The Commentariat -- July 6, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration will not fully meet a federal judge's deadline to reunite all migrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border, and instead is seeking more time in instances where officials are struggling to match children to parents, according to court records filed late Thursday. The government's request, hours before a scheduled hearing on the issue Friday, marks an abrupt departure from comments made earlier Thursday from President Trump's secretary for Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, whose agency cares for the children in shelters. He had said the Trump administration 'will comply' with the deadlines, though he criticized the judge's timetable as 'extreme.'"
** Annie Snider of Politico: "The Trump administration is suppressing an Environmental Protection Agency report that warns that most Americans inhale enough formaldehyde vapor in the course of daily life to put them at risk of developing leukemia and other ailments, a current and a former agency official told Politico. The warnings are contained in a draft health assessment EPA scientists completed just before Donald Trump became president, according to the officials. They said top advisers to departing Administrator Scott Pruitt are delaying its release as part of a campaign to undermine the agency's independent research into the health risks of toxic chemicals. Andrew Wheeler, the No. 2 official at EPA who will be the agency's new acting chief ..., was staff director for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in 2004, when his boss, then-Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), sought to delay an earlier iteration of the formaldehyde assessment.... As long ago as January, Pruitt told a Senate panel that he believed the draft assessment was complete. Five months later, it has yet to see the light of day."
Chris Cillizza notes some of the men Donald Trump believes over their accusers: Jim Jordan, Roy Moore, Rob Porter, Rogers Ailes & Bill O'Reilly. (Al Franken, not so much.) "It doesn't take a genius to diagnose a severe case of situational ethics in Trump."
Peter Walker of the Guardian: "Donald Trump will almost entirely avoid London during his four-day visit to the UK next week, Downing Street has said, unveiling an itinerary that is likely to prompt accusations he is trying to avoid planned protests against him.... Trump, who is to meet Theresa May and the Queen among others before spending two days in Scotland, will only spend the night in London on Thursday, the day of his arrival, staying at the US ambassador's official residence in Regent's Park, Winfield House. Before that he will attend a gala dinner at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, and the following day he will hold talks with the prime minister at her Chequers country retreat in Buckinghamshire. Both are places where protesters can be kept out of sight and earshot. Later on the Friday he will meet the Queen at Windsor Castle before heading to Scotland for the weekend." Mrs. McC: Hope he gets to see Blimpy Baby Trump (story linked below).
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Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: "This, to say the least, is not normal." That's what Susan Glasser writes (linked below) about the administration's revolving spinning door. But "not normal" also is true of most news that comes out of the White House every day. Just look at today: we've begun a massive trade war with China initiated by presidential fiat without any consideration of the consequences for the greater economy (but not touching Trump's personal profits); a President making racist, sexist remarks against a sitting U.S. Senator; an administration so incompetent that it crosses the line into criminal negligence in its cruel treatment of children & their families (DNA tests to find out who's who!); a President who finally fires a scandal-plagued Cabinet member (via a surrogate who also is about to get canned), then lies about the circumstances of the firing; a President who hires a new scandal-plagued deputy who enabled a sexual abuser not unlike the President himself; a President who unequivocally supports (for now) a Congressman accused of covering up rampant sexual abuse & who dismisses out-of-hand widespread allegations against the MoC. We cannot become accustomed to this. It is "normal" now; but it is not normal over the course of the nation's history.
Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "A trade war between the world's two largest economies officially began on Friday morning as the Trump administration followed through with its threat to impose tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese products, a significant escalation of a fight that could hurt companies and consumers in both the United States and China. The penalties, which went into effect at 12:01 a.m., prompted quick retaliation by Beijing. China said it immediately put its own similarly sized tariffs on an unspecified clutch of American goods. Previously, the Chinese government had said it would tax pork, soybeans and automobiles, among other goods. In a statement, China's Ministry of Commerce said the United States 'has launched the biggest trade war in economic history so far.'" Mrs. McC: The Minister's comment is very Trumpy. ...
... As Ye Sow... Paul Krugman: "... big business is reaping what it sowed. No single cause brought us to this terrible moment in American history, but decades of cynical politics on the part of corporate America certainly played an important role.... Partly I mean the tacit alliance between businesses and the wealthy, on one side, and racists on the other, that is the essence of the modern conservative movement.... Trump isn't just a protectionist, he's an authoritarian.... Trump is already in the habit of threatening businesses that have crossed him.... But organizations like the [C]hamber [of Commerce] and Heritage are still trying to ensure a Republican victory." ...
... Jonathan O'Connell & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "... the president's businesses continue to benefit from partnerships involving the Chinese government, via state-backed companies and investors. Chinese government-backed firms are slated to work on parts of two large developments -- in Dubai and Indonesia -- that will include Trump-branded properties. The Trumps are the landlord to one of China's top state-owned banks, which has occupied the 20th floor of Trump Tower in Manhattan since 2008. The bank's lease is worth close to $2 million annually, according to industry estimates and a bank filing. And despite the Trump administration's focus on American manufacturing, assembly-line workers in China still produce blouses, shoes and handbags for the clothing line created by Trump's daughter Ivanka, a White House adviser. The tariffs that were set to kick in at 12:01 a.m. Friday are not expected to affect the Trumps' financial interests...."
Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "President Trump lobbed personal and derogatory attacks at two Democratic senators, mocked the #MeToo movement and vouched for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Thursday during a freewheeling, raucous rally ostensibly intended to solidify support for Montana's Republican Senate candidate. Taunting Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, with a refusal to apologize for calling her 'Pocahontas,' Mr. Trump imagined a debate during which he would gently throw an ancestry testing kit at Ms. Warren to make her prove the Native American heritage she has controversially claimed. 'We are going to do it gently because we're the #MeToo generation, so we have to be very careful,' the president said to scattered laughter, adding that he would donate $1 million to charity if Ms. Warren followed through. Mr. Trump, who has faced accusations of sexual assault and harassment, announced earlier in the day that Bill Shine, who was ousted from Fox News over his handling of the network's harassment scandals, would take a position on his administration's communications staff." Trump also criticized Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.). Do read on. ...
While you obsess over my genes, your Admin is conducting DNA tests on little kids because you ripped them from their mamas & you are too incompetent to reunite them in time to meet a court order. Maybe you should focus on fixing the lives you're destroying. -- Elizabeth Warren, following Trump's remarks, in a tweet ...
... ** Caitlin Dickerson of the New York Times: "Faced with a court-imposed deadline to reunite families separated at the southwest border, federal authorities are calling in volunteers to sort through records and resorting to DNA tests to match children with parents. And they acknowledged for the first time Thursday that of the nearly 3,000 children who are still in federal custody, about 100 are under the age of 5. The family separations, part of an aggressive effort by the Trump administration to deter illegal immigration, have produced a chaotic scramble as officials now face political and judicial pressure to reunite families. Records linking children to their parents have disappeared, and in some cases have been destroyed, according to two officials of the Department of Homeland Security, leaving the authorities struggling to identify connections between family members." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Donald Trump, Jeff Sessions, DHS head Kirstjen Nielsen & HHS Secretary Alex Azar must answer for this. The administration's purposeful incompetence is nothing short of criminal negligence. Their cavalier ineptitude has deep consequences for their victims; now it must have consequences for the perps. ...
... MEANWHILE. David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club has applied for permission to hire 40 foreign workers to serve as waiters during the winter social season in Palm Beach, Fla., according to data posted Thursday by the Labor Department.... The application filed with the Labor Department signals that -- despite Trump's insistence that immigration is holding down wages and crowding out native-born American workers -- his club believes it cannot find any Americans willing and able to hold the waiter jobs." ...
... Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Thursday that officials are racing against a federal judge's 'extreme' deadlines to reunite 'under 3,000' migrant children separated from their parents at the U.S. border. Azar did not provide a precise number, but he said hundreds of government employees are poring over databases, examining case files, and conducting DNA tests to reunite families. The children are being held in shelters overseen by HHS. Their parents are in Homeland Security's immigration jails.... International advocacy groups and Pope Francis had criticized the administration for traumatizing families.... Thursday, two House Oversight Committee leaders pressed key Trump Cabinet officials for a detailed accounting of the thousands of children separated from their parents since the administration began in May to prosecute every illegal border crossing. In a bipartisan letter, sent to Azar, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, lawmakers made 11 specific requests for information about every child -- including their age, gender and location."
Martha Mendoza & Garance Burke of the AP: "Some immigrant U.S. Army reservists and recruits who enlisted in the military with a promised path to citizenship are being abruptly discharged.... The AP was unable to quantify how many men and women who enlisted through the special recruitment program have been booted from the Army, but immigration attorneys say they know of more than 40 who have been discharged or whose status has become questionable, jeopardizing their futures.... Some of the service members say they were not told why they were being discharged. Others who pressed for answers said the Army informed them they'd been labeled as security risks because they have relatives abroad or because the Defense Department had not completed background checks on them."
** Adios, Scotty! Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "Scott Pruitt, President Trump's administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, resigned after facing months of allegations over legal and ethical violations. Mr. Trump announced the resignation in a tweet on Thursday in which he thanked Mr. Pruitt for an 'outstanding job' and said the agency's deputy, Andrew Wheeler, would take over as the acting administrator on Monday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... The story has been updated; Lisa Friedman & Maggie Haberman now are also on the byline. Here's one update: "An individual close to Mr. Pruitt said the president acted after he found one particular story in recent days embarrassing: a report that Mr. Pruitt had asked Mr. Trump to fire Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, so that Mr. Pruitt could run the Justice Department. The idea had been discussed privately for months by the president, who occasionally asked advisers if it was a good idea.... But seeing those deliberations being aired publicly, amid a string of other damaging reports, focused Mr. Trump's attention, a person close to the president said. Fresh allegations that Mr. Pruitt had retroactively altered his public schedule, potentially committing a federal crime, had also escalated concerns about him at the White House, according to a White House aide. On Thursday afternoon, around 1:30, Mr. Trump's chief of staff, John F. Kelly, reached out to Mr. Pruitt to tell him the time had come." ...
... Margaret Hartmann reports in the post linked below, "Trump described a much different, more flattering, scene, telling reporters that the EPA chief 'came to me and said, "I have such great confidence in the administration. I don't want to be a distraction.'" ...
... The Limits of Sucking Up. Margaret Hartmann: Pruitt "survived months of increasingly outlandish misconduct allegations -- featuring props like a used Trump hotel mattress, fancy lotion, expensive fountain pens, and a $43,000 soundproof phone booth -- because Trump only cared that environmental regulations were being torn up, and Pruitt took an 'adoring tone' in their interactions, according to the Washington Post.... It can seem like [Trump is] bizarrely devoted to his top aides.... But if Trump decides someone is a liability, he'll drop them in an instant." ...
... The Consequences of Pissing Down. Lachlan Markay & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "Though well-liked by Trump until recently, Pruitt routinely alienated many senior staff members and would-be allies. Their subsequent press leaks and congressional whistleblowing made Pruitt too much of a liability even for Trump.... [Pruitt's] routine mistreatment of his subordinates ... led them to speak out -- and may have sealed his fate.... The litany of former staffers with an ax to grind kept the Pruitt controversy in the headlines for months, eventually managing to exhaust President Trump's patience, White House sources say. Even Fox News ... had turned on Pruitt by the end." ...
... Pruitt Says He Quit Because People Were Mean to Him. Politico publishes Scotty's resignation letter: "You're great, Trump, blah blah, the unrelenting attacks on me personally, my family, are unprecedented and have taken a sizable toll on all of us blah blah." Mrs. McC: So not his fault. I hope Kristen Mink -- that mom who approached him in the restaurant earlier this week -- was the last straw. She's my hero. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... God Ordained Trump & Pruitt, Sez Pruitt. Ed Kilgore: "Pruitt's resignation letter ... [ended] on a characteristic (to Evangelical ears) note: 'I believe you are serving as President today because of God's providence. I believe that same providence brought me into your service.' Considering that his issues would have probably forced him out much, much earlier under most, if not all, of the first 44 presidents, that sentiment is understandable.... His legendary tenure will likely earn him a spot in history alongside such ethical blackguards as Harding's Interior Secretary Albert Fall, who accepted bribes for no-bid federal oil leases in the Teapot Dome scandal, or Grant's War Secretary William Belknap, whose Pruitt-like taste for luxury was supported by kickbacks from military trading post concession-holders. What's missing so far in Pruitt's case is any acknowledgement from his Cabinet peers or the president that he's done anything wrong. And that may be the biggest Pruitt scandal of them all." ...
... Remembering Scotty. Eli Watkins & Clare Foran of CNN published an organized list of Scotty's Scandals in mid-April & have "updated with more developments." It's a really impressive list! ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: While the Congress might be able to end some or all of its inquiries into Pruitt, I don't see how any investigations -- by the IG or FBI or others -- that reasonably might lead to criminal charges can be shut down just because Scotty has slipped out of his tactical pants & cleaned the family photos out of his hermetically-sealed office. If a bank employee is under investigation for embezzlement, she doesn't get to keep the money just because she quit her job. It would be great if Trump decided to pardon Pruitt right before the November elections. ...
... Coral Davenport, et al., of the New York Times: "Before he resigned on Thursday, Scott Pruitt ... was facing new questions about whether aides deleted sensitive information about his meetings from his public schedule and potentially violated the law in doing so. Last summer one of his senior schedulers, Madeline G. Morris, was fired by Mr. Pruitt's former deputy chief of staff, Kevin Chmielewski, who said he let her go because she was questioning the practice of retroactively deleting meetings from the calendar. Mr. Chmielewski has emerged as a harsh critic of Mr. Pruitt after a bitter falling out that led to his departure from the agency as well." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Emily Atkin of the New Republic: "A considerable amount of reporting went into exposing all of [Pruitt's] scandals, as [Kristen] Mink [-- the mother who confronted Pruitt at a restaurant --] noted on Thursday. 'It's not like I can take all the credit for this,' the schoolteacher told DCist. 'The great majority goes to effective fact-based research of quality journalists who exposed the depth of Scott Pruitt's corruption.' But the celebration of journalists' dogged work in covering Pruitt, while deserved, shouldn't obscure how much daunting work remains in covering Trump's EPA.... [Pruitt] was at his most dangerous when he was systematically dismantling America's public health protections for the benefit of polluters. Andrew Wheeler, the EPA's deputy administrator and soon-to-be acting administrator, may be even more qualified for that mission given his previous work as a coal lobbyist for Murray Energy and an aide to climate-denying Senator James Inhofe. Whereas Pruitt was often hasty and sloppy in his attempts to repeal Obama-era environmental regulations..., Wheeler 'is viewed as a consummate Washington insider who avoids the limelight and has spent years effectively navigating the rules,' The New York Times reported Thursday." ...
... Pruitt without the Baggage. Steve Mufson of the Washington Post: Andrew "Wheeler spent a decade lobbying for just the sort of companies the agency regulates, and before that he worked for Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), who rejects climate change. Drawing on more than a quarter-century in Washington, Wheeler is expected to pick up where the departing Pruitt left off -- only without the controversy that constantly plagued him.... At the firm Faegre Baker Daniels Consulting, Wheeler represented energy companies, mining companies and a mixture of others.... Among his professional activities, he once listed his post as vice president of the Washington Coal Club.... Environmental groups vowed to fight him as much as they have the outgoing chief." ...
... Steve M.: "Fear of midterm attack ads was what finally brought this to a head. Morality and ethics certainly weren't getting the job done.... So Pruitt and Trump are on God's side [according to Pruitt in his resignation letter] ... and Pruitt's enemies are pure evil[.].... Has Pruitt done anything wrong? Pruitt's answer is no. Trump's answer is no -- nothing except possibly providing fodder for negative campaign commercials. The Republican commentariat's answer is an unasmbiguous no as well. We're the sole source of evil, as usual." ...
... Dan Spinelli of Mother Jones: "Republicans in Congress Sure Seem Happy Not to Have to Defend Scott Pruitt Anymore.... When Scott Pruitt's scandal-plagued tenure ... finally came to an end Thursday, his many critics in and out of Congress wasted no time rejoicing at another Trump Cabinet member exiting under a cloud.... For Republicans annoyed at Pruitt's laundry list of scandals but eager to continue his legacy of undoing Obama-era environmental regulations, Andrew Wheeler is more than acceptable." Spinelli publishes some Congressional comments on Pruitt/Wheeler. ...
... Paul Farhi & Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Former Fox News Channel executive Bill Shine is joining the White House as assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff for communications, the White House announced Thursday.... With Thursday's announcement, Shine becomes the fifth communications chief since Trump took office nearly 18 months ago.... The appointment is also likely to open the White House up to attacks regarding Shine's record at Fox, as well as the Trump administration's response to sexual misconduct allegations against officials within its own ranks." Mrs. McC: Can someone who spent years enabling a sexual predator get a security clearance? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "Shine resigned last May from his post as co-president of Fox News amid allegations that he enabled the sexual harassment regime of his boss Roger Ailes. So it is shocking, although not at all surprising, that the Trump administration has hired him with the title of assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff for communications. 'It's extraordinary that the president of the United States could hire someone like this,' a senior Fox News executive told BuzzFeed. 'This is someone who is highly knowledgeable of women being cycled through for horrible and degrading behavior by someone who was an absolute monster.'... Shine is also accused of hiring private investigators to harass journalists." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I suspect hiring Shine was the "real reason" Trump had Kelly fire Pruitt when he did. Trump claimed Pruitt resigned because he "didn't want to be a distraction." But Pruitt provided just the distraction Trump wanted yesterday -- one that would bury stories about Shine's history.
... Susan Glasser of the New Yorker: "Now that President Trump has accepted the resignation of ... Scott Pruitt, the fate of his embattled chief of staff [John Kelly] is the key drama of this drama-plagued Administration.... Barely a week has gone by without a new report about Trump shopping around for Kelly's replacement.... This Trump Unchained era is merely proof that no aide, not even a brusque Marine general with a chest full of medals, is going to bring order to a President determined to have his own way.... When we look back at the Trump Administration, this will be one of its most distinguishing characteristics: West Wing comings and goings without precedent, leaving policies muddled.... This, to say the least, is not normal. It might seem self-evident, but it bears repeating: Trump, whatever else he accomplishes, will certainly go down in the record books as the worst manager of the White House in modern times."
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Michael D. Cohen ... has hired Lanny J. Davis, the Washington lawyer and public relations consultant best known for serving in the Clinton White House, to represent him."
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors are urging a federal appeals court to reject former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's bid to be released on bail as he prepares for two criminal trials, including one set to begin later this month. In a filing Thursday, Mueller's team urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit not to disturb a lower court's order last month jailing Manafort over charges that he tampered with witnesses related to the cases against him."
Lachlan Markay & Dean Jones of The Daily Beast: "A mystery client has been paying bloggers in India and Indonesia to write articles distancing President Donald Trump from the legal travails of a mob-linked former business associate. Spokespeople for online reputation management companies in the two countries confirmed that they had been paid to write articles attempting to whitewash Trump's ties to Felix Sater, a Russian-born businessman who, with former Russian trade minister Tevfik Arif, collaborated with the Trump Organization on numerous real estate deals from New York to the former Soviet Union. The campaign appears designed to influence Google search results pertaining to Trump's relationship with Sater, Arif, and the Bayrock Group, a New York real estate firm that collaborated with Trump on a series of real estate deals, and recruited Russian investors for potential Trump deals in Moscow." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Republican lawmakers who went to Russia seeking a thaw in relations received an icy reception from Democrats and Kremlin watchers for spending the Fourth of July in a country that interfered in the U.S. presidential election and continues to deny it.... Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) led the eight-member delegation on a multiday tour of St. Petersburg and Moscow.... The point of their visit, Shelby stressed to the Duma leader, was to 'strive for a better relationship' with Moscow, not 'accuse Russia of this or that or so forth.' It played well in Moscow, but not on the home front.... On Russian state television, presenters and guests mocked the U.S. congressional delegation for appearing to put a weak foot forward, noting how the message of tough talk they promised in Washington 'changed a bit' by the time they got to Moscow."
Jillian Jorgensen of the New York Daily News: "New York City has nixed a $48,000 tax break President Trump was set to receive on his Trump Tower condo following inquiries from the Daily News about whether he is still eligible for the savings.... a homeowner is only eligible for the tax break if the condo is his primary residence -- which the city's tax rules define as 'the dwelling unit in which the owner of the dwelling unit actually resides and maintains a permanent and continuous physical presence.'... After The News asked the city Department of Finance about the abatement, it was removed from Trump's tax records for the new tax year." Mrs. McC: Sounds like a homestead exemption; if Trump still votes in NYC, he probably should have been allowed to keep the exemption.
How Diplomatic. Justin McCurry of the Guardian: "When Mike Pompeo meets Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, he will reportedly attempt to smooth a path towards denuclearisation with a gift that playfully references a low point in relations between the North Korean leader and Donald Trump: a CD of Elton John's Rocket Man. The US secretary of state will present Kim with the CD along with a letter from Trump, who memorably turned the song's title into an epithet after the North stepped up its ballistic missile tests last year."
BBC News: "Plans to fly a giant inflatable figure depicting Donald Trump as a baby over London during the US president's visit have been approved. Mr Trump is due to meet Theresa May at 10 Downing Street on 13 July. Campaigners raised almost £18,000 for the helium-filled six-metre high figure, which they said reflects Mr Trump's character as an 'angry baby with a fragile ego and tiny hands'. London Mayor Sadiq Khan gave permission for the balloon to fly.... Mr Khan and Mr Trump have repeatedly clashed on Twitter, including in the aftermath of the London Bridge attack. Before the figure can take off, campaigners will also need permission from the National Air Traffic Service (NATS) as the project constitutes a 'non-standard flight in controlled airspace'.... Because Parliament Square sits within restricted airspace, additional approvals are also needed from the Metropolitan Police.... On Twitter former UKIP leader Nigel Farage said the plan was 'the biggest insult to a sitting US President ever'." Mrs. McC: That's the idea, Nigel.
** Jamelle Bouie of Slate: "At some point in the not-distant future, a majority of Americans will be of black, Hispanic, and Asian origin. But there's a difference between a nation's population and its electorate -- its share of people who can exercise the full rights and privileges of citizenship. Republicans realize this, and are trying -- at every level of government -- to reverse-engineer a white electorate large enough to secure their own power, and along with it, the existing hierarchy of class and race. Donald Trump is a major part of this story. But as with all things Trump, it would be wrong to treat this project as unique to him and his administration." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Corky Siemaszko of NBC News: "A fourth former Ohio State University wrestler came forward Thursday to contradict Rep. Jim Jordan's claim that he had no idea the wrestling team doctor was molesting athletes. The wrestler, Shawn Dailey, said he was groped half a dozen times by Dr. Richard Strauss in the mid-1990s, when Jordan was the assistant wrestling coach. Dailey said he was too embarrassed to report the abuse directly to Jordan at the time, but he said Jordan took part in conversations where Strauss' abuse of many other team members came up.... Calling Jordan 'a close friend,' Dailey said he is a Republican and that he contributed to the powerful Ohio congressman's first political campaign for state representative in 1994.... Also Thursday, Mark Coleman, another former wrestler and a former UFC world champion, told The Wall Street Journal that Jordan was aware of the abuse and had not taken action.... 'I don't believe them at all,' Trump [told reporters on AF1 Thursday] of the allegations against Jordan. 'I believe him. Jim Jordan is one of the most outstanding people I've met since I've been in Washington. I believe him 100 percent." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: "I believe the men" is President Pussy-Grabber's default position on all allegations of sexual abuse or predation. ...
... Jim Jordan Calls Cops on Sex Abuse Victims. Sunlen Serfaty & Clare Foran of CNN: "Rep. Jim Jordan's office will contact Capitol Hill police after receiving emails from an alleged victim of sexual abuse at Ohio State University when the Ohio Republican was an assistant wrestling coach, a source within the office told CNN Wednesday. The source added that the messages were vaguely threatening in nature in part because of the amount of emails sent, and that Jordan did not respond to the emails because he felt the man was 'bullying him.'" Mrs. McC: What does "law and order" mean to a Republican? Siccing the cops on victims of crimes in which he is implicated. Count this as one more indicator that the U.S. is sinking into a dangerous, authoritarian police state. Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead. ...
Trump, Sessions Foiled Again. Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Thursday mostly rejected a bid by the Justice Department to block California's 'sanctuary state' laws, which enact policies friendly to undocumented immigrants. In a 60-page ruling, U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez said most of the laws, which limit how state businesses and law enforcement agencies can work with federal immigration authorities, are 'permissible exercises of California's sovereign power.'... California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) hailed the decision as 'a strong ruling against federal government overreach.' 'The Constitution gives the people of California, not the Trump administration, the power to decide how we will provide for our public safety and general welfare,' he said." Mrs. McC: Mendez is a Bush II appointee.
News Ledes
New York Times: "The Labor Department released its monthly hiring and unemployment figures on Friday morning.... 213,000 jobs were added last month. Economists had expected a gain of about 200,000.... The unemployment rate rose to 4 percent, from 3.8 percent.... Average hourly earnings rose by 0.2 percent after growing by 0.3 percent in May. The year-over-year gain is now 2.7 percent.... The latest jobs numbers cap a string of encouraging economic reports." ...
... Politico: "The White House, in a statement, described the numbers as the 'latest in a string of positive headlines showing that confidence in surging, growth is accelerating and jobs are plentiful in the Trump economy.'... But the tight labor market continued to produce bafflingly weak wage growth, with average hourly earnings up 2.7 percent over the previous year, unchanged from May."
The New York Times is updating developments in the effort to rescue 12 boys & their soccer coach in Thailand. "A former Thai Navy diver helping with the rescue operation has died, running out of air after bringing extra tanks in to the trapped team, Thai officials say."
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