recuse himself from government matters that could affect his wife's business."

Guardian: "China has announced it will crack down on all fentanyl-like substances, following US pleas for Beijing to control a drug fuelling a deadly opioid crisis.... China is suspected of being the main source of a powerful painkiller 50 times stronger than heroin that has caused record overdose deaths in the United States. Fentanyl has been tied to already tense bilateral relations, with the US trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, saying he hopes to include China's commitments to curb the drug in any agreement to end the two countries' bitter trade war." --s

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "The House on Thursday gave final passage to a bipartisan resolution forcing an end to United States military involvement in Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen, sending President Trump a pointed rebuke over his continued defense of the kingdom after the killing of a dissident journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. The 247-176 vote, with 16 Republicans joining united Democrats, invoked the rarely used War Powers Act to curb the president's executive power to wage war without congressional approval. It likely sets up the second veto of his presidency, this time to publicly defend a four-year conflict that has killed thousands of civilians and inflicted a devastating famine. The Senate passed a parallel resolution in March, 54 to 46." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Stalker Caucus. Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "The House passed legislation Thursday to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, despite the vast majority of Republicans opposing it amid pressure from the National Rifle Association. The bill, which reauthorizes the landmark 1994 domestic violence law for another five years, easily passed. But 157 Republicans voted against it, along with one Democrat, Rep. Collin Peterson (Minn.). For many of them, it was because the NRA was pushing them to oppose it over its gun safety provisions and warning that a vote in favor of the bill would be reflected in their NRA rating. Under current federal law, only people convicted of domestic violence offenses against spouses or family members can lose their gun rights. The VAWA would add people convicted of abusing their dating partners, closing the so-called 'boyfriend loophole.' It would also prohibit people convicted of misdemeanor stalking offenses from owning or buying firearms, as well as abusers subject to temporary protective orders."

Russell Berman of The Atlantic: "Democrats on Capitol Hill say that ... a small army of whistle-blowers from across the government has been working in secret with the House Oversight Committee to report alleged malfeasance inside the Trump administration.... Committee veterans told me ... that the number of whistle-blowers who've come forward since Trump became president is far higher than the number who cooperated with the panel during previous administrations." --s

Matt Shuham of TPM: "Rep. Don Young (R-AK) on Thursday called reporter Melanie Zanona of Politico to apologize for shoving her earlier in the day, Zanona said on Twitter.... Zanona's update came about two hours after she tweeted that Young 'just physically shoved me and told me to get out of his way "damnit" as I was trying to interview another lawmaker outside the door of the House chamber.'... It's not the first time Young has gotten physical in the halls of Congress. In 2014, he apologized to a congressional staffer after a television producer caught him on tape twisting the staffer's arm.... He also once held a closed knife to the throat of former House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)." --s

Presidential Race 2020
Congressmen Look in Mirror, See President ...

... Axios: "Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), who unsuccessfully tried to knock House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi from her leadership post in 2016, announced his bid for a 2020 presidency online during an appearance on ABC's 'The View.'... As a moderate, midwestern Democrat, Ryan has flipped on several high-pressure partisan issues. He switched from pro-life to pro-choice in 2015, and in 2017, decided to drop NRA funding in response to the organization's refusal to support universal background checks after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Edward-Isaac Dovere of the Atlantic: "... Eric Swalwell..., the California congressman and frequent cable-news guest on all things related to ... Donald Trump and Russia, will announce his presidential plans in an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert." (Also linked yesterday.)

Senate Race 2020. Alabamy-Bound? Scott Wong of the Hill: "Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, one of President Trump's most devoted [Mrs. McC: make that "rabid"] loyalists on Capitol Hill who represents the Florida Panhandle, has told GOP colleagues he is considering moving across the state line to run for the Senate in Alabama in 2020, several House lawmakers told The Hill. Some of those discussions took place as recently as Thursday. The rumor had been bouncing around the Capitol for weeks but took a more serious turn in recent days when Gaetz began privately discussing the idea with fellow lawmakers. 'He's talking about running for Senate in Alabama. They have a one-day residency requirement there,' said a GOP lawmaker who knows Gaetz well. 'POTUS [President of the United States] would probably endorse him.'"

Natalie Kitroeff, et al., of the New York Times: "Boeing dismissed concerns about a powerful new anti-stall system on the 737 Max for months, insisting that pilots could deal with any problems by following a checklist of emergency procedures. Now, the preliminary findings from the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 have cast doubt on whether those instructions were sufficient, adding to the scrutiny over Boeing's and federal regulators' response to two deadly crashes involving the same jet model. The findings, released Thursday in Ethiopia, suggest that the pilots on the Ethiopian Airlines flight initially followed the prescribed procedures after the anti-stall system malfunctioned.... But they could not regain control. About four minutes after the system initially activated, the plane hit the ground at colossal speed, killing all 157 people on board." ...

... Hadra Ahmed, et al., of the New York Times: "... an initial report by Ethiopian investigators..., released Thursday, laid out a timeline of the [doomed Boeing 747 Max 8] flight based on analysis from 18 Ethiopian and international investigators and information from the jet's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder."

Mrs. McCrabbie: The next two stories, each of which shows how a huge private media empire delivers biased information, are disturbing. In a way the Facebook story is worse. We know Rupert's ring-wing outlets & his sleaze tabloids are crap, but we have no way of knowing whether minorities & women are getting equal access to job opportunities. At least back in the day when all newspapers posted two gender-specific help-wanted sections, & employers posted "No Coloreds/Irish/Whoever Need Apply" signs, we knew what was what. (And no, I'm not longing for those good old days.)

"Annals of Journalism", Ctd. Steve M.: "The best [thing] about this long, three-part New York Times Magazine story [linked yesterday] about Rupert Murdoch is that it takes Murdoch seriously as a force in politics -- not as a kingmaker but as a de facto dictator of sorts, and as the man most responsible for the spread of toxic nationalism and white supremacism.... [H]is critics, at least in the U.S. media, have tended to stress his impact on our political discourse.... But Murdoch hasn't just poisoned the news -- he's poisoned nations.... More important is how Murdoch manipulates politics at the highest levels, and to what ends. (Lachlan Murdoch, the son who is now the heir apparent, seems to be Kim Jong Un to Rupert's Kim Jong Il -- as politically extreme as his father if not more so, and at least as ruthless.).... [Rupert]'s been the de facto emperor of most of the English-speaking world for a couple of decades now. I don't know if we'll ever manage to take our countries back." --s

Sam Biddle of The Intercept: "[N]ew research focuses on the second step of advertising on Facebook, the process of ad delivery, rather than on ad targeting. Essentially, the researchers created ads without any demographic target at all and watched where Facebook placed them. The results, said the researchers, were disturbing.... For one portion of the study, researchers ran ads for a wide variety of job listings in North Carolina, from janitors to nurses to lawyers, without any further demographic targeting options. With all other things being equal, the study found that 'Facebook delivered our ads for jobs in the lumber industry to an audience that was 72% white and 90% men, supermarket cashier positions to an audience of 85% women, and jobs with taxi companies to a 75% black audience even though the target audience we specified was identical for all ads.'.... [T]he researchers ... were able to confidently infer these numbers by cross-referencing the indicators Facebook does provide ... which in some states can be cross-referenced with race data held in voter registration records." --s

Craig Timberg & Greg Bensinger of the Washington Post: "Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his ex-wife, MacKenzie Bezos, announced a divorce settlement Thursday that will leave him with 75 percent of their Amazon stock and voting power over all of the Amazon voting shares the couple own together. The announcement from the Bezoses -- coming in a tweet from MacKenzie that was retweeted by Jeff -- settled a closely watched matter of corporate governance affecting one of the world's richest companies, with a market capitalization of $890 billion, and the world's wealthiest person. The record divorce settlement, which also awards Jeff Bezos all of the couple's joint holdings in The Washington Post and a space flight company, Blue Origin, is likely to remove uncertainty around the extent of his continued control over Amazon -- a company he founded in 1994 and for which he remains chief executive and its largest shareholder. He will have sole voting power over the shares the two once jointly controlled, which together amount to 16 percent of Amazon&r's total shares. They were married 25 years and have four children."

Elizabeth Dias of the New York Times: "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced a remarkable reversal to its policies on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people on Thursday. The decision rolls back a 2015 policy that barred children living with same-sex couples from important religious practices like baby-naming ceremonies and baptisms. That policy also declared that church members in same-sex marriages were apostates and subject to excommunication." Mrs. McC: Progress??? (Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

U.K. Heather Stewart & Daniel Boffey of the Guardian: PM "Theresa May has written to [European Council President] Donald Tusk to ask for Brexit to be delayed until 30 June while she battles to win cross-party agreement on a way forward. Rather than the year-long flexible extension to article 50 recommended by the European council president, the prime minister suggested 30 June as the new departure date, but with an option to leave earlier if the necessary legislation has been passed. That is the same date requested by the government last month but rejected by EU leaders in Brussels. Unless a new date is signed off at an emergency EU summit on Wednesday, Britain is due to leave without a deal on 12 April." ...

... David Herszenhorn of Politico: "Britain can have another year to think on Brexit -- provided it joins the European Parliament election next month, a senior EU official said. European Council President Donald Tusk raised the idea after hours of meetings and consultations Thursday to plan for next week's summit of EU leaders.... It is still unclear whether all EU27 leaders will go along with Tusk's 'flextension' proposal without resistance, though it's unlikely he would float the idea without some confidence." Mrs. McC: This development is covered way down the page in the Guardian story linked above. ...

... Robert Mackey of The Intercept: "Tensions over Brexit, and warnings of a backlash from nationalists if it does not happen soon, have rekindled fears of political violence in Britain. The threat seemed acute on Wednesday, as video of British soldiers using a photograph of opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn for target practice appeared on Snapchat, and the trial of a neo-Nazi who planned to assassinate a pro-European member of Parliament ended.... Th primary stumbling block over Brexit has been concern that it could reignite violence in Northern Ireland by effectively repartitioning Ireland with customs and immigration checks along the British-imposed border that divides the island in two." --s

News Lede

New York Times: "After a lackluster performance in February, the job market bounced back in March. February's number of new jobs was also revised upward, to 33,000 from 20,000.... 196,000 jobs were added last month, a rebound from the February report. Economic analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected a gain of about 170,000 jobs in March. It was the 102nd straight month of job gains. The Labor Department also revised the jobs numbers for January and February. February's weak report of 20,000 jobs was revised upward to 33,000. January's number was raised by 1,000 jobs, to 312,000."

The Commentariat -- April 4, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "The House on Thursday gave final passage to a bipartisan resolution forcing an end to United States military involvement in Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen, sending President Trump a pointed rebuke over his continued defense of the kingdom after the killing of a dissident journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. The 247-176 vote, with 16 Republicans joining united Democrats, invoked the rarely used War Powers Act to curb the president's executive power to wage war without congressional approval. It likely sets up the second veto of his presidency, this time to publicly defend a four-year conflict that has killed thousands of civilians and inflicted a devastating famine. The Senate passed a parallel resolution in March, 54 to 46."

Zolan Kanno-Youngs, et al., of the New York Times: "The arrest of a Chinese woman who carried a malware-laced device into Mar-a-Lago, President Trump's Florida resort, has exposed porous security at the private club and escalating tensions between Secret Service agents and the resort's staff members, who vet guest lists and allow people onto the sprawling grounds. At times neither side has had full clarity on who was entering Mar-a-Lago. Secret Service agents must rely on club receptionists and other employees to crosscheck visitors, former officials said. Communication breakdowns allow for security breaches.... Some of the Chinese promoters of [Mar-a-Lago] events flaunt their connections to China's ruling Communist Party and the department that promotes its foreign policy abroad, the United Front Work Department.... A former employee who worked at Mar-a-Lago from 2016 to 2018 said that ... people have been caught on the property previously. In one notable example, a woman gained access to the Mar-a-Lago computer system and changed the automatic screen saver to the name of the president, preceded by an expletive, according to the employee.... The president has personally instructed members to pack fund-raisers beyond the ticket limit at Mar-a-Lago, according to one event organizer...."

All the Best People, Ctd. Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "A 2017 invoice indicates that David Bernhardt, President Trump's choice to lead the Interior Department, continued to lobby for a major client several months after he filed official papers saying that he had ended his lobbying activities. The bill for Mr. Bernhardt's services, dated March 2017 and labeled 'Federal Lobbying,' shows, along with other documents, Mr. Bernhardt working closely with the Westlands Water District as late as April 2017, the month Mr. Trump nominated him to his current job, deputy interior secretary. In November 2016, Mr. Bernhardt had filed legal notice with the federal government formally ending his status as lobbyist. Westlands, a powerful California agribusiness group, was one of Mr. Bernhardt's main lobbying and legal clients between 2011 and 2016. During that time, Westlands paid Mr. Bernhardt's firm $1.3 million for lobbying services. A New York Times investigation this year revealed how Mr. Bernhardt made it a priority at the Interior Department to promote policies long sought by Westlands, including a weakening of Endangered Species Act protections for an imperiled fish."” ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Sounds a lot like a certain person who continued to lobby for Trump Moscow Tower months after he said, "I have nothing to do with Russia." ...

... So Naturally... Ellen Knickmeyer of the AP: "A Senate panel voted Thursday to put a veteran former lobbyist in charge of the Interior Department, despite a last-minute round of intense debate on allegations that he was using his federal position to benefit former industry clients. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted 14-6 to approve David Bernhardt's appointment to oversee the country's public lands and resources. Two Democrats and one independent joined Republicans in voting yes.... Democratic senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico voted with Republicans in approving Bernhardt, as did independent Angus King of Maine.... The vote sends ... Donald Trump's nomination to an as yet unscheduled final vote by the full Senate."

Elizabeth Dias of the New York Times: "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced a remarkable reversal to its policies on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people on Thursday. The decision rolls back a 2015 policy that barred children living with same-sex couples from important religious practices like baby-naming ceremonies and baptisms. That policy also declared that church members in same-sex marriages were apostates and subject to excommunication." Mrs. McC: Progress???

The Stationery Defense. Zachary Basu of Axios: "In a new statement, Department of Justice spokesperson Kerri Kupec defended Attorney General Bill Barr's letter to Congress summarizing his 'principal conclusions' from the Mueller report, reiterating that it was not an attempt to summarize the report itself. 'Every page of the "confidential report" provided to Attorney General Barr on March 22, 2019 was marked "May Contain Material Protected Under Fed. R. Crim. P. 6(e)" - a law that protects confidential grand jury information - and therefore could not be publicly released.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: That's hilarious. Because the report did contain confidential information, Mueller printed it on what I imagine was stationery (or used a typist's macro) that contains the warning. No doubt all of the DOJ & other federal departments use the same or similar stationery out of an abundance of caution even when there may not be any protected content. Mueller works for Barr; they are reportedly old friends. So in a normal environment (i.e., non-Trumpian), Boss Bill would call Employee Bob & say, "Bob, great report. Say, I want to get out a summary for public consumption ASAP; could you knock one out? ... Oh, it's right here on pages 4, 102, 243 & 389? Excellent. I'll get that right out."

Jonathan Chait: "Last evening, the Wall Street Journal editorialized that reporters and House Democrats were smearing Attorney General William Barr by implying that his summary of the Mueller report was anything other than completely faithful and representative.... The editorial was published at 7:24 p.m. Minutes before..., the New York Times broke the news that Barr was in fact contradicted.'... The Times, apparently relying on Justice Department sources, reports that Mueller's summaries could not be published, because they 'contain sensitive information....' But the special counsel flatly contradicts this in its leak to the Post. The summaries, says a special counsel source, were deliberately written 'so that the front matter from each section could have been released immediately -- or very quickly ... It was done in a way that minimum redactions, if any, would have been necessary, and the work would have spoken for itself.'... Republican messaging in recent days has made it blindingly obvious the Mueller report is not a document Trump fans would enjoy reading around the fireplace.... Devin Nunes, who has largely directed Trump's defense in Congress and the right-wing media, appeared on Fox News last night and introduced a new term: 'Mueller dossier.'... Nunes nonetheless used the term 'dossier' three times in the span of a minute to describe Mueller's conclusion. He is obviously priming the Trump fan base to disregard adverse findings."

But the E-Mails! Kurt Bardella in a USA Today op-ed: "Every single person who lives in this country and claims to care about our national security should be terrified by the idea that people who are trusted with our nation's most sensitive secrets were initially rejected to receive a security clearance. This concern with keeping our secrets safe was one of the primary justifications for the House Republicans' prolonged multiyear investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server and the creation of the Benghazi Select Committee. As someone who spent five years working for Republicans on the House Oversight Committee during the Obama presidency, I can tell you that what Trump has done with these security clearances is a far bigger scandal than 'Hillary's emails,' Benghazi, Fast & Furious, IRS 'targeting' of conservative groups or any of the other so-called scandals Republicans obsessed over under the guise of transparency and security."

Congressmen Look in Mirror, See President ...

... Axios: "Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), who unsuccessfully tried to knock House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi from her leadership post in 2016, announced his bid for a 2020 presidency online during an appearance on ABC's 'The View.'... As a moderate, midwestern Democrat, Ryan has flipped on several high-pressure partisan issues. He switched from pro-life to pro-choice in 2015, and in 2017, decided to drop NRA funding in response to the organization's refusal to support universal background checks after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting."...

... Edward-Isaac Dovere of the Atlantic: "... Eric Swalwell..., the California congressman and frequent cable-news guest on all things related to ... Donald Trump and Russia, will announce his presidential plans in an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert."

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trump Scandals, Ctd. -- Low Barr Edition

** Whitewash! Nicholas Fandos, et al., of the New York Times: "Some of Robert S. Mueller III's investigators have told associates that Attorney General William P. Barr failed to adequately portray the findings of their inquiry and that they were more troubling for President Trump than Mr. Barr indicated, according to government officials and others familiar with their simmering frustrations.... Some members of Mr. Mueller's team are concerned that, because Mr. Barr created the first narrative of the special counsel's findings, Americans' views will have hardened before the investigation's conclusions become public.... The special counsel's investigators had already written multiple summaries of the report, and some team members believe that Mr. Barr should have included more of their material in the four-page letter he wrote on March 24 laying out their main conclusions.... The special counsel's office never asked Mr. Barr to release the summaries soon after he received the report, a person familiar with the investigation said.... The report is believed to examine Mr. Trump's efforts to thwart the investigation.... Mr. Barr and other Justice Department officials believe the special counsel's investigators fell short of their task by declining to decide whether Mr. Trump illegally obstructed the inquiry...." ...

... Coverup! Ellen Nakashima, et al., of the Washington Post: "... members of Mueller's team have complained to close associates that the evidence they gathered on obstruction was alarming and significant.... Some members of the office were particularly disappointed that Barr did not release summary information the special counsel team had prepared.... Summaries were prepared for different sections of the report, with a view that they could made public, the official said. The report was prepared 'so that the front matter from each section could have been released immediately -- or very quickly,' the official said. 'It was done in a way that minimum redactions, if any, would have been necessary, and the work would have spoken for itself.' Mueller's team assumed the information was going to be made available to the public, the official said, 'and so they prepared their summaries to be shared in their own words -- and not in the attorney general's summary of their work, as turned out to be the case.'" Emphasis added. ...

... Kevin Drum: "Apparently Barr's team says that even the summaries contain classified information and have to be scrubbed. I doubt there's very much of that, and anyway, the whole point of a summary is that it's short. That means it can be scrubbed quickly even if it does have some classified bits and pieces. So why are even the summaries being held up while the entire report is reviewed? It's almost as if Barr just isn't very eager to let the public know what's in there." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Drum wrote the above before publication of the WashPo report. I imagine he based his assumption on this from the NYT report: "And the Justice Department quickly determined that the summaries contain sensitive information, like classified material, secret grand-jury testimony and information related to current federal investigations that must remain confidential, according to two government officials." If the WashPo report is correct, the "two government officials" at the DOJ lied thru their teeth to credulous Times reporters. Quelle surprise! ...

     ... What with Mueller's own summaries of his report sitting on Barr's desk, who decided Barr would scrap them & write his on fake summary? Barr? Rosenstein? Trump? I said a while back I thought Barr should be impeached for obstruction. I was half-kidding then. But Wednesday's reports suggest I was on the right track. ...

     ... And another thing. Though the leaks to the NYT & WashPo are two times removed from Mueller -- (2) friends of (1) prosecutors -- it's hard not to believe that the first leaks our of the Mueller team in nearly two years were at least wink-wink-authorized "at the highest level." ...

     ... Also, too, I don't think we can be sure the Mueller report even clears Trump & campaign staffers of "collusion." Barr wrote in his non-summary summary, "... the report states: '[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.'" But, as the brackets indicate, this is the second part of a full sentence. What if the predicate is something like, "Although investigators uncovered a great deal of circumstantial evidence pointing to coordination between Trump associates and Russian state operatives, the investigation did not establish...."

They are a bunch of sneaky, unethical leakers. And they are rabid Democrats who hate the president of United States. I am absolutely confident that the report will bear out the conclusions. The conclusions: no obstruction, no Russian collusion of any kind. It will bear that out. -- Rudy Giuliani, on Fox "News" Wednesday night

... Brian Beutler of Crooked: "What are they hiding?... After briefly pretending to support complete transparency, based on a dishonest assertion that Mueller had exonerated him, Trump has backpedaled almost all the way. He has even suggested that the Justice Department should shelve the Mueller report, and ignore congressional demands for any further disclosure.... The Justice Department now rests behind the view that presidential campaigns can partner tacitly with hostile foreign intelligence services to sabotage their opponents, then try to conceal the relationship, and face no legal consequences for it. What that really means in practice is that Trump and future Republican candidates, contemptuous of the rule-based international order, can undermine U.S. sovereignty to get themselves elected by encouraging authoritarian regimes to play in our campaigns, and do so with complete impunity."

Morgan Chalfont of the Hill: "The House Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday to authorize a subpoena to compel the Justice Department to hand over special counsel Robert Mueller's full report [with no redactions] to Congress. The committee voted 24-17 to approve a resolution authorizing subpoenas for Mueller's report, including accompanying exhibits and other attachments, as well as its underlying evidence at a business meeting Wednesday morning. The Justice Department did not comply with an April 2 deadline set by six Democrats chairing committees in the House for sending the full Mueller report to Congress." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Nicholas Fandos: "The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, using a little-known provision in the federal tax code, formally requested on Wednesday that the I.R.S. hand over six years of President Trump's personal and business tax returns, starting what is likely to be a momentous fight with his administration. Representative Richard E. Neal, Democrat of Massachusetts, hand-delivered a two-page letter laying out the request to Charles P. Rettig, the Internal Revenue Service commissioner, ending months of speculation about when he would do so and almost certainly prompting a legal challenge from the Trump administration. Responding to questions from reporters in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump suggested that he would fight the request because, he said, he was being audited. 'I guess when you have a name, you are audited, but until such time as I'm not under audit I would not be inclined to do that,' he said. The move by Mr. Neal came as other panels controlled by House Democrats were flexing their muscles." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: In public testimony, Michael Cohen cast doubt on Trump's audit claim. In addition, the IRS does not prohibit publication of a return under audit. In any event, it appears Trump has no say in the matter. According to Fandos' report:

     ... "Mr. Neal ... is invoking an authority enshrined in the tax code granted only to the tax-writing committees in Congress that gives the chairmen of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee the power to request tax information on any filer.... The provision, which dates in some form to the Teapot Dome scandal of Warren G. Harding's administration, at least on its face gives the Trump administration little room to decline a request like Mr. Neal's. It only says that the Treasury secretary 'shall' furnish the information." According to Rachel Maddow, there's plenty of precedent for Ways & Means to obtain tax returns of presidents under the law. ...

     ... Update: If The IRS was not auditing Trump's returns in 2016, he might be accidentally telling the truth about their being audited now. According to a statement from Rep. Neal's office, "The IRS has a policy of auditing the tax returns of all sitting presidents and vice-presidents....."

... Here's a pdf of Neal's letter to the IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, via Neal's office.

"Senior White House Official 1." Tom Hamburger, et al., of the Washington Post: "The senior White House official whose security clearance was denied last year because of concerns about foreign influence, private business interests and personal conduct is presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, according to people familiar with documents and testimony provided to the House Oversight Committee. Kushner was identified only as 'Senior White House Official 1' in committee documents released this week describing the testimony of Tricia Newbold, a whistleblower in the White House's personnel security office who said she and another career employee determined that Kushner had too many 'significant disqualifying factors' to receive a clearance. Their decision was overruled by Carl Kline, the political appointee who then headed the office, according to Newbold's interview with committee staff.... Last year, President Trump directed his then-chief of staff, John F. Kelly, to give Kushner a top-secret security clearance, despite concerns expressed by career intelligence officers.... Kushner's legal team issued a statement in February saying that 'White House and security clearance officials affirmed that Mr. Kushner's security clearance was handled in the regular process with no pressure from anyone.'"

Jay Weaver, et al., of the Miami Herald: "Federal authorities are investigating possible Chinese intelligence operations targeting ... Donald Trump and his private Palm Beach club, Mar-a-Lago.... The federal counterintelligence probe was turbo-charged on Saturday when U.S. Secret Service agents arrested a Chinese woman, Yujing Zhang, after they said she tried to enter the club with a bevy of electronic devices, including a thumb drive infected with 'malicious malware.' The ongoing investigation has also recently focused on Li 'Cindy' Yang, the sources told the Herald. Yang is a South Florida massage parlor entrepreneur who has promoted events at Mar-a-Lago with ads targeting Chinese business executives hoping to gain access to Trump and his family. The investigation -- spearheaded by the FBI -- began before the Herald revealed Yang' business of selling access last month and focused on other Chinese nationals doing business in the region.... Now, investigators with the FBI Counterintelligence Division in South Florida are trying to figure out who Zhang is, whether she is involved in a possible Chinese intelligence mission and whether there are links to Yang's social events at Trump's Mar-a-Lago."...

... What Could Possibly Go Wrong? David Fahrenthold, et al., of the Washington Post: Donald Trump's "decision -- to use his Palm Beach, Fla., club as both a presidential retreat and a moneymaking resort -- brings hundreds of members, overnight guests and partygoing strangers into the president's 'Winter White House' every weekend. To protect the president, that requires the Secret Service to screen hundreds of would-be visitors against preapproved lists. But to protect his business, it has also required the Secret Service to defer to Mar-a-Lago staffers and allow in some visitors who are not on the list. Last weekend, that complex system of lists and exceptions broke down.... On Wednesday, three top Senate Democrats asked FBI Director Christopher A. Wray to investigate whether foreign spies could exploit weaknesses at Mar-a-Lago to steal classified information.... Said another White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity..., 'You pay and you get in.'... 'Usually it's the Mar-a-Lago people that are giving the go-ahead,' said one person familiar with the property.... The Secret Service confirmed as much.... 'The Mar-a-Lago Club's management determines which members and guests are granted access to the property,' the agency said.... Intelligence officials have said, a foreign spy might find Mar-a-Lago a gold mine -- even if the spy never laid eyes on Trump. The club is full of Trump's friends, aides and hangers-on; it could be bugged, or its computers hacked...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So here national security is likely compromised here because millions of Americans thought it was a good idea to pick a greedy bastard as president. On the other hand, as the White-Supremacist-in-Chief said Tuesday, his primary concern is protecting Americans -- uh, from non-white poor people seeking asylum.

Amy Russo of the Huffington Post: "... former FBI Director James Comey said he remains troubled by his potential role in the rise of Donald Trump, questioning the impact of the bureau's investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails. In October 2016, just one month before Election Day, Comey reopened a probe into then-candidate Clinton's use of a private server to conduct government business when she was secretary of state, meaning she may have violated security regulations. The scandal tarnished her reputation and indelibly marked her campaign.... Two days before the election, Comey announced that the FBI stood by its previous conclusion that Clinton committed no criminal acts. 'I hope we had no impact ... but all it does is increase the pain,' he told Amanpour. [BUT WAIT!] 'It doesn't change how I think about the decision.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Get that? Hope I didn't, but if I did, I still did the right thing.

Brianne Pfannenstiel of the Des Moines Register: "Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley -- a champion of the wind energy tax credit -- said ... Donald Trump's comments that wind turbines cause cancer were 'idiotic' in a call with reporters Wednesday.... Speaking at a Republican fundraiser Tuesday night, Trump ... [said,] 'If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value... And they say the noise causes cancer....' There is no evidence showing the sound from wind turbines causes cancer. Iowa is a national leader in wind energy, and it was the first state to generate more than 30 percent of its electricity through wind power, according to the Iowa Environmental Council."

Jennifer Rubin: Donald Trump "is increasingly incoherent.... Even when attempting to defend himself, he emits spurts of disconnected thoughts.... If you had a relative who spoke [the] way [Trump does], you would urge him to get checked out or advise him to slow down (although Trump's schedule, with its hours of 'executive time,' is already lighter than the schedules of many retirees).... Collectively, we need to stop treating his conduct as normal. Politicians should start saying aloud what we all intuitively understand: Trump is unraveling before our eyes. There is reason to be concerned about how he'll make it through the rest of his term. Giving him another four years is unimaginable." Emphasis original. ...

      ... Rubin writes a good summary of Trump's "decisions" on ObamaCare over the past week or so: "Even Republicans realize that his decisions are more erratic and illogical than ever. He doubled down on his intention to invalidate the Affordable Care Act in the courts, then insisted he had a terrific replacement, next said he would assign others to figure out the plan and take a vote before the 2020 election, and finally declared that they would vote on such a (nonexistent) bill after the 2020 election. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was compelled to stage an intervention...." Mrs. McC BTW: Trump then claimed it was his idea to ditch the nonexistent replacement bill till after the election; in fact, "his idea" came at Mitch's insistence.

All the Best People, Ctd. Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "The Interior Department's Office of Inspector General is reviewing allegations that acting secretary David Bernhardt may have violated his ethics pledge by weighing in on issues affecting a former client, the office confirmed Tuesday. The move comes as the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is preparing to vote Thursday on whether to confirm Bernhardt as the next interior secretary, after which his nomination is expected to advance to the Senate floor. At least two outside groups and two Democratic senators asked the agency watchdog to look into Bernhardt's effort to weaken protections for imperiled fish species and to expand California farmers' access to water, even though he once lobbied on behalf of a massive agricultural water district that stood to benefit from the changes." (Also linked yesterday.)

Oink Oink. Be Careful What You Eat. Kimberly Kindy of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration plans to shift much of the power and responsibility for food safety inspections in hog plants to the pork industry as early as May, cutting the number of federal inspectors by about 40 percent and replacing them with plant employees. Under the proposed new inspection system, the responsibility for identifying diseased and contaminated pork would be shared with plant employees, whose training would be at the discretion of plant owners. There would be no limits on slaughter-line speeds. The new pork inspection system would accelerate the federal government's move toward delegating inspections to the livestock industry. During the Obama administration, poultry plant owners were given more power over safety inspections, although that administration canceled plans to increase line speeds. The Trump administration in September allowed some poultry plants to increase line speeds." Mrs. McC: Come back, Upton Sinclair. (Also linked yesterday.)

Mitch Goes Nuclear. Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "For the third time in six years, the majority party in the Senate detonated the so-called nuclear option on Wednesday to unilaterally change years-old rules of the chamber with a simple-majority vote. This time, to work through a backlog of President Trump's judicial and administration nominations, Republicans cut the time between ending debate and a final confirmation vote on executive-branch nominees and district court judges from 30 hours to two. The change was a provocative step that reignited a bitter partisan fight over presidential nominations that has raged for a decade and spanned presidencies from both parties. Democrats dwelled at length over the blockade that stopped Judge Merrick B. Garland from ascending to the Supreme Court in the final year of Barack Obama's presidency to angrily question how Republicans could complain about the handling of Mr. Trump's nominees. 'There's no other word but "hypocrisy,"' said Senator Chuck Schumer [D-NY]...." ...

... Dana Milbank: “... Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), in his latest move to seize power by dismantling the chamber's centuries-old safeguards, was about to push through another vote to break another rule. But first he gave a speech blaming the other side.... McConnell has now significantly escalated, reducing the right to delay consideration of judicial or low-level executive nominees to two hours from the current 30. It's clearly just a matter of time -- a few years, perhaps -- until this leads to the complete abolition of the filibuster for everything, including legislation. This will further destabilize a federal government that has suffered many such blows during the past two years.... He did it even though the Senate has confirmed more appellate-level judges for Trump than for any president during his first two years in office going back to at least Harry S. Truman.... He assured his Republican colleagues that 'I don't think anybody ought to be seized with guilt over any institutional damage being done to the United States Senate.' McConnell then read out a 42-word parliamentary maneuver that jettisoned 213 years of wisdom."

Presidential Race 2020

Elise Viebeck, et al., of the Washington Post: "Former vice president Joe Biden promised on Wednesday to adjust his physical behavior toward women, an effort to quell controversy over whether his intimate style is appropriate in the era of the #MeToo movement. Biden addressed critics in a video posted to Twitter as three additional women told The Washington Post on Wednesday about encounters with him that made them feel uncomfortable. Their stories bring the total number of people who have expressed concerns about alleged interactions with Biden to seven. Other women defended Biden, who has been seen by many women as an advocate for them.... In a party energized by millennials, women and people of color, Biden has faced criticism over a host of positions and decisions from his nearly five decades in public life, including his handling of Anita Hill's testimony during Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's confirmation hearing. Even on Wednesday, as Biden acknowledged shifting social norms and promised to be 'more respectful of people's personal space,' he defended his style of interacting and did not offer an apology." ...

While Sen. [Mazie] Hirono [D-Hawaii] was talking to reporters about Joe Biden's video and policy, a male senator walked up, put his hands on a reporter's shoulders and told Hirono she didn't have to talk. Hirono said she wanted to talk and could defend herself, thank you very much. -- Natalie Andrews of the Wall Street Journal, in a tweet Wednesday

C'mon, Natalie. Name that male senator. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

David Kerley & Jeffrey Cook of ABC News: "The Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX, which crashed in March and killed 157 people, suffered a damaged angle-of-attack sensor upon takeoff from a bird or foreign object, triggering erroneous data and the activation an anti-stall system -- called MCAS -- sending the pitch of the plane downward and ultimately crashing into the ground, two aviation sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News.As the jet was nose diving, the Boeing 737 MAX pilots did not try to electronically pull the nose of the plane up before following Boeing's emergency procedures of disengaging power to the horizontal stabilizer on the rear of the aircraft, according to the sources. One source told ABC News that they manually attempted to bring the nose of the plane back up by using the trim wheel. Soon after, the pilots restored power to the horizontal stabilizer. With power restored, the MCAS was re-engaged..., and the pilots were unable to regain control and the plane crashed. The preliminary findings in the crash investigation are expected to be released by transportation officials in Ethiopia on Thursday morning."

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Jonathan Mahler & Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times take a really long, three-part dive into Rupert Murdoch's ignominious career. The first part linked here, links to the second & third parts. The first part has quite a bit about the Murdoch family's relationship with Trump & Co.

Beyond the Beltway

Tennessee. Doha Madani of NBC News: "A Tennessee social justice center that has hosted iconic civil rights leaders was destroyed in a fire and a 'white power' symbol was found on the site, the center said. The symbol, which officials did not describe but said was connected to the white power movement, was discovered after the main office was completely destroyed in a fire last week, the Highlander Research and Education Center said in a news release Tuesday. It was spray-painted on the parking lot connected to the main office. No one was hurt in Friday's blaze." (Also linked yesterday.)

Texas. Jake Bleiberg of the AP: "Texas prisons will no longer allow clergy in the death chamber after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the scheduled execution of a man who argued his religious freedom would be violated if his Buddhist spiritual adviser couldn't accompany him. Effective immediately, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice will only permit prison security staff into the death chamber, a spokesman said Wednesday. The policy change comes in response to the high court's ruling staying the execution of Patrick Murphy, a member of the 'Texas 7' gang of escaped prisoners. Texas previously allowed state-employed clergy to accompany inmates into the execution chamber, but its prison staff included only Christian and Muslim clerics. In light of this policy, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Texas couldn't move forward with Murphy's punishment unless his Buddhist adviser or another Buddhist reverend of the state's choosing accompanying him."

The Commentariat -- April 3, 2019

Late Morning Update:

Morgan Chalfont of the Hill: "The House Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday to authorize a subpoena to compel the Justice Department to hand over special counsel Robert Mueller's full report [with no redactions] to Congress. The committee voted 24-17 to approve a resolution authorizing subpoenas for Mueller's report, including accompanying exhibits and other attachments, as well as its underlying evidence at a business meeting Wednesday morning. The Justice Department did not comply with an April 2 deadline set by six Democrats chairing committees in the House for sending the full Mueller report to Congress."

All the Best People, Ctd. Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "The Interior Department's Office of Inspector General is reviewing allegations that acting secretary David Bernhardt may have violated his ethics pledge by weighing in on issues affecting a former client, the office confirmed Tuesday. The move comes as the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is preparing to vote Thursday on whether to confirm Bernhardt as the next interior secretary, after which his nomination is expected to advance to the Senate floor. At least two outside groups and two Democratic senators asked the agency watchdog to look into Bernhardt's effort to weaken protections for imperiled fish species and to expand California farmers' access to water, even though he once lobbied on behalf of a massive agricultural water district that stood to benefit from the changes."

Oink Oink. Be Careful What You Eat. Kimberly Kindy of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration plans to shift much of the power and responsibility for food safety inspections in hog plants to the pork industry as early as May, cutting the number of federal inspectors by about 40 percent and replacing them with plant employees. Under the proposed new inspection system, the responsibility for identifying diseased and contaminated pork would be shared with plant employees, whose training would be at the discretion of plant owners. There would be no limits on slaughter-line speeds. The new pork inspection system would accelerate the federal government's move toward delegating inspections to the livestock industry. During the Obama administration, poultry plant owners were given more power over safety inspections, although that administration canceled plans to increase line speeds. The Trump administration in September allowed some poultry plants to increase line speeds." Mrs. McC: Come back, Upton Sinclair.

Doha Madani of NBC News: "A Tennessee social justice center that has hosted iconic civil rights leaders was destroyed in a fire and a 'white power' symbol was found on the site, the center said. The symbol, which officials did not describe but said was connected to the white power movement, was discovered after the main office was completely destroyed in a fire last week, the Highlander Research and Education Center said in a news release Tuesday. It was spray-painted on the parking lot connected to the main office. No one was hurt in Friday's blaze."

Amy Russo of the Huffington Post: "... former FBI Director James Comey said he remains troubled by his potential role in the rise of Donald Trump, questioning the impact of the bureau's investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails. In October 2016, just one month before Election Day, Comey reopened a probe into then-candidate Clinton's use of a private server to conduct government business when she was secretary of state, meaning she may have violated security regulations. The scandal tarnished her reputation and indelibly marked her campaign.... Two days before the election, Comey announced that the FBI stood by its previous conclusion that Clinton committed no criminal acts. 'I hope we had no impact ... but all it does is increase the pain," he [said].... [BUT WAIT!] 'It doesn't change how I think about the decision.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Get that? Hope I didn't, but if I did, I still did the right thing.

~~~~~~~~~~

"The Party of Health Care"? Never Mind. Eileen Sullivan & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump announced that Republicans would not present a health care overhaul proposal until after the 2020 election, punting on coming up with a replacement for the Affordable Care Act, which the administration is currently fighting in court to invalidate. The issue now will dominate presidential campaigns in the months leading up to the 2020 election.... It was not immediately clear on Tuesday what the Trump administration would do if courts ruled in favor of abolishing the health care system established by President Barack Obama. Last week, the Trump administration broadened its war on the health care law by arguing that the entire Affordable Care Act should be invalidated." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The "plan," as usual, is to invalidate ObamaCare & replace it with nothing. This has been the plan all along, but this seems to be the most overt declaration of that intention since the 2018 elections. ...

     ... Update: McConnell Burst a Trump Bubble. John Wagner & Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "President Trump abandoned plans to press for a vote on a bill to replace the Affordable Care Act ahead of next year's elections following a conversation with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican said Tuesday. McConnell told reporters that he and Trump had 'a good conversation' Monday afternoon in which he said that Senate Republicans had no intention of trying to overhaul President Obama's signature health-care law during a campaign season-- a move many in the GOP saw as politically perilous, given that the issue helped Democrats in last year's midterm elections. 'I made it clear to him we were not going to be doing that in the Senate,' McConnell said, also pointing out the difficulty in crafting a bill that could pass the Democratic-led House. 'We don't have a misunderstanding about that.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... BUT. Dahlia Lithwick of Slate thinks the "plan" is actually a conscious "strategy": "Donald Trump is now hoping that his kryptonite -- the courts -- will save his presidency.... He has taken a position against Obamacare in court that he apparently expects to lose, so he can blame someone else for his failure to repeal and replace the health care law.... Reporting last week from the New York Times revealed that the decision to support the legal fight for a wholesale repeal came at the urging of Trump's acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.... The whole thing proved a massive unforced error.... Republicans quickly flew into a full-blown political panic about the reversal.... On Monday night ... Trump tweet[ed] that he is backing off the whole ACA replacement plan until after the 2020 election, at which time he will present us all with a 'really great' health care plan built of the stuff that made Trump Steaks and Trump University so very great. Further, at least according to Axios, Trump was telling people behind closed doors that he believed the Texas suit would fail. It seems he wanted to back the failing lawsuit because it would be good 'branding' for him to oppose Obamacare as part of his 2020 reelection bid. So, Trump's plan, it seems, is that either the ACA is struck down by the federal courts, making the total breakdown of America's health care system the courts' fault, or that it is upheld by the courts, so he could blame the judiciary for his own failure to fulfill his promise to repeal and replace Obamacare. Either way, Trump, personally, would be off the hook."

CBS News: "President Trump reiterated a threat to close the U.S.-Mexico border after a meeting at the White House on Tuesday, saying he stands ready to take drastic action if the country doesn't do more to curb illegal immigration.... Along with a list of frustrations over immigration, however, Mr. Trump included immigration judges. U.S. immigration court backlogs are at all-time highs, with not enough judges to adjudicate the cases. That problem was exacerbated by the government shutdown earlier this year. 'We need to get rid of chain migration, we need to get rid of catch and release and visa lottery, and we have to do something about asylum. And to be honest with you, have to get rid of judges,' Mr. Trump said in his laundry list of frustrations with the U.S. immigration system." ...

... Stupid Presidunce Tricks, Ctd. Courtiers Coddle the Boy King. Nancy Cook & Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "... Donald Trump's senior economic aides are scrambling to impress upon him the potentially dire economic costs of his threat to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border, according to two people familiar with the matter. Both Kevin Hassett and Larry Kudlow, the president's top economic advisers, have shared papers and data with Trump over the last 36 hours, illustrating the way economic growth could slow down even if the president shut down the border for just one day -- not to mention the effect on the flow of goods, raw materials and the U.S. supply chain. Inside the White House, officials frantically spent the day searching for ways to limit the economic impact of shuttering the border.... Publicly, Republican leaders expressed their own dismay at the threats, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called potentially 'catastrophic.' But Trump did not seem swayed. 'Sure, it will have a negative effect on the economy,' Trump told reporters ... on Tuesday afternoon. 'But to me, trading is very important, the borders are very important, but security is what is most important. I mean, we have to have security.'" ...

... Chris Isidore of CNN: "The entire US auto industry would shut down within a week if ... Donald Trump goes through with his pledge to close the US-Mexican border, according to a leading expert on the industry. That's because every automaker operating an auto plant in the United States depends on parts imported from Mexico, said Kristin Dziczek ... of the Center for Automotive Research. About 16% of all auto parts used in the United States, both at assembly plants and sold at auto parts stores, originate in Mexico. Virtually all car models in America have Mexican parts, she said. Because of that reliance, she said the auto industry would stop producing vehicles relatively quickly." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jill Colvin & Colleen Long of the AP: "... Donald Trump eased up Tuesday on his threats to shut the southern border this week as officials across his administration explored half-measures that might satisfy the president's urge for action, like stopping only foot traffic at certain crossings.... While Trump on Tuesday did not back off the idea completely, he said he was pleased with steps Mexico had taken in recent days and renewed his calls for Congress to make changes he contends would solve the problem.... Mexican officials announced Monday they'd pulled 338 Central American migrants -- 181 adults and 157 children -- off five passenger buses in a southern state that borders Guatemala, and said they had detained 15 possible smugglers on immigration law violations. But that was not unusual for Mexico, which has for years been cracking down on migration.... Meantime, administration officials grappled with how they might minimize the impact of a shutdown or implement less sweeping actions."

Puerto Rico got 91 Billion Dollars for the hurricane, more money than has ever been gotten for a hurricane before, & all their local politicians do is complain & ask for more money. The pols are grossly incompetent, spend the money foolishly or corruptly, & only take from USA.... -- Donald Trump, in a tweet this morning ...

The $91BB payout is a giant lie (see Tim Elfrink's WashPo story, linked yesterday), & Puerto Rico is "USA"; ergo, it can't "take from USA." -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie, writing for the real world ...

... Daily Beast: "In an explosive interview on MSNBC Tuesday morning, White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley referred to Puerto Rico as 'that country' twice -- even though the island has been a U.S. territory for over 120 years. The mis-identification came while Gidley was defending Trump's Tuesday morning tweetstorm slamming Puerto Rico and its need for 'too much money' after the devastating Hurricane Maria in 2017.... Trump 'says Puerto Ricans are taking from the USA,' [host Hallie] Jackson responded. 'Puerto Rico is part of the United States. People who live in Puerto Rico are U.S. Citizens. You're rolling your eyes and I don't know why you're rolling your eyes.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Trump wants journalists to look into the oranges (not a typo) of the Mueller investigation:

     ... Seated beside Trump, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who is not a native English speaker, deserves the poker-faced prize. ...

... Fruit Salad. Akhilleus (in today's thread): "The 'oranges' of the Russian investigation is that you are president, Donald. And you were helped into the White House by an adversarial foreign power. Thus, we needed to look at anything that apples to that. There was a lot of liming going on about the whole thing, from you and yours, an a-pear-ance of possible collusion, with you plum smack in the middle trying to berry everything, which caused a less than cherry outlook for most of America, raisin even more questions. This is not a grape time in The country, and you are the cause. You are the melon-oma on the face of America. So if you're looking for oranges, find a mirror" ...

... There's Something Wrong with Trump's "Very Good Brain." Aaron Rupar of Vox: "During an Oval Office event with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday afternoon..., Donald Trump either lied or got confused about where his father was born, admitted that closing the border with Mexico will be economically harmful to the US (but threatened to do it anyway), pushed a baseless conspiracy theory, and repeatedly struggled to say the word 'origins.' Oh, and he urged Congress to 'get rid of judges' who are making it harder for his administration to summarily deport migrants -- a position in tension with the idea that the United States is a nation of checks and balances that respects the rule of law. Even by Trump's standards, it was a troubling performance.... Trump's comments [on the border closing] were a complete reversal from last Friday, when he mistakenly argued that closing the border 'will be a profit-making operation' because of the US's trade deficit with Mexico."

MoveOnDotTrump. Jonathan Chait: "In the immediate wake of Robert Mueller's announcement that he has not established a criminal conspiracy between Russia and Donald Trump, the jovial president declared he would be happy to display the entire report before the public. 'Let it come out. Let people see it -- that's up to the attorney general,' he said. But over the last few days, the administration's position on full disclosure has grown quieter. Meanwhile, periodic murmurs have suggested perhaps the report will amount to something other than total vindication.... [Tuesday] morning, Trump tweeted, "There is no amount of testimony or document production that can satisfy Jerry Nadler or Shifty Adam Schiff. It is now time to focus exclusively on properly running our great Country!' [Tuesday], White House press secretary Sarah Sanders answered a question about the Mueller report by calling Democrats 'sore losers' who need to move on. Trump is now calling demands to release the report a 'disgrace' and a 'waste of time.'... Maybe, just maybe, the Mueller report is less flattering than William Barr's topline summary indicated?"

Rebecca Shabad & Heidi Przybyla of NBC News: "The House Oversight Committee voted Tuesday to issue subpoenas seeking information on both the White House security clearance process and on the process that led to the administration's decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. The panel, led by Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., voted along party lines 22-15 on a resolution to subpoena the testimony of former White House personnel security director Carl Kline to discuss the security clearance process at the White House." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... How to Give an Interview & Say Nothing. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner on Monday dismissed concerns raised by a whistleblower about the White House's security clearance process, saying President Trump's administration has faced 'a lot of crazy accusations' during the past two years.... Kushner, who Trump ultimately demanded be granted a permanent top-secret clearance despite concerns of intelligence officials, told Fox host Laura Ingraham that he 'can't comment for the White House's process.'... During the Fox News interview, Ingraham noted that [long-time White House security advisor Tricia] Newbold had said she has 'grave concerns' about the security-clearance process and asked Kushner if he poses a 'grave national security concern to the country.' Kushner laughed and said: 'Look, I can say that in the White House I work with some phenomenal people and I think over the last two years the president's done a phenomenal job of identifying what are our national security priorities. He's had a great team in place that are helping implement it, and I hope I've played a good part in pushing those objectives forward.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mar-a-Lago's Loose Security. Frances Robles of the New York Times: "A 32-year-old woman from China carrying four cellphones and a thumb drive infected with malware gained access to Mar-a-Lago during President Trump's visit to the Florida resort over the weekend, federal court records show.... She was allowed to enter by Secret Service agents stationed outside the resort after the Mar-a-Lago security manager on duty verified that her last name matched the surname of a member of the club, according to a complaint filed in federal district court in South Florida. Once inside, according to the account filed with the court, the woman said she was there to attend a United Nations Chinese American Association event later in the evening. But no such event existed, according to the complaint, so the club receptionist alerted the Secret Service.... Don Mihalek, executive vice president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, which represents the Secret Service, said ... the fact that Secret Service agents apparently relied on the determination by a Mar-a-Lago security agent that [Yujing] Zhang was related to a member of the club -- simply because she shared the member's last name -- was problematic." Mrs. McC: No kidding. ...

... Sarah Blaskey, et al., of the Miami Herald: "... In both years prior to Charlottesville, Mar-a-Lago hosted 33 events, according to the Herald's analysis of the Palm Beach Daily News' social events calendar. It dropped to 10 events in the season after Charlottesville.... [Into that vacuum came] Li 'Cindy' Yang, an Asian-themed day-spa magnate.... She helped promote the cobbled-together replacement galas, selling them online as opportunities for Chinese businessmen to gain face time with the Trump family.... 'What's different here is that the president and his family have a direct financial interest in putting on these events,' said Jeffrey Prescott, a former National Security Council aide in the Obama administration and a senior fellow at the Penn Biden Center.... Through his private estate, the president has profited from Yang's many guests, who attended Mar-a-Lago events that charged hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of dollars for tickets.... Yang has maintained that she has no allegiance to the Chinese government. But [her major "bundler," Charles] Lee's travel packages were explicitly intended to promote Chinese President Xi Jinping's 2015 business diplomacy agenda." Read on. Yang has quite a scam going. ...

... David Corn, et al., of Mother Jones: Yujing "Zhang's alleged attempt to enter Mar-a-Lago coincided with an event that had been scheduled that night and that also had been promoted by Cindy Yang's company, GY US Investments, which claimed to be able to provide opportunities to 'interact' with 'the president, the [American] Ministe of Commerce, and other political figures.'... According to the affidavit, [Yujing] Zhang 'claimed her Chinese friend "Charles" told her to travel from Shanghai, China to Palm Beach, Florida to attend this event and attempt to speak with a member of the President's family about Chinese and American foreign economic relations.'... Zhang's arrest again raises the question of whether there is a national security problem at Mar-a-Lago. Democrats in Congress sent a letter to the FBI on March 15 requesting 'criminal and counterintelligence investigations' into Yang for 'unlawful foreign lobbying, campaign finance and other activities by Ms. Yang.'"

A Strange Trump Lie. Cristal Hayes of USA Today: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday falsely stated his father was born in Germany -- the fourth time the president has made such a claim in less than a year. His father, Fred Trump, was born and raised in New York. The issue came up again on Tuesday when the president was discussing NATO and Germany needing to pay more as part of the alliance during a White House event with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The meeting took place amid tensions over Trump's attacks on the alliance, especially his claims that some countries don't contribute enough to mutual defense. 'I mean, Germany, honestly, is not paying their fair share. I have great respect for Angela and I have great respect for their country,' the president said of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. 'My father is German. Right? Was German. And born in a very wonderful place in Germany, and so I have a great feeling for Germany.'"

A Strange Trump Health Theory. Jonathan Chait: "President Trump has long despised wind power. He has repeatedly blamed wind turbines for killing birds (which they do at a lower rate than other energy sources) and for allegedly causing electrical power to halt when the wind stops blowing (in fact, electricity grids using mixed power sources and battery storage have solved this problem.) In a speech tonight to House Republicans, Trump claimed that wind turbines cause cancer. 'They say the noise causes cancer,' the president of the United States asserted. Wind turbines do not cause cancer.... A power source that does cause many health problems, including cancer, is coal, an extremely dirty fuel Trump loves and has attempted to bolster, with almost no success Aside from costing more to produce energy than other sources of power, and in addition to enormous air pollution side effects, coal also emits greenhouse gases in large amounts. Though this of course is another aspect of science Trump rejects." ...

     ... At the end of his post, Chait does point out that sometimes Trump's peculiar fears are warranted: "'Someone's gonna leak this whole damn speech to the media,' Trump worried aloud. It was a valid fear, given that reporters were in the room and C-SPAN cameras were covering the speech live."

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "The House Oversight and Reform Committee voted Tuesday to authorize subpoenas to compel Trump administration officials to provide documents related to the addition of a citizenship question on the 2020 census. The committee voted 23-14 along mostly party lines to approve three separate subpoenas, ratcheting up the panel's legal fight with the administration. Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) joined Democrats in authorizing the subpoenas, which will allow committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) to seek testimony and unredacted information about the controversial change to the decennial survey. One subpoena is aimed at securing testimony from Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Gore. A second subpoena is to compel Attorney General William Barr to turn over a memo to Gore from James Uthmeier, general counsel to the Department of Commerce, in fall 2017. It also would demand any Department of Justice communications about the citizenship question with the White House, the Republican National Committee, the Trump campaign or members of Congress. The third subpoena is targeted toward Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and seeks unredacted copies of several documents and internal communications related to the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Melanie Zanona & John Bresnahan of Politico: "Republican Rep. Mark Walker has been caught up in a federal corruption probe that has rocked the North Carolina Republican Party and led to the indictment of former congressman Robin Hayes (R-N.C.). A Walker-controlled political committee received $150,000 from a business owner, Greg Lindberg, at the same time Lindberg allegedly asked him to pressure North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey to replace his deputy, according to criminal indictment unsealed on Tuesday. Walker, a member of GOP leadership, is not named in the indictment. However, Politico has identified him as 'Public Official A'.... The Justice Department announced indictments of four individuals Tuesday on charges of public corruption and bribery, including Lindberg and Hayes, the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party until earlier this week. Lindberg and two of his associates allegedly tried to bribe Causey, who was working with federal authorities and not charged in the probe, to oust North Carolina Department of Insurance's senior deputy commissioner. Lindberg allegedly sought more favorable treatment of his company in the state."

Presidential Race 2020

Sheryl Stolberg & Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "... the political ground has shifted under [Joe] Biden, and his tactile style of retail politicking is no longer a laughing matter in the era of #MeToo. Now, as he considers a run for president, Mr. Biden is struggling to prevent a strength from turning into a crippling liability; on Tuesday alone, two more women told The New York Times that the former vice president's touches made them uncomfortable. For Mr. Biden, 76, the risks are obvious: the accusations feed into a narrative that he is a relic of the past, unsuited to represent his party in the modern era, against an incumbent president whose treatment of women should be a central line of attack.... As if on cue, the president went after Mr. Biden at a fund-raiser in Washington on Tuesday night. Cracking a joke about asking for a kiss, Mr. Trump said, 'I felt like Joe Biden.'... Caitlyn Caruso, a former college student and sexual assault survivor, said Mr. Biden rested his hand on her thigh -- even as she squirmed in her seat to show her discomfort -- and hugged her 'just a little bit too long' at an event on sexual assault at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She was 19.... D. J. Hill, 59, a writer who recalled meeting Mr. Biden in 2012 at a fund-raising event in Minneapolis, said that when she and her husband, Robert, stepped up to take their photograph with the vice president, he put his hand on her shoulder and then started dropping it down her back, which made her 'very uncomfortable.'"

Zachary Basu of Axios: "2020 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders announced Tuesday that he has raised $18.2 million from more than 900,000 individual donations since launching his campaign on Feb. 19. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Party of Drumpf. Alexander Burns & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "... power struggles [within the Republican party infrastructure] have now been resolved in a one-sided fashion. In every state important to the 2020 race, Mr. Trump and his lieutenants are in firm control of the Republican electoral machinery, and they are taking steps to extend and tighten their grip. It is, in every institutional sense, Mr. Trump's party. As Mr. Trump has prepared to embark on a difficult fight for re-election, a small but ferocious operation within his campaign has helped install loyal allies atop the most significant state parties and urged them to speak up loudly to discourage conservative criticism of Mr. Trump."

Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC: "April 2 marks Equal Pay Day, our annual reminder that women's pay is not in fact equal to men's. Not nearly: Women make about 80 cents to a man's dollar. That's a wage gap of nearly 20 percent, and unfortunately, at the rate we're going, it will take nearly 41 years -- until 2059 -- to achieve parity. For Hispanic women it won't happen until 2224, and for black women, it's 2119." Mrs. McC: That is, women, on average, have worked three months into 2019 to receive the same pay men, on average, made in 2018. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jean Chatzky of NBC News: "Black women earn 63 cents for every dollar that men do, Native American women earn 58 cents and Hispanic women make just 54 cents." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Anna North of Vox: "But matters are actually worse than any of these numbers would suggest, according to a 2018 report by the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR), a think tank that looks at public policy through the lens of gender. Measures of the pay gap typically compare the wages of men and women working full time in a given year, as Emily Peck notes at HuffPost. But women are more likely to drop out of full-time work to take care of children or other family members. To account for this, the report's authors looked at women's earnings across a 15-year period, and compared those with men's. What they found was a pay gap nearly twice as big as what's traditionally reported: averaged out over 15 years, women made just 49 cents for every dollar men made." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Illinois. Bill Ruthhart of the Chicago Tribune: "Lori Lightfoot won a resounding victory Tuesday night to become both the first African-American woman and openly gay person elected mayor of Chicago, dealing a stinging defeat to a political establishment that has reigned over City Hall for decades. After waging a campaign focused on upending the vaunted Chicago political machine, Lightfoot dismantled one of its major cogs by dispatching Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, whose candidacy had been hobbled in part by an anti-incumbent mood among voters and an ongoing federal corruption investigation at City Hall."

Pennsylvania. Reid Wilson of the Hill: "A Democratic Navy veteran who served in former President George W. Bush's Department of Veterans Affairs on Tuesday won a special election to fill a state Senate seat in suburban Pittsburgh, a district President Trump won in 2016. Pam Iovino will represent the state Senate district that covers parts of Allegheny and Washington counties after she beat out D. Raja, a businessman who chairs the Allegheny County Republican Party."