The Commentariat -- October 27, 2019
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Kathleen Gray & Todd Spangler of the Detroit Free Press: "U.S. Rep. John Conyers, a civil rights icon whose five decades in Congress were tarnished in his final years in office, died Sunday of natural causes at the age of 90, according to several friends. His death come after a long and illustrious career that spanned more than 50 years and 27 terms in office, but ended in 2018 with a resignation amidst claims of sexual harassment and verbal abuse of employees and misuse of taxpayer funds to cover-up those claims. Conyers' tenure was a remarkable 53-year-run during which the lawmaker, the son of a well-known labor lawyer in Detroit, compiled a near-record legacy of civil rights activism, longevity and advocacy for the poor and underprivileged."
Peter Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump announced on Sunday that a commando raid in Syria this weekend had targeted and resulted in the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the founder and leader of the Islamic State, claiming a significant victory even as American forces are pulling out of the area. 'Last night, the United States brought the world's No. 1 terrorist leader to justice,' Mr. Trump said in an unusual nationally televised address from the White House. 'Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead.' Mr. Trump said Mr. al-Baghdadi was chased to the end of a tunnel, 'whimpering and crying and screaming all the way' as he was pursued by American military dogs. Accompanied by three children, Mr. al-Baghdadi then detonated a suicide vest, blowing himself and the children, Mr. Trump said. Mr. al-Baghdadi's body was mutilated by the blast, but Mr. Trump said tests had confirmed his identity. The president made a point of repeatedly portraying Mr. al-Baghdadi as 'sick and depraved' and him and his followers as 'losers' and 'frightened puppies,' using inflammatory, boastful language unlike the more solemn approaches by other presidents in such moments. 'He died like a dog,' Mr. Trump said. 'He died like a coward.'" The NBC News story is here.
How a real President makes such an announcement:
~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Three things about the announcement were striking. First is the amount of detail Trump provided -- far more than to which we're accustomed in such announcements.... Second is the role the Kurds and Russia played. In the hours before Trump's news conference, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said it was a joint operation between them and the United States. Trump portrayed the U.S.-allied Kurds ... as playing more of a bit part. When Trump initially thanked others, in fact, he mentioned Russia first, then Syria, Turkey and Iraq. He added that there was also 'certain support [the Kurds] were able to give us.' Later, Trump would credit Russia first in the news conference, saying it was 'great' and that Iraq was 'excellent.' He also disclosed that Russia was given a heads-up about the operation, even as top Democrats in Congress were not.... The third striking thing is the credit-taking. Most significantly, he repeatedly alluded to the idea that Baghdadi;s death was a bigger moment than Osama bin Laden's. Bin Laden was killed in 2011 on President Barack Obama's watch, and Trump at the time accused Obama of taking credit for it." ~~~
~~~ Jacob Knutson of Axios: "President Trump said in a press conference Sunday that the operation that resulted in the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State, was 'bigger' than the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, before falsely suggesting he had predicted bin Laden's attack on the World Trade Center."
~~~ Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "President Trump said Sunday that he did not tell some congressional leaders about the U.S. military raid in which ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed, citing 'Washington leaks.' Trump said at the White House that 'some' leaders were notified and that others were being informed as he announced the death of the terror group's leader to the public. 'We were going to notify them last night, but we decided not to do that because Washington leaks like I've never seen before,' Trump said. 'There's no country in the world that leaks like we do, and Washington is a leaking machine.'... He later confirmed that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was not notified in advance. He said he did speak with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.) about the operation following its conclusion." Update: According to MSNBC & CNN, Trump also did not inform Chuck Schumer & Adam Schiff. There is no evidence the "Gang of Eight" has ever leaked sensitive information in the past, even when some have disagreed with the action being taken.
Emily Bazelon, in a New York Times op-ed, takes a look at Bill Barr, "the perfect attorney general for President Trump. Not so much, it seems, for the country." Her piece is a complement to Rick Wilson's more incendiary analysis, linked below.
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One Honking Big Toljaso. Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "Former White House chief of staff John Kelly said Saturday that he warned President Trump against hiring a 'yes man' to succeed him at the White House, saying doing so could lead to impeachment. Kelly said at the Sea Island Summit, a political conference hosted by Washington Examiner, that he told Trump that he would be impeached if he did not choose a chief of staff with the strength to blunt some of the president's more self-destructive impulses." Mrs. McC: On the one hand, Kelly is an obnoxious braggart; on the other hands, he's probably right. (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here. (More on Kelly's opinions of his old boss linked below.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I wondered how long it would take Trump to respond to Kelly's dig. Answer: Not long! ~~~
~~~ Caroline Kelly & Nikki Carvajal of CNN: "... Donald Trump is disputing that former White House chief of staff John Kelly warned the President before he left the White House last year not to hire a replacement who wouldn't tell him the truth or that he would be impeached.... Trump weighed in Saturday on Kelly's interview with the Washington Examiner, saying in a statement to CNN, 'John Kelly never said that, he never said anything like that. If he would have said that I would have thrown him out of the office. He just wants to come back into the action like everybody else does.' White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham added, 'I worked with John Kelly, and he was totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great President.'... Kelly's comments come after his successor, now acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, brashly confirmed and then denied earlier this month that Trump froze nearly $400 million in US security aid to Ukraine in part to pressure that country into investigating Democrats. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Since both Trump & Kelly are liars, maybe we'll never know for certain that Kelly told Trump he would be impeached if he didn't have a forceful chief-of-staff. However, Kelly's claim jibes with a remark former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made last December: "So often, the president would say here's what I want to do and here' how I want to do it and I would have to say to him, 'Mr. President I understand what you want to do but you can't do it that way. It violates the law.'" That is, both Kelly & Tillerson implied that Trump's instinct was to break the law to get his way. And of course Trump's response to Tillerson's remark was similar to his he-man, throw-him-out pushback against Kelly: "... Rex Tillerson didn't have the mental capacity needed. He was dumb as a rock and I couldn't get rid of him fast enough. He was lazy as hell," Trump tweeted. ~~~
~~~ Oh, And This. Zachary Cohen & Kevin Bohn of CNN: "A new biography of former Defense Secretary James Mattis reports ... Donald Trump personally got involved in who would win a major $10 billion contract to provide cloud computing services to the Pentagon, according to the website Task & Purpose, which writes about military issues. That hotly contested contract was awarded to Microsoft on Friday evening over Amazon in a months-long battle. Task & Purpose reports the new book, 'Holding The Line: Inside Trump's Pentagon with Secretary Mattis' by former Mattis speechwriter and communications director Guy Snodgrass recounts that Mattis always tried to translate Trump's demands into ethical outcomes. According to Snodgrass' book, Trump called Mattis during summer 2018 and directed him to 'screw Amazon' out of the opportunity to bid on the contract.... 'Relaying the story to us during Small Group, Mattis said, "We're not going to do that. This will be done by the book, both legally and ethically,'" Snodgrass wrote according to Task & Purpose....Task & Purpose obtained an advanced copy of the book. CNN has not yet seen the book." The Task & Purpose post is here & outlines other revelations from the Snodgrass book.
Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday dismissed the need for a bolstered team to defend him against House Democrats' impeachment inquiry. 'Here's the thing. I don't have teams. Everyone's talking about teams. I'm the team. I did nothing wrong,' Trump told reporters outside the White House before leaving for an event in South Carolina. The comment came a part of a lengthy rant against the impeachment inquiry, which Trump derided as a 'phony deal' focused on a 'perfect' call he had with the Ukrainian president. He went on to say that if anything came of this inquiry, he thinks it could plunge the country into economic downturn." (Also linked yesterday.) Yeah, he's doing great:
Mike Lillis of the Hill: "A leading State Department official testified before Congress on Saturday and touched upon Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's role in the administration's dealings with Ukraine -- the issue at the center of the Democrats' fast-evolving impeachment investigation into President Trump. Philip Reeker, acting assistant secretary of European and Eurasian Affairs, broached the topic of Pompeo while being deposed in the Capitol by the three House committees -- Intelligence, Oversight and Reform, and Foreign Affairs -- leading the impeachment investigation, according to Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.).... 'I can't get into the details,' Perry said, 'but certainly there are questions.' Perry, who has been a vocal defender of Trump throughout the impeachment process, emphasized that he felt there was nothing in Reeker's testimony to indicate that the president or anyone is his orbit had acted inappropriately in their dealings with Ukrainian officials. Democrats, though, emerged from the closed-door testimony with a different view; Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) ... suggested Reeker was providing more evidence of presidential misconduct in Ukraine. 'He is corroborating previous witnesses and their testimony. So it's helpful in that respect,' Lynch said. 'I think it's fair to say it's a much richer reservoir of information than we originally expected.'"
Karoun Demirjian & Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "Philip Reeker ... told House impeachment investigators Saturday that top State Department leaders rejected his entreaties to publicly support the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, who was the target of a conspiracy-fueled smear campaign, a person familiar with his testimony said. Reeker expressed his concerns over the falsehoods about Marie Yovanovitch to David Hale, the third-highest-ranking official in the State Department, and T. Ulrich Brechbuhl, an adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whose friendship began when they attended the U.S. Military Academy together the person said. It remains unclear how much information they conveyed to Pompeo and what role Pompeo played in recalling Yovanovitch shortly after she was told she was doing such a good job that her posting was being extended.... [Reeker's] His account offers a striking picture of the degree to which professional diplomats were frozen out of policymaking in some regions of the world and subordinated to decisions apparently made for political reasons." ~~~
~~~ Nicholas Fandos & Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "A top diplomat told impeachment investigators on Saturday that he repeatedly pressed top State Department leaders, in vain, to defend the United States ambassador to Ukraine in the face of false attacks that he said were orchestrated by the president's personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani.... [Philip] Reeker's testimony, which lasted about eight hours and was delivered behind closed doors, also showcased the degree to which senior State Department officials were aware that Mr. Giuliani, who had no formal government role, was an important player on issues involving Ukraine.... Mr. Reeker testified that he pressed both Mr. Brechbuhl and David Hale, the third-ranking State Department official, to release a public statement supporting Ms. Yovanovitch. An administrative aide later informed him that no statement would be issued."
Rebecca Falconer of Axios: "U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland told House investigators last week the actions of President Trump and his allies over Ukraine 'amounted to a quid pro quo,' his attorney told the Wall Street Journal Saturday.... The president and his allies have long denied any quid pro quo took place.... Per the Journal, Sondland' attorney Robert Luskin said his client "told House committees that he believed Ukraine agreeing to open investigations into Burisma ... and into alleged 2016 election interference was a condition for a White House meeting between Mr. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. 'Asked by a lawmaker whether that arrangement was a quid pro quo, Mr. Sondland cautioned that he wasn't a lawyer but said he believed the answer was yes, Mr. Luskin said,' [according to the Journal.]"
Mrs. McCrabbie: Why are Republicans so interested in "transparency" that they're willing to pull a publicity stunt in which they breached a secure room, violated House rules & held up a scheduled hearing for five hours? Because they want the public to hear them making fools of themselves. ~~~
~~~ Greg Miller & Rachel Bade of the Washington Post: "Republican lawmakers have used the congressional impeachment inquiry to gather information on a CIA employee who filed a whistleblower complaint, press witnesses on their loyalty to President Trump and advance conspiratorial claims that Ukraine was involved in the 2016 election, according to current and former officials involved in the proceedings. GOP members and staffers have repeatedly raised the name of a person suspected of filing the whistleblower complaint that exposed Trump' effort to pressure Ukraine to conduct investigations into his political adversaries, officials said.... The questions have been interpreted as an attempt 'to unmask the whistleblower,' whose identity is shielded under federal law, said several officials with direct knowledge of the depositions. Republicans appear to be seeking ways to discredit the whistleblower as well as other witnesses 'by trying to dredge up any information they can,' one official said.... 'There's been zero interest [among the GOP] in actually getting to the conduct of the president,' a Democratic lawmaker said." The biggest GOP bigmouths during the hearings have been Devin Nunes & Jim Jordan. They have tried to tie witnesses to Christopher Steele, Hillary Clinton's campaign. "Republicans have also used their time to go after [Joe] Biden...."
Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Negotiations to make former White House counsel Don McGahn available for a House interview have been active throughout October, the Justice Department indicated Friday, revealing that it has had discussions with the Judiciary Committee five times since Oct. 8. Those talks -- on Oct. 8, 11, 15, 21 and 24 -- came despite an Oct. 8 letter from McGahn's successor, Pat Cipollone, declaring that the White House would refuse to cooperate with Democrats' ongoing impeachment inquiry.... McGahn refused to comply with a subpoena for his testimony in May and the Judiciary Committee filed suit in July, declaring that his testimony is crucial to determine whether the House should file articles of impeachment against Trump. Since then, sporadic talks with the Justice Department have reached no conclusion." (Also linked yesterday.)
The Continuing Misadventures of ~~~
Andrew Kaczynski of CNN: "Photos from a trip to London in June 2019 show ... Rudy Giuliani and a now-indicted associate Lev Parnas having a VIP experience at two baseball games between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. The trip also included Giuliani speaking at a luncheon for a Ukrainia charity group connected to Parnas and Igor Fruman, another recently indicted associate. Photos posted on social media show Parnas attended the charity event, as well as an official from a public relations firm that has worked with the Ukrainian government along with a former spokesman and associate of Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash. Firtash, who resides in Vienna, is fighting extradition to the US on unrelated bribery charges, which he denies. It is unclear if Fruman also appeared at the event. The photos from the overseas visit further show the extent of Giuliani's involvement with the pair and how his links to Parnas and Fruman and their charity brought him into contact with Ukrainian-connected individuals at a time he was seeking to dig up dirt on Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president Joe Biden." ~~~
This is going to end up in a bad scandal. -- Ukrainian billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky, after meeting with Lev & Igor ~~~
~~~ Rosalind Helderman & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "As they assisted President Trump's personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani in his search for damaging information about Democrats in Ukraine, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were also attempting to leverage ties they claimed to have to powerful Ukrainian figures and U.S. officials, according to people familiar with their activities. In meetings this summer, the two men said they could broker a multimillion-dollar deal to buy gas from the Middle East on behalf of a Ukrainian billionaire facing bribery charges in the United States. In another, Parnas and Fruman boasted they had enough sway in Trump's administration to secure the attendance of Vice President Pence at the inauguration of the new Ukrainian president -- for [$250,000]. Since they were arrested earlier this month on campaign-finance charges, investigators have been working to untangle their dizzying web of business enterprises -- and to discern whether they were operating on their own or backed by more influential interests.... During the summer, in a pitch that has not been previously reported, Parnas, Fruman and their associate David Correia proposed to serve as middlemen in a deal to sell natural gas from the Middle East to fertilizer companies owned by a Ukrainian billionaire, Dmytro Firtash.... People who encountered Parnas and Fruman [in the fall of 2018] said the two spoke openly about their difficulty in finding money to pay Giuliani. 'Can you loan me $500K so I can get Rudy off my back?' Parnas asked, said one person who spoke to him in that time period." ~~~
~~~ Musical interlude:
~~~ Christopher Miller, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "Less than 20 miles outside of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, there's a little village inspired by Fiddler on the Roof that is playing an outsize role in the political scandal embroiling Washington, thanks to a cast of characters that includes the village's honorary mayor ... Rudolph W. Giuliani, who was recently presented with an oversize ceremonial key to the village by its pro-Trump rabbi founder. Anatevka, named after the village from the musical, was founded in 2014 by Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman, primarily as a refuge for Jewish families displaced by Russia's five-year war against Ukraine.... The Anatevka project was also at the center of an aborted effort -- brokered by Giuliani's associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman -- to get the former mayor of New York to come to Ukraine in May for a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, then the president-elect, whom he planned to push for investigations that would help ... Donald Trump politically. Among the village's funders are a former pro-Russian Ukrainian presidential candidate [Vadim Rabinovich], a notorious Kazakh oligarch [Alexander Mashkevich] -- and Fruman.... Meanwhile..., for at least two years, Parnas and Fruman made donations to, and solicited financial support for, Jewish charitable causes as part of an international effort to build ties with influential [conservative] politicians."
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Friday that all but three GOP senators had signed onto his resolution condemning the House impeachment inquiry. GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Mitt Romney (Utah) have not yet signed onto the resolution, according to an updated list of co-sponsors shared by Graham the day after he introduced the measure. (Also linked yesterday.)
James LaPorta, et al., of Newsweek: "The United States military has conducted a special operations raid targeting one of its most high-value targets, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS).... Donald Trump approved the mission nearly a week before it took place... A senior Pentagon official familiar with the operation and Army official briefed on the matter told Newsweek that Baghdadi was the target of the top-secret operation in the last bastion of the country's Islamist-dominated opposition, a faction that has clashed with ISIS in recent years. A U.S. Army official briefed on the results of the operation told Newsweek that Baghdadi was killed in the raid, and the Defense Department told the White House they have "high confidence" that the high-value target killed was Baghdadi, but further verification is pending DNA and biometric testing. The senior Pentagon official said there was a brief firefight when U.S. forces entered the compound in Idlib's Barisha village and that Baghdadi then killed himself by detonating a suicide vest. Family members were present." ~~~
~~~ Eric Schmitt, et al., of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump teased that a major event had occurred with a tweet devoid of context shortly before 9:30 p.m. 'Something very big has just happened!' the president wrote. Roughly 90 minutes later, a White House spokesman, Hogan Gidley, said that Mr. Trump would deliver a statement at 9 a.m. on Sunday...." Mrs. McC: The most difficult part of the mission was keeping Trump quiet about it for a week. Not long before we're treated to a photo of Trump looking serious in the situation room.
Rachel Frazin of the Hill: "Former White House chief of staff John Kelly on Saturday joined a chorus of bipartisan voices that have criticized President Trump''s decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria, calling it a 'catastrophically bad idea.' 'I want to get out of the endless wars, too. The problem is, the other side, even if we wanted to surrender, will not take our surrender...,' Kelly said Saturday at a political conference hosted by the Washington Examiner. 'What was working in Syria was that for very little investment, the Kurds were doing all the fighting, the vast majority of the dying, and we were providing intelligence and fire support assistance. And we were winning,' added the retired four-star Marine general.... '... it was, on a number of levels, the wrong thing to do and it has opened the way for the Russians to be very, very influential in the Middle East.'";
Courtney Kube & Mac Bishop of NBC News: "A convoy of U.S. military vehicles has crossed the border from Iraq and made its way across northeastern Syria in an effort to prevent oil fields from falling into the hands of ISIS.... The U.S. has begun reinforcing its positions in the Deir ez-Zor region in coordination with its partners in the Kurdish-led Syrian Defense Forces and with additional military assets to prevent oil fields from coming under the control of ISIS or other destabilizing actors, according to a U.S. defense official. ~~~
~~~ Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "President Trump has offered several justifications for an American withdrawal from Syria. He has dismissed the country as nothing but 'sand and death,' discounted its American-backed Kurdish fighters as 'no angels,' and argued that he is winding down 'endless wars.' But in recent days, Mr. Trump has settled on Syria's oil reserves as a new rationale for appearing to reverse course and deploy hundreds of additional troops to the war-ravaged country. He has declared that the United States has 'secured' oil fields in the country's chaotic northeast and suggested that the seizure of the country's main natural resource justifies America further extending its military presence there.... Former government officials and Middle East analysts ... say that controlling Syria's oil fields -- which are the legal property of the Syrian government -- poses numerous practical, legal and political obstacles. They also warn that Mr. Trump's discourse, which revives language he often used during the 2016 campaign to widespread condemnation, could confirm the world's worst suspicions about American motives in the region. A Russian Defense Ministry official on Saturday denounced Mr. Trump's action as 'state banditry.'" ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Crowley covers some reasons "keep the oil" is a fake -- and illegal -- rationale for keeping U.S. troops in Syria. Crowley hints, but doesn't quite say, that advisers like Lindsey Graham, who saw the critical need for troops in the region, hit on "keep the oil" as a way to talk Trump down from his complete pullout order. It's the way you treat a child holding a rattlesnake: "Put the nice snake down, Donnie, so we can go have cookies & milk." This is a pattern with Trump: (1) impulsively do something stupid, dangerous & cruel; (2) make up fake reasons for doing it; (3) meet strong resistance; (4) eventually reverse or mitigate the stupid thing; (5) make up new fake reasons for the reversal & (6) claim that was the "plan" all along. Any rational person, even a Rip Van Winkle emerging from a 20-year coma, would be a better president* than Trump. (See also remarks by John Kelly, Rex Tillerson, & Jim Mattis.)
Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama of engaging in treason during his comments to author Doug Wead for the book Inside Trump's White House: The Real Story of His Presidency. 'What they did was treasonous, OK? It was treasonous,' President Trump claimed on the topic of Obama. -- in comments published by the Washington Examiner. 'The interesting thing out of all of this is that we caught them spying on the election. They were spying on my campaign.... I have never ever said this, but truth is, they got caught spying,' he continued. 'They were spying.'" ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Why does Trump constantly repeat himself? He said "treasonous" twice in two consecutive sentences and "spying" four times in a short string of remarks. This might be a communications skill if you're talking with people who are kinda stupid or who don't have a good grasp of English, but in this instance, Trump was talking to an interviewer who presumably was smart enough to get it the first time, or would ask for a clarification if he didn't get it.
Joshua Partlow of the Washington Post: "A company in which President Trump's brother has a financial stake received a $33 million contract from the U.S. Marshals Service earlier this year, an award that has drawn protests from two other bidders, one of which has filed [an anonymous] complaint alleging possible favoritism in the bidding process. The lucrative government contract, to provide security for federal courthouses and cellblocks, went to CertiPath, a Reston, Va.-based company that since 2013 has been owned in part by a firm linked to Robert S. Trump, the president's younger brother.... Though the contract has been awarded, no money has been paid out. That is because a second company, NMR Consulting, of Chantilly, Va., also filed a protest of the bid with the Government Accountability Office, on July 1. That bid protest has led to a 'stop work order' on the contract, said Drew Wade, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service." TPM has a story here.
Rick Wilson in Medium: "From the moment he manipulated and distorted the findings of the Mueller Report to protect Trump, it was clear that [William] Barr is a living, breathing abuse of power.... At Trump's personal direction, the Barr 'Justice' Department has empowered U.S. Attorney John Durham, a prosecutor of a former reputation for seriousness, to run point on an investigation into the origins of the FBI's own probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. This week, we learned that probe now treats the investigation as a criminal matter. Trump seeks not only to destroy the people who tried to reveal the truth about Russia and 2016, but also to intimidate anyone else who dares to tell the truth about his rampant, ongoing regime of corruption and malfeasance. Barr is his weapon, his tool, his agent of vengeance.... They want charges of treason. They want Comey, Strozk, Page, Brennan, Clapper, and others arrested. They want a criminal probe of the Mueller effort, despite their contradictory assertion that the Mueller Report exonerated him."
Martin Crutsinger of the AP: "The federal deficit for the 2019 budget year surged 26% from 2018 to $984.4 billion -- its highest point in seven years. The gap is widely expected to top $1 trillion in the current budget year and likely remain there for the next decade. The year-over-year widening in the deficit reflected such factors as revenue lost from the 2017 Trump tax cut and a budget deal that added billions in spending for military and domestic programs. Forecasts by the Trump administration and the Congressional Budget Office project that the deficit will top $1 trillion in the 2020 budget year, which began Oct. 1. And the CBO estimates that the deficit will stay above $1 trillion over the next decade. Those projections stand in contrast to ... Donald Trump's campaign promises that even with revenue lost initially from his tax cuts, he could eliminate the budget deficit with cuts in spending and increased growth generated by the tax cuts." (Also linked yesterday.)
Reuters: "Maria Butina, who was jailed in the US in April after admitting to working as a Russian agent, arrived in Moscow on Saturday to be greeted by her father and Russian journalists who handed her flowers." (Also linked yesterday.)
Annals of Journalism, Ctd. John Koblin & Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "The MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow publicly confronted the leadership of her own network on Friday night, declaring live on air that she and other NBC News employees had deep concerns about whether the organization had stymied Ronan Farrow's reporting on the movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. In a prime-time monologue, Ms. Maddow questioned why NBC News executives had not invited an independent investigation of the Weinstein episode or the workplace behavior of Matt Lauer, the former 'Today' show anchor who was fired in 2017 after a colleague accused him of sexual misconduct." Mrs. McC: I meant to mention this yesterday; it was a gutsy move for Maddow, and especially surprising after the way she stood up for Tom Brokow after former NBC News reporter Linda Vester alleged he had sexually harassed her.
Way Beyond the Beltway
Rory Carroll of the Guardian: "The driver of the lorry that contained 39 dead migrants has been charged with manslaughter and human trafficking. Maurice Robinson, 25, from Co Armagh in Northern Ireland, faces 39 counts of manslaughter, conspiracy to traffic people, conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and money laundering, Essex police said on Saturday. The announcement came shortly after Irish police arrested another Northern Irish man at Dublin port on suspicion of involvement in the tragedy. It brought the number of people from the island of Ireland who have been arrested to five, fuelling suspicion an Irish smuggling gang was part of the network that transported the migrants. The sprawling police investigation stretches from the Irish border, England, continental Europe and Vietnam, where many of the victims are believed to have come from." (Also linked yesterday.)
News Lede
KTLA: California "Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a statewide emergency on Sunday, due to extreme high-wind events that have resulted in fires and evacuations across California. The Tick Fire in the Sand Canyon area of Santa Clarita has burned through a total of 4,615 acres as of Sunday morning, and destroyed 22 structures, according to a multiagency update released Sunday. More than 900 firefighters remained on-scene at the Tick Fire on Sunday, with more of them ready should further need arise, officials said. The Kincade Fire in Sonoma County has burned more than 30,000 acres and has left nearly 200,000 people under evacuation orders, authorities said. There are over 3,000 local, state and federal personnel, including fire responders working on the blaze that destroyed 79 structures."
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