The Conversation -- September 18, 2023

Marshall Cohen, et al., of CNN: "A federal judge was skeptical Monday of former Trump-era Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark's efforts to move his Georgia election subversion case to federal court.... Clark wasn't present at the hearing, an absence that became especially notable after US District Judge Steve Jones said he would not accept a sworn statement from Clark as evidence in the case. The hearing ended after about three hours with no ruling from the judge, who seemed visibly frustrated and annoyed at times. At one point, his probing questions directed at one of Clark's attorneys led Trump attorney Steve Sadow, who was in the courtroom, to whisper, 'This is not good.'.... Even if his official job description didn't include most election litigation, those matters were in his lane because 'the president put it in his lane,' [his attorney] said.... [In December 2020,] Trump considered installing Clark as acting attorney general so he could send a letter to the state officials falsely claiming the Justice Department found widespread 'irregularities in the 2020 election.... Former Justice Department official Jody Hunt testified at the hearing and bolstered [Fani] Willis' case by saying that the person in Clark's role wouldn't have been involved in investigating election fraud. Hunt was head of the DOJ's Civil Division under Trump before Clark took over the role in an acting capacity in 2020." ~~~

     ~~~ Amy Gardner & Holly Bailey of the Washington Post: "As a Justice Department lawyer after the 2020 election, Jeffrey Clark drafted a letter to top Georgia officials declaring that the agency had reason to doubt the legitimacy of the state's election only after he was pressed to do so by ... Donald Trump, Clark's lawyer [Harry MacDougald] told a skeptical federal judge Monday.... U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones appeared wary of the claim, pressing MacDougald for evidence that Trump had directed Clark to act. MacDougald did not offer any and even appeared uncertain when Jones asked him whether Clark's draft letter was written after a meeting between him, Trump and several other senior Justice Department officials."

     ~~~ Marie: It may be that Trump's attorney Steve Sadow said "This is not good" because Clark's lawyer fingered Trump as the person who told Clark to lie to state officials.

Katherine Faulders, et al., of ABC News: Trump "aide Molly Michael told investigators that -- more than once -- she received requests or taskings from [Donald] Trump that were written on the back of notecards, and she later recognized those notecards as sensitive White House materials -- with visible classification markings.... The notecards with classification markings were at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate when FBI agents searched the property on Aug. 8, 2022 -- but the materials were not taken by the FBI, according to sources familiar with what Michael told investigators. When Michael, who was not present for the search, returned to Mar-a-Lago the next day to clean up her office space, she found the documents underneath a drawer organizer and helped transfer them to the FBI that same day, sources told ABC News.... Sources said that after Trump heard the FBI wanted to interview Michael last year, Trump allegedly told her, 'You don't know anything about the boxes.' It's unclear exactly what he meant by that." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It's unclear? It's unclear? It's perfectly clear to everone who's ever been told to lie about something: Following news that investigators are about to interview you about "the boxes," "You don't know anything about the boxes" is a order not to reveal to the FBI what you know about the boxes. If the ABC News reporters really "aren't clear" about the meaning of Trump's remark, they should go see a mob movie, any mob movie.

Mostafa Salem, et al., of CNN: "Five Americans who have been imprisoned in Iran are expected to be released Monday, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said, as part of a wider deal with the United States that includes the unfreezing of $6 billion in Iranian funds. The US government has designated all five Americans as being wrongfully detained. Speaking at a press conference which was shown on state-affiliated Press TV on Monday, foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said the release 'will hopefully be completed' alongside the other elements of the deal. The detainees are being transported to a Qatari jet, which is on standby in Iran to bring the five Americans to Doha, a source briefed on details of the matter told CNN on Monday afternoon local time." The story has been updated. ~~~

     ~~~Update: Michael Shear & Farnaz Fassihi of the New York Times: "Five Americans who had been imprisoned in Iran were allowed to leave the country on Monday, President Biden said, after two years of high-stakes negotiations in which the United States agreed to unfreeze $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue and dismiss federal charges against five Iranians accused of violating U.S. sanctions. The announcement that the Americans took off in a plane from Tehran just before 9 a.m. Eastern came as Mr. Biden and Ebrahim Raisi, Iran's president, were to attend the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting of world leaders in New York on Tuesday. The five Americans -- some of whom had been held for years in Evin Prison, one of the most notorious detention centers in Iran -- flew to Doha, the capital of Qatar, for a Cold War-style exchange with two of the five Iranians. Three others declined to return to Iran, according to U.S. officials. In a statement, Mr. Biden said that 'five innocent Americans who were imprisoned in Iran are finally coming home.'"

Aaron Rupar of Public Notice: “Kristen Welker's whitewashing of [Donald] Trump began in the opening seconds of her debut as Chuck Todd's replacement on 'Meet the Press.' 'I sat down with the former president at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey -- his first network interview since leaving office,' she said, walking alongside Trump on his golf course, and omitting the real reason for his banishment: not that he left office, but that he incited a violent insurrection in an attempt not to leave. And Trump's return to NBC only got more problematic from there.... Instead of coming ready for a fight, Welker conducted herself as though she's Trump's therapist.... When she wasn't trying to get Trump in touch with his feelings, Welker was overwhelmed by his nonstop lying." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I continually come away from media coverage of Trump with the impression that people in the news business -- especially those in teevee "journalism" -- just don't give a flying fuck. It's their job to get ratings, not to serve as the Fourth Estate and mete out checks on bad behavior or bad practices of public officials. They think that "polite" and "personable" are better qualities than "confrontational" or "probing." And the so-called behind-the-scenes editors and producers are just as bad, if not worse. When a politician tells a big fat lie and the interviewer doesn't adequately push back, there should be flashing chryons on the screen calling out the lie. The Welker interview was pre-recorded, so there's no excuse for airing it without on-screen fact-checks.

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Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "House Republicans considered a new stopgap funding proposal on Sunday aimed at averting a government shutdown at the end of the month, but it was unlikely that the plan, which would slash spending for most federal agencies and resurrect tough Trump-era border initiatives, could break the deep impasse on Capitol Hill. The legislation presented to rank and file lawmakers in a conference call on Sunday night was the latest effort by House Republican leaders to find a way out of a daunting funding logjam that left their plans to consider annual spending bills in chaos last week and has put Congress on a path to a government closure on Oct. 1." MB: The message here is, "We need more time to jerk off; in the meantime, if you ask nicely, we might be willing to jerk around the country." These are not serious people.

Julie Tsirkin of NBC News: "Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has quietly changed the Senate's informal dress code to allow senators to wear whatever they want on the floor, a person with direct knowledge said. A notice went out to the Senate sergeant-at-arms and relevant staff members late Friday, and the change will go into effect starting Monday, the source said.... [Senate staff] are still required to wear business clothes under the old dress code. People other than senators who walk on to the Senate floor will also need to wear business attire, which for men means a jacket and a tie."

Trump confesses on-air again, and here he gets to the crux of his crime:

     ~~~ Jason Lange of Reuters: "... Donald Trump said he dismissed the views of his own lawyers in continuing to challenge his 2020 defeat because he did not respect them, saying in an interview aired on Sunday that he had made up his own mind that the election had been 'rigged' - a false claim that he continues to make.... 'It was my decision,' Trump told NBC's 'Meet the Press' program, that the election was 'rigged' against him, adding that he relied heavily upon his own 'instincts' in coming to that conclusion.... His comments on Sunday could undermine one of his possible legal defenses - that he relied on the advice of his lawyers in continuing to challenge his defeat." ~~~

~~~ But Trump did balk at confessing to his actions and inaction on January 6, 2021:

     ~~~ Michelle Price of the AP: Donald Trump "refused to say on NBC's 'Meet the Press' how he spent Jan. 6, 2021, once the insurrection began and whether he made phone calls as his supporters stormed the seat of American democracy. 'I'm not going to tell you. I'll tell people later at an appropriate time,' Trump told moderator Kristen Welker after she asked if he spent that afternoon watching the attack on television in a dining room at the White House.... In the interview, taped Thursday at Trump's golf club in New Jersey, Trump refused to say who he called as the violence unfolded. 'Why would I tell you that?' he said. Trump said in response to Welker's pressing him about his public silence during the violence that he had made 'beautiful statements' on the day of the attack.... Trump also said he was pleased to hear Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent remarks praising Trump.... 'Well, I like that he said that. Because that means what I'm saying is right,' Trump said on NBC." MB: IOW, the top enemy of the U.S. -- and of democracy and self-determination -- is the arbiter of rectitude. ~~~

     ~~~ You can read the full exchange in this transcript of the interview.

~~~ Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "On Sunday [NBC News] used [an] interview with [Donald Trump] to introduce new 'Meet the Press,' host Kristen Welker> who took over for the much-maligned Chuck Todd. To some political observers, the new interview -- where Trump talked over his questioner and received little pushback -- was yet another debacle that led American Enterprise Institute scholar and Atlantic contributor Norman Ornstein to declare it was a huge error in judgement.... After viewing clips from the 'Meet the Press' interview, media critic Dan Froomkin complained, 'In these clips, Trump utters about 30 different lies, and there's zero pushback from Kristen Welker, who instead calls him "fired up" and "defiant" -- and "the president." This is, actually, worse than the CNN town hall in terms of normalizing a maniac.'... Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger added, 'Allowing Trump to lie on @MeetThePress and leaving "fact checking" to the website is not how we should be treating a man who launched an insurrection. It's 2023, we should have learned this lesson over 7 years. Ratings aren't worth our democracy.'" And so forth. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Welker's deference to Trump, who repeatedly talked over her, was sickening. After the interview, Welker ran a roundtable of milquetoasts who, IMO, went pretty easy on Trump, too.

Another Co-Conspirator Who Should Have STFU. Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: Mark Meadows' voluntary testimony in federal court last month "may have given ammunition to Georgia prosecutors as they prepare to try him, [Donald] Trump and the 17 other defendants. Legal experts say that Mr. Meadows may have damaged his credibility while weakening his claim to immunity from state prosecution as a federal official, given his struggles to articulate how the actions ascribed to him in the indictment were part of his official duties rather than in service of the Trump campaign.... [In response to his testimony,] the prosecutor ... introduced into the record a December 2020 email that Mr. Meadows wrote to a Trump campaign staff member. In it, Mr. Meadows wrote, 'We just need to have someone coordinating the electors for the states.'... Every word of Mr. Meadows's testimony may now be used against him at trial.... In early September, U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones declined to move his case to federal court. Mr. Meadows has appealed."

Sam Rosenfeld & Daniel Scholzman in a New York Times op-ed: Recent action by Republican federal and state officeholders "depict a party that is preoccupied with antics that crash into the guardrails of American political life and conspicuously lacks a coherent, forward-looking vision for governing. A modern political party has devolved into a racket. The country needs a right-of-center party. But today, as the G.O.P. has lost a collective commitment to solving the nation's problems and become purposeless, the line separating party politics from political conspiracy has frayed. [Donald] Trump, in this way, is the product more than the author of that collective party failure.... The sheer array and specific identities of those indicted in the [Georgia election] case highlights how easily a conspiracist approach to political life, unconstrained by a party now incapable of policing boundaries or channeling passions into a larger purpose beyond raw hardball, can justify and compel illicit machinations.... Conspiracism has a long provenance on the American right.... So does a ruthlessly mercenary view of political parties."

Marie: If you think the purpose of governance is problem-solving, it's quite clear that the U.S. political system is dysfunctional. This is true for hard-to-solve issues like immigration policy and adherence to standards of equality and civil rights, but it's also true of aspects of governance that are entirely soluble. When I took 9th-grade civics, we learned that gerrymandering was a corrupt, anti-democratic practice. And gerrymandering wasn't a new abuse even then; it's as old as the Constitution. Congress could easily fix the problem on a federal level (if not on the state level) by outlawing gerrymandering of Congressional districts and establishing nonpartisan boards to establish districts after every Census. Sixty-five years later, gerrymander is worse than ever.

Hunter Strikes Back. Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "President Biden's son Hunter Biden filed a lawsuit Monday against the Internal Revenue Service, charging that when agents who were investigating him told Congress and news reporters about their concerns that the case was not being managed properly, they violated his privacy rights as a taxpayer.... Biden charges in the lawsuit that when two IRS agents went to Congress and news organizations complaining of alleged mishandling of the investigation by Justice Department officials, they disclosed information about the investigation, and about Biden's taxes, that the law aims to keep secret.... The disclosures included 'detailed allegations regarding the specific tax years under investigation, the amounts of deductions, the nature of those deductions, and allegations of liability regarding specific tax years and the amount thereof, that could only be known to them based on a review of the physical tax returns themselves,' the lawsuit contends." CNN's story is here.

Presidential Race 2024. Dean Obeidallah in a CNN opinion piece: Trump's gaffes and lapses "should raise questions about his fitness for office. For instance, "... at a September 8 rally in South Dakota..., [Trump] abruptly stopped mid-speech for 40 seconds as he awkwardly looked at the audience, his eyes darting around. Or his recent claim that President Biden was leading us into World War II. Then of course there's his grand delusion that he won the 2020 presidential election. ~~~

Seth Borenstein of the AP: "Yelling that the future and their lives depend on ending fossil fuels, tens of thousands of protesters [gathered in New York City] on Sunday [to] kick off a week where leaders will try once again to curb climate change primarily caused by coal, oil and natural gas. But protesters say it's not going to be enough. And they aimed their wrath directly at U.S. President Joe Biden urging him to stop approving new oil and gas projects, phase out current ones and declare a climate emergency with larger executive powers.... The March to End Fossil Fuels featured such politicians as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and actors Susan Sarandon, Ethan Hawke, Edward Norton, Kyra Sedgewick and Kevin Bacon. But the real action on Broadway was where protesters crowded the street, pleading for a better but not-so-hot future. It was the opening salvo to New York's Climate Week, where world leaders in business, politics and the arts gather to try to save the planet, highlighted by a new special United Nations summit Wednesday."

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Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post: "The American Library Association is facing a partisan firefight unlike anything in its almost 150-year history. The once-uncontroversial organization, which says it is the world's largest and oldest library association and which provides funding, training and tools to most of the country's 123,000 libraries, has become entangled in the education culture wars -- the raging debates over what and how to teach about race, sex and gender -- culminating in Tuesday's Senatorial name-check.... Politicians and parents on the right increasingly paint the association, known as the ALA, as a defender of pornographic literature for children -- tying their allegations into a broader conservative movement that asserts school libraries are filled with sexually explicit, inappropriate texts.... Over the summer, state libraries in Montana, Missouri and Texas announced that they were severing ties with the ALA, imperiling their libraries' access to funding and training."

California, a Nation Unto Itself. Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said on Sunday that he would sign a landmark climate bill that passed the state's legislature last week requiring major companies to publicly disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, a move with national and global repercussions. The new law will require about 5,000 companies to report the amount of greenhouse gas pollution that is directly emitted by their operations and also the amount of indirect emissions from things like employee travel, waste disposal and supply chains."

The Conversation -- September 17, 2023

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times writes about President Biden's staff muzzling him. "Is his less-than-stellar inner circle undermining the boss and giving ammunition to the nasty conservative story line about how the 80-year-old president is losing it?... By publicly treating him as though he's not in control of his faculties, by cutting him off mid-thought as though he's faltering and needs caretaking, they play into the hands of Trumpsters. His vulnerability becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.... Biden needs to start looking like he's in command. His staff is going to have to roll with him and take some risks and stop jerking the reins." (Also linked yesterday.)

Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "Impeachment proceedings were not meant to start with theories. In a world turned upside down, that's what McCarthy has done. The real reason for [Speaker Kevin] McCarthy's decision to launch the inquiry was apparent to all. It was a bow to hard-right members of his conference demanding he do this at a time when the speaker is caught up in internal brawling with those members over funding the government by the Sept. 30 deadline.... By definition, the impeachment process is a political exercise with legal aspects. With this latest turn, it is now almost wholly political, a debasement of what was intended to be a vehicle to remove a president for malfeasance even in the absence of criminal charges.... As pursued by House Republicans, impeachment is now more score-settling than serious undertaking, a tit-for-tat in retaliation for the four criminal indictments of Trump this year and claims of a weaponized Justice Department." ~~~

~~~ Debunked Conspiracy Theory Drives Impeachment Inquiry. Alex Griffing of Mediaite: Jim Jordan, who is one of the fake impeachment leaders, has made clear that the fake basis for impeaching President Biden is nothing more than a long-debunked conspiracy theory that Joe Biden had a Ukrainian prosecutor -- Viktor Shokin -- removed from his job to help out Hunter Biden. "'Joe Biden's actions were consistent with bipartisan US policy, which sought to remove the prosecutor because he wasn't doing enough to crack down on corruption -- including at Burisma,' noted a CNN fact check."

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "Reading ... [Mitt Romney's] surprisingly harsh and unsparing ... [criticism of his fellow Republicans], I wonder how much of it is Romney's sublimated criticism of himself.... Romney ... played a significant role in giving Trump mainstream political credibility.... This was the Romney who ... did a great deal to appeal to the most viciously right-wing figures in his party.... Romney was, not unlike the colleagues he criticizes, willing to say whatever it took to win power, even if it meant smearing nearly half the country as essentially unproductive...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Bouie doesn't mention it, but it's worth remembering that Romney made his sizeable fortune as a ruthless venture capitalist who specialized in leveraged buyouts & quick sales that maximized the value he could extract from the targeted companies. He's not exactly a model of probity. He did not learn his predatory tendency on his father's knee: George Romney was "a folk hero of the American automotive industry" who as CEO of American Motors would return to the company the part of his annual income he considered excessive. 

Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Jenna Ellis -- the Donald Trump lawyer who like the former president faces criminal charges regarding attempted election subversion in his defeat by Joe Biden in 2020 -- says she will not vote for him in the future because he is a 'malignant narcissist' who cannot admit mistakes.... 'Why I have chosen to distance is because of that frankly malignant narcissistic tendency to simply say that he's never done anything wrong.' Ellis, 38, was speaking on her show on American Family Radio, a rightwing evangelical network run by the American Family Association...." MB: Or maybe Ellis's about-face has something to do with the not-surprising fact that Trump won't authorize his PAC to help Ellis with the legal bills she's accruing in defending herself against racketeering charges brought against her in the Trump fake election-fraud conspiracy. (Also linked yesterday.)

A Peculiar State Secret. Alanna Richer & Michael Kunzelman of the AP: Samuel "Lazar, 37, of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, was arrested in July 2021 on charges that he came to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, dressed in tactical gear and protective goggles, and used chemical spray on officers who were desperately trying to beat back the angry Donald Trump supporters. There is no public record of a conviction or a sentence in Lazar's court docket. But the Bureau of Prisons told The Associated Press that the man was released from federal custody this week after completing a sentence for assaulting or resisting a federal officer. Lazar was sentenced in Washington's federal court on March 17 to 30 months in prison, according to the Bureau of Prisons, but there's no public record of such a hearing. He had been jailed since July 2021.... The Justice Department has refused to say why the case remains under wraps...."

Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "Richard G. Olson Jr., a former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, was sentenced Friday to three years probation and a $93,350 fine for violating federal lobbying and ethics laws in a case that exposed a secret history of romantic liaisons and glittering gifts during his 34-year career as a diplomat. Olson, 63, who pleaded guilty to two federal misdemeanors related to his consulting work in the Middle East, could have received up to six months behind bars under federal sentencing guidelines. U.S. Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey of D.C. said he didn't think a prison sentence was warranted, but imposed a relatively stiff fine. Federal guidelines had called for Olson to receive a financial penalty of $20,000 or less.... Prosecutors noted in court that he did not apologize for his actions."

Presidential Race 2024. Trump Is So Confused. Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump claimed he beat former President Barack Obama -- even though he never ran against Obama -- in a speech in which he attacked President Joe Biden's faculties. Trump delivered a speech to an enthusiastic conservative crowd at the 'Pray, Vote, Stand Summit' in Washington, DC on Friday night, during which he made disparaging remarks about President Biden's 'cognitive' abilities -- while repeatedly committing several gaffes or misspeaking." MB: It's worth reading the excerpt of Trump's zany remarks which Christopher includes in his post. Trump does string together one cogent sentence amid the word salad: "I think we have a lot of words out there." Yes, yes, there are a lot of words out there, Donald, wherever "out there" may be. It's sad that vast collection of words so confounds you.

Neal Boudette of the New York Times: "The United Auto Workers union and the three Detroit automakers on Saturday resumed negotiations on a new labor contract as a targeted strike entered its second day. The union is striking against all three manufacturers -- General Motors, Ford and Stellantis -- but for now has limited the work stoppages to one plant at each of the companies: a Ford plant in Michigan, a G.M. plant in Missouri and a Stellantis plant in Ohio. 'We had reasonably productive conversations with Ford today,' the union said in a statement. It made no mention of its talks with G.M. and Stellantis."

Wenner: Only White Artists Are Intelligent. Ben Sisario of the New York Times: "Jann Wenner, the co-founder of Rolling Stone magazine, has been removed from the board of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, which he also helped found, one day after an interview with him was published in The New York Times in which he made comments that were widely criticized as sexist and racist.... The dismissal of Mr. Wenner comes after an interview with The Times, published Friday and timed to the publication of his new book, called 'The Masters,' which collects his decades of interviews with rock legends like Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen and Bono -- all of them white and male. In the interview, David Marchese of The Times asked Mr. Wenner, 77, why the book included no women or people of color. Regarding women, Mr. Wenner said, 'Just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level,' and remarked that Joni Mitchell 'was not a philosopher of rock 'n' roll.... Of Black artists -- you know, Stevie Wonder, genius, right?... I suppose when you use a word as broad as "masters," the fault is using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just didn't articulate at that level.'" An AP story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It isn't clear at all that Wenner understands the implications of the word "master." (Incidentally, he also doesn't seem to know how to use the verb "articulate." I surmise he means "express themselves," but in this meaning, "articulate" is a transitive verb; i.e., it requires a direct object. So the way Wenner uses "articulate," he means "move their arms & legs around." I'd say quite a few Black, female artists are right good at that!) On a substantially more important note, this isn't about one interview or even about one book on the "masters of the popular music universe." It's about what minority and female artists have been up against since the founding of Rolling Stone in 1967. A cool magazine should have helped overcome racist and sexist discrimination in the industry and beyond; instead, I would guess it perpetuated white male hegemony. So now women & minorities still can't get no satisfaction, as Jagger (and Keith Richards) might articulate.

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Michigan. Tim Craig of the Washington Post: "A Michigan jury acquitted three men on Friday of state charges related to the plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020, capping multiple legal proceedings that centered on right-wing extremism and the dangers facing the country's political leaders.... When the verdict was announced, people in the courtroom gasped while the three men cried and hugged supporters, the Associated Press reported. During the trial, state prosecutors had argued that [Eric] Molitor and [twin] ...brothers [William Null & Michael Null] had participated in military-style drills and cased Whitmer's vacation property in Antrim County in northern Michigan.... But attorneys for Molitor, 39, and the Null brothers, 41, argued that the men did not actively take part in the plot and did not consider it to be a serious threat to Whitmer." (Also linked yesterday.)

Pennsylvania. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: How a convicted murderer & prison escapee evaded capture for 13 days. (Also linked yesterday.)

** Texas Is Still Texas and Republicans Are Still Republicans. Paxton Acquitted!! Zach Despart of the Texas Tribune: "The Texas Senate on Saturday acquitted Attorney General Ken Paxton of 16 articles of impeachment alleging corruption and bribery, his most artful escape in a career spent courting controversy and skirting consequences of scandal. No article received more than 14 of the required 21 votes to convict. Only two of 19 Republican Senators, Bob Nichols of Jacksonville and Kelly Hancock of North Richland Hills, voted in favor of convicting for any article -- a stark contrast to the nearly 70% of House Republicans who impeached the attorney general in May. The dramatic votes capped a two-week trial where a parade of witnesses, including former senior officials under Paxton, testified that the attorney general had repeatedly abused his office by helping his friend, struggling Austin real estate investor Nate Paul, investigate and harass his enemies, delay foreclosure sales of his properties and obtain confidential records on the police investigating him. In return, House impeachment managers said Paul paid to renovate Paxton's Austin home and helped him carry out ­and cover up an extramarital affair with a former Senate aide." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times ran a liveblog. (Also linked yesterday.)

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Elisabetta Povoledo of the New York Times: "A letter found among the private papers of Pope Pius XII suggests that the Holy See was told in 1942 that up to 6,000 people, 'above all Poles and Jews,' were being killed in furnaces every day at Belzec, a Nazi death camp in Poland. Though news of the atrocities being perpetrated by Hitler was already reaching Pope Pius XII's ears, this information was especially important because it came from a trusted church source based in Germany, said Giovanni Coco, a Vatican archivist who discovered the letter. The source was 'in the heart of the enemy territory,' Mr. Coco said on Saturday.... It is one of the most revealing documents to have emerged since Pope Francis ordered the archives of Pius opened in 2019, saying that 'the church is not afraid of history.' Mr. Coco said he could not be 100 percent sure that Pius saw the letter, but he was '99 percent sure' because it was given to the pope's personal secretary, his 'right-hand man.'"

News Lede

AP: "Atlantic storm Lee made landfall at near-hurricane strength Saturday, bringing destructive winds, rough surf and torrential rains to New England and Maritime Canada. But officials withdrew some warnings for the region late Saturday night. The U.S. National Hurricane Center discontinued a tropical storm warning for the coast of Maine, while Environment Canada ended its tropical storm warning in New Brunswick. One person was killed in Maine on Saturday when a tree limb fell on his vehicle. The post-tropical cyclone also cut power to tens of thousands of customers."

The Conversation -- September 16, 2023

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "Reading ... [Mitt Romney's] surprisingly harsh and unsparing ... [criticism of his fellow Republicans], I wonder how much of it is Romney's sublimated criticism of himself.... Romney ... played a significant role in giving Trump mainstream political credibility.... This was the Romney who ... did a great deal to appeal to the most viciously right-wing figures in his party.... Romney was, not unlike the colleagues he criticizes, willing to say whatever it took to win power, even if it meant smearing nearly half the country as essentially unproductive...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Bouie doesn't mention it, but it's worth remembering that Romney made his sizeable fortune as a ruthless venture capitalist who specialized in leveraged buyouts & quick sales that maximized the value he could extract from the targeted companies. He's not exactly a model of probity. He did not learn his predatory tendency on his father's knee: George Romney was "a folk hero of the American automotive industry" who as CEO of American Motors returned the part of his annual income he considered excessive.

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times writes about President Biden's staff muzzling him. "Is his less-than-stellar inner circle undermining the boss and giving ammunition to the nasty conservative story line about how the 80-year-old president is losing it?... By publicly treating him as though he's not in control of his faculties, by cutting him off mid-thought as though he's faltering and needs caretaking, they play into the hands of Trumpsters. His vulnerability becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.... Biden needs to start looking like he's in command. His staff is going to have to roll with him and take some risks and stop jerking the reins."

Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Jenna Ellis -- the Donald Trump lawyer who like the former president faces criminal charges regarding attempted election subversion in his defeat by Joe Biden in 2020 -- says she will not vote for him in the future because he is a 'malignant narcissist' who cannot admit mistakes.... 'Why I have chosen to distance is because of that frankly malignant narcissistic tendency to simply say that he's never done anything wrong.' Ellis, 38, was speaking on her show on American Family Radio, a rightwing evangelical network run by the American Family Association...." MB: Or maybe Ellis's about-face has something to do with the not-surprising fact that Trump won't authorize his PAC to help Ellis with the legal bills she's accruing in defending herself against charges brought against her in the Trump fake election-fraud conspiracy.

** Texas Is Still Texas and Republicans Are Still Republicans. Paxton Acquitted!! Zach Despart of the Texas Tribune: "The Texas Senate on Saturday acquitted Attorney General Ken Paxton of 16 articles of impeachment alleging corruption and bribery, his most artful escape in a career spent courting controversy and skirting consequences of scandal. No article received more than 14 of the required 21 votes to convict. Only two of 19 Republican Senators, Bob Nichols of Jacksonville and Kelly Hancock of North Richland Hills, voted in favor of convicting for any article -- a stark contrast to the nearly 70% of House Republicans who impeached the attorney general in May. The dramatic votes capped a two-week trial where a parade of witnesses, including former senior officials under Paxton, testified that the attorney general had repeatedly abused his office by helping his friend, struggling Austin real estate investor Nate Paul, investigate and harass his enemies, delay foreclosure sales of his properties and obtain confidential records on the police investigating him. In return, House impeachment managers said Paul paid to renovate Paxton's Austin home and helped him carry out ­and cover up an extramarital affair with a former Senate aide." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times ran a liveblog.

Michigan. Tim Craig of the Washington Post: "A Michigan jury acquitted three men on Friday of state charges related to the plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020, capping multiple legal proceedings that centered on right-wing extremism and the dangers facing the country's political leaders.... When the verdict was announced, people in the courtroom gasped while the three men cried and hugged supporters, the Associated Press reported. During the trial, state prosecutors had argued that [Eric] Molitor and [twin] ...brothers [William Null & Michael Null] had participated in military-style drills and cased Whitmer's vacation property in Antrim County in northern Michigan.... But attorneys for Molitor, 39, and the Null brothers, 41, argued that the men did not actively take part in the plot and did not consider it to be a serious threat to Whitmer."

Pennsylvania. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: How a convicted murderer & prison escapee evaded capture for 13 days.

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Marie: In today's news, we learn that the GOP clown car is running on empty, but the dangerous villain who is operating the vehicle by remote control still may manage to mow us all down. Meanwhile, certain damsels in the court of the clowns are in various states of distress.

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department is asking the judge overseeing Donald Trump's federal election fraud trial to impose some limitations on the former president's public comments, saying he is seeking to undermine the criminal justice system with his incendiary rhetoric.... The request was made under seal earlier this month; a redacted version was published late Friday. Trump opposes the request.... The 'limited' order [prosecutors] request would bar specific statements about witnesses, as well as any 'disparaging and inflammatory, or intimidating' comments about anyone involved in the case, including potential jurors.... Right now, prosecutors say, Trump is making inappropriate comments on a 'near-daily basis.' Examples given in the 19-page filing include Truth Social posts in which Trump called [Jack] Smith 'deranged' and his fellow prosecutors 'thugs,' [Judge Tanya] Chutkan a 'fraud, [Mike] Pence 'delusional,' and D.C. 'filthy and crime ridden,' as well as one in which Trump simply wrote, the day after his arraignment, in all caps, 'If you go after me, I'm coming after you!'" The New York Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "... Donald Trump's public statements about the federal election interference investigation led to the harassment of witnesses, according to prosecutors with special counsel Jack Smith's office. Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the federal case against Trump related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, is weighing what to do with the special counsel prosecutors' complaints regarding the alleged harassment. The allegations were made public by the court Friday, after previous court filings indicated prosecutors were taking issue with Trump's 'extrajudicial statements' about the case. 'In its Motion, the government seeks to establish that Defendant has publicly criticized his perceived adversaries and is aware that this criticism has led to their harassment,' Chutkan wrote in an opinion Friday to unseal part of the discussions." This is an earlier version of the updated story; I'm leaving it as is because it emphasizes what a clear & present danger Trump is. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the government's motion, via Politico. (Also linked yesterday.)

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "prosecutors secretly argued in April that if Donald Trump learned of their efforts to access his Twitter account, his public disclosure of the development could 'precipitate violence.'... Informing Trump about the Twitter search warrant 'could precipitate violence as occurred following the public disclosure of the search warrant executed at Mar-a-Lago,' the prosecutors warned. The new filings, part of a monthslong legal battle between Twitter ... and the special counsel's team over whether the social media company ... could inform Trump about the search warrant the investigators had obtained before it complied with its directives.... Prosecutors -- and ultimately U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell -- ... sharply rejected Twitter's notion that Trump's account might contain privileged material. Howell held Twitter in contempt in February and fined the company $350,000 for missing court-ordered deadlines to comply with the prosecutors' search warrant." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Tierney Sneed, et al., of CNN: "Twitter turned over at least 32 direct messages from ... Donald Trump's account -- @realDonaldTrump -- to special counsel Jack Smith earlier this year as part of the federal election subversion investigation, according to newly unsealed court filings. In seeking the messages, prosecutors specifically argued that Trump posed a risk of tampering with evidence.... It is not clear exactly how the [direct] messages have informed the investigation." (Also linked yesterday.)

Pre-empting Trump. Tyler Pager & Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration proposed a new rule Friday seeking to bolster protections for federal workers, an explicit attempt to thwart plans by ... Donald Trump and his allies to replace career government officials with political loyalists should he be reelected. The rule seeks to halt any attempt to gut the foundation of the federal civil service, whose 2.2 million career employees serve any occupant of the White House without regard to partisanship -- and have rights to due process at every level. In the waning days of his administration, Trump tried to subvert those principles with a sweeping executive order that stripped job protections from employees in policy roles across the government.... [Trump's] executive order was the product of a four-year campaign by conservatives to bring to heel what they called a 'deep state' of bureaucrats who were resistant to the policies of the Trump White House.... [It] amounted to the most significant assault on the nonpartisan civil service in its history.... President Biden revoked that executive order on the third day of his presidency, and the new rule Friday seeks to further protect those officials." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is another example of how eliminating the filibuster would likely have prevented any future attempts by Trump or another Trumpy president* to gut the civil service. As the WashPo report notes, "Democratic-sponsored legislation with the rough contours of Friday's proposed regulation cleared the House last year but not the Senate." As it stands, I don't think President Biden's executive order will have a long-lasting effect, as a superseding presidential order can overturn it.

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "The House is currently being run not by Speaker Kevin McCarthy but by backbenchers Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. Two days before departing for the August recess, McCarthy (Calif.) told his House Republican caucus that they could not justify launching a formal impeachment inquiry into President Biden over unproven (and unfounded) allegations. But on Aug. 31, Greene announced that she would not 'vote to fund the government unless we have passed an impeachment inquiry.' Later, Gaetz announced that he would speak on the House floor on Sept. 12, the first day the chamber reconvened after recess, to detail plans to seek McCarthy's ouster as speaker if he impeded the impeachment of Biden.... Donald Trump joined in the impeach-Biden lobbying.... 'Today, I am directing our House committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden,' [McCarthy] announced in a hastily arranged statement outside his Capitol office on Tuesday morning -- an hour before Gaetz was scheduled to deliver his speech on the floor denouncing McCarthy.' Read on.

~~~ And it's all going very smoothly: ~~~

     ~~~ Jacqueline Alemany & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "... tensions escalated between Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee and the Justice Department.... A top GOP House investigator threatened to call Capitol Police to remove an FBI lawyer from a House office building Friday morning because he was unhappy that a senior FBI agent who appeared for a closed-door interview with the committee was accompanied by both a personal lawyer and an FBI lawyer.... Republicans have alleged that the agent, Elvis Chan, was involved with a Justice Department effort to censor conservative voices on social media.... Chan insisted on having both lawyers with him -- which [Chan's personal lawyer Larry] Berger said was unsurprising in this instance because Chan has been named in lawsuits stemming from his FBI work on social media. The committee did not back down, and at one point a person on the committee suggested they would summon the Capitol Police to remove the FBI lawyer....

"Meanwhile, the committee also tangled with the Justice Department this week as Republicans pressed for interviews with more mid-level officials who have been involved with the criminal investigation of [President] Biden's son Hunter.... The Justice Department ... has maintained a long-standing department practice of shielding line attorneys involved with ongoing investigations from Congress, leading to a growing standoff." ~~

~~~ Which brings us back to the sham impeachment inquiry: ~~~

     ~~~ ** Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "As Republicans plunge forward with an impeachment inquiry looking into a complex web of allegations against President Biden, his family and his administration, witnesses they have summoned for closed-door interviews in recent weeks have undercut or pushed back against some of their major claims. In testimony this month, three witnesses from the F.B.I. and the I.R.S. have contradicted key assertions made by a whistle-blower who claimed there was political interference in the Justice Department's tax case against Mr. Biden's son, Hunter, according to hundreds of pages of transcripts obtained by The New York Times. Another former F.B.I. official, whom Republicans have accused of political bias in the Hunter Biden case, Timothy R. Thibault, condemned the allegations against him as 'false and misleading.' And a bookkeeper for the Biden family [-- Eric Schwerin --] told investigators in an informal interview that he was not aware of any financial wrongdoing by the president, according to notes taken by Democratic congressional aides and summarized in a report they released this week.... Recent testimony casts doubt on [Speaker Kevin McCarthy's] accusations [against President Biden].... Multiple witnesses have questioned another key piece of the Republican case: the allegations made by Gary Shapley, an I.R.S. agent turned whistle-blower who testified publicly that the investigation into Hunter Biden was tainted by political interference."

Andrew Jeong of the Washington Post: "Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) apologized for vaping and being disruptive during a performance of the musical 'Beetlejuice' at a city-owned theater in Denver, in a statement released by her campaign team late Friday.... [Boebert and a companion] had been reprimanded multiple times by [theater] staff for 'vaping, singing, [and] causing a disturbance' to other patrons, before being kicked out, according to an incident report shared by the city. As Boebert and her male companion are escorted out of the theater, camera footage shows her rebuking a staff member and saying, 'Do you know who I am?' and 'I will be contacting the mayor,' according to the city's incident report.... Drew Sexton, the congresswoman's campaign manager, had earlier denied accusations Boebert had been vaping, saying heavy fog machines and electronic cigarettes were being used during the show, and there might have been a misunderstanding." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sexton's statement/lie apparently preceded release of a video, which I saw on the teevee, that clearly shows Boebert vaping; no "fog machines" were involved in the giant puff of smoke seen emanating from her e-cig. Although Boebert pretends to be pro-life, Boebert ignored a complaint of her vaping by a pregnant woman sitting nearby, according to an MSNBC on-air report. Boebert denied not just the vaping but also that a pregnant woman asked her to stop. (In addition, the video showed Boebert giving a theater employee the finger as she and her date are escorted out of the theater.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Josh Marshall of TPM goes to the videotape: "It's literally right there on video. Just like the pregnant woman said. Boebert's comical lies are all proven.... As you can see if you watch, it's pretty comprehensive.... You see Boebert rocking out, getting fondled by her current boyfriend, vaping, telling the pregnant lady to pound [sand]. There's even a little coda at the end where she's being escorted out by the usher and flips off a theater employee." Includes video, of course.

Presidential Race & Veep-Stakes 2024

Wherein Donald Pretends to Be Chivalrous. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump told Kristen Welker in a soon-to-be-released interview on NBC's 'Meet the Press' that he made the decision to keep former First Lady Melania Trump off the campaign trail for him, because he would rather not have her subjected to attacks, reported The Daily Beast on Friday. 'Honestly, I like to keep her away from it,' said Trump, according to the news report.... This comes after the former president dodged questions about Melania in an interview with Megyn Kelly, saying that 'the beauty is that mystery.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: While I'm aware that a general "tell" that Donald Trump is lying is that his lips are moving, another specific tell is when he prefaces a remark with "honestly." I don't think I've ever read his saying "honestly," when the word was not followed by an obvious lie. Donald posing as a courtly defender of his wife is fall-off-your-gallant-steed hilarious, even without the proof that he had to plow through one interview to come up with a fake answer in the next. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Marie: Oh gosh, I spoke too soon. The NBC News report on the Welker interview indicates knight-in-shining-armor Donald will not be protecting his lady for long: "Former President Trump said Thursday that former First Lady Melania Trump may be back on the campaign trail with him 'pretty soon.'" What does he have to do to get Melanie to show up at a campaign event? Add another $1MM to her pre-nup payoff? As some cynical contributors suggested in yesterday's thread, Melanie may have a few teeny character flaws, but I'd say that at least she knows enough to stay as far away from her meal ticket husband at possible.

Marie: Last week I saw speculation that how Kristi Noem would be tapped as Donald Trump's 2024 running mate. Well, maybe not: ~~~

~~~ Ken Silverstein & Laura Collins of the Daily Mail: "A rising Republican star tipped by many to be Donald Trump's running mate should he win the presidential nomination has been involved in a clandestine affair for years, multiple sources tell DailyMail.com. Married South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, 51 -- who stresses her belief in 'family values' -- and Trump advisor Corey Lewandowski, who is also married, began carrying on in 2019, if not before. Now news of the relationship threatens to wreck Noem's chances of joining Trump's ticket in a potential rematch with President Joe Biden." MB: It is the Daily Mail. But still. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Eric Loomis in LG&$ disagrees with my speculation about Noem's veep chances: "Trump will probably name Noem his VP candidate because of this but you get your lolz these days when you can. And hey, I guess I can see why Pence won't meet with her alone. Mother would get jealous!... And should we speculate that it was Corey who wanted Noem to remake her face with plastic? It would be irresponsible not to speculate." MB: And this, after RockyGirl and others commented a few days ago upon Lauren Boebert's extraordinary gigantic sparkly headlights! (See videotape embedded in Josh Marshall's post.) It's as if some people don't think the pretty Republican ladies are for real. But can't we at least acknowledge that these GOP mesdames fit right in with the courtly ladies of yore, who applied every manner of artifice to enhance their looks?

Mary Beth Sheridan & Matthew Brown of the Washington Post: "Ovidio Guzmán, a son of former drug kingpin Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán who allegedly became a major trafficker himself -- and a protagonist in America's fentanyl boom -- has been extradited to the United States, the Justice Department said Friday. Prosecutors allege that the younger Guzmán, 33, helped run what Attorney General Merrick Garland has called 'the largest, most violent, and most prolific fentanyl trafficking operation in the world.' U.S. prosecutors say he and his brothers became key leaders of the Sinaloa cartel after their father was arrested in 2016. Mexican army and national guard troops captured Guzmán in the Sinaloa city of Culiacán in January in gun battles that left at least 29 people dead. He has been indicted in New York, Chicago and D.C. on federal charges of trafficking fentanyl, cocaine, heroin and other illegal drugs to the United States."

DeNeen Brown of the Washington Post: "On Sept. 15, 1963, dynamite ripped through the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., killing four Black girls in the church basement as they prepared to attend Sunday services. The powerful blast reduced the church to rubble, mangling cars in the parking lot and stopping clocks. The dynamite blew plaster off the walls and peeled the face off the image of Jesus in a stained-glass window.... Sixty years later, as the country continues to reel from recent high-profile police killings of unarmed Black Americans and lawmakers in several states restrict the teaching of Black history, the city of Birmingham is hosting a week of events to commemorate the victims of the church bombing and highlight the civil rights push that followed." Read on. ~~~

     ~~~ Erica Green & Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: "Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Friday called on the nation to accept some of the ugliest truths in its history as she confronted the debates roiling the country about racism and violence against Black Americans. In a speech from the pulpit of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Justice Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the nation's highest court, said that she made her first trip to Alabama 'to commemorate and mourn, celebrate -- and warn.' She was the keynote speaker to mark the 60th anniversary of a bombing by the Ku Klux Klan that killed four young girls at the church as they arrived for Sunday morning service."