The Commentariat -- July 25, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Sean Sullivan & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "... the FBI said it was investigating an email breach that triggered much of the friction [within the Democratic party] over the weekend.... National security officials are increasingly concerned about possible efforts by Russia to meddle in the election, according to several individuals familiar with the situation.... Outgoing Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz faced an angry backlash at a meeting of her home state activists Monday morning. And liberal delegates stood ready to shower her with boos the moment she steps onto the stage at the convention, according to a top Democrat familiar with their plans." -- CW ...
... CW: Nick Gass & Daniel Strauss of Politico describe Wasserman Schultz's reception at the breakfast as "chaos" and "bedlam." Well, it's Politico. The shouters were wearing Sanders t-shirts. ...
... Patrick Tucker of Defense One on "How Putin Weaponized Wikileaks to Influence the Election of an American President. Evidence suggests that a Russian intelligence group was the source of the most recent Wikileaks intel dump, which was aimed to influence the U.S. election." Tucker lays out, more-or-less in layman's terms, the evidence which various cybersecurity firms have found. Via David Graham of the Atlantic. -- CW ...
... Again, via Graham, this was Jeff Goldberg of the Atlantic last week (before the Wikileaks dump), in a post titled, "It's Official: Hillary Clinton Is Running Against Vladimir Putin.... I am not suggesting that Donald Trump is employed by Putin - though his campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was for many years on the payroll of the Putin-backed former president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych. I am arguing that Trump's understanding of America's role in the world aligns with Russia's geostrategic interests; that his critique of American democracy is in accord with the Kremlin's critique of American democracy; and that he shares numerous ideological and dispositional proclivities with Putin -- for one thing, an obsession with the sort of 'strength' often associated with dictators. Trump is making it clear that, as president, he would allow Russia to advance its hegemonic interests across Europe and the Middle East. His election would immediately trigger a wave of global instability ... because America's allies understand that Trump would likely dismantle the post-World War II U.S.-created international order. Many of these countries, feeling abandoned, would likely pursue nuclear weapons programs on their own...." -- CW ...
... John Schindler of the New York Observer: "Russian hackers working for the Kremlin cyber-pilfered the DNC then passed the purloined data, including thousands of unflattering emails, to Wikileaks, which has shown them to the world.This, of course, means that Wikileaks is doing Moscow's bidding and has placed itself in bed with Vladimir Putin. In response to the data-dump, the DNC has said as much and the Clinton campaign has endorsed the view that Moscow prefers Donald Trump in this election, and it's using Wikileaks to harm Hillary. This view, considered bizarre by most people as late as last week, is being taken seriously by the White House -- as it should be.... ...It's obvious that Moscow prefers Trump over Clinton in this election, which ought not surprise given the important role of Putin-friendly advisors in the Trump campaign, and what better way to help is there than to discredit Team Clinton?" ...
... CW: Schindler's column is all the more remarkable because his boss is Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law.ti
Tim Canova, who is challenging Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz in the Democratic primary: "Our lawyers are preparing a complaint against Wasserman Schultz that we will file with the FEC for her wrongful use of DNC resources in her campaign against me, based on the wikileaks disclosures." Via Adam Smith of the Tampa Bay Times. -- CW
Some Sandersistas as Stupid as Trumpbots. Alex Griswold of Mediaite: "During a Sunday night MSNBC interview with Hillary Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon, supporters of Clinton's primary opponent Bernie Sanders began chanting his name and 'Lock her up!' in the background." -- CW
Frank Rich on the media: "... when Democrats throw up their hands in frustration and complain that the press is giving Trump a free ride, they are missing the point about Trump. The problem is not that the press is failing to do due diligence; the problem is that many of his adherents are impervious to that diligence.... Logic, empiricism, and the other niceties of civilized discourse have nothing to do with his ascendance, a reality that eluded the press for too long during his rise." -- CW
*****
Democratic Convention & Presidential Race
George Back of Yahoo! News: "Tim Kaine and Hillary Clinton sat down with 60 Minutes reporter Scott Pelley for their first joint interview since it was announced that Kaine will be Clinton's vice presidential pick.... 'I often feel like there's the Hillary standard and then there's the standard for everybody else, said [Clinton].... She elaborated on the 'Hillary Standard' saying, 'As you saw at the Republican convention - unfounded, inaccurate, mean-spirited attacks with no basis in truth, reality, which take on a life of their own.'... Tim Kaine ... prais[ed] Republican Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan [for trying to work through Washington gridlock.]." CW: Good grief! The full interview is here. ...
... Brian Beutler on the implication of "Lock her up!": "The impropriety of the rhetoric and the frankly unsettling mob-like mentality that inspired it ... [left] Republicans ... broadly untroubled by any of it.... [But] on top of all the troubling democratic implications of a major political party believing the opposition party's leader belongs in prison, Republicans may have successfully damaged Clinton with a false but powerful narrative. And if that's the case, she will need to be prepared to deal with it." -- CW
** Jonathan Martin & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "... Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, abruptly said she was resigning that position after a trove of leaked emails showed the party conspiring to sabotage the campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The revelation, along with sizable pro-Sanders protests in the streets [of Philadelphia] to greet arriving delegates, threatened to undermine the delicate healing process that followed the contentious fight between Mr. Sanders and Hillary Clinton. And they raised the prospect that a convention that was intended to showcase the Democratic Party's optimism and unity, in contrast to the Republicans, could be marred by dissension and disorder.... Donna Brazile, the D.N.C. said, will be the interim chairwoman through the election." -- CW ...
... Abby Phillip of the Washington Post: "The release of thousands of embarrassing internal email exchanges among Democratic officials threatens to overshadow the party's message of unity on the eve of the its convention in Philadelphia. A trove of messages released by hackers on the website WikiLeaks apparently show party officials working to boost Hillary Clinton's candidacy during the primary.... On Sunday, [Bernie] Sanders renewed his call for [Debbie] Wasserman Schultz to resign and said that the emails vindicate his claims during the primary that party officials were actively working to undermine his candidacy." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Jeff Zeleny & Eric Bradner of CNN: "Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz will not have a major speaking role or preside over daily convention proceedings this week, a decision reached by party officials Saturday after emails surfaced raising questions about the committee's impartiality during the Democratic primary. The DNC Rules Committee has named Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, as permanent chair of the convention, according to a DNC source. She will gavel each session to order and will gavel each session closed. 'She's been quarantined,' another top Democrat said of Wasserman Schultz, following a meeting Saturday night. Wasserman Schultz faced intense pressure Sunday to resign her post as head of the DNC, several party leaders told CNN, urging her to quell a growing controversy threatening to disrupt Hillary Clinton's nominating convention. David Axelrod, a former top adviser to Barack Obama's presidential campaigns and a CNN senior political commentator, said Wasserman Schultz should resign." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Glenn Thrush & others at Politico claim to have the inside scoop on "the scramble to oust Debbie Wasserman Schultz." From President Obama & Hillary Clinton on down, party poobahs have wanted to deep-six Debbie for some time, but nobody wanted to take on the task because it was "a pain in the ass." CW: Speaking of which, there seems to be some major ass-covering in all the "I never liked Debbie" claims that have surfaced over the past 24 hours. (Say, Mr. President, if you thought Debbie was such a bad DNC chair, why did you & Joe Biden endorse her over her primary challenger?) ...
... Marc Caputo & Daniel Strauss of Politico: "Wasserman Schultz spent Sunday afternoon hiding from reporters and huddling with advisers and Democrats connected to Clinton who urged her to quit, sources said." "The Sanders people have a right to be angry because these emails convey their worst suspicions -- that Wasserman Schultz is to Democratic dirty tricks what Richard Nixon was for Republican dirty tricks,' said John Morgan, a Florida donor & Clinton backer who has clashed with Wasserman Schultz before. Rep. Wasserman Schultz's primary opponent, Tim Canova, "said it appeared DNC staff was acting like an arm of Wasserman Schultz's reelection effort and might have violated campaign-finance laws." -- CW ...
... Hillary Super-Shocked by DNC Collusion, Distances Herself from Debbie the Disgraced. Jon Queally of Common Dreams: "Following Sunday's news, however Clinton responded with a statement thanking her 'longtime friend' for her service to the party and, seemingly without irony, announced that Wasserman Schultz would now serve as her campaign's honorary chair." -- CW ...
... Charles Pierce: "So thus does ideologically aligned press get a Dems In Disarray narrative to write, the ostensibly non-aligned press gets the Both Sides In Chaos story of its dreams, and the DNC under DWS demonstrates, for possibly the last time, that it would screw up a two-car funeral if you spotted it the hearse. These are the people standing between the Republic and El Caudillo de Mar-A-Lago." CW: So, it's all good for Ron Fournier. ...
... CW: Having written that, I decided to check to see what Ron Fournier himself did in fact have to say about all this. He doesn't disappoint: "The email dump jeopardizes Clinton's ability to unify the party in Philadelphia and avoid the public fratricide that spoiled Donald Trump's convention in Cleveland. [Clinton campaign manager Robby] Mook's attack [see story linked below] is brazenly hypocritical, given the fact that Clinton herself exposed U.S. secrets to electronic theft by running an off-the-books email system in violation of administration policy.... The emails suggest the Republican Party doesn't have a monopoly on intolerance.... Trump flunked his test in Cleveland last week. Clinton is off to a poor start." -- CW ...
... Amber Phillips of the Washington Post: “Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, indicated that he believes 'Russian state actors' had some involvement in the leaked Democratic National Committee emails that show top Democrats writing off Sen. Bernie Sanders's chances during the primaries. 'There's evidence Russian state actors broke into the DNC, stole those emails, and there are experts saying they are releasing these emails for the purpose of helping Donald Trump,' Mook told CNN's Jake Tapper in an interview that aired Sunday.... 'I don't think it's coincidental these emails were released on the eve of our convention here.... We need to be concerned Trump and his allies made changes to the platform to make it more pro-Russian, and we saw him talking about how NATO shouldn't intervene [in Russian disputes]. So I think when you put it all together, it's a disturbing picture,' he said." CW: See Also Josh Marshall's commentary, linked below. ...
... CW: No, this is not a crazy conspiracy theory, as the Trump camp claims. (And it's pretty rich when the Trumpettes think other people are as loony as Donald.) ...
... ** David Sanger & Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "... researchers have concluded that the national committee was breached by two Russian intelligence agencies, which were the same attackers behind previous Russian cyberoperations at the White House, the State Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff last year.... The release to WikiLeaks adds another strange element, because it suggests that the intelligence findings are being 'weaponized' -- used to influence the election.... Whether the thefts were ordered by Mr. Putin, or just carried out by apparatchiks who thought they might please him, is anyone's guess." ...
... CW: Sanger & Perlroth call it "remarkable" that the Clinton campaign had accused Trump of "essentially secretly doing the bidding of a key American adversary." No, what's remarkable is that there's a pile of evidence that the charge is true. The big story here is not the Debbie & Bernie spat -- we already knew quite a lot about that -- but the likelihood that Donald Trump's oppo research team is funded & run by Russian oligarchs. ...
... ** Josh Marshall of TPM (July 23): "... many believe Trump is an admirer and would-be emulator of Putin's increasingly autocratic and illiberal rule. But there's quite a bit more to the story. At a minimum, Trump appears to have a deep financial dependence on Russian money from persons close to Putin. And this is matched to a conspicuous solicitousness to Russian foreign policy interests where they come into conflict with US policies which go back decades through administrations of both parties. There is also something between a non-trivial and a substantial amount of evidence suggesting Putin-backed financial support for Trump or a non-tacit alliance between the two men.... Trump's financial empire is heavily leveraged and has a deep reliance on capital infusions from oligarchs and other sources of wealth aligned with Putin." -- CW ...
... Charles Pierce: "Marshall presents a judicious but comprehensive bill of indictment as regards He, Trump's relationship with Putin. He doesn't allege direct complicity, only a mutuality of interest that should alarm anyone concerned about the stability of American democracy.... This should be the only story about the Trump campaign until he comes clean. It should be the only question anybody asks him." -- CW ...
... AND Forrest M. points out in today's Comments that this Trump logo makes sense now.
... CW: Commenter Nancy says today, "Why aren't we reading more about this. If Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama were involved in something like this, I can assure you it would be front page 24/7." ...
... ** Kevin Drum agrees: "The weirdest part is (a) Clinton's campaign might be right, and (b) this is not really getting an awful lot of attention from the media. Let that sink in: the Clinton campaign has explicitly accused the Russians of being on Team Trump and suggested that Trump might be on Team Russia. And although the media is covering it, it's not the top story anywhere. Seriously. WTF does it take these days to lead the news?... [Trump's remarks about Russia & Putin, as well as his insistence] on gutting a plank that said the US should provide weapons to Ukraine... add up to a suspiciously large number of positions that are not just pro-Russia, but unusually pro-Russia." CW Note: As if to answer Drum & Nancy, Sanger & Perlroth's story is the top story at the Times online today.
CW: A commenter writes in today's thread: "I haven't seen anything to-date to suggest that HRC had anything to do with what was going on inside the DNC." But there is evidence:
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "When the Sanders campaign alleged that the Clinton campaign was improperly using its joint fundraising committee with the DNC to benefit itself, Clinton campaign lawyer Marc Elias offered the DNC guidance on how to respond." Elias was responding "to an email about the issue sent by [DNC] communications director Luis Miranda to other DNC stuff [CW: probably "staff"] that copied Elias and another lawyer at his firm, Perkins Coie.... The fact that he was talking to the DNC about how to respond would appear to suggest coordination between the DNC and Clinton campaign against Sanders...." That is, the DNC was copying Clinton's lawyer on internal emails about Sanders, & Clinton's lawyer was advising them. That's a conspiracy. Blake has more on "the most damaging things in the DNC's leaked emails." ...
... Charles Blow: "No matter whom one supported during the primaries, or even what party one aligns with, [the DNC e-mails] should turn the stomach. This kind of collusion is precisely what is poisoning faith in our politics. This reinforced the feeling of many that the system was rigged from the beginning." -- CW ...
... Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "The DNC emails show how the party has tried to leverage its greatest weapon -- the president -- as it entices wealthy backers to bankroll the convention and other needs. At times, DNC staffers used language in their pitches to donors that went beyond what lawyers said was permissible under a White House policy designed to prevent any perception that special interests have access to the president.... The emails show several instances in which DNC fundraisers pitched donors with promises of a 'roundtable' chat with Obama.... Top [White House] aides also get involved in wooing contributors, according to the emails." -- CW ...
... Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "It has been an open secret for some time that one of the weakest elements of the extended Democratic Party family under President Obama has been the Democratic National Committee.... The cascade of internal DNC emails released Friday by WikiLeaks underscore what Sen. Bernie Sanders and his advisers have long claimed: The DNC appeared to have its finger on the scale for rival Hillary Clinton through the long nominating contest.... The national committee's role is to maintain strict neutrality during the primaries, and the emails indicate that did not happen.... The problems at the DNC date back years.... A long-standing problem that could have been dealt with before has emerged as a disruptive force at a moment of maximum visibility." -- CW
Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Michael R. Bloomberg, who bypassed his own run for the presidency this election cycle, will endorse Hillary Clinton in a prime-time address at the Democratic convention and make the case for Mrs. Clinton as the best choice for moderate voters in 2016, an adviser to Mr. Bloomberg said. The news is an unexpected move from Mr. Bloomberg, who has not been a member of the Democratic Party since 2000; was elected the mayor of New York City as a Republican; and later became an independent." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Steve M.: "Does it make sense for Bloomberg to speak at the convention? Most people would say yes -- but I don't see the point.... Trump isn't running as just a businessman -- he's (dishonestly) running as a businessman who's also a class traitor. He's pretending to be a champion of the common people... If you want to counter Trump, you don't counter him with a businessman who's uncritical of the rich.... Warren Buffett might have been effective in this slot -- deserved or not, he has a reputation as a billionaire with the common touch." -- CW
Still Feeling the Bern. Matt Pearce of the Los Angeles Times, on the ground, Sunday afternoon: "If anyone was wondering if the brutal heat forecast for Philadelphia [97 degrees] would deter Bernie Sanders supporters from marching and rallying outside the Democratic National Convention this week, I can tell you the answer already appears to be no. For almost an hour now, hundreds of pro-Sanders protesters (and possibly more, I can't even see the back of the crowd) have been parading -- slowly -- from City Hall toward the heart of the DNC's events in south Philadelphia." -- CW
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.
Driftglass reflects on the amazing journalistic talents of Chuck Todd, who remarked on-air Sunday, "I'm in one of the [DNC] emails just-- I'm the complaint department here sometimes at NBC. Somebody was complaining about coverage. And I said, 'Okay, let's talk on the phone,' or whatever. But we didn't do anything about it, because I get complaints about coverage every hour, every day." CW: See also Saturday's Commentariat on Todd's interactions with the DNC when Debbie complained Mika was way too mean.
Driftglass reveals all to those of you who may have wondered, "Whatever happened to Ed Schultz?" Make that "Comrade Schultz," because it turns out that the former MSNBC host has been working for the Russia-funded network RT America. And, um, he likes Trump now. CW: This shocks even me.
Speaking of hacks, the GOP's Top Twitterbird, #RealDonaldTrump comments on the DNC e-mail hack (via Caputo & Strauss, linked above):
Leaked e-mails of DNC show plans to destroy Bernie Sanders. Mock his heritage and much more. On-line from Wikileakes, really vicious. RIGGED -- Friday
The WikiLeaks e-mail release today was so bad to Sanders that it will make it impossible for him to support her, unless he is a fraud! -- Saturday
Today proves what I have always known, that @Reince Priebus is the tough one and the smart one, not Debbie Wasserman Shultz -- Sunday
I always said that Debbie Wasserman Schultz was overrated. The Dems convention is cracking up and Bernie is exhausted, no energy left! -- Sunday
Caitlin Yilek of the Hill: "... Reince Priebus on Sunday defended ... Donald Trump, who again linked Sen. Ted Cruz's father to President Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald last week. 'He's got a right to talk about whatever he wants to talk about, however, I don't think he was every saying this was some of factual information,' Priebus said at a Sunday press conference in Philadelphia...." CW: Yes, yes, we all have a right to say stupid things, but that doesn't make it prudent for a presidential nominee to spread unsubstantiated rumors about family members of a rival candidate. ...
... Kevin Cirilli of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump said he prevented Ted Cruz from being ripped off the stage by entering Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena as hundreds of angry delegates lashed out at the Texas senator. 'You know what, he's lucky I did it,' Trump told Bloomberg Politics' ... Mark Halperin in an interview to air Sunday night.... 'I walked in and the arena went crazy. Because there's great unity in the Republican Party and people don't know it,' Trump said. 'Had I not walked in, I think that audience would have ripped him off the stage. I think I did him a big favor.' When asked point blank if he entered the arena at the conclusion of Cruz's speech on Wednesday to 'tweak' his former primary rival, Trump responded: "Tweak him? I would never do a thing like that. But yes.'" -- CW
** Alexander Burns: "... consciously or not, Mr. Trump has followed a path trod for more than a century by nationalist outsiders who coveted the presidency, from [newspaperman William Randolph] Hearst to Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Ross Perot. Like them, he has presented himself as an archetype of American ingenuity and grit -- a tough, patriotic businessman -- and offered himself as a champion against swirling international forces that he describes, in conspiratorial terms, as undermining the United States.... Historians see in Mr. Trump's candidacy the winding together of different strains in reactionary politics under a single banner.... To the extent that he has an ideology, it is a kind of fortress conservatism...." -- CW ...
... digby: "... the salient point about all of these previous examples of similar strong men types is that none of them actually got the nomination of one of America's two main political parties. It's much closer to actual reality than it's ever been before." -- CW
Imaginary Chaos. Paul Krugman: "... it's hard to see how anyone who walks around with open eyes could believe in the blood-soaked dystopian vision Mr. Trump laid out [in his acceptance speech]. Yet there's no question that many voters -- including, almost surely, a majority of white men -- will indeed buy into that vision.... When Mr. Trump talks about making America great again, you can be sure that many of his supporters are imagining a return to the (partly imagined) days of male breadwinners and stay-at-home wives. Not incidentally, Mike Pence ... used to fulminate about the damage done by working mothers...." -- CW ...
... David Remnick of the New Yorker: "The Ailes-Trump relationship has been turbulent, roiled by the differences of large narcissisms -- two immense egos competing for the same ideological berth.... For the unconverted, the Convention was a disaster that will not likely broaden Trump's appeal.... Still, Ailes could take paternal pride in Trump's acceptance speech [which echoed some of Richard Nixon's 1968 speech. Ailes was Nixon's "media advisor."] What heightened the drama was that, just hours before, Ailes's long career had come to an ignominious end, amid multiple accusations of sexual harassment." -- CW
Dan Barry of the New York Times: American ranchers at the U.S.-Arizona border say the Great Wall of Trump is "idiotic ... and it's not going to change anything." While the number of migrants who cross the border has "plummeted" because the U.S. has stepped up border security, ranchers say the number of drug traffickers, usually armed, has increased." CW: BTW, these old boys are not Democrats.
Beyond the Beltway
The News from My Neighborhood. Dan DeLuca, et al., of the (Fort Myers, Florida) News-Press: "Two people are dead and up to 16 are injured following a deadly shooting during a teen night at Club Blu in Fort Myers. At about 12:30 a.m. Monday, Fort Myers police responded to the club at 3580 Evans Ave. after a shooting in the parking lot. Officers found several victims suffering from gunshots wounds with injuries ranging from minor to life threatening. All victims, reported to be between the ages of 12 and 27, were transported from the scene by Lee County Emergency Medical Services to area hospitals." CW: The NYT calls this a "mass shooting," which is accurate. It's yet another iteration of Second Amendment America.
News Lede
New York Times: Verizon, seeking to bolster its meager digital content for consumers, announced on Monday that it was acquiring Yahoo's core internet business for $4.83 billion in cash." -- CW
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