The Commentariat -- March 29, 2019
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Linda Qiu of the New York Times: "At a rally in Michigan, President Trump misstated the findings of the special counsel investigation, misleadingly promised to protect patients with pre-existing conditions and falsely described funding for a restoration program for the Great Lakes.... Mr. Trump's claims of a 'decimated' automobile industry before he took office and its revitalization since are not rooted in fact.... Mr. Trump also repeated more than a dozen [false] claims The Times has previously fact-checked[.]" Mrs. McC: No doubt Qiu only scratched the surface. ...
I'm going to get, in honor of my friends, full funding of $300 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which you have been trying to get for over 30 years. -- Donald Trump, telling another lie in Michigan ...
... Sabrina Eaton of Cleveland.com: "Less than a month after proposing a federal budget that would have cut Great Lakes cleanup money from $300 million to $30 million..., Donald Trump pledged to provide the full $300 million during a campaign rally in Michigan. During the rally in Grand Rapids, Trump told the audience '... I support the Great Lakes. Always have. They are beautiful. They are big, very deep, record deepness, right? And I am going to get, in honor of my friends, full funding of $300 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which you have been trying to get for over 30 years. So, we will get it done.' Since entering the White House, all the yearly budgets that Trump has presented to Congress suggested cuts to the program, but Congress has overruled Trump by giving the program $300 million each year. Over the past two years, Trump proposed a 90 percent cut to the program. During his first year in office, Trump called for eliminating the program.... 'As a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, which approves funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, I would have never allowed Trump's gutting of GLRI make it through Congress without a fight,' said a statement from Toledo Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is another of those "The Lord taketh away & the Lord giveth back" "gifts" for which ignorant Trumpbots express roaring gratitude. (In this case, it's actually, "Obama & Congress giveth, Trump taketh away & Trump giveth back," altho, again, remember that the presidential budget request is merely a statement of preferences, & no money is actually allocated.) As Linda Qiu wrote (linked above), "The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a program for restoring the ecosystem of the Great Lakes, was first implemented by the Obama administration in 2010. Federal funding ranged from nearly $300 million to $450 million every year under Mr. Obama. Mr. Trump requested no funding at all for the initiative in his 2018 budget request, effectively eliminating the program, though Congress ended up appropriating nearly $300 million. His latest budget proposes a 90 percent cut to the program, reducing funding to $30 million."
Steven Mufson of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration has kept secret seven authorizations it has issued since November 2017 allowing U.S. nuclear energy companies to share sensitive technological information with Saudi Arabia, even though the kingdom has not yet agreed to anti-proliferation terms required to construct a pair of U.S.-designed civilian nuclear power plants. The Energy Department and State Department have not only kept the authorizations from the public but also refused to share information about them with congressional committees that have jurisdiction over nuclear proliferation and safety.... Members of Congress are upset about the administration's stance and are trying to learn whether the United States has been sharing information with Saudi Arabia even after the October killing in Istanbul of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen and U.S. resident." This is a update to a Daily Beast story safari linked yesterday.
... Mrs. McCrabbie: By "members of Congress," Mufson means Democratic members. Republicans don't give a rat's ass about nuclear proliferation if Trump & Saudi whisperer Jared are the proliferators. ...
... Update: Thanks, Mike Pompeo, for backing up my assertion:
... Joel Gehrke of the Washington Examiner: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Thursday with the Saudi Arabian prince who lied to senators about his role in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. According to the CIA, Prince Khalid bin Salman helped persuade Khashoggi to visit the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where an elaborate operation was in place to have him killed and dismembered. Pompeo, a former CIA director, hosted Prince Khalid in his headquarters at Foggy Bottom to discuss plans for 'countering the Iranian regime's destabilizing activities' in the Middle East. The meeting confirmed Prince Khalid's return to the center of the alliance as deputy defense minister, just months after the former ambassador to the United States gave top lawmakers a transparently false explanation for Khashoggi's disappearance in a Saudi diplomatic facility. 'The secretary congratulated the minister on his new role and looked forward to continuing to work together to advance the U.S.-Saudi partnership,' the State Department said." Mrs. McC: All so diplomatic except for that beheading & dismemberment part. Mike Pompeo is one cold-blooded bastard. ...
... Manu Raju & Jennifer Hansler of CNN: "Jessikka Aro, a Finnish investigative journalist with a history of breaking stories on Russian propaganda efforts, had been slated to receive a prestigious award in Washington along with several other women selected by the State Department for their courage in the face of great risks overseas. Suddenly and without warning, the honor ... was rescinded -- with no explanation from the [State] department. After a Foreign Policy report suggested that the State Department may have retaliated against her because of her criticism of ... Donald Trump on social media, State Department deputy spokesperson Robert Palladino asserted ... she had been 'incorrectly notified' of her award.... But internal communications ... show that the State Department and US embassy officials in Finland had been in talks with Aro for several months, extensively communicating with her about the award, her travel documents, her itinerary in Washington and her bio, which had been approved by eight State Department officials. Then, two weeks after an official asked her to provide a list of her social media accounts, the honor was abruptly rescinded.... The documents were obtained by Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee...."
Manafort Gets to Keep the Swag. Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "The FBI, in searching Manafort's home and other possessions, had taken photos of dozens of hangers full of custom House of Bijan and Alan Couture clothing, including animal skin outerwear that was worth thousands -- the python bomber worth $18,500, a camel hair sportcoat for $6,500, an ostrich track jacket at $15,000, an ostrich vest for $9,500. And the government and Manafort never agreed for him to hand over the menswear as part of his forfeiture. Even so, special counsel Robert Mueller -- whose investigation cost about $25 million as of September 2018 -- got his money's worth out of the Manafort case.... Manafort is turning over property and assets worth at least $36 million to the US government and to his debtors and victims, which are mostly banks, as part of his criminal sentences."
William James, et al., of Reuters: "Lawmakers rejected Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal for a third time on Friday, sounding its probable death knell and leaving Britain's withdrawal from the European Union in turmoil on the very day it was supposed to leave the bloc. The decision to reject a stripped-down version of May's divorce deal has left it totally unclear how, when or even whether Britain will leave the EU, and plunges the three-year Brexit crisis to a deeper level of uncertainty." ...
... Here's the Guardian's liveblog.
Oliver Milman of the Guardian: "An iceberg roughly twice the size of New York City is set to break away from an Antarctic ice shelf as a result of a rapidly spreading rift that is being monitored by Nasa. A crack along part of the Brunt ice shelf in Antarctica first appeared in October 2016, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa). The crack is spreading to the east. This rift, known as the Halloween crack, is set to intersect with another fissure that was apparently stable for the past 35 years but is now accelerating north at a rate of around 2.5 miles a year. Once these two rifts meet, which could happen within weeks, an iceberg of at least 660sq miles is set to be loosened. While the anticipated iceberg is large by most measures, it is dwarfed by other recent Antarctic breakaways.... The long-term future of Antarctic ice shelves will have a major influence on sea level rise around the world."
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, but we know these breakaways are not caused by global warming because snow fell on Amy Klobuchar in February in Minnesota.
Jason Bittel of the Washington Post: "There is a plague ripping through the amphibian species of the world. It's caused by fungus that's invisible to the naked eye and spreads easily by many means. It kills by disrupting the way these creatures breathe through their skin, essentially suffocating frogs and salamanders. The disease is called chytridiomycosis, and according to a landmark study published Thursday in the journal Science, it's even worse than we thought. Scientists once estimated that about 200 species of frogs and salamanders have been harmed by the disease, but the study concludes that chytrid fungus has contributed to declines in at least 501 amphibian species. Ninety of the species are thought to have gone extinct because of it. Populations in tropical Australia, Central and South America seem to be hardest hit, though populations in Africa, Europe and North America are also affected. According to this accounting, the epidemic has caused the worst loss of biodiversity of any disease ever recorded."
~~~~~~~~~~
The Trump Scandals, Ctd.
** The Constant Liar. David Fahrenthold & Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post: "When Donald Trump wanted to make a good impression -- on a lender, a business partner, or a journalist -- he sometimes sent them official-looking documents called 'Statements of Financial Condition.' These documents sometimes ran up to 20 pages. They were full of numbers, laying out Trump's properties, debts and multibillion-dollar net worth. But ... the documents were deeply flawed. Some simply omitted properties that carried big debts. Some assets were overvalued. And some key numbers were wrong. For instance, Trump's financial statement for 2011 said ... his Virginia vineyard had 2,000 acres, when it really has about 1,200. He said Trump Tower has 68 stories. It has 58.... Now, investigators on Capitol Hill and in New York are homing in on these unusual documents in an apparent attempt to determine whether Trump's familiar habit of bragging about his wealth ever crossed a line into fraud. The statements are at the center of at least two of the inquiries that continue to follow Trump...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... digby: "They sent a Real Housewife and her husband to jail for exactly this sort of crime, with a whole lot less money at stake[.]"
Mark Landler & Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Trump, fresh off what he claims was 'total vindication' in the special counsel's Russia investigation, told supporters here Thursday he had vanquished a corrupt cabal of Democrats, the news media and the Washington elite, who tried to nullify his historic election victory by painting him as an agent of Russia.... He came onstage hot and served up one scorching zinger after another, taking particular delight in ridiculing Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, who oversees the House Intelligence Committee, and other Democrats who have led calls to investigate Mr. Trump. 'They're on artificial respirators right now,' Mr. Trump said, his voice dripping with contempt. 'They're giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Little pencil-neck Adam Schiff. He's got the smallest, thinnest neck I've ever seen.'... 'The Democrats need to decide whether they will continue to defraud the public with ridiculous bullshit,' the president said." Read on, I guess.
... Mrs. McCrabbie: My sympathies to the fact-checkers. Since Trump thinks it's "presidential" to insult a person's physique, let me just say that Donald Trump is the ugliest, orange-faced, bloated porker ever to have set his fat ass on the best chair in the Oval Office. Oink oink. ...
... Caleb Howe of Mediaite: "At ... Donald Trump's rally in Michigan on Tuesday he went after the media hard several times over the Russia investigation and the Mueller report.... Referring to the media and Democrats [as] 'deep state' together, Trump said 'this group of major losers did not just ruthlessly attack me, my family, and everyone who questioned their lies. They tried to divide our country, to poison the national debate, and to tear up the fabric of our great democracy, the greatest anywhere in the world. They did it all because they refused to accept the results of one of the greatest presidential elections, probably number one in our history.'... He brought up Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and the committee investigations and added, 'These people are sick. Sick. Every single deal, every single paper. All of the Democrat politicians. The media bosses. Bad people. The crooked journalists, the totally dishonest TV pundits -- and by the way, they know it's not true. They just got great ratings,' he said. 'By the way, their ratings dropped through the floor last night, did you see that?'" ...
... Frank Rich: "The bad news is that Trump still is colluding with Russia as he attempts to destroy NATO, soften sanctions, and fulfill other items on Vladimir Putin's to-do list. Trump may already be colluding, passively if not illegally, with Russia's attack on the 2020 election as well by mounting, at most, a nominal effort to combat it. And there's no reason to doubt that he will continue to ignore, deride, and delegitimize the American intelligence agencies which are tracking it. Surely his biggest takeaway from Mueller's verdict is that, as in 2016, he can openly reap and celebrate Russia's efforts on his behalf without having to be a participant in them. As Cold War parlance would have it, he's a useful idiot for the Russian cause even if he's not a Russian agent. It's not for nothing that the Kremlin has been celebrating the Mueller report with the same hyperbolic enthusiasm as Sean Hannity."
No thank you Mr. Attorney General. We do not need your interpretation. Show us the report and we can draw our own conclusions. We don't need you interpreting for us. It was condescending, it was arrogant and wasn't the right thing to do. The sooner they can give us the information, the sooner we can make a judgment about it. -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi, at a press conference Thursday ...
... Stonewall Barr. Kasie Hunt & Mike Memoli of NBC News: "House Democrats are on a collision course with Attorney General William Barr as it appears increasingly unlikely he will comply with their demands to see Robert Mueller's full unredacted report -- let alone the evidence that backs it up. At a Thursday briefing, senior House Democratic staff elaborated on a Wednesday night call between Barr and Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., telling reporters that Barr refused to commit to asking a judge to release grand jury information to Congress. And the staffers emphasized that Barr all but refused to give Nadler an unredacted copy of the report.... Democratic staffers reiterated that there is ample precedent for Congress being given the kind of information it is seeking -- pointing to what the Justice Department turned over to GOP-led committees in the last Congress as they investigated how federal law enforcement handled both the Hillary Clinton email investigation and the circumstances that led the FBI to initiate a counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: As Rachel Maddow emphasized on her show last night, within two days of completing his report on Bill Clinton, Ken Starr sent his report, along with all supporting documentation, to Congress. Starr sent two copies of the report & related docs, one each for Democrats & Republicans. The papers filled 36 boxes, & it took two vans to transport them. Within two days of receiving the special counsel's report this time around, Bill Barr sent over a few copies of a four-page PR press release. And nothing since. Kinda makes you suspect the Mueller report isn't as much an exoneration as the Barr report clams. ...
... Nicholas Fandos & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "The still-secret report on Russian interference in the 2016 election submitted by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, last week was more than 300 pages long, according to the Justice Department, a length that raises new questions about Attorney General William P. Barr's four-page summary.... The total of 300-plus pages suggests that Mr. Mueller went well beyond the kind of bare-bones summary required by the Justice Department regulation governing his appointment and detailed his conclusions at length. And it raises questions about what Mr. Barr might have left out of the four dense pages he sent Congress." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: No kidding. It's beginning to look as if Barr made a big mistake if he in fact mischaracterized Mueller's report. The CNN poll (linked below) shows that the public aren't buying the Barr Report, suggesting that people, for various reasons, view Barr as a partisan actor and trust his possibly fake synosis far less than they trust what they've learned about Trump & Co. over the past several years. ...
... Bill's Dinner with Lindsey. Also, too, a couple of pundits pointed out that Barr discussed the Mueller report over dinner Tuesday evening with Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R); then on Wednesday Barr got around to having a 10-minute phone call with House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler (D). This is a picture of partisan hackery, not of an "independent Department of Justice."
Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "... with [the] prospect [of a subpoena] hanging over them, Trump's legal advisers conducted a quiet, multipronged pressure campaign to avert such an action and keep the president from coming face-to-face with federal investigators -- fearful he would perjure himself.... In the end, the decision not to subpoena the president is one of the lingering mysteries of Mueller's 22-month investigation.... An interview with the president would have been pivotal to helping assess whether the president had corrupt intent, a key element of such a charge, legal experts said. It is an open question whether a subpoena would have survived the court challenge that Trump's lawyers say they would have mounted.... In assessing whether to pursue such a high-stakes move, the special counsel was not operating with complete autonomy [since Rod Rosenstein, a Trump appointee, was supervising him]. That was a contrast with predecessors such as Kenneth Starr, who investigated President Bill Clinton and had broad leeway under the now-expired independent counsel statute."
I'm so proud of the work of chairman Adam Schiff, in stark contrast to the irresponsible, almost criminal behavior of the previous chair of the committee. So what is the president afraid of? Is he afraid of the truth, that he would go after a respected chairman of a committee in the Congress? I think they're just scaredy cats. ... It's their own insecurity, their own fear of the truth. -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi, at a press conference Thursday ...
Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The House Intelligence Committee devolved into bitter infighting Thursday, as all nine Republicans demanded Chairman Adam Schiff resig his post and the California Democrat responded with a blistering account of 'evidence of collusion' between ... Donald Trump's campaign and Russia.... The attack by the Republican committee members on Schiff is a continuation of a similar assault launched by Trump -- who called on Schiff to quit Congress in a tweet earlier in the morning -- and other Trump allies who accused Schiff of fomenting claims of conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign. Democrats have rallied around Schiff in recent days. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) dismissed the GOP attacks, and Democrats' House campaign arm elevated Schiff on Wednesday to be its national frontline finance chair." Worth reading. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... The video below includes Adam Schiff's full response to Republicans' demands he resign. It ends at just after 6 min. in. (The video I embedded yesterday did not include Schiff's full remarks.):
... Lawrence O'Donnell suggests Schiff's remarks will go down in history right alongside Joseph Welch's have-you-no-sense-of-decency speech. Mrs. McC: This is kind of perfect because the dimwitted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) "spent much of his weekly news conference comparing Mr. Schiff" to the man Welch was addressing: that other McCarthy, Tailgunner. Absent villains, there are no heroes. ...
... House Intel Republicans Don't Care about Intel. Kyle Cheney & Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "House Intelligence Committee Republicans concluded a year ago that the Trump campaign exercised 'poor judgment,' 'took ill-considered actions' and at times acted 'inconsistent with U.S. national security interests.' But on Thursday they said they don't need to see special counsel Robert Mueller's report to know that no one in ... Donald Trump's orbit was compromised by Russia — even unwittingly.... Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), who served on the intelligence committee during its GOP-led Russia investigation, said Barr's summary effectively ruled out any counterintelligence concerns.... 'We've seen the four-page synopsis. Do you think there would be issues of counterintelligence that would not be highlighted?' said Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah.) 'He would not have been so definitive ... if there had been any ambiguity.'"
... Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Thursday demanded that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff resign from Congress over his accusations that Trump conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Trump, in a Thursday morning tweet, accused Schiff (D-Calif.), without evidence, of spending the past two years 'knowingly and unlawfully lying and leaking' about the Russia investigation. He 'should be forced to resign from Congress!' Trump added." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jeremy Herb, et al., of CNN: "... Jared Kushner returned to the Senate Intelligence Committee for a closed door interview Thursday as part of the committee's Russia investigation.... The first time Kushner appeared before the panel in 2017, he was interviewed by committee staff. The committee has wanted to re-interview witnesses central to the investigation. On Thursday, senators were sitting in on the interview." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "A key House committee is demanding a briefing from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Jared Kushner's trip to Saudi Arabia last month that included a senior State Department official but otherwise left American diplomats in the dark. In a letter sent Thursday, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel (D-NY) expressed concern that embassy staff were reportedly sidelined from participating in the meetings on that trip, including those with the Royal Court and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman."
Christal Hayes, et al., of USA Today: "... Donald Trump said he would jettison a proposal to slash funding for the Special Olympics, undercutting Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and the budget proposal he signed. 'The Special Olympics will be funded. I just told my people I want to fund the Special Olympics,' Trump said he left the White House en route to a political rally in Grand Rapids, Mich. 'I have overridden my people. We're funding the Special Olympics.' Trump's remarks came after widespread criticism targeted DeVos' budget proposal to eliminate funding for the program.... DeVos' proposed $17.6 million cut for the Special Olympics was included in the $4.75 trillion federal budget that ... Trump, in his comments on Thursday, offered no additional information about whether his administration will commit to funding the entire $17.6 million Special Olympics had been getting and whether it will be protected from future proposed reductions. After Trump made the announcement, DeVos thanked the president and said they see 'eye to eye' on this, adding she pushed him to change his stance on funding the program." ...
... Jonathan Chait: "It's not really clear what it means to override a proposal that isn't going anywhere. It does seem clear that sending a member of your cabinet out to defend a cartoon-villain idea and then denouncing it is something less than a masterstroke." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump deserves no kudos for "saving" the Special Olympics. In a Senate Committee hearing Thursday (video below), DeVos would not say who was responsible for cutting the program, but she asserted it wasn't she. In any event, the budget belongs to Trump, so he is responsible for the cut: he's not a hero if all he does is undo some of the damage he did. Of course, a presidential budget request is a fantasy wish-list indicative of a president's priorities, not a commitment of taxpayer dollars. DeVos (or Mulvaney) didn't actually ax Special Olympics dollars any more than Trump saved them. (P.S. Looks as if USA Today is now among the many newspapers that has a non-subscriber limit so you might want to go the incognito-window route.) The video is worth watching in its entirety, but the best part is Cruella DeVos's "exchange" with a CNN reporter's questions. Apparently, a woman of Cruella's stature & wealth cannot be expected to stoop to communicating with commoners, except as required by law (say, in a Congressional meeting):
Megan Crepeau & Madeline Buckley of the Chicago Tribune: "... Donald Trump tweeted early Thursday that the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice would review the Jussie Smollett case, calling it 'outrageous' and 'an embarrassment to our Nation!' Trump did not say exactly what the agencies would look into, but the Fraternal Order of Police and others have been calling for a federal investigation into State's Attorney Kim Foxx's handling of the case involving the 'Empire' actor." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: President* Racist just can't stand the idea that a young black man might have got the same sort of get-out-of-jail card that Bill Barr just gave him. He also seems to be ordering the DOJ & FBI to investigate the Smollett matter. This is something real presidents don't do.
Jennifer Epstein of Bloomberg News: "... Donald Trump said he asked a group of U.S. senators to create a health-care plan to replace Obamacare, as his administration seeks to have the law signed by his predecessor invalidated in court. Republicans John Barrasso of Wyoming, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Rick Scott of Florida are developing the plan, Trump told reporters Thursday as he departed the White House for a political rally in Michigan. 'They are going to work together, come up with something that's really spectacular.'..." ...
... McConnell Stiffs Trump. Burgess Everett of Politico: "Mitch McConnell has no intention of leading ... Donald Trump's campaign to transform the GOP into the 'party of health care.' 'I look forward to seeing what the president is proposing and what he can work out with the speaker,' McConnell said [Mrs. McC: verb s/b "deadpanned"] in a brief interview Thursday.... The Kentucky Republican and his members are putting the onus on the president to figure out the next steps.&" ...
... Paul Krugman: "... Democrats have a realistic plan to expand health care, while Republicans are still pursuing their jihad against Obamacare. The question is why.... [The answer:] In today's G.O.P., cruelty toward the most vulnerable is a pre-existing condition." ...
... So Much Winning. Judge Blocks Trump's "Wonderful" Healthcare Plan. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in Washington ruled late Thursday that the Trump administration's push to make health insurance plans available outside the Affordable Care Act that avoid the requirements of the health care law was illegal, calling the efforts 'clearly an end-run around the ACA.'
... Adam Cancryn & Dan Diamond of Politico: "The Trump appointee who oversees Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare quietly directed millions of taxpayer dollars in contracts to Republican communications consultants during her tenure atop the agency -- including hiring one well-connected GOP media adviser to bolster her public profile. The communications subcontracts approved by CMS Administrator Seema Verma -- routed through a larger federal contract and described to Politico by three individuals with firsthand knowledge of the agreements -- represent a sharp break from precedent at the agency. Those deals, managed by Verma's deputies, came in some cases over the objections of CMS staffers, who raised concerns about her push to use federal funds on GOP consultants and to amplify coverage of Verma's own work. CMS has its own large communications shop, including about two dozen people who handle the press. Verma, a close ally of Vice President Mike Pence, has become a lightning rod for pushing work requirements in Medicaid [Mrs. McC: struck down by a federal judge earlier this week] and spearheading the Trump administration's efforts to unilaterally unwind pieces of Obamacare [Mrs. McC: one of which was struck down by a judge yesterday -- story linked below]." ... ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If those GOP image consultants can make Verma look good, they've every one of their tax-funded dollars. That doesn't make me any happier about my contribution. Republicans don't oppose "fraud, waste & abuse." They revel in it. ... Jackie Borchardt of the Cincinnati Enquirer: "Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost will join a growing number of states fighting a Texas judge's decision to scrap the entire Affordable Care Act. But Yost, a Republican, won't be siding with fellow Republicans who filed the lawsuit or Democratic attorneys general who have joined together to support the Obama-era health care law. Yost said in an interview he agrees that the individual mandate to buy health insurance is unconstitutional but disagrees that the rest of the law is also therefore invalid. Yost plans to file a friend-of the-court brief in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeal. The brief will argue the individual mandate can be removed from the law without eliminating protections for pre-existing conditions, insurance caps and other parts of the law. About 1.9 millio non-elderly Ohioans have pre-existing conditions, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. That puts him at odds with the Trump administration." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ... ... Jim Newell of Slate: "Just as ... Donald Trump was supposed to be hitting his stride in his no-collusion victory lap, his administration -- at the behest of its disconcertingly influential acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney -- announced Monday that it was siding with a district judge's dubious ruling that the entire Affordable Care Act should be tossed.... The move was seen ... as bailing out Democrats from a bad news cycle -- or, at minimum, as putting a premature end to a rare good news cycle for Trump.... The few days since the release of Barr's summary demonstrate how a Mueller report that doesn't meet Democrats' hopes can help them: It snaps them back to the realities of how they really could take down Trump. Democrats no longer need to complicate their strategy with the fantasy that an investigation might produce a silver bullet and an obligation to consider impeachment. Instead, they can now train all of their efforts into taking Trump down the conventional way: by calling out his unpopular policy preferences and defeating him in the 2020 election." ... ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Inasmuch as Mulvaney -- besides being chief of staff -- is also Trump's budget director, he is apparently also is responsible (or at least partially so) for the bipartisan takedown of Trump's plan to zero out the Special Olympics, the other big bad news story for Trump this week. If it dawns on Trump that Mulvaney is the source of all of his woes on an otherwise "triumphant" week when new AG Bill Barr came thru for him, Mulvaney -- who earlier this week was about to lose his "acting" status in the chief-of-staff job -- may find himself making the rouns of K Street in search of a lobbying gig. Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen will ask Congress for the authority to deport unaccompanied migrant children more quickly, to hold families seeking asylum in detention until their cases are decided and to allow immigrants to apply for asylum from their home countries, according to a copy of the request obtained by NBC News." Dominic Holden of BuzzFeed News: "The Justice Department has grown increasingly hostile toward its own LGBT workers, causing top talent to quit as they experience discrimination and 'declining morale,' according to a group of LGBT employees who confronted Attorney General Bill Barr in a letter this week.... During Barr's confirmation hearing, he said anti-gay discrimination should be illegal under the law, but he said current law does, in fact, allow anti-LGBT discrimination against workers." Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Jessie K. Liu, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia who had been tapped to take the Justice Department's No. 3 job, has withdrawn from consideration after Republican senators raised concerns about her past membership in a lawyers group that supported abortion rights and opposed the nomination of Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court. The Trump administration signaled weeks ago that it would nominate Liu for the position of associate attorney general, in which she would oversee the department's extensive civil litigation work. That nomination will not happen, because of her past role with the lawyers group, officials said Thursday." Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to block a Trump administration initiative banning bump stocks, the attachments that enable semiautomatic rifles to fire in sustained, rapid bursts. The court's action, in a one-sentence order, means that the regulation will remain in force while challenges to it move forward in the courts." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Buddhists Si, Muslims No. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Thursday night stopped the execution of a Texas inmate because the state refused his request to have a Buddhist spiritual adviser with him in the death chamber. The court's decision contrasted with its actions last month, when it allowed the execution of a Muslim prisoner in Alabama who was denied his request to have an imam with him at the time of his death. The court's conservatives were criticized by liberals and religious conservatives for that decision. They said that the request came too late. Texas officials had made the same argument about Patrick Murphy, who was part of a gang of escaped inmates who killed a suburban Dallas police officer during a Christmas Eve robbery more than 18 years ago. But the Supreme Court's order Thursday night said Texas could not execute Murphy 'unless the state permits Murphy's Buddhist spiritual advisor or another Buddhist reverend ... to accompany Murphy in the execution chamber during the execution.'" Hadas Gold of CNN: "Twitter is considering labeling Trump tweets that violate its rules.... The social media company is trying to find a way of maintaining its standards while adding context to tweets from politicians and other figures that may be offensive but are important for public debate." Roni Rabin of the New York Times: "New York State on Thursday laid out one of the most detailed and sweeping legal cases yet against the family that owns Purdue Pharma, maker of the opioid OxyContin, as well as the companies that distributed alarming amounts of prescription painkillers amid a rising epidemic of abuse that has killed hundreds of thousands of people nationwide. The lawsuit, filed by the state attorney general Letitia James, is one of the very few in a wave of opioid litigation across the country that name the Sacklers. It targets eight family members...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Emily Flitter of the New York Times: "Timothy J. Sloan, the embattled chief executive of Wells Fargo, abruptly stepped down on Thursday as one of the country's largest banks struggles to recover from a series of self-inflicted scandals. Mr. Sloan took over the top job in 2016 with a mandate to clean up the bank after his predecessor was forced to resign. Once regarded as among the nation's best-run financial institutions, Wells Fargo admitted in 2016 that it had for years opened what may have been millions of fictitious accounts in customers' names, improperly charged them fees and sold them unwanted products. But Mr. Sloan, who has been at the company for 31 years, could do little to stem renewed criticism about the bank's culture and sales practices. In fact, he became a lightning rod for criticism, including from members of Congress who called for his resignation." ... ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Altho the Times doesn't say so, it could be Wells Fargo was losing customers as a result of all the bad publicity. I had two fairly fat accounts there, & I closed them both early last year because WF is even more unethical than B/A, where unfortunately I do most of my banking now. Beyond the Beltway New York. Jesse McKinley of the New York Times: "New York State lawmakers have agreed to impose a statewide ban on most types of single-use plastic bags from retail sales, changing a way of life for millions of New Yorkers as legislators seek to curb an unsightly and omnipresent source of litter. The plan, proposed a year ago by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, would be the second statewide ban, after California, which banned bags in 2016. Hawaii also effectively has a ban in place, since all the state's counties bar such single-use bags.... The ban, which is expected to be part of the state's budget bills that are slated to be passed by Monday, would have a number of carveouts...."
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