The Commentariat -- August 27, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Breaking News @ 4 pm ET Monday. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "After flying at half-staff for barely a day in tribute to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), U.S. flags at the White House and many other federal properties were raised Monday morning, sparking criticism that President Trump was not properly honoring the senator. He reversed that decision Monday afternoon. 'Despite our differences on policy and politics, I respect Senator John McCain's service to our country and, in his honor, have signed a proclamation to fly the flag of the United States at half-staff until the day of his interment,' Trump said in a statement. This story is developing and will be updated." ...

...As Benjamin Hart of New York pointed out, the White House's lowering the flag Monday morning also violated the U.S. flag code.

When is a deal not a deal? When Trump tweets this: A big deal looking good with Mexico!

... Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "The United States and Mexico have reached agreement to revise key portions of the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement and a preliminary deal could be announced on Monday, a crucial step toward revamping a trade pact that has appeared on the brink of collapse during the past year of negotiations. Reaching an agreement on how to revise some of the most contentious portions of what President Trump has long called the worst trade pact in history would give Mr. Trump a significant win in a trade war he has started with countries around the globe.... Still, a preliminary agreement between the United States and Mexico would fall far short of actually revising Nafta. The preliminary agreement still excludes Canada, which is also a party to Nafta but has been absent from talks held in Washington in recent weeks. The agreement with Mexico centers on rules governing the automobile industry, resolving a big source of friction, but leaves aside other contentious issues that affect all three countries. The revised Nafta would also need congressional approval before it can go into effect, including votes by Republican lawmakers who have criticized some of the president's plans for remaking the deal."

Chico Harlan, et al., of the Washington Post: "A former Vatican ambassador to the United States has alleged in an 11-page letter that Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis -- among other top Catholic Church officials -- had been aware of sexual misconduct allegations against former D.C. archbishop Cardinal Theodore McCarrick years before he resigned this summer.... Speaking to reporters on the papal plane while returning [from Ireland] to Rome, Francis declined to address the claims but said the letter 'speaks for itself.' 'I read the statement this morning and, sincerely, I must say this to you and anyone interested: Read that statement attentively and make your own judgment,' Francis told reporters, according to the Catholic News Service. Asked when he first learned of allegations about McCarrick, Francis declined to comment. 'This is a part of the statement on McCarrick. Study it, and then I'll speak,' the pope said, according to Crux, another Catholic outlet."

Russell Berman of the Atlantic on the McCain-Trump feud that Trump started. ...

... Franklin Foer of the Atlantic: McCain had a history of making mistakes, owning up to them & rectifying them. "One of John McCain’s mistakes, which he would belatedly rectify, was a relationship with the just-convicted lobbyist Paul Manafort.... At the same time as [McCain] sincerely railed against influence-peddlers ... his inner circle contained the very forces he decried. One of these loyalists was the man who eventually managed his campaign in the 2008 presidential race, Rick Davis. For nearly a decade, Davis was the named partner in Paul Manafort's lobbying firm, Davis, Manafort.... Manafort ... hoped to leverage his relationship with Rick Davis to enrich himself.... Davis Manafort's most prized client in 2006 was the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, one of the richest men in the world.... [The] story [of McCain & Deripaska] is fully told in an outstanding investigative piece, published by The Nation.... Manafort lobbied desperately to become manager of the Republican National Convention [of 2008].... But McCain didn't want any further association with Manafort, so he denied him the job.... All the evidence for rejecting Paul Manafort as a man of dubious character was amply available in 2008 -- and McCain acted upon it."

*****

Donald Trump -- Even Worse than You Thought. Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump nixed issuing a statement that praised the heroism and life of Sen. John McCain, telling senior aides he preferred to issue a tweet before posting one Saturday night that did not include any kind words for the late Arizona Republican.... 'My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you!' Trump posted Saturday evening shortly after McCain's death was announced. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and other White House aides advocated for an official statement that gave the decorated Vietnam War POW plaudits for his military and Senate service and called him a 'hero,' according to current and former White House aides, who requested anonymity.... The original statement was drafted before McCain died Saturday, and Sanders and others edited a final version this weekend that was ready for the president, the aides said. But Trump told aides he wanted to post a brief tweet instead, and the statement praising McCain's life was not released." ...

... Margaret Hartmann: "... it did not go unnoticed that the president offered no kind words about [John McCain], and memorialized him on Instagram with a photo of himself[.]... All three GOP candidates in the race to replace Arizona's other senator, Jeff Flake, have embraced Trump and distanced themselves from McCain. Representative Martha McSally, the front-runner, had avoided mentioning McCain while campaigning, but offered kind words in recent days. However, her opponent Kelli Ward ... mused in a Facebook post that his announcement about discontinuing treatment was timed to distract from the kickoff of her statewide bus tour. [More on the lovely Dr. Ward linked under Congressional Races below.] Similarly, after tweeting his well wishes to the McCains, Joe Arpaio lashed out at Cindy McCain for blocking him on Twitter.... Living presidents and first ladies usually make a show of unity when a prominent political figure dies, and McCain made it clear he wants that tradition to continue, without Trump. He asked that the two men who defeated him in his quest for the presidency -- George W. Bush and Barack Obama -- deliver eulogies." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I believe in showing respect to the recently-deceased, even if I didn't much do so when they were alive. Their grieving families have enough to handle without having to read cheap criticism of their loved ones. If I'm still around when Trump dies, I'll make an exception for him. I hope you'll do the same. He is cruel in life, and we all should return the favor on the day he dies. ...

... digby: "There was no way this deranged cretin could rise above personal feelings to lead the nation.... As McCain's friend John Weaver said, 'if we heard something today or tomorrow from Trump, we know it'd mean less than a degree from Trump University.'" ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Even all-around jerk Dan Scavino, Trump's former golf caddy & current White House social media director, has more class than the boss. BTW, according to a commenter on Scavino's Twitter feed, the flag atop the White House is back at full mast now that Trump is back in residence. Traditionally, flags stay at half-mast until the honored person is buried. ...

     ... Update. Joseph Lyons of Bustle confirms the commenter's account: "Flags in Washington D.C. remain at half-staff in honor of the late Sen. John McCain -- or at least some of them do. In what is being seen as another potential slight to McCain, the White House flags were raised back to full-staff on Monday morning, Aug. 27. That puts the White House at odds with not only recent precedent but also the U.S. Capitol, where flags continue to fly at half-mast."

Trump Plays "Find the Collusion." So Funny. Julie Davis of the New York Times: "... Mr. Trump, a president facing the most serious of threats, has sought to minimize and trivialize what is happening in and around his White House, and in the process, to desensitize his supporters to grave charges.... It's a way of mocking what is in fact a serious allegation, of muddying the waters of what is a clear-cut question that Mr. Mueller is working to answer.... If the issues looming over his presidency are a kind of game, then perhaps voters will consider themselves nothing more than popcorn-munching spectators in a drama, rather than people deeply invested in the outcome." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, if only Bill Clinton had told some dick jokes, we would not have had to go through that impeachment thing. Back in the day, it was late-night comedians who trivialized Clinton's bad behavior; today it's comedians like Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers & Trevor Noah who inform the public on what's happening & the POTUS* & his Party of Craven Opportunists who downplay it.

Trump Has a Problem Bigger than Bob Mueller. Noah Feldman of Bloomberg: "Trump is now facing a two-front war against the Justice Department. The team led by special counsel Robert Mueller is supposed to focus on Russian interference in the 2016 election. But the Southern District can investigate any aspect of Trump's behavior that took place in its jurisdiction, at any time. And unlike Mueller, who could in principle be fired, the Southern District isn't one man; it's a whole office of career lawyers. It can't be fired. Even if Robert Khuzami, the acting U.S. attorney in this case, were removed, no new U.S. attorney could realistically call off the prosecutors.... It remains to be seen how far the Southern District will go. But its opening salvo -- [Michael] Cohen's statement against the president ... made in consultation with the Southern District prosecutors ... -- already went further than any part of the Justice Department has gone since Richard Nixon's administration." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Alan Dershowitz Agrees. Feliciz Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Trump should be more worried about federal prosecutors in New York than about the Russia probe led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, retired Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz said Sunday. Dershowitz, an informal Trump adviser, said in an appearance on ABC News's 'This Week' that the expanding probe by prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York could spell the greatest peril for Trump because of the lack of constitutional protections for the president at that level. 'I think he has constitutional defenses to the investigation being conducted by Mueller,' Dershowitz said. 'But there are no constitutional defenses to what the Southern District is investigating. So, I think the Southern District is the greatest threat.'... 'Look, my advice to the president --; I never gave it to him privately because I'm not his lawyer, but on television -- is: Don't fire, don't pardon, don't tweet and don't testify. And if he listened to those four things, he'd be in less trouble than he is today,' Dershowitz said."

Tom Hamburger & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "An attorney for Michael Cohen ... is backing away from confident assertions he made that Cohen has information to share with investigators that shows Trump knew in 2016 of Russian efforts to undermine Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Lanny Davis, a spokesman and attorney for Cohen, said in an interview this weekend that he is no longer certain about claims he made to reporters on background and on the record in recent weeks about what Cohen knows about Trump's awareness of the Russian efforts. Davis did not rule out that his claims were correct but expressed regret that he did not explain that he could not independently corroborate them, saying that he now believes he 'should have been more clear.'... The information in the Post story, which was attributed to one person familiar with discussions among Cohen's friends, came from Davis, who is now acknowledging his role on the record.... 'Michaels Cohen's attorney clarified the record, saying his client does not know if President Trump knew about the Trump Tower meeting (out of which came nothing!),' Trump tweeted Saturday. 'The answer is that I did NOT know about the meeting. Just another phony story by the Fake News Media!'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: No, the original stories were not "phony" & the media outlets that reported them are not "fake." If a credible source (like an attorney representing the supposed speaker) makes a statement, on or off the record, then it is responsible, not "phony" or "fake," to report that information, as long as the reporters indicate -- as they did -- that the information is a statement of fact by a source, not a statement of fact. Today's Post report demonstrates that Lanny Davis is unreliable, not that the Post (& CNN) were. I have no idea if Trump understands the difference, but you should.

Jeannie Gersen of the New Yorker: Michael Cohen's statement to the court "made clear that he engaged in this conduct in order to influence the Presidential election.... But ... Cohen's confession of a criminal motive does not necessarily establish Trump's. In fact, a lifetime habit of behaving sleazily may very well help the President.... This is presumably why Rudy Giuliani, Trump's current lawyer, has suggested, since May, that there was a 'longstanding agreement' that Cohen 'takes care of situations like this, then gets paid for them sometimes.' What would seem like a puzzling admission is likely part of a legal strategy to make the payments from 2016 seem indistinguishable from those that Trump has made for reasons other than winning an election." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Commentators seem to be forgetting this WSJ story (open in private window) of August 16, 2018: "Michael Cohen initially balked at the idea of buying the silence of a former adult-film star who says she had sex with Donald Trump, but he did an about-face after a video of Mr. Trump talking about groping women became public in October 2016. A day after the recording surfaced of outtakes of Mr. Trump speaking to a host of NBC's 'Access Hollywood,' Mr. Cohen, then Mr. Trump's senior counsel, told a representative for the performer that he was open to a deal, according to a person familiar with the conversation.... Mr. Cohen had resisted paying [Stephanie] Clifford when it was floated in September 2016, the person said. Federal prosecutors in New York view the 'Access Hollywood' tape as a trigger that spurred Mr. Cohen to bury potentially damaging information about his boss...." The conversations re: Clifford are not laid out in the criminal Information that accompanied Cohen's plea deal, but the "catch and kill" arrangement to deal with negative stories "during the course of the campaign," made in August 2015, between David Pecker & Cohen/Trump/Trump campaign is. Assuming the SDNY has some documentation to back up the assertions in the WSJ story & the Information, it's pretty clear that the payments to Clifford & Karen McDougal were related not to protecting Melanie but to protecting Donald from more public scrutiny of his extramarital relationships.

Presidents Behaving Badly -- But Not as Badly as Trump. Jill Lepore of the New Yorker: In 1974, at the request of John Dohr, the special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, the historian C. Van Woodward & a team of historians quickly pulled together a compendium of presidential malfeasance, from the dawn of the republic to Richard Nixon. Nixon, Woodward concluded, was worse than all the rest. BUT "These days, even Nixon's underhandedness begins to look upstanding. William McFeely, now eighty-seven, and retired from the University of Georgia, covered Andrew Johnson and [Ulysses] Grant. 'I think Nixon was pretty bad, but I think that even he had a respect for the Constitution, and for a constitutional sense of the value of the Presidency,' McFeely says. 'Trump trounces on those.'... Trump has already done some of [Nixon's bad deeds] -- not secretly but publicly, gleefully, and without consequence -- and is under investigation for more."

Yvonne Sanchez of the Arizona Republic: Arizona "Gov. Doug Ducey [R] will wait to name a successor to John McCain until after the late senator has been buried at the U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery in Maryland, an aide to the governor told The Arizona Republic on Saturday.... Ducey is required by law to appoint a Republican to fill McCain's seat, and he understands it is viewed as the most consequential decision he has faced. McCain's successor would serve until the 2020 general election.... Ducey, who is seeking re-election, will be measured by the performance of the person he chooses to fill the state's Senate vacancy...." ...

... David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "Today's Republican Party is the biggest threat to the country that McCain served and loved. He offered an alternative."

Congressional Races

Jonathan Swan of Axios describes this as a "scoop": "Axios has obtained a spreadsheet that's circulated through Republican circles on and off Capitol Hill -- including at least one leadership office -- that meticulously previews the investigations Democrats will likely launch if they flip the House." Swan goes on to list "some of the probes it predicts.... Lawyers close to the White House tell me the Trump administration is nowhere near prepared for the investigatory onslaught that awaits them, and they consider it among the greatest threats to his presidency." ...

... Beware of Republicans Airing Woes. Steve M.: "... left-leaning sites are gleefully quoting ... Swan.... I'd like to savor the schadenfreude, but this isn't really a scoop, as Swan claims. He's not exposing a secret that Republicans tried to conceal. Republicans wanted him to publish this story. This is a GOP campaign ad and fund-raising pitch. It's an extension of a central Republican message for the midterms: If the Democrats take the House, impeachment is inevitable.... Even the bit about Trump being unprepared is part of the message. Trump, to the GOP faithful, is an innocent outsider, unschooled in the sinister ways of Washington. He has no idea what tortures the enemy has in store for him -- unless the voters save him."

The Nastiest Candidate Ever. Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kelli Ward suggested Saturday that the Friday statement issued by Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) family about ending medical treatment for brain cancer was intended to hurt her campaign. McCain died Saturday hours after she made the suggestion on Facebook." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... OR, as Martin Cizmar of the Raw Story put it, "Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kelli Ward accuses John McCain of dying to push -negative narrative' about her.... 'I wonder if John McCain's trying to steal attention from Ward's bus tour by announcing his life is coming to an end,' [a Ward] staffer wrote. Ward, a Trump-loving extremist who primaried McCain in 2016, had a contentious relationship with McCain, who she frequently slammed. Ward ... agreed that McCain was trying to have a 'negative' effect on her by dying. 'I think they wanted to have a particular narrative that was negative to me,' Ward wrote in response to the conspiracy theory." ...

... Yesterday, James Arkin of Politico reported that on the campaign trail, Ward kept up her criticism of McCain after the family announced he was discontinuing cancer treatment. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... AND last summer, after McCain announced he had cancer, Ward said, "'the medical reality of [McCain's] diagnosis is grim,' and he should consider stepping down and having her take his place." Ward is in a primary race against Martha McSally -- the "establishment" candidate -- and that nice Joe Arpaio. to replace Sen. Jeff Flake (R), who is retiring. Mrs. McC: My guess is that McSally will win because Ward & Arpaio will split the white nationalist/crazy person/sadist vote. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mrs. McCrabbie BTW: McCain's death pretty much ensures Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court, not that it wasn't already nearly a done deal. McCain was a "not-vote"; his replacement will be a "yea" vote.

Trump's True Colors

Time for a Left-Wing Conspiracy Theory:

This is the Russian flag:

Daniel Politi of Slate: "... Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump visited children at a hospital in Columbus, Ohio as part of an effort to call attention to the way the opioid crisis affects infants. Plus, it’s always a good idea to have a photo-op with kids at the end of a no good, very bad week. For politicians it’s 'a time-honored tradition,' writes Esquire, 'sitting in tiny desks alongside adorable kids in hope that the guileless innocence on the little faces surrounding them will take some of the heat off of their craven politicking.' Yet things didn’t go so well for Trump this time. The president and his wife joined the children in an arts-and-crafts activity that involved coloring in the American flag. But it seems Trump didn’t quite color his flag right. A photo posted on Twitter seems to show that the president colored in a blue stripe on the U.S. flag.” Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.

Coloring Between the Lines. Let's look at these photos in chronological order:

1. This is Donald Trump coloring a stripe with a red marker:

You can see the red marker in his hand.

2. This is Donald Trump coloring a stripe with a blue marker:

This photo comes via the Raw Story. You can see the red stripe was completed earlier. Notice how intent Trump is on getting it right.

3. This is Donald Trump with his "finished product":

This photo comes from the Twitter feed of Alex Azar, the Secretary of Health & Human Services.

Here's a close-up from that photo:

You can see the blue marker Trump used.

Weirdly, Trump skipped a line. The colors on his flag are red, white, white, blue. As we all know, white is pretty important to Trump: white is more equal than others, you might say.

Okay, I'll admit Trump has painted the colors of the stripes in the Russian flag out of order. But you have to admit you've never seen a mentally-competent, adult, native-born, U.S.-educated person who thinks some of the stripes in the stars and stripes are blue.

Trump's coloring exercise was a Freudian slip. It showed his true colors. They're Russian. We've seen a great deal of evidence Trump is a Russian asset. But this slip-up is like total proof, man. He's a sleeper.

*****

Here's Akhilleus's take:

You might think that a president* who threatens people for “disrespecting” the flag would have at least a vague clue what that symbol looks like.

You’d be wrong.

Here are photos that show Trump the Patriot demonstrating for little kids in a classroom that they should color the stripes on the American flag red, white, and, um, blue.

Hope he didn’t try to help them spell potato.

*****

Trump has always been hazy about the American flag he now claims to cherish so much it deeply disturbs him when NFL take a knee to honor the equality it represents to most of us.

In this clip from about ten years ago, Stephen Colbert revealed what Trump really knew about the American flag:

... How would he know? When I was in grade school learning what the 13 stripes represented, little Donald was -- somewhere else.

P.S. This is a joke. The real reason Trump has absolutely no knowledge of the American flag is that he's an ignorant narcissist who, in all fairness, probably has a severe learning disability that explains his inability to read the presidential briefing books and accurately color an American flag. *

     ... *Update: Be sure to see the Comments below for better explanations.

The Commentariat -- August 26, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Trump Has a Problem Bigger than Bob Mueller. Noah Feldman of Bloomberg: "Trump is now facing a two-front war against the Justice Department. The team led by special counsel Robert Mueller is supposed to focus on Russian interference in the 2016 election. But the Southern District can investigate any aspect of Trump's behavior that took place in its jurisdiction, at any time. And unlike Mueller, who could in principle be fired, the Southern District isn't one man; it's a whole office of career lawyers. It can't be fired. Even if Robert Khuzami, the acting U.S. attorney in this case, were removed, no new U.S. attorney could realistically call off the prosecutors.... It remains to be seen how far the Southern District will go. But its opening salvo -- [Michael] Cohen's statement against the president ... made in consultation with the Southern District prosecutors ... -- already went further than any part of the Justice Department has gone since Richard Nixon's administration."

The Nastiest Candidate Ever. Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kelli Ward suggested Saturday that the Friday statement issued by Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) family about ending medical treatment for brain cancer was intended to hurt her campaign. McCain died Saturday hours after she made the suggestion on Facebook." ...

... Yesterday, James Arkin of Politico reported that on the campaign trail, Ward kept up her criticism of McCain after the family announced he was discontinuing cancer treatment. ...

... AND last summer, after McCain announced he had cancer, Ward said, "'the medical reality of [McCain's] diagnosis is grim,' and he should consider stepping down and having her take his place." Ward is in a primary race against Martha McSally -- the "establishment" candidate -- and that nice Joe Arpaio. to replace Sen. Jeff Flake (R), who is retiring. Mrs. McC: My guess is that McSally will win because Ward & Arpaio will split the white nationalist/crazy person/sadist vote.

*****

Robert McFadden of the New York Times: "John S. McCain, the proud naval aviator who climbed from depths of despair as a prisoner of war in Vietnam to pinnacles of power as a Republican congressman and senator from Arizona and a two-time contender for the presidency, died on Saturday at his home in Arizona. He was 81." ...

... Karen Tumulty wrote Sen. McCain's obituary for the Washington Post. ...

... Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Senator John McCain ... will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda and receive a full dress funeral service at the Washington National Cathedral. Mr. McCain ... will also lie in state at the Arizona Capitol before his burial in Annapolis, Md., a Republican official involved in the planning said.... Two Republicans familiar with the planning said that Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have been asked to offer eulogies at his funeral. Under initial plans for Mr. McCain's funeral, Vice President Mike Pence was to attend, but not President Trump, who clashed repeatedly with Mr. McCain. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the top Senate Democrat, said on Saturday that he would introduce a resolution to rename the Russell Senate Office Building -- currently named for Senator Richard Russell of Georgia, who often opposed civil rights legislation -- in honor of Mr. McCain." ...

... The New Yorker features David Remnick's May 2018 reflections on John McCain. ...

... Russ Feingold, in a New York Times op-ed, remembers working with John McCain. Thanks to PD Pepe for the lead. ...

... Michael Sykes of Axios posts videos & photos of a few of "McCain's finest moments." ...

... Here are the last words of McCain's last book, titled The Restless Wave.

*******************************************************************

David Fahrenthold, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump's wall of secrecy -- the work of a lifetime -- is starting to crack.... His longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty last week to breaking campaign-finance laws and said he had arranged hush-money payments to two women at Trump's direction. A tabloid executive -- who had served Trump by snuffing out damaging tales before they went public -- and Trump's chief financial officer gave testimony in the case. All three had been part of the small circle ... who have long played crucial roles in Trump's strategy to shield the details of his personal life and business dealings from prying outsiders. But ... a growing number of legal challenges -- including the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and a raft of lawsuits and state-level probes in New York -- is eroding that barrier. The result has been a moment in which Trump seems politically wounded, as friends turn and embarrassing revelations about alleged affairs and his charity trickle out.... In coming months, certain cases could force Trump's company to open its books about foreign government customers or compel the president to testify about his relationships with women."

Michael Shear & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "In his attempt at self-defense amid the swirl of legal cases and investigations involving himself, his aides and his associates, Mr. Trump is directly undermining the people and processes that are the foundation of the nation's administration of justice. The result is a president at war with the law. 'You are dealing with a potentially indelible smearing of our law enforcement institutions,' said Neal K. Katyal, who was acting solicitor general under President Barack Obama. 'If Trump's views were actually accepted, there would be thousands of criminals who are out on the streets right now.' The president's public judgments about the country's top law enforcement agencies revolve largely around how their actions affect him personally -- a vision that would recast the traditionally independent justice system as a guardian of the president and an attack dog against his adversaries. For more than a year, he has criticized the Justice Department, questioned the integrity of the prosecutors leading the Russia investigation, and mercilessly mocked Jeff Sessions, his own attorney general.... As president, Mr. Trump is sworn to uphold the law, but he has viewed the legal system itself as an adversary, suggesting that it be circumvented to, for instance, send migrants back home." ...

... Bob Bauer in the Atlantic: "... even now we know what Trump seems unable to comprehend -- that he is a key reason why the investigation keeps going. This is ... because of what the investigation and his response have already revealed about this character: his disregard of legal limits when it is in his personal and political interest to ignore them, and his persistent failure to render an honest accounting of his actions. Although not quite in the way that he imagines, Trump is, in fact, what ties all [the] pieces [of the investigation] together and assures that the inquiry will, as it must, continue. Trump ... has failed to negotiate the boundary between legitimate self-defense and obstruction of justice, and in attacks such as those on his attorney general and his failed courtship of former FBI Director James Comey, he has indicated in no uncertain terms that he expects loyalty rather than fidelity to the law."

Philip Bump of the Washington Post on "the three illegal acts that may have helped Trump with the presidency.... [1] The hush money [to Karen McDougal & Stormy Daniels].... [2] The hackers. Last month, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III obtained an indictment against 12 Russians believed to work for the country's Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU.... [3] The trolls. In February, Mueller's team obtained indictments against 13 Russians who worked for an organization called the Internet Research Agency.... We ... do not yet have a full picture of two other key points of contact between the Trump campaign and Russian actors.... What became more clear this week is Trump's campaign was aided by many more surreptitious acts violating federal law than we realized -- and President Trump himself is now clearly implicated in aiding at least one." (Also linked yesterday.)

Conservative Peter Wehner in a New York Times op-ed: "A party that once spoke with urgency and apparent conviction about the importance of ethical leadership -- fidelity, honesty, honor, decency, good manners, setting a good example -- has hitched its wagon to the most thoroughly and comprehensively corrupt individual who has ever been elected president.... Mr. Trump and the Republican Party are right now the chief emblem of corruption and cynicism in American political life, of an ethic of might makes right.... Thanks to the work of Robert Mueller -- a distinguished public servant, not the leader of a 'group of Angry Democrat Thugs' -- we are going to discover deeper and deeper layers to Mr. Trump's corruption." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: How is it that Republican "thinkers" are shocked, shocked to discover that the leaders of their party are corrupt opportunists? My prediction is that the Never-Trumpers will get back on their high horses the minute somebody drives Trump out of Dodge. The whole lot of reprobates will once again be hailed as paragons of virtue saving us all from riffraff & "entitlements."

For What It's Worth. Ramsey Touchberry of Newsweek: "Roger Stone, a former Donald Trump aide..., said he believes one of the president's sons, Donald Trump Jr., will soon be indicted for 'lying to the FBI.' 'I [predict], based on excellent sourcing, that the special counsel is going to charge Donald Trump Jr. with lying to the FBI,' Stone told James Miller of the conservative online outlet The Political Insider." Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "A federal district judge in Washington struck down most of the key provisions of three executive orders that President Trump signed in late May that would have made it easier to fire federal employees. The ruling, issued early Saturday, is a blow to Republican efforts to rein in public-sector labor unions, which states like Wisconsin have aggressively curtailed in recent years. In June, the Supreme Court dealt public-sector unions a major blow by ending mandatory union fees for government workers nationwide.... The complaint said that the president lacks the authority to override federal law on these questions, and the judge in the case, Ketanji Brown Jackson, agreed, writing that most of the key provisions of the executive orders 'conflict with congressional intent in a manner that cannot be sustained.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Astead Herndon of the New York Times: "Democratic Party officials, after a yearslong battle between warring ideological wings, have agreed to sharply reduce the influence of the top political insiders known as superdelegates in the presidential nomination process. Under the new plan, which was agreed to on Saturday afternoon in Chicago at the Democratic National Committee's annual summer meetings, superdelegates retain their power to back any candidate regardless of how the public votes. They will now be largely barred, however, from participating in the first ballot of the presidential nominating process at the party's convention -- drastically diluting their power. Superdelegates will be able to cast substantive votes only in extraordinary cases like contested conventions, in which the nomination process is extended through multiple ballots until one candidate prevails."

Beyond the Beltway

Joe Johnson, et al., of the Raleigh News & Observer: "Police had arrested seven people by early Saturday afternoon, as protesters clashed at UNC-Chapel Hill five days after the toppling of the Silent Sam Confederate monument.... Silent Sam supporters numbered no more than a couple of dozen, while the anti-protesters had the numbers on their side, with about 200 people shouting and chanting various slogans.... The UNC-Chapel Hill Police Department on Friday filed warrants charging three people in connection with the toppling of the statue. The warrants charge the three with misdemeanor riot and misdemeanor defacing of a publi monument, according to a UNC police statement."

Way Beyond

New York Times: "On the second day of a difficult mission to win back the confidence of Irish Catholics, Pope Francis awoke on Sunday to a bombshell attack from within his own citadel. A former top-ranking Vatican official released a 7,000-word letter asserting that the pontiff had known about the abuses of a now-disgraced American prelate, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, years before they became public. The official, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a conservative critic of Francis and a former apostolic nuncio to the United States, claimed that the pope had failed to punish Cardinal McCarrick, who was suspended in June following allegations that he had coerced seminarians into sexual relationships. He was also found to have abused a teenage altar boy 47 years ago, when he was a priest in New York. In the letter, published on Saturday in Italian by The National Catholic Register and in English by LifeSiteNews, both critical of Francis, the archbishop called on the pope to resign." ...

     ... The report linked above is part of the NYT's liveblog of Francis's visit to Ireland. ...

     ... Chico Harlan, et al., of the Washington Post: "A former Vatican ambassador to the United States has alleged in an 11-page letter that Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis -- among other top Catholic Church officials -- had been aware of sexual misconduct allegations against a top American cardinal years before that prelate resigned this summer.... The letter offered no proof and Vigano on Sunday told the Post he wouldn't comment further." ...

... Chico Harlan & Amanda Ferguson of the Washington Post: "Pope Francis said Saturday that the 'failure of ecclesiastical authorities' to address sexual abuse has 'rightly given rise to outrage,' his first acknowledgment during his trip to Ireland of the traumas here that have radically diminished the Roman Catholic clergy's once-towering authority. In an address at Dublin Castle, Francis described the 'repellent crimes' and the failure to deal with them as 'a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community.' But he did not discuss concrete changes in laws or transparency or address the question of the Vatican's complicity in the abuse cases." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... The main Irish Times story is here. The front page of the Irish Times has links to numerous related stories.

News Ledes

(Jacksonville,) Florida Times-Union: "Multiple people are dead, including the lone suspect, after a mass shooting Sunday afternoon at the Jacksonville Landing during a video game tournament, a chaotic scene at a waterfront venue synonymous with downtown.... Many details about the shooting were not immediately clear, including how many people were dead and what kind of gun the suspect used. Police publicly referred to the incident as a 'mass shooting,' a term with varying definitions that often means at least three or four people have died." ...

     ... Washington Post Update: "Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said the suspect took his own life, but he did not know details of any motive or if the suspect knew the victims. This story is developing. At least three people are dead and 14 are injured after a lone gunman opened fire Sunday during a video game tournament in Florida that drew professional players from around the world." The suspect is believed to be from Baltimore, Md.

New York Times: "Neil Simon, the playwright whose name was synonymous with Broadway comedy and commercial success in the theater for decades, and who helped redefine popular American humor with an emphasis on the frictions of urban living and the agonizing conflicts of family intimacy, died on Sunday in Manhattan. He was 91."