The Commentariat -- June 20, 2018
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Mike Bloomberg Has Had Enough. Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City, has decided to throw his political clout and personal fortune behind the Democratic campaign to take control of the House of Representatives this year, directing aides to spend tens of millions of dollars in an effort to expel Republicans from power. Mr. Bloomberg -- a political independent who has championed left-of-center policies on gun control, immigration and the environment -- has approved a plan to pour at least $80 million into the 2018 election, with the bulk of that money going to support Democratic congressional candidates, advisers to Mr. Bloomberg said."
Trump Blinks:
Update to All That. Maggie Haberman & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump caved to enormous political pressure on Wednesday and signed an executive order that ends the separation of families by indefinitely detaining parents and children together at the border.... The order said that officials will continue to criminally prosecute everyone who crosses the border illegally, but will seek to find or build facilities that can hold families -- parents and children together -- instead of separating them while their legal cases are considered by the courts. Mr. Trump's executive order directed the government's lawyers to ask for a modification of an existing 1997 consent decree, known as the Flores settlement, that currently prohibits the federal government from keeping children in immigration detention -- even if they are with their parents -- for more than 20 days. But it is unclear whether the court will agree to that request. If not, the president is likely to face an immediate legal challenge from immigration activists on behalf of families that are detained in makeshift facilities. Stories of children being taken from their parents and images of teenagers in cage-like detention facilities have exploded into a full-blown political crisis for Mr. Trump and Republican lawmakers, who are desperate for a response to critics who have called the practice 'inhumane' and 'evil.'" ...
... Also, see especially P.D. Pepe's comment in today's thread on the Trumpaholics' praise-in for the Dear Leader. Mrs. McC: I heard part of that, too, & I was just as disgusted as was Pepe.
... ** Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is working with White House lawyers to draft an executive action that will end the Trump administration's practice of separating migrant families at the border, according to a source familiar with the matter. The action will direct the Department of Homeland Security to keep families together and will instruct the Department of Defense to help house the families because many of the detention centers are at capacity, the source said... Donald Trump is expected to sign the action, the source added." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Which is ever so odd because way last Friday Trump said the family separation was all the fault of an unnamed Democratic law & he couldn't fix it with an executive order. ...
... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Wednesday said he will sign 'something' intended to end his administration's controversial practice of separating children from their parents who illegally cross the southern border. 'I'll be signing something in a little while that's going to do that,' he told reporters at the White House. 'I'll be doing something that's somewhat preemptive and ultimately will be matched by legislation I'm sure.'" ...
... Here's Trump blaming Democrats a short while ago. Also, ever so sadly, he's cancelling the White House's picnic for members of Congress, which was scheduled for tomorrow:
... Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC is saying there will be a signing ceremony at 2 pm ET. Mrs. McC: I have a doctor's appointment at that time & won't be back till late this afternoon, but will try to catch up then.
Garance Burke & Martha Mendoza of the AP: "Trump administration officials have been sending babies and other young children forcibly separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border to at least three 'tender age' shelters in South Texas.... Lawyers and medical providers who have visited the Rio Grande Valley shelters described play rooms of crying preschool-age children in crisis. The government also plans to open a fourth shelter to house hundreds of young migrant children in Houston, where city leaders denounced the move Tuesday.... Decades after the nation's child welfare system ended the use of orphanages over concerns about the lasting trauma to children, the administration is starting up new institutions to hold Central American toddlers that the government separated from their parents." ...
... ** Aura Bogado, et al., of the Texas Tribune: "Taxpayers have paid more than $1.5 billion in the past four years to private companies operating immigrant youth shelters accused of serious lapses in care, including neglect and sexual and physical abuse, an investigation by Reveal and The Texas Tribune has found. In nearly all cases, the federal government has continued to place migrant children with the companies even after serious allegations were raised and after state inspectors cited shelters with deficiencies, government and other records show.... Now this web of private facilities, cobbled together to support children with nowhere else to go, is beginning to hold a new population: the more than 2,000 children who arrived with their parents but were separated from them because of a Trump administration policy." Read on. This is an alarming report. ...
... Gus Bova of the Texas Observer: "In recent months, Texas officials have granted permission to at least 15 immigrant youth shelters to cram in more kids than their child-care licenses allow, according to records obtained by the Observer. Two shelters have been approved to hold almost 50 percent more children. The decisions come as the Trump administration separates more and more families at the border, funnelling children reportedly as young as 8 months into government shelters. A spokesperson for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, John Reynolds, said the agency allows shelters to exceed capacity only after reviewing bedspace, the number of children to a bathroom, recreational space and fire inspection compliance. But child advocates argue that the decisions are likely straining staff, endangering children and amount to the state kowtowing to the federal government."
Michael Fuchs in the Guardian: "Trump's family separation policy is as damaging to America as Abu Ghraib.... America's power comes from its values: freedom, the rule of law, respect for human rights.... The sounds of children crying in US jails while guards crack jokes are eerily evocative of US guards at Abu Ghraib posing smiling for pictures with naked Iraqi prisoners in humiliating positions.... Ripping children away from their family decimates America's ability to hold accountable human rights abusers.... [The Trump policy] could also become a rallying cry for America's adversaries. Like Abu Ghraib, the images of children in cages and the sounds of crying children make for powerful propaganda for anyone opposed to America -- terrorist groups, authoritarian countries, and others who seek to paint a picture of an evil America."
Katie Rogers & Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "At the [Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., Trump] spoke for an hour to 150 supporters -- about half of whom were donors who paid $100,000 to $250,000 to attend a two-day summit meeting organized by America First Action, the 'super PAC' formed to support Mr. Trump and allied candidates.... Beyond the hotel's walls, protesters blasted audio of children crying in detainment centers.... In the days before, an anti-Trump group had projected the words 'Over 3,000 children taken from their parents' onto the hotel facade."
Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), announced early Wednesday that he is leaving the Republican Party, which he decried as 'fully the party of Trump' and 'a danger to our democracy and values.' In early-morning tweets, Schmidt, a vocal Trump critic, urged voters to elect Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections and harshly criticized the administration's policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the U.S. border, describing the government-run detention centers as 'internment camps for babies.'"
Julie Zauzmer, et al., of the Washington Post: "The former archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, has been removed from ministry in response to allegations that he sexually abused a teen 50 years ago while he was a priest in New York. McCarrick, 87, was a well-known church leader in global affairs. He had said in a statement months ago that he had been made aware of teenager's allegation of sexual abuse while he was a priest in New York almost 50 years ago. He was archbishop of Washington from 2001 to 2006. McCarrick said that while he maintains his innocence, 'In obedience I accept the decision of The Holy See, that I no longer exercise any public ministry.'"
*****
Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "Republican senators moved on Tuesday to defuse a political crisis by seeking passage of legislation that would swiftly bring an end to President Trump's practice of separating children from their parents when families cross into the United States illegally. Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, said that 'all of the members of the Republican conference support a plan that keeps families together,' endorsing an approach that would provide legal authority to detain parents and children together while their legal status in the country is assessed by the courts. Asylum claims would be expedited by adding more immigration judges or allowing families to be processed before others, Republican senators said. Mr. McConnell said he planned to reach out to Democrats to support the effort.... But Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, immediately shot down the Republican approach, saying that Mr. Trump could -- and should -- use his executive authority, not legislation, to quickly end the family separations. 'There are so many obstacles to legislation, and when the president can do it with his own pen, it makes no sense,' Mr. Schumer said.... In an afternoon speech, Mr. Trump continued to falsely blame Democrats for causing the family separations and dismissed as 'crazy' several of the Republican proposals to address the issue by hiring hundreds of new immigration judges.... In a series of tweets on Tuesday morning, Mr. Trump continued to falsely blame Democrats for forcing the separations...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mike DeBonis, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump implored anxious House Republicans to fix the nation's broken immigration system but did not offer a clear path forward amid the growing uproar over his administration's decision to separate migrant families at the border. Huddling with the GOP at the Capitol on Tuesday evening, Trump stopped short of giving a full-throated endorsement to legislation meant to unite the moderate and conservative wings of the House Republican caucus. Instead, Trump told Republicans in the closed-door strategy session that he would support either of the bills slated for votes later this week.... The impetuous president also often veered off into other unrelated matters during the meeting with House Republicans, as he mused on trade and North Korea policy, people inside the room said. He also mocked Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), whose primary loss last week was blamed mainly on his criticisms of the president." ...
... As the Worms Turn. House Republicans Boo Trump. Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "'I want to congratulate him on running a great race!' Trump said [of Mark Sanford] sarcastically, to awkward silence from more than 200 of his Republican colleagues. Hearing silence from the room, Trump then ... said, 'What, nobody gets it,' and added that Sanford is a 'nasty guy.' There were boos -- a rarity for Trump in a room where he is largely loved.... Trump did not take questions from the lawmakers." ...
... Torturing Children Is a Winning Issue, Trump Says. Catherine Lucey, et al., of the AP: "Calling the shots as his West Wing clears out..., Donald Trump sees his hard-line immigration stance as a winning issue heading into a midterm election he views as a referendum on his protectionist policies. 'You have to stand for something,' Trump declared Tuesday, as he defended his administration's immigration policy amid mounting criticism over the forced separation of children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.... Trump remains confident that projecting toughness on immigration is the right call, said five White House officials and outside advisers who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.... Several White House aides, led by adviser Stephen Miller, have encouraged the president to make immigration a defining issue for the midterms." ...
... Miller Assumes Americans Are as Cruel as He & Trump. McKay Coppins of the Atlantic: "... when we talked [in March, Stephen] Miller also made it clear to me that he sees immigration as a winning political issue for his boss.... In Miller's view of the electoral landscape, the president is winning anytime the country is focused on immigration -- polls and bad headlines be damned.... For Miller, the public outrage and anger elicited by policies like forced family separation are a feature, not a bug." ...
... OR, as the Onion "reports" (satire): "Claiming that the publication of such a brief, tantalizing bit of audio was a breach of their journalistic responsibility, a furious Stephen Miller told reporters Tuesday that he was outraged at ProPublica for only releasing seven minutes of immigrant children sobbing.... Miller added that the one silver lining was the likelihood that other outlets would soon broadcast hours of comprehensive, high-quality footage of immigrant children being tormented."
Ed Kilgore: Trump's "coarse and violent language ... [is] really, really getting out of hand, [link fixed] as a tweet today illustrated:... 'Democrats are the problem. They don't care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13....' Josh Marshall makes the unavoidable historical connection: 'The use of the word "infest" to talk about people is literally out of the Nazi/anti-Semites' playbook for talking about the Jewish threat....'... However you want to explain the meaning of his words or their intent, this is a rhetorical line that should never be crossed, regardless of its precise application. As Marshall notes, this is standard racist rhetoric with a deep and disreputable history.... [In a tweet yesterday, Trump wrote,] 'The people of Germany are turning against their leadership as migration is rocking the already tenuous Berlin coalition. Crime in Germany is way up. Big mistake made all over Europe in allowing millions of people in who have so strongly and violently changed their culture!' Lecturing Germans on how to maintain their cultural purity is not a good look for anyone." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND, as we learned yesterday, crime is NOT way up in Germany. It's down.
Eric Boehlert of Shareblue: "Denouncing the 'damage he is currently causing to immigrants, particularly children and families,' 640 members of Attorney General Jeff Sessions' United Methodist Church community, including key church leaders, have signed a letter accusing Sessions of child abuse and racial discrimination as he carries out Trump's radical and hateful immigration policies.... Citing Paragraph 2702.3 of the 2016 United Methodist Book of Discipline, the group formally charged Sessions 'with the chargeable offenses of' child abuse, immorality, and racial discrimination.... The stunning church censure follows Sessions' ridiculous attempt to use a passage in the Bible to justify the administration willfully tearing families apart, a move that was nearly universally condemned by religious leaders."
Amanda Arnold of New York: "On Tuesday afternoon, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo [D] announced the state's intention to file a multi-agency lawsuit against the Trump administration's family-separation policy.... According to Cuomo's statement, at least 70 of those 2,000 separated children reside in detention centers in New York state -- a number that will only grow as border agents separate more families. To prevent this practice from continuing, Cuomo is reportedly directing the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, the Department of Health, and the Office of Children and Family Services to commence legal action against the administration for violating the human rights of asylum-seekers.... This announcement comes just one day after the governor declared that New York will not send National Guard troops to the U.S-Mexico border because the state 'will not be complicit in a political agenda that governs by fear and division.'" ...
... Steve Thompson & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "Maryland's Republican governor [Larry Hogan] has joined the outrage over the Trump administration's separation of migrant children from their parents, ordering a National Guard helicopter and its crew to return from New Mexico and vowing not to deploy state resources to the border until the separations stop.... Many Democratic governors have made similar pledges. On Tuesday, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) recalled four Virginia National Guard soldiers and a helicopter.... Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) compared the separation policy to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and said he would 'not condone the use of our military reservists to participate in any effort at the border that is connected to this inhumane practice.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
** Franco Ordoñez & Anita Kumar of McClatchy News: "The Trump administration has likely lost track of nearly 6,000 unaccompanied migrant children, thousands more than lawmakers were alerted to last month, according to a McClatchy review of federal data. Federal officials acknowledged last month that nearly 1,500 unaccompanied minors arrived on the southern border alone without their parents and were placed with sponsors who did not keep in touch with federal officials, but those numbers were only a snapshot of a three- month period during the last fiscal year.... The reality is the Trump administration -- and the Obama administration beforehand -- has lost track and continues to lose track of thousands of unaccompanied minors while [the Office of Refugee Resettlement] does not appear to be trying to keep track of the children once they're placed with sponsors."
"Complete Chaos." Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "Under the Trump adminisation's separation system, parents who are prosecuted and held in immigration detention to await deportation cannot regain custody of their children. Those who are released may spend weeks or even months trying to get them back.... The process requires coordination between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which holds many of the parents, and HHS, which takes custody of children and places them with adult 'sponsors.' Usually those sponsors are close relatives, but sometimes they are foster homes hundreds of miles away. 'There is complete chaos,' said Lee Gelernt, an ACLU attorney whose organization is suing to force the government to promptly return children to their parents.... 'In America, when you get out of jail, you get your kid back,' he said. Migrant parents face significantly more bureaucratic hurdles once they lose legal custody to the U.S. government." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "The former head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement [John Sandweg] told NBC News that migrant parents separated from their children at the border are sometimes unable to relocate their child and remain permanently separated.... While a parent can quickly move from detention to deportation, a child's case for asylum or deportation may not be heard by a judge for several years because deporting a child is a lower priority for the courts, Sandweg explained.... 'You could be creating thousands of immigrant orphans in the U.S. that one day could become eligible for citizenship when they are adopted,' Sandweg explained." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So under this scenario, "zero tolerance" means admitting traumatized, troubled children -- Trump-brand "orphans" -- while rejecting families with a parent or parents who are able to work & improve the U.S. economy almost immediately. But, hey, it's a great 2018 campaign ploy. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Benjamin Carey of the New York Times: "The longer children remain in institutional settings, the greater their risk of depression, post-traumatic stress and other mental health problems.... The risk of mental health consequences also depends on the holding facility itself -- the staff, the turnover, whether children know where their parents are, and how long they'll be held.... Institutions -- even the best and most humane -- by their nature warp the attachments children long for, the visceral and concentrated exchange of love, tough and otherwise, that comforts, supports and shapes a child's heart and mind.... Kalina Brabeck, a psychologist at Rhode Island College who works with immigrant children who lose their parents to deportation or for other reasons, said that the experience of loss often leads to a form of post-traumatic stress -- the paralyzing vigilance, avoidance and emotional gusts first identified in war veterans. Most of the children held on the border will have accumulated traumas, Dr. Brabeck said. Even before their parents were detained, many already had run the gauntlet of immigration itself, fleeing with little resources from often violent communities." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
... Fernando Ramirez of the Houston Chronicle: "A recently leaked image shows dozens of immigrants in orange jumpsuits, their hands and feet shackled, undergoing a 'mass trial' in Pecos, Texas, a small town roughly 70 miles southwest of Odessa. Rapid fire trials like the one seen in the image are not an anomaly, but few Americans know what the controversial practice looks like since photographing federal court proceedings is forbidden. Debbie Nathan, the reporter who came across the image while covering mass trials in Texas for The Intercept, said the photo was floating around the Pecos legal community and was apparently snapped by someone who felt morally conflicted by the effects of the Trump administration's new 'zero tolerance' policy." ...
... Debbie Nathan of the Intercept: "... mass trials have been occurring off and on since 'Operation Streamline' was first introduced in 2005. But on May 7, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the U.S. government will prosecute '100 percent of illegal southwest border crossings.' He added that people who were 'smuggling a child' will be prosecuted 'and that child will be separated from you as required by law.' In practice, this means that even parents fleeing violence to protect their young children will be deemed smugglers -- that is, criminals.... The anguish that parents communicated..., and the spectacle of dozens of migrants being convicted and sentenced en masse, in proceedings lasting just a few minutes and with only the most perfunctory legal representation, has shocked courthouse employees." Read on. ...
... "Frontier 'Justice.'" Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "Multiple-defendant immigration hearings have been held for years in Arizona and Texas.... Assembly-line justice, known as Operation Streamline, started under President George W. Bush and persisted under President Barack Obama as deportations and other immigration cases were on the rise. But the Trump administration's new policy of prosecuting cases that previously were most often not a priority is pushing thousands of new defendants into the federal court system." Read on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
That Was Then; This Is Now. David Graham of the Atlantic: "... on July 21, 2016, Donald Trump stood at a lectern in Cleveland and made a solemn vow. 'Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it,' he said.... Candidate Trump was clear that he was talking, in large part, about immigration, which had been the central issue of his campaign[.]... Where that politician has gone is anybody's guess, but he's not the one who's in the White House now. Trump now faces a mushrooming political crisis over his administration's policy of separating children of unauthorized immigrants from their parents at the border.... This is a rare case where Trump alone really can fix it. With a single word, he could reverse the policy, which his administration implemented last month. Instead, however, Trump has spent days railing at Democrats and claiming that they are to blame. Late Monday afternoon, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen stood in the White House briefing room and echoed Trump's comments in Cleveland -- but flipped 180 degrees. 'Congress and the courts created these problems, and Congress alone can fix it,' she said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Hunter Walker of Yahoo! News: "President Trump's controversial child separation policy is being carried out with the help of private businesses who have received millions of dollars in government contracts to help run the shelters where young migrants are being held away from their parents. The government has released few photos of the shelters where the children are being detained and at times declined to allow media and even elected officials access to the facilities. Amid this secrecy, many of the businesses participating in the program have remained behind the scenes without being identified. However, by reviewing publicly available contracts data, Yahoo News was able to identify five companies that are participating in the operation of the shelters, including two companies that have not previously been tied to the program. And in response to inquiries, one of the companies said it would cease participation in a program that required it to 'maintain readiness' to transport young migrants to government facilities."
How Clueless/Callous Is the Trump Administration?
... Satoshi Sugiyama of the New York Times: "It might not have been the most opportune time for the State Department to hold a Facebook Live chat on how to travel with children. In the midst of the Trump administration's crackdown on the southern border that has separated crying children from their parents..., the State Department's consular affairs unit held a question-and-answer session via Facebook on Tuesday intended for American families going abroad.... The responses spoke volumes. 'Do you recommend cage training for children to get them used to arriving in the US?,' Facebook user Matt Schneider commented.... Theresa Rowe, asked: 'What is the process for getting my children back once the US Government has separated them from me and incarcerated them?'" ...
... Wait, Wait. This Is Worse. Meagan Flynn of the Washington Post: "Protesters entered a Mexican restaurant in Washington, D.C., Tuesday evening to heckle Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen. She appeared to sit quietly with her head down for more than 10 minutes listening to the protesters chanting 'Shame!' and 'End family separation!' Protesters, roughly 10 to 15 of them, entered MXDC Cocina Mexicana about 8 p.m. while Nielsen finished her meal with one other person. The restaurant's general manager, Thomas Genovese, told The Washington Post that Nielsen had been dining for about an hour when the heckling began. She did not come with a reservation, he said. The eatery is about two blocks east of the White House.... Nielsen's security detail stood calmly in front of her table, and the U.S. Secret Service told The Post in a statement that no arrests were made. Witnesses standing at the bar said that the protesters remained nonviolent and were not aggressive. Brent Epperson, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Alberta visiting Washington for work, said that random customers in the restaurant, including him, even started clapping along with the protesters at their tables.... Just a few hours earlier, Nielsen had retweeted President Trump's praise for the 'fabulous job' she did at a press conference explaining the administration's policy." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Other than that, Ms. Nielsen, how were the enchiladas?
Josh Lederman of the AP: "Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Chris Coons called on ... Donald Trump's administration Tuesday to withdraw its nominee for a key State Department position over his 'lack of empathy' for immigrants.... In a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the pair wrote that Ronald Mortensen, Trump's nominee for assistant secretary of state for Population, Refugees and Migration, 'has spread misinformation about immigrants.' They said they strongly oppose his nomination, accusing Mortensen of displaying 'a lack of empathy for innocent men, women, and children fleeing violence and oppression.'... Mortensen, a retired foreign service officer and U.S. Agency for International Development official, was nominated in May. If confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate, he would oversee the State Department unit that deals with refugee resettlement and assistance to displaced people, including those fleeing conflict. He is known for his outspoken views on immigration, including as a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that the Southern Poverty Law Center ... has deemed a hate group." ...
... Katy O'Donnell of Politico: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said today she will put a hold on the nomination of Kathy Kraninger to lead the CFPB until she turns over all documents about any role she played in families being separated at the border. In her current position as an associate director at OMB, Kraninger oversees the budgets for the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security -- meaning she 'helps oversee the agencies that are ripping kids from their parents,' Warren tweeted this morning. Warren and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), the top Democrat on the committee responsible for approving the nomination, noted in a letter that Kraninger's OMB oversight role includes providing 'ongoing policy and management guidance' and overseeing 'implementation of policy options' at the agencies in her portfolio." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
AND this is how Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) responds to another hearing on The E-Mails! Mrs. McC: Thanks to unwashed for reminding me:
... I read that President Obama was counseling potential 2020 presidential candidates. I hope he is advising them to learn to speak Black Preacher, because that's what Obama did & I'm convinced that's why he became POTUS. So far the only presidential candidate I'm aware of who knows how to do that is Bernie Sanders, & I really think we need a president who's at least 20 years younger than Bernie & Donnie Despicable.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. John Koblin & Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times: "For years, the Murdoch family has been able to maintain a separation between its Fox News network and its sprawling entertainment empire. But that corporate buffer seems to be disintegrating, with several prominent creators of hit TV shows expressing disgust in recent days with the 24-hour news channel's coverage of the Trump administration's border security policy. Steve Levitan, the creator of 'Modern Family,' which airs on ABC but is produced by Fox's television studio, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that he was 'disgusted to work at a company that has anything whatsoever to do with @FoxNews.' The film director Paul Feig echoed those sentiments, writing that he had made two films for the 20th Century Fox movie studio but 'cannot condone the support their news division promotes toward the immoral and abusive policies and actions taken by this current administration toward immigrant children.' Those tweets came several days after Seth MacFarlane, the creator of 'Family Guy,' said he was 'embarrassed' to work at 21st Century Fox after the Fox News host Tucker Carlson told viewers not to trust other news networks."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Bill Goodykoontz of the Arizona Republic: "Outrage over the Trump administration's policy of separating children from their parents at the border is clearly growing, and it looks as if the media are a driving force behind it.... Media outlets have finally gone all Howard Beale (no doubt because their audiences have). They're mad as hell, and they're not going to take it anymore.... Finally, we seem willing to call a lie a lie -- sorry, a falsehood if you're the The New York Times -- something that's been carefully avoided since ... Donald Trump first began running for office. Finally, we seem willing to look beyond he said, she said false equivalencies, the anchor that's been dragging down meaningful reporting for far too long." ...
... AND Right on Cue ... Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "President Trump ... has been outdoing even himself with falsehoods in recent days, repeating and amplifying bogus claims on several of the most pressing controversies facing his presidency. Since Saturday, Trump has tweeted false or misleading information at least seven times on the topic of immigration and at least six times on a Justice Department inspector general report into the FBI's handling of its investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server. That's more than a dozen obfuscations on just two central topics -- a figure that does not include falsehoods on other issues, whether in tweets or public remarks. The false claims come as the president -- emboldened by fewer disciplinarians inside the West Wing -- indulges in frequent Twitter screeds. A Washington Post analysis found that in June, Trump has been tweeting at the fastest rate of his presidency so far, an average of 11.3 messages per day."
This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.
Money-Launderer-in-Chief. Allegedly. Anita Kumar of McClatchy News: "Buyers connected to Russia or former Soviet republics made 86 all-cash sales -- totaling nearly $109 million -- at 10 Trump-branded properties in South Florida and New York City, according to a new analysis shared with McClatchy. Many of them made purchases using shell companies designed to obscure their identities. 'The size and scope of these cash purchases are deeply troubling as they can often signal money laundering activity," said Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and a former federal prosecutor. 'There have long been credible allegations of money laundering by the Trump Organization which, if true, would pose a real threat to the United States in the event that Russia were able to leverage evidence of illicit financial transactions against the president.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
M.J. Lee, et al., of CNN: "Donald Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen has signaled to friends that he is 'willing to give' investigators information on the President if that's what they are looking for, and is planning on hiring a new lawyer to handle a possible indictment from federal prosecutors. 'He knows a lot of things about the President and he's not averse to talking in the right situation,' one of Cohen's New York friends who is in touch with him told CNN. 'If they want information on Trump, he's willing to give it.' Cohen is planning to hire Guy Petrillo, a former chief of the criminal division of the US attorney's office in Manhattan and an experienced trial lawyer, a source familiar confirmed. The source said all the paperwork and retainer may not have been finalized just yet. The shift in legal strategy and signals of potential cooperation with investigators come as Cohen feels increasingly isolated from the President, whom he has been famously loyal to for more than a decade." ...
... Emily Fox of Vanity Fair: "News of Cohen's legal shake-up has inevitably fanned speculation about whether he would flip. The conjecture appeared to weigh on Donald Trump, who distanced himself from his former personal attorney when asked by reporters outside the White House last week if he thought Cohen would cooperate with the government. 'I always liked Michael,' he told reporters. The use of the past tense was not lost on those close to Cohen. These people say that Trump has been foolishly careless with how he has publicly talked about Cohen, who they believe holds all the cards in the situation." ...
... Nick Visser of the Huffington Post: "Michael Cohen ... has complained to friends about his mounting legal fees and grown frustrated that his former boss isn't footing the bill, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.... In recent months, Cohen has reportedly said that he feels the legal debts are 'bankrupting' him and that Trump owes him for his years of service, unnamed associates told the newspaper."
Michael Schmidt & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "President Trump's personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani was questioned this year in an inquiry into whether he was told about the F.B.I.'s reopening of the Hillary Clinton email investigation before it was disclosed to Congress and the public, he confirmed on Tuesday. During an hourlong interview in Washington in February, Mr. Giuliani said, he told investigators for the Justice Department's inspector general that he had not learned anything before the public did. Mr. Giuliani ... made statements in late October 2016 on Fox News hinting that a surprise was coming about Mrs. Clinton before Election Day. The inspector general is examining leaks from the F.B.I. during the presidential campaign, including what prompted Mr. Giuliani's statement.... He said he told investigators that he had only spoken with retired F.B.I. agents during the campaign about how Mr. Comey had handled the email investigation but that they did not share with him any sensitive information about the inquiry." Giuliani claimed the "surprise" was a planned Trump speech Trump, not info he got from FBI agents.
Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "The FBI agent who was removed from the special counsel investigation for sending anti-Trump texts was escorted from the FBI building Friday and effectively relieved of work responsibilities -- though he technically remains an FBI agent, his lawyer said. Peter Strzok already had been reassigned to the FBI's Human Resources Division after he was taken off special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's team, though the move last week effectively took him off even that assignment. The move put Strzok on notice that the bureau intends to fire him, though he has rights to appeal that are likely to delay that action. His lawyer, Aitan Goelman, said in a statement, that Strzok was 'being put through a highly questionable process' and that the public should be concerned about how politics had 'been allowed to undermine due process and the legal protections owed to someone who has served his country for so long.'"
Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "President Trump's threat to impose tariffs on almost every Chinese product that comes into the United States intensified the possibility of a damaging trade war, sending stock markets tumbling on Tuesday and drawing a rebuke from retailers, tech companies and manufacturers. The Trump administration remained unmoved by those concerns, with a top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, insisting that China has more to lose from a trade fight than the United States. He also declared that Mr. Trump would not allow Beijing to simply buy its way out of an economic dispute by promising to import more American goods.... But [the administration's approach] has spooked companies, investors and markets, which are increasingly worried that the United States has no other strategy to resolve a stalemate with China over its trade practices. Several rounds of trade talks with top Chinese officials in Washington and Beijing produced little agreement, and no additional official negotiations are scheduled, administration officials said. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump suggested he was ready for a fight, saying China would no longer take advantage of the United States." ...
... Fred Imbert & Alexandra Gibbs of CNBC: "Stocks fell sharply on Tuesday after ... Donald Trump's latest threat to China increased fears of an impending trade war between the world's largest economies. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 275 points, with Boeing, DowDuPont and Caterpillar as the worst-performing stocks in the index. The 30-stock index also erased all of its gains for the year and was on pace to post a six-day losing streak, its longest since March 2017. The S&P 500 dropped 0.6 percent, with materials, industrials and tech all falling more than 1 percent. The Nasdaq composite dropped 0.8 percent." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration withdrew from the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday in protest of what it perceives as an entrenched bias against Israel and a willingness to allow notorious human rights abusers as members. U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who has sought major changes on the council throughout her tenure, issued a blistering critique of the panel, saying it had grown more callous over the past year and become a 'protector of human rights abusers and a cesspool of political bias.' She cited the admission of Congo as a member even as mass graves were being discovered there, and the failure to address human rights abuses in Venezuela and Iran.... The decision to leave the 47-nation body was more definitive than the lesser option of staying on as a nonvoting observer. It represents another retreat by the Trump administration from international groups and agreements whose policies it deems out of sync with American interests on trade, defense, climate change and, now, human rights. And it leaves the council without the United States playing a key role in promoting human rights around the world." ...
... Nick Wadhams of Bloomberg: "The Trump administration plans to announce its withdrawal from the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday, making good on a pledge to leave a body it has long accused of hypocrisy and criticized as biased against Israel, according to two people familiar with the matter. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley plan to announce the withdrawal at the State Department in Washington at 5 p.m., the people said. They asked not to be identified discussing a decision that hadn't yet been made public. The 47-member council, based in Geneva and created in 2006, began its latest session on Monday with a broadside against ... Donald Trump's immigration policy by the UN's high commissioner for human rights. He called the policy of separating children from parents crossing the southern border illegally 'unconscionable.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Today in Trump's Super-Corrupt Cabinet:
Ben Lefebvre & Nick Juliano of Politico: "A foundation established by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and headed by his wife is playing a key role in a real-estate deal backed by the chairman of Halliburton, the oil-services giant that stands to benefit from any of the Interior Department's decisions to open public lands for oil exploration or change standards for drilling. A group funded by David Lesar, the Halliburton chairman, is planning a large commercial development on a former industrial site near the center of the Zinkes' hometown of Whitefish.... The development would include a hotel and retail shops. There also would be a microbrewery -- a business first proposed in 2012 by Ryan Zinke and for which he lobbied town officials for half a decade. The Whitefish city planner, David Taylor, said in an interview that the project's developer suggested to him that the microbrewery would be set aside for Ryan and Lola Zinke to own and operate.... Meanwhile, a foundation created by Ryan Zinke is providing crucial assistance. Lola Zinke pledged in writing to allow the Lesar-backed developer to build a parking lot for the project on land that was donated to the foundation to create a Veterans Peace Park for citizens of Whitefish.... The Zinkes [also] ... own land on the other side of the development, and have long sparred with neighbors about their various plans for it."
Mike McIntire of the New York Times: "Commerce Secretary Wilbur L. Ross Jr. shorted stock in a shipping firm -- an investment tactic for profiting if share prices fall -- days after learning that reporters were preparing a potentially negative story about his dealings with the Kremlin-linked company. The transaction, valued between $100,000 and $250,000, took place last fall after Mr. Ross became aware that journalists investigating offshore finances were looking at his investments in the shipper Navigator Holdings, whose major clients included a Russian energy company. The New York Times emailed a list of questions about Navigator to Mr. Ross on Oct. 26. Three business days later, Mr. Ross, a wealthy investor, opened a short position in Navigator, according to filings released on Monday by the Office of Government Ethics. The company's stock price slid about 4 percent before Mr. Ross closed his position on Nov. 16, eleven days after the articles were published by The Times and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists as part of the 'Paradise Papers' project. The transaction was first reported on Monday by Forbes." Ross has offered a nonsensical defense. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Joseph W. Hagin, a deputy chief of staff to President Trump and one of the most seasoned government veterans on a team populated mainly by newcomers with little if any prior experience in the White House, plans to step down next month. Mr. Hagin has run White House operations for Mr. Trump for 17 months, overseeing the daily administration of a building often whipsawed by chaos generated by the president. Just this month, Mr. Hagin led a delegation of officials in Singapore who arranged the logistics of Mr. Trump's landmark summit meeting with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader.... A senior White House official ... said Mr. Hagin had been repeatedly targeted by others in Mr. Trump's orbit, both inside and outside the building, who questioned his loyalty given his ties to the Bush family." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: For more on "seasoned" Joe Hagin, see this BuzzFeed story, which safari linked Monday. As safari wrote, "The whole story is twisted."
Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "Republicans and Democrats sparred for a second day Tuesday over an internal Justice Department report that sharply criticized former FBI director James B. Comey for the bureau's work investigating Hillary Clinton in 2016. Inspector General Michael Horowitz answered questions for more than five hours at a joint hearing of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, a day after he testified before a Senate panel about his 500-page report.... Republicans sought to use the [report's] findings to cast doubt upon the fairness of the ongoing special-counsel probe into Russia's interference in the 2016 election and whether any of President Trump's associates coordinated with the Kremlin to influence its outcome.... Horowitz tried to beat back suggestions from Republicans that his office had gone easy on the FBI, saying, 'We didn't pull any punches.'"
Jonathan Swan & Alayna Treene of Axios: "Donald Trump Jr. and George P. Bush had formed an unlikely alliance despite their fathers, Donald Trump and Jeb Bush, loathing each other -- with Don Jr. backing George P. in his re-election campaign for Texas land commissioner, and even planning to headline a New York fundraiser for him on June 25.... Two sources close to Don Jr. tell Axios that he has decided to pull out of the fundraiser due to the Bush family's opposition to his father. Most recently, Jeb Bush tweeted that 'children shouldn't be used as a negotiating tool' and that President Trump should end his 'heartless policy' of family separation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "House Republicans released a proposal Tuesday that would balance the budget in nine years -- but only by making large cuts to entitlement programs, including Medicare and Social Security, that President Trump vowed not to touch. The House Budget Committee is aiming to pass the blueprint this week, but that may be as far as it goes this midterm election year. It is not clear that GOP leaders will put the document on the House floor for a vote, and even if it were to pass the House, the budget would have little impact on actual spending levels. Nonetheless the budget serves as an expression of Republicans' priorities at a time of rapidly rising deficits and debt. Although the nation's growing indebtedness has been exacerbated by the GOP's own policy decisions -- including the new tax law, which most analyses say will add at least $1 trillion to the debt -- Republicans on the Budget Committee said they felt a responsibility to put the nation on a sounder fiscal trajectory." Mrs. McC: Read on for more detail on Republicans' great ideas, which they borrowed from Paul Ryan's great idea.
This Is Nuts! Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "In cities and counties across the country -- including Little Rock, Ark.; Phoenix, Ariz.; southeast Michigan; central Utah; and [in Nashville,] Tennessee -- the Koch brothers are fueling a fight against public transit, an offshoot of their longstanding national crusade for lower taxes and smaller government. At the heart of their effort is a network of activists who use a sophisticated data service built by the Kochs, called i360, that helps them identify and rally voters who are inclined to their worldview. It is a particularly powerful version of the technologies used by major political parties.In places like Nashville, Koch-financed activists are finding tremendous success. Early polling here had suggested that the $5.4 billion transit plan would easily pass....But the outcome of the May 1 ballot stunned the city: a landslide victory for the anti-transit camp, which attacked the plan as a colossal waste of taxpayers' money."
Beyond the Beltway
Brendan King of CBS 6 Richmond, Va.: "In a majority six to one vote, the Richmond Public School board voted Monday night to change the name of J.E.B. Stuart Elementary to Barack Obama Elementary School.... Earlier this year the Richmond School Board voted 8-1 to rename the Northside school that honored the Confederate general." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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