The Commentariat -- April 8, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump on Sunday promised a 'big price' to be paid for what he said was a chemical weapons attack that choked dozens of Syrians to death the day before, and a top White House official said the administration would not rule out a missile strike to retaliate against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. In a tweet, Mr. Trump laid the blame for the attack partly on President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, the first time since his election that he has criticized the Russian leader by name on Twitter. Mr. Putin's forces have been fighting for years to keep the Assad government in power amid Syria's brutal civil war.... 'Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price...' '...to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!'... 'If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In The Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago! Animal Assad would have been history!'"

Michelle Lee, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump and his allies again assured the country on Sunday morning that they do not expect China to actually implement threatened tariffs that could rock the U.S. economy and hurt American farmers, especially those who grow soybeans or raise hogs. 'China will take down its Trade Barriers because it is the right thing to do,' Trump said in a tweet on Sunday morning. 'Taxes will become Reciprocal & a deal will be made on Intellectual Property. Great future for both countries!' In interviews on Sunday morning talk shows, administration officials defended the president's trade approach and emerging policy with regard to China. China and the United States have threatened to levy new tariffs on each other in an escalating trade dispute."

Trump Lobbied against Safety Sprinklers. Caroline Linton of CBS News: "The fire on the 50th floor New York City's Trump Tower that left 67-year-old Todd Brassner dead and six firefighters injured was the second fire in the building in 2018. President Trump's centerpiece Manhattan skyscraper opened in 1984, but does not have sprinklers on its residential floors, a measure required in new buildings since 1999. President Trump, then a private citizen and property developer, lobbied to try and prevent the mandate at the time.... Two civilians suffered minor injuries and a firefighter was hurt by debris in a fire on Jan. 8 on the top of the building. That blaze was sparked by an electrical issue, Mr. Trump's son, Eric, said at the time. Eric Trump said the fire had been in a cooling tower. [The FDNY commissioner] said in a press conference that the cause of Saturday's fire is still unclear."

Washington Post Editors: "The American people do not have a right to know all the details of what went on between Mr. Trump and Ms. Clifford in their personal lives many years ago. They do have a right to know, however, whether their president is lying to them now, or if he has received what amounts to a large financial subsidy from a secret personal benefactor. Unless and until Mr. Trump directs his lawyer to identify the source of the $130,000, both of these sorry scenarios will remain within the realm of plausibility."

*****

Louisa Loveluck & Erin Cunningham of the Washington Post: "Syrian doctors and rescue workers said Sunday that scores of people had died in an apparent chemical attack on a besieged enclave near Damascus, as government forces escalated their offensive to recapture one of the last rebel strongholds near the capital. At least 40 people were killed in the attack in Douma in eastern Ghouta, about 12 miles from Damascus, according to the Syrian-American Medical Society..., a Washington-based nonprofit that supports health facilities in the area. The State Departmen said it was monitoring mass casualty reports, describing them as 'horrifying' and urging an immediate response from the international community.'" ...

... Kyle Balluck of the Hill: "The U.S. is calling on Russia to end its support for Syrian President Bashar Assad after dozens of people were killed in an alleged chemical attack on Saturday. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement..., 'The United States calls on Russia to end this unmitigated support immediately and work with the international community to prevent further, barbaric chemical weapons attacks.'..." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Who is running the State Department? Apparently Pompeo, since he's already been confirmed to another Cabinet-level position, can run it for quite a while, but is he?

... Kareem Shaheem of the Guardian: "Dozens of people have been killed in what local medics say was a toxic gas attack on the besieged town of Douma near Damascus. Videos and images showed bodies of dead children and other family members, some foaming at the mouth. Rescue workers said the attack led directly to the deaths of at least 42 people, with hundreds of injured showing symptoms they said were consistent with exposure to an organophosphorus compound." --safari

Louis Lucero & Jaclyn Peiser of the New York Times: "A 67-year-old man died after being injured in a fire at Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan on Saturday, the police said. The man was in an apartment on the 50th floor at the time of the fire, which was reported around 5:30 p.m., the police said. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His identity was not immediately released. Four firefighters sustained injuries that were not life-threatening, Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro said at a news conference. He said the apartment, a large unit that was heavily furnished, was 'virtually entirely on fire.' Video footage showed flames bursting through broken windows.... More than 200 firefighters responded to the fire, the cause of which was unknown, the commissioner said." ...

... Noah Goldberg of the New York Daily News: "One person was critically injured in a fast-moving fire at Trump Tower in Midtown, authorities said. The FDNY arrived at the Fifth Ave. highrise just before 6 p.m. Twitter users posted pictures of flames shooting out of windows on the 50th floor. President Trump also took to Twitter with an update, 'Fire at Trump Tower is out. Very confined (well built building). Firemen (and women) did a great job. THANK YOU!' Several firefighters suffered minor injures." (Also linked last evening.)

Andrew Kaczynski of CNN: "Roger Stone, a longtime associate of ... Donald Trump, said he knew the date of upcoming WikiLeaks disclosures in October 2016, despite claiming on Friday in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper that he didn't.'I had no advanced notice of the content source or exact timing of the WikiLeaks disclosures including the allegedly hacked emails,' Stone said on CNN....On CNN, Stone, while discussing comments he had made claiming to have had dinner with Julian Assange in August 2016, also 'categorically' denied having advance knowledge of the contents of the hacked emails.Those comments stand in sharp contrast with ones he made on the October 2, 2016, episode of InfoWars' radio show, to discuss a tweet he had sent a day earlier that read, 'Wednesday @HillaryClinton is done. #Wikileaks.' 'Now, an intermediary met with him (Assange) in London recently -- who is a friend of mine and a friend of his...," Stone said. 'I am assured that the motherlode is coming Wednesday.'... The emails were not released that Wednesday, October 5, but ... two days later, WikiLeaks began releasing the first installment of John Podesta's hacked emails."

Juan Cole: "Greg Jaffe at the Washington Post reports that Trump has reversed an Obama-era push to get the Central Intelligence Agency out of the business of assassinating people with drone strikes.... In the course of reviewing video of a drone strike, Trump noticed that the drone pilot held off hitting the suspected militant in his own home (which would have killed his family as well) and waited until he was some distance outside it until they assassinated him.... Trump asked, 'Why did you wait?'... [W]hen Trump came into office, I warned of psychopathocracy, the rule of persons without conscience, without empathy, without the milk of human kindness, without any appreciation for the rule of law. What Trump was asking for was the murder of children. He was actually, if the report is true, scolding the CIA for leaving the children alive rather than burned and dismembered by a rocket." --safari

** Everything Is Going So Smoothly. Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: Trump & John Kelly get into shouting matches. "The recurring and escalating clashes between the president and his chief of staff trace the downward arc of Kelly's eight months in the White House. Both his credibility and his influence have been severely diminished, administration officials said, a clear decline for the retired four-star Marine Corps general who arrived with a reputation for integrity and a mandate to bring order to a chaotic West Wing." Mrs. McC: This story is rather long & amusing, in a Michael-Wolffish way. There are so many things to despise about both of these guys that one hardly cares who "wins." At least some of the gladiators who fought to the death probably had character. ...

... Presidential* Review. The Washington Post is far more fiction than fact. Story after story is made up garbage - more like a poorly written novel than good reporting. Always quoting sources (not names), many of which don't exist. Story on John Kelly isn't true, just another hit job! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet this morning

... Benjamin Hart of New York: Kelly "badly damaged his own reputation with a series of comments and actions that seem to have revealed his true character. He made an extremely ignorant comment about the Civil War; blatantly lied about a congresswoman's past comments and refused to apologize; and badly bungled the departure of White House staff secretary Rob Porter, who was accused of domestic abuse, among other missteps.... The conception of Kelly as a serious moral counterbalance to his boss is long gone. But that doesn't mean his (probably) impending departure is good news."

Coral Davenport & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "As ethical questions threaten the Environmental Protection Administrator, Scott Pruitt, President Trump has defended him with a persuasive conservative argument: Mr. Pruitt is doing a great job at what he was hired to do, roll back regulations. But legal experts and White House officials say that in Mr. Pruitt's haste to undo government rules and in his eagerness to hold high-profile political events promoting his agenda, he has often been less than rigorous in following important procedures, leading to poorly crafted legal efforts that risk being struck down in court. The result, they say, is that the rollbacks, intended to fulfill one of the president's central campaign pledges, may ultimately be undercut or reversed." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: That's because neither one of these science-denying jamokes has any idea what he's doing, & Pruitt, in a mini-version of Trump, "governs by press release," as one environmental activist said recently. ...

Rene Marsh, et al., of CNN: "EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is facing renewed questions about the size and cost of his 24-hour security detail, adding to a string of ethically questionable arrangements or actions on his part that have surfaced over the past year. Pruitt's security team currently consists of 19 agents and includes a fleet of at least 19 vehicles, a source with direct knowledge of Pruitt's security detail said. With the cost of maintenance, gas, and training for agents, that leaves the dollar amount for his round-the-clock security in the millions. The size of Pruitt's security is unprecedented." ...

... We're Going to Disneyland! Inae Oh of Mother Jones: "Scott Pruitt may have been spared in Friday evening's news dump, but the ethical questions threatening his role as Environmental Protection Agency administrator continue apace. Financial documents obtained by the Associated Press reveal that over the year that Pruitt has been on the job, the embattled EPA head has spent upwards of $3 million on his 20-member security detail -- a staggering figure that is reportedly more than three times the amount his predecessor shelled out for a part-time security team. The records also appear to confirm previous allegations that Pruitt had used multiple security agents for non-EPA trips, including a family vacation to Disneyland and the Rose Bowl football game." ...

... Presidential* Response. While Security spending was somewhat more than his predecessor, Scott Pruitt has received death threats because of his bold actions at EPA. Record clean Air & Water while saving USA Billions of Dollars. Rent was about market rate, travel expenses OK. Scott is doing a great job! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet last night

Elizabeth Shogren in Mother Jones: "National Park Service officials have deleted every mention of humans' role in causing climate change in drafts of a long-awaited report on sea level rise and storm surge, contradicting Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's vow to Congress that his department is not censoring science. The research for the first time projects the risks from rising seas and flooding at 118 coastal national park sites.... [T]he ... report is intended to inform officials and the public about how to protect park resources and visitors from climate change.... [According to] Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist and dean of the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability, 'To remove a very critical part of the scientific understanding is nothing short of political censorship and has no place in science,' he said. 'Censorship of this kind is something you'd see in Russia or some totalitarian regime. It has no place in America.'" --safari ...

Reuters: "The Keystone crude oil pipeline leak in November in rural South Dakota was nearly double the original estimate, making it one of the largest U.S. inland spills since 2010, a newspaper report on Saturday said. Robynn Tysver, a spokeswoman for Calgary-based TransCanada Corp, which owns the pipeline, told the Aberdeen American News some 9,700 barrels of oil leaked in the Nov. 16 spill, the South Dakota paper reported. The original estimate was 5,000 barrels." Mrs. McC: No doubt Scotty will get right on this. ...

... Fossil Fuel Fears. Juan Cole: "The aspiration for a 100% green electricity grid is no longer a dream. It is regularly being achieved in the real world for weeks or months on end.... In this past March, Portugal not only generated enough electricity from renewables to power the whole country for the whole month, it actually produced extra electricity this way.... Scotland, with over 5 million people, got 68.1 percent of its electricity from renewables last year. In 2016, the percentage of electricity from renewables was only 54%.... Scotland is now perhaps the world leader in renewables, and has innovated recently in offshore, in-the-sea wind turbines.... Costa Rica, a country of nearly 5 million, ran on renewables for 300 days of the past year. It has hydro and geothermal as well as having put in a lot of wind turbines. Costa Rica has a great deal of untapped solar potential, as well." --safari

More about Friends of Donald. Inae Oh: "... Donald Trump's favorite conspiracy theorist Alex Jones recently sat down with Ted Nugent -- the rock guitarist and NRA board member who was invited to the White House for a bizarre photo-op last year -- for a conversation on the 'true, America-hating' evil found in gun control advocates. The two are seen rabidly discussing the renewed, unprecedented calls for restricting the sales of firearms, when Nugent starts comparing Democrats to 'rabid coyotes' that deserve to be shot. 'There are rabid coyotes running around. You don't wait till you see one to go get your gun. Keep your gun handy, and every time you see one, you shoot one.'" Includes video. Mrs. McC: I don't know why remarks like this are legal. Nugent seems to be inciting mass murder.

Rebecca Morin of Politico (April 6): "The Department of Justice on Friday dismissed Rep. Devin Nunes' demand for an unredacted copy of the document that initiated the FBI's investigation of links between Russia and ... Donald Trump's campaign.... The Justice Department ... said it accommodated the committee in a 'manner consistent with relevant legal precedents' by providing members of the department and the FBI to review the FISA applications and renewals in camera."

Congressional Races

The No-Show Corral. Mother Jones: "The organizers of last month's March for Our Lives have taken their movement to town halls across the country and invited congressional lawmakers -- who have returned to their districts for a two-week recess -- to discuss action on gun control. According to the Town Hall Project, more than 130 of these meetings are taking place, with most of the events happening on Saturday. Though invited, no Republicans appeared at any town halls, and many of the forums featured empty chairs to symbolize their absences." [Emphasis mine] --safari

Ticking Time Bomb. Michael Savage of the Guardian: "An alarming projection produced by the House of Commons library suggests that if trends seen since the 2008 financial crash were to continue, then the top 1% will hold 64% of the world's wealth by 2030.... Since 2008, the wealth of the richest 1% has been growing at an average of 6% a year -- much faster than the 3% growth in wealth of the remaining 99% of the world's population. Should that continue, the top 1% would hold wealth equating to $305tn (£216.5tn) – up from $140tn today." --safari

Michael Kimmel of the Guardian: "[T]he fact that virtually every single violent extremist is male creates hardly a ripple.... I have interviewed over 100 current or former extremists, including Americanneo-Nazis and white supremacists, jihadists and Islamists in Canada and Great Britain, and anti-immigration skinheads in Europe, to understand how they experience masculinity on the extreme right. I heard many stories of what I came to call aggrieved entitlement: a gendered sense of entitlement thwarted by larger economic and political shifts, their ambitions choked, their masculinity lost.... It is this sense of victimhood -- that they are the new victims of the politically correct, multicultural society -- that lends a degree of righteousness to their political activities.... Just for a moment, then, let's pay attention to gender and see where it takes us." --safari

Way Beyond the Beltway

Shaun Walker of the Guardian: "Voting is under way in Hungary, where the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, is seeking to win a third consecutive term. After running a campaign almost exclusively focused on the threat posed by migration, Orbán's Fidesz party is expected to win a majority in parliament. However, a late push for coordination among the opposition, as well a string of corruption scandals around the government has given Orbán's foes a glimmer of hope. Voter turnout in the first hours of voting was the highest since 1998." --safari ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If Orbán win, expect him to get a congratulatory call from the POTUS*.

Sam Cowie of the Guardian: "Brazil's former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has handed himself in to police after spending two nights at the metalworkers' union headquarters in São Paulo in defiance of an arrest warrant.... Although the 72-year-old will appeal the conviction and is unlikely to serve the whole [12-year] sentence, his imprisonment has for now ended his hopes of regaining the presidency in October's elections. A final decision on his eligibility will be made by the electoral court." --safari

The Commentariat -- April 7, 2018

Evening Update:

Noah Goldberg of the New York Daily News: "One person was critically injured in a fast-moving fire at Trump Tower in Midtown, authorities said. The FDNY arrived at the Fifth Ave. highrise just before 6 p.m. Twitter users posted pictures of flames shooting out of windows on the 50th floor. President Trump also took to Twitter with an update, 'Fire at Trump Tower is out. Very confined (well built building). Firemen (and women) did a great job. THANK YOU!' Several firefighters suffered minor injures."

*****

Fred Imbert & Alexandra Gibbs of CNBC: "Stocks fell sharply on Friday as worries of a trade war brewing between the U.S. and China grew. Wall Street also digested disappointing employment data. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 572.46 points to 23,932.76, closing back in correction. Boeing and Caterpillar were the biggest decliners in the 30-stock index. The S&P 500 declined 2.2 percent to 2,604.47, with industrials as the worst-performing sector. The Nasdaq composite dropped 2.3 percent to close at 6,915.11." ...

... Ana Swanson & Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump defended his pugnacious approach to trade policy on Friday, just hours after he doubled down on a White House plan to punish China by threatening to levy tariffs on an additional $100 billion in Chinese imports. Mr. Trump, in a tweet, criticized both China and the World Trade Organization, saying that the Chinese 'get tremendous perks and advantages, especially over the U.S. Does anybody think this is fair. We were badly represented. The WTO is unfair to U.S.'... That followed another early morning tweet, in which Mr. Trump boasted that the new metals tariffs he has put into effect on China and other nations had not hurt American consumers as his critics predicted.... The price of aluminum per pound has been falling since February, a decline that started before the tariffs were imposed. Mr. Trump's decision to exempt Canada, which supplied more than half of America's aluminum imports in 2016, has also helped to soften the blow from tariffs, companies say." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Steve Benen: "At a White House event this week, Donald Trump reflected briefly on the burgeoning trade war he's initiating with China. 'We've helped rebuild China over the last 25 years, if you take a look at what's happened. We have helped rebuild China. So we intend to get along with China, but we have to do something very substantial about the trade deficit. And with that, nothing is easy.'... The idea that the United States 'helped rebuild' the country is dubious.... We don't actually have to do anything at all. But it's that last line that stood out for me: 'Nothing is easy.'... In the recent past, Trump was under the impression that these issues were quite easy, indeed.... Just last month..., after his initial moves on tariffs, the president declared, '[T]rade wars are good, and easy to win.' It apparently took a month for Trump to switch gears and discover that 'nothing is easy.' One of the amazing things about Trump's presidency has been watching the process of presidential discovery, in which he's surprised by complexities the rest of us already recognized." ...

...Trump Family First. Rebekah Entralago of ThinkProgress: "Exempt from the proposed tariffs against China ... is the clothing manufacturing industry.... Exempting clothing from the tariffs provides a big break to American clothing companies that hold trademarks in China. One of those clothing companies belongs to the First Daughter of the United States,Ivanka Trump." --safari

When Is a Timeline Not a Timeline? Matthew Lee & Josh Lederman of the AP: "... Donald Trump has spoken: He wants U.S. troops and civilians out of Syria by the fall. But don't call it a 'timeline.' Wary of charges of hypocrisy for publicly telegraphing military strategy after criticizing former President Barack Obama for the same thing, the White House has ordered Trump's national security team not to speak of a 'timeline' for withdrawal. That's even after Trump made it clear to his top aides this week that he wants the pullout completed within five or six months.... Trump's desire for a rapid withdrawal faced unanimous opposition from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Pentagon, the State Department and the intelligence community, all of which argued that keeping the 2,000 U.S. soldiers currently in Syria is key to ensuring the Islamic State does not reconstitute itself.... Documents presented to the president included several pages of possibilities for staying in, but only a brief description of an option for full withdrawal that emphasized significant risks and downsides, including the likelihood that Iran and Russia would take advantage of a U.S. vacuum. Ultimately, Trump chose that option anyway. The president had opened the meeting with a tirade about U.S. intervention in Syria and the Middle East more broadly, repeating lines from public speeches...." Read on. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I suspect Vlad told Trump to get the hell out of Syria, or else. Otherwise, what would account for the sustained Trumpertantrum? Unless maybe he thinks he can convert Syria money to border-wall money. This is one dangerous imbecile. ...

... Margaret Hartmann: "The explanation for how we got to the point where the president is setting foreign policy deadlines on a whim may be even more troubling. The AP reports that the national security team has been giving Trump the illusion of power by presenting him with very limited choices (a tactic parents use with toddlers). But this time the game didn't work[.]" (Also linked yesterday.)...

... Spencer Ackerman of The Daily Beast: "Donald Trump's outbursts this week about getting U.S. troops out of Syria have done substantial damage to Washington's influence over its crucial Syrian ally.... That influence ... is America's most important asset as it navigates one of the world's most chaotic and transactional battlefields.... Current and former administration officials familiar with the internal Syria policy debates believe that the key to determining whether the damage is lasting or manageable will be whether the mostly Kurdish ground proxy force on which the U.S. overwhelmingly relies to fight the Islamic State, the SDF, starts hedging its bets." --safari

Dave Montgomery & Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "Texas became the first state on Friday to deploy National Guard troops to the southern border of the United States after President Trump announced this week that he would send the military there. State officials said 250 Texas National Guard personnel would be dispatched to the border within 72 hours. The mobilization began shortly after 7 p.m. Friday at the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Austin.... The Republican governor of Arizona, Doug Ducey, said that about 150 members of the National Guard in his state would deploy next week to the border. The Republican governor of New Mexico, Susana Martinez, vowed to send troops soon, while the Democratic governor of Montana, Steve Bullock, refused.... Mr. Trump's mobilization, which could deploy thousands of troops, has reignited concerns in Texas and elsewhere about the militarization of border communities and has angered local officials and lawmakers who say that the troops are not needed and that they give the false impression that their cities are under siege."

Jonathan Chait reviews some news reports to establish that (a) Trump has lost it, & (b) his staffers are freaking out. Here's one: According to the Washington Post, "Aides sometimes plot to have guests make points on Fox that they have been unable to get the president to agree to in person. 'He will listen more when it is on TV,' a senior administration official said. [Fox host Jeanine] Pirro duty is considered important enough that 'officials rotate going on Pirro's show because they know Trump will be watching -- and partially to prevent him from calling in himself.'"

Michelle Goldberg: Diehard Trumpbots are so aware of Trump's multiple shortcomings that they have come up with an elaborate fantasy narrative in which, among other things, "Trump only pretended to collude with Russia in order to create a pretext for the hiring of Robert Mueller..., who is actually working with Trump to take down an inconceivably evil and powerful network of coup-plotters and child sex traffickers that includes Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and George Soros." Goldberg notes that Roseanne Barr is among the loons who have bought into and promoted aspects of these theories. Mrs. McC: We could sure use some of those Obama re-education camps.

Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump will again skip the White House Correspondents' Dinner this year, and will send his press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, instead." Great! Mrs. Huckleberry is a barrel of laughs with an unparalleled sense of humor. Maybe she can get Stephen Miller to write her "jokes." The list of winners of awards at this year's dinner -- which celebrates the First Amendment -- include CNN ("fake news"), Lester Holt ("this Russia thing"), & Maggie Haberman ("Hillary flunkie"). "Among the other reporting that earned journalists awards this year were stories on former White House press secretary Sean Spicer's resignation, former HHS Secretary Tom Price's use of taxpayer-funded private aircraft, and Trump's firing of all members of his AIDS advisory committee." (Also linked yesterday.)

Tom Boggioni of RawStory: "Writing on Twitter early Saturday morning, the attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels promised he will expose the 'Trump thug' who reportedly threatened his client in 2011 to keep quiet about her alleged affair with President Donald Trump. 'Expect a major announcement in the coming days regarding our efforts to identify the thug who threatened Ms. Clifford in Las Vegas in 2011 to 'leave Trump alone' while making reference to her little girl,' Michael Avenatti wrote on Twitter." --safari

Trump Campaign Skulduggery Was Widespread. Jenna McLaughlin, et al., of CNN: "A Donald Trump foreign policy adviser pushed government agencies to review materials from the dark web in the summer of 2016 that he thought were Hillary Clinton's deleted emails, multiple sources with direct knowledge tell CNN. Joseph Schmitz approached the FBI and other government agencies about material a client of his had discovered that Schmitz believed might have been Clinton's missing 30,000 emails from her private e-mail server, sources say. The material was never verified, and sources say they ultimately believed it was fake. His push is the latest example of Trump advisers who were mixed up in efforts to find dirt on Clinton during the presidential campaign.... His status as a former Pentagon inspector general afforded him access to the agencies and a sophisticated understanding of the government bureaucracy. He was relentless, sources say, and truly believed his client had found important, sensitive material. He did not hesitate in his pursuit even though the material on the dark web -- a part of the Internet not easily accessible or traceable -- was questionable and many experts already believed the Russians had stolen Clinton's emails."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Lawyers for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort are arguing that what could be key evidence against him should be kept out of court because the FBI violated his Constitutional rights by illegally entering a storage locker belonging to Manafort's firm. The FBI first got into the Alexandria, Va. storage unit last May with the assistance of an employee who worked at two or more of Manafort's companies, an agent told the federal magistrate judge who issued the warrant. Then, the agent used what he saw written on so-called Banker's Boxes and the fact there was a five-drawer filing cabinet to get permission to return and seize many of the records." --safari

Andrew Kramer of the New York Times profiles Konstantin V. Kilimnik, who "has turned up in multiple court filings by the special prosecutor, Robert S. Mueller III, who identifies him as Person A." Kilimnik, who worked for Paul Manafort in Ukraine & is now skulking around Washington, D.C., says he's not a Russian spy; Mueller says he is. (Also linked yesterday.)

Trump's DHS Makes a Significant "Big Brother" Move. Michelle Fabio of Forbes: "The United States government, traditionally one of the bastions of press freedom, is about to compile a list of professional journalists and 'top media influencers,' which would seem to include bloggers and podcasters, and monitor what they're putting out to the public.... As part of its 'media monitoring,' the DHS seeks to track more than 290,000 global news sources as well as social media in over 100 languages ... for instant translation into English.... One aspect of the media coverage to be gathered is its 'sentiment.'... Unfortunately, increasing government encroachment on the freedom of the press is the sinister backdrop to all of this. Freedom House, which has monitored the status of the press for nearly 40 years, recently concluded, '... it is the far-reaching attacks on the news media and their place in a democratic society by Donald Trump, first as a candidate and now as president of the United States, that fuel predictions of further setbacks in the years to come.'..."

Where's Kelly? Jonathan Lemire & Catherine Lucey of the AP: John "Kelly, once empowered to bring order to a turbulent West Wing, has receded from view, his clout diminished, his word less trusted by staff and his guidance less tolerated by an increasingly go-it-alone president.... Trump has rebelled against Kelly's restrictions and mused about doing away with the chief of staff post entirely. It's all leading White House staffers and Trump allies to believe that Kelly is working on borrowed time.... Those close to the president say that Trump has increasingly expressed fatigue at Kelly's attempts to shackle him and that while Trump is not ready to fire Kelly, he has begun gradually freezing out his top aide. Trump recently told one confidant that he was 'tired of being told no' by Kelly and has instead chosen to simply not tell Kelly things at all.... Kelly was once a fixture at the president's side, but Trump has now cut him out of a number of important decisions." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Travels & Travails of Scotty. Michael Biesecker of the AP: "Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt's concern with his safety came at a steep cost to taxpayers as his swollen security detail blew through overtime budgets and at times diverted officers away from investigating environmental crimes. Altogether, the agency spent millions of dollars for a 20-member full-time detail that is more than three times the size of his predecessor's part-time security contingent.... Shortly after arriving in Washington, Pruitt demoted the career staff member heading his security detail and replaced him with EPA Senior Special Agent Pasquale 'Nino' Perrotta, a former Secret Service agent who operates a private security company.... Perrotta oversaw a rapid expansion of the EPA chief's security detail to accommodate guarding him day and night, even on family vacations and when Pruitt was home in Oklahoma.... Perrotta also signed off on new procedures that let Pruitt fly first-class on commercial airliners, with the security chief typically sitting next to him with other security staff farther back in the plane. Pruitt's premium status gave him and his security chief access to VIP airport lounges." ...

     ... AND here's some detail: "On weekend trips home for Sooners football games, when taxpayers weren't paying for his ticket, the EPA official said Pruitt flew coach.... Taxpayers still covered the airfare for the administrator's security detail.... Pruitt has said his use of first-class airfare was initiated following unpleasant interactions with other travelers.... But a nationwide search of state and federal court records by AP finds no case where anyone has been arrested or charged with threatening Pruitt." ...

... The Tenant from Hell. Eliana Johnson of Politico: "Scott Pruitt was only supposed to be living in the Capitol Hill condominium that has become a focal point of his latest ethics controversy for six weeks last year while he got settled in Washington -- but the new Environmental Protection Agency administrator didn't leave when his lease ended. Instead, he asked the lobbyist couple who became his disgruntled landlords to revise his lease several times, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. The couple, Vicki and Steve Hart, became so frustrated by their lingering tenant that they eventually pushed him out and changed their locks. [Emphasis added.] After trying to nudge Pruitt out of their home over th course of several months, the Harts finally told Pruitt in July that they had plans to rent his room to another tenant. 'The original arrangement was that he would be there living out of a suitcase ... and it just kept going and going,' said one of the people with knowledge of the arrangement.... The president denied in a tweet Friday that he had plans to get rid of him: 'Do you believe that the Fake News Media is pushing hard on a story that I am going to replace A.G. Jeff Sessions with EPA Chief Scott Pruitt, who is doing a great job but is TOTALLY under siege? Do people really believe this stuff? So much of the media is dishonest and corrupt!'" ...

... Besides Blowing His Fox "News" Interview, Pruitt Lied. Juliet Eilperin, et al., of the Washington Post: "Pruitt spoke at length during a Fox News interview about his role in [giving two young staffers steep pay raises] under an unusual maneuver involving their reappointment through a provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act. In the interview Wednesday, Pruitt implied he was not involved in those decisions. 'I found out this yesterday and I corrected the action, and we are in the process of finding out how it took place and correcting that going forward,' he told correspondent Ed Henry.... But two EPA officials and a White House official told The Post that the administrator instructed staff to award substantial pay boosts to both women, who had worked in different roles for him in Oklahoma." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So (1) the White House told him he couldn't give these women big raises, (2) he did it anyway by misusing a provision of the Clean Water Act, (3) which he is otherwise trying to eviscerate, then (4) falsely claimed he knew nothing about it when he went on national teevee. Here's some career advice: if you try stunts like this on the job, no matter how secure you think your job is, you'll be fired...

... Liam Stack of the New York Times: "Here are some of the big-ticket items Mr. Pruitt ... wanted -- some of which he got. Private Jets and First-Class Airfare.... Expensive Furniture, Some of It Bulletproof.... Expanded 24-Hour Security Detail.... A Flashy Motorcade.... An Office Security Booth." Read the story for the details. ...

... AP Scotty Watch: 4:30 pm ET: "Embattled Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt has met with ... Donald Trump to lay out his case for why he should remain in his post. Pruitt visited the White House on Friday to discuss his agency's recent steps to roll back Obama-era fuel efficiency standards for cars. But according to two administration officials, he also fought for his job in his meeting with the president.... 3:05 pm: The White House is conducting a review of ethical questions surrounding Scott Pruitt...." ...

... ** Lorraine Woellert of Politico: "Conservative leaders are urging President Donald Trump to stand behind embattled EPA chiefScott Pruitt, organizing for the first time to present a unified front in defense of a Trump Cabinet official. In a letter delivered to the White House on Friday, the group of prominent conservatives thanked Trump for sticking with Pruitt, one of their ideological brethren, and said, in essence, that Pruitt's policy accomplishments made him worth the trouble. 'The days of a rogue, agenda driven EPA are over,' the group wrote.... 'This is the conservative movement coming forward and saying this guy is rock star,' said another strategist involved in crafting the letter. 'I have not seen a more united conservative front on behalf of a Cabinet member since the Reagan administration.'" --safari: More evidence the whole Conservative movement is corrupt to the core.

Julie Davis & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, told President Trump last week that Scott Pruitt, his embattled administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, needed to go, according to two officials briefed about the conversation, following damaging allegations of ethical infractions and spending irregularities by the E.P.A. chief. But Mr. Trump, who is personally fond of Mr. Pruitt and sees him as a crucial ally in his effort to roll back environmental protections, has resisted firing him, disregarding warnings that the drumbeat of negative headlines has grown unsustainable, and that more embarrassing revelations could surface. White House officials said on Friday that Mr. Trump continues to believe that Mr. Pruitt has been effective in his role, and stressed that it was up to the president alone to decide his fate." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Emily Atkin of the New Republic: Scott Pruitt owes the support he's getting from President Dumbo because of his perceived effectiveness. "'I think he's done a fantastic job,' Trump told reporters Thursday. "But how 'effective' has Scott Pruitt been?... At the moment, most of Pruitt's actions are in the proposal stage, and many are years away from being finalized. Several have been halted or overturned by the courts.... At least ten of Pruitt's intended regulatory rollbacks, in fact, are on hold due to lawsuits.... Several of Pruitt's actions have been overturned by federal judges.... 'Governing by press release' -- that's how David Hayes, Environmental Impact Center's executive director, described Pruitt's strategy in an email.... In Trump's world, the press release -- or the television appearance, or the tweet -- is everything.... He should not be underestimated. To date, though, most of his alleged accomplishments are hollow or incomplete. He has started many battles, but few have been decisive." ...

... Here's the Real Explanation for Trump's Support. Dina Radtke of Media Matters: "Fox News' morning show Fox & Friends continues to cover up the growing number of scandals plaguing Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, giving the story less than two minutes of coverage throughout the week." Mrs. McC: Dirty Scotty has a job till White House personnel directory Steve Doocy sends a pink slip. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: And, like the Harts, I was so hoping we'd have a Friday afternoon news dump/farewell party for Scotty. Ah, well -- here's your consolation prize:

Mrs. McC: Guess I'll have to "retire" this photo.... Good Night, Pajama Boy, Wherever You Are. Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Rep. Blake Farenthold, a Texas Republican who was facing an ethics investigation after using taxpayer funds to settle a sexual harassment claim from a former staffer, abruptly resigned his seat Friday. Farenthold had announced in December that he would not seek reelection, but until Friday he appeared determined to serve out his fourth term in the House. He said in a statement Friday that he had sent a letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) resigning his seat effective at 5 p.m." ...

... Here's the Dallas Morning News story, by Todd Gillman.

Jamie Lovegrove of the Charleston, S.C., Post & Courier: "A South Carolina Republican congressman is not backing down from critics after he pulled out his own personal -- and loaded -- .38-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun during a meeting with constituents Friday. U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-Rock Hill, told The Post and Courier he pulled out the weapon and placed it on a table for several minutes in attempt to make a point that guns are only dangerous in the hands of criminals. 'I'm not going to be a Gabby Giffords,' Norman said afterward, referring to the former Arizona Democratic congresswoman who was shot outside a Tucson-area grocery store during a constituent gathering in 2011.... Far from regretting the decision, Norman said he plans to do it more often at constituent meetings moving forward. He contested the notion that anyone was frightened at the sight of the gun, saying nobody reacted strongly or tried to leave the meeting. 'I'm tired of these liberals jumping on the guns themselves as if they are the cause of the problem,' Norman said. 'Guns are not the problem.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: No, Ralph, you -- and idiots like you -- are. And your remark about Gabby Giffords was unconscionable.

Ella Nilsen of Vox: "It's official: The number of women running for the US House of Representatives this year has broken a record, a new analysis from the Associated Press has found. 309 women, Republicans and Democrats alike, have filed candidacy papers to run for the House, eclipsing the previous record of 298 set in 2012, according to data from the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University that AP analyzed. And that number is likely to grow in the coming months.... The current representation of women and men in Congress is severely lopsided. Women make up less than 20 percent of Congress. Out of 535 total members, there are just 22 women senators and 83 women representatives." --safari

Maria Cramer of the Boston Globe: "A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit on Friday that challenged Massachusetts' ban on assault weapons, delivering a significant victory for Attorney General Maura Healey, who had tightened enforcement of the state's laws against such weapons after the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida. In his ruling, U S District Judge William Young wrote the state's two-decade-old ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines do not violate the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment."

Extreme Snowflakes. Kelly Neill of The Daily Beast: "Before the group imploded amid a domestic violence case last month, the neo-Nazi Traditionalist Worker Party was bickering with former allies, and besieged by anti-fascist protesters, leaked chat logs reveal.... Their grievances weren't just with anti-fascists, however. The leaked chats reveal a fragile relationship with Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi group implicated in four recent murders.... A TWP member later shared a screenshot of a piece of fanfiction an Atomwaffen member allegedly wrote about him, which described him having sex with [TWP leader Matthew] Heimbach and a chicken leg.... [T]he TWP logs reveal a group increasingly worried about attacks from protesters, either real or imagined." --safari

E. A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "Puerto Rico will close 283 schools across the island following a sharp enrollment drop as the U.S. territory continues to languish in recovery efforts almost seven months after a devastating hurricane...Many of the island's schools are still experiencing power outages and interruptions in their schedules. In January, the Washington Post reported that many teachers were resorting to printing assignments at spots like Burger King, where power is functioning more consistently.... Puerto Rico isn't alone. The U.S. Virgin Islands, also badly hit during last year's hurricane season, are struggling as well." --safari

Way Beyond the Beltway

Loveday Morris of the Washington Post: "Two Palestinians succumbed early Saturday to injuries sustained in a protest on the border fence with Israel a day earlier, including a journalist shot by Israeli forces despite apparently wearing a vest that clearly marked him as press. Video and photos of Yasser Murtaja, 31, being treated after sustaining a bullet wound to the lower abdomen, including one shot by Agence France-Presse news agency, show him wearing a blue and white protective jacket with 'PRESS' emblazoned on the front." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe Trump can get away with caging reporters & shooting somebody in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue, but let's see if Bibi can get away with murdering a working journalist.

The Commentariat -- April 6, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Julie Davis & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, told President Trump last week that Scott Pruitt, his embattled administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, needed to go, according to two officials briefed about the conversation, following damaging allegations of ethical infractions and spending irregularities by the E.P.A. chief. But Mr. Trump, who is personally fond of Mr. Pruitt and sees him as a crucial ally in his effort to roll back environmental protections, has resisted firing him, disregarding warnings that the drumbeat of negative headlines has grown unsustainable, and that more embarrassing revelations could surface. White House officials said on Friday that Mr. Trump continues to believe that Mr. Pruitt has been effective in his role, and stressed that it was up to the president alone to decide his fate."

Ana Swanson & Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump defended his pugnacious approach to trade policy on Friday, just hours after he doubled down on a White House plan to punish China by threatening to levy tariffs on an additional $100 billion in Chinese imports. Mr. Trump, in a tweet, criticized both China and the World Trade Organization, saying that the Chinese 'get tremendous perks and advantages, especially over the U.S. Does anybody think this is fair. We were badly represented. The WTO is unfair to U.S.'... That followed another early morning tweet, in which Mr. Trump boasted that the new metals tariffs he has put into effect on China and other nations had not hurt American consumers as his critics predicted.... The price of aluminum per pound has been falling since February, a decline that started before the tariffs were imposed. Mr. Trump's decision to exempt Canada, which supplied more than half of America's aluminum imports in 2016, has also helped to soften the blow from tariffs, companies say."

When Is a Timeline Not a Timeline? Matthew Lee & Josh Lederman of the AP: "... Donald Trump has spoken: He wants U.S. troops and civilians out of Syria by the fall. But don't call it a 'timeline.' Wary of charges of hypocrisy for publicly telegraphing military strategy after criticizing former President Barack Obama for the same thing, the White House has ordered Trump's national security team not to speak of a 'timeline' for withdrawal. That's even after Trump made it clear to his top aides this week that he wants the pullout completed within five or six months.... Trump's desire for a rapid withdrawal faced unanimous opposition from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Pentagon, the State Department and the intelligence community, all of which argued that keeping the 2,000 U.S. soldiers currently in Syria is key to ensuring the Islamic State does not reconstitute itself.... Documents presented to the president included several pages of possibilities for staying in, but only a brief description of an option for full withdrawal that emphasized significant risks and downsides, including the likelihood that Iran and Russia would take advantage of a U.S. vacuum. Ultimately, Trump chose that option anyway. The president had opened the meeting with a tirade about U.S. intervention in Syria and the Middle East more broadly, repeating lines from public speeches...." Read on. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I suspect Vlad told Trump to get the hell out of Syria, or else. Otherwise, what would account for the sustained Trumpertantrum? Unless maybe he thinks he can convert Syria money to border-wall money. This is one dangerous imbecile. ...

... Margaret Hartmann: "The explanation for how we got to the point where the president is setting foreign policy deadlines on a whim may be even more troubling. The AP reports that the national security team has been giving Trump the illusion of power by presenting him with very limited choices (a tactic parents use with toddlers). But this time the game didn’t work[.]"

Where's Kelly? Jonathan Lemire & Catherine Lucey of the AP: John "Kelly, once empowered to bring order to a turbulent West Wing, has receded from view, his clout diminished, his word less trusted by staff and his guidance less tolerated by an increasingly go-it-alone president.... Trump has rebelled against Kelly's restrictions and mused about doing away with the chief of staff post entirely. It's all leading White House staffers and Trump allies to believe that Kelly is working on borrowed time.... Those close to the president say that Trump has increasingly expressed fatigue at Kelly's attempts to shackle him and that while Trump is not ready to fire Kelly, he has begun gradually freezing out his top aide. Trump recently told one confidant that he was 'tired of being told no' by Kelly and has instead chosen to simply not tell Kelly things at all.... Kelly was once a fixture at the president's side, but Trump has now cut him out of a number of important decisions."

Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump will again skip the White House Correspondents' Dinner this year, and will send his press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, instead." Great! Mrs. Huckleberry is a barrel of laughs with an unparalleled sense of humor. Maybe she can get Stephen Miller to write her "jokes." The list of winners of awards at this year's dinner -- which celebrates the First Amendment -- include CNN ("fake news"), Lester Holt ("this Russia thing"), & Maggie Haberman ("Hillary flunkie"). "Among the other reporting that earned journalists awards this year were stories on former White House press secretary Sean Spicer's resignation, former HHS Secretary Tom Price's use of taxpayer-funded private aircraft, and Trump's firing of all members of his AIDS advisory committee."

Andrew Kramer of the New York Times profiles Konstantin V. Kilimnik, who "has turned up in multiple court filings by the special prosecutor, Robert S. Mueller III, who identifies him as Person A." Kilimnik, who worked for Paul Manafort in Ukraine & is now skulking around Washington, D.C., says he's not a Russian spy; Mueller says he is.

*****

Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "The Trump administration imposed new sanctions on seven of Russia's richest men and 17 top government officials on Friday in the latest effort to punish President Vladimir V. Putin's inner circle for interference in the 2016 election and other Russian aggressions. The sanctions are designed to penalize some of Russia's richest industrialists, who are seen in the West as enriching themselves from Mr. Putin's increasingly authoritarian administration. They grow out of an oddly disjointed policy toward Russia on the part of the Trump administration: While President Trump continues to call for good relations with Mr. Putin, Congress and much of the rest of the administration are pushing through increasingly punitive efforts that are sinking relations with Moscow to lows not seen in years.... Among those sanctioned are Oleg V. Deripaska, an oligarch who once had close ties to Mr. Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort." ...

... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Just as "oddly disjointed": an Asian policy that expects to negotiate nuclear arms cooperation from North Korea while initiating & escalating a trade war with North Korea's "handler." ...

Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "President Trump said Thursday that he will consider hitting China with an additional $100 billion in tariffs, on top of the $50 billion the White House has already authorized, escalating threats of a trade war with the Chinese that his top advisers had tried to minimize a day earlier. In a statement late Thursday, Mr. Trump said that he was responding to China's 'unfair retaliation' against the United States, which this week outlined hundreds of Chinese products, like flat-screen TVs and medical devices, that could be subject to American tariffs. The Chinese, in response, detailed their own list of $50 billion worth of American products, like soybeans and pork, that would be hit with levies." ...

... Paul Krugman: "Trump himself might be O.K. with large-scale deglobalization. But as we've seen, his beloved stock market hates the idea, and with good reason: Businesses have invested heavily on the assumption that a closely integrated global economy is here to stay, and a trade war would leave many of those investments stranded. Oh, and a trade war would also devastate much of pro-Trump rural America, since a large share of our agricultural production -- including almost two-thirds of food grains -- is exported. And that's why things seem so incoherent. One day Trump talks tough on trade; then stocks fall, and his advisers scramble to say that the trade war won't really happen; then he worries that he's looking weak, and tweets out more threats; and so on. Call it the art of the flail."

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump ... traveled to West Virginia to promote his $1.5 trillion tax overhaul before a friendly audience. But the president grew tired of his prepared remarks after a few moments and returned to the bitter complaints about the United States' immigration laws that have dominated his attention this week and prompted him on Wednesday to ask governors to deploy the National Guard to the southern border.... He boasted that he had described immigrants as rapists when he announced his presidential candidacy, saying that he had recently learned that during the journey north made by a caravan of Honduran migrants, 'women are raped at levels they've never seen before.'... He also repeated his false claim that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election.... The round table on taxes was a lovefest for the president, in which attendees took turns praising him and recounting the ways in which the tax measure and Mr. Trump's agenda had helped them and their families." Mrs. McC: Oh, crap; so sorry I missed it. ...

... Nidhi Prakash & Adolfo Flores of BuzzFeed: "President Trump on Thursday said that 'women are being raped at levels that nobody has ever seen before' during the caravan of asylum-seekers, mostly from Honduras, who are currently heading north in Mexico. A BuzzFeed News reporter who has been traveling with the caravan for 12 days says there's no evidence that's true." ...

... Eric Levitz: "Donald Trump attended a roundtable discussion on his tax law Thursday, where he was supposed to sell the public on the virtues of his signature legislative achievement. So, naturally, he delivered a rambling disquisition on the (nonexistent) epidemic of rape among Central American migrants and the (also, nonexistent) plague of mass voter fraud that allows Democrats to rig elections.... 'In many places, like California, the same person votes many times,' the president explained. 'You probably heard about that. They always like to say "Oh, that's a conspiracy theory." Not a conspiracy theory, folks. Millions and millions of people. And it's very hard because the state guards their records. They don't want [you] to see it.'... And yet, it's possible that Trump's 'mass voter fraud is not a conspiracy theory' conspiracy theory is less of a lie than a willful self-delusion: Trump has reportedly persisted in making the claim in private, over and over again...."

... ¡Basta! Joshua Partlow of the Washington Post: "Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto delivered his most direct public rebuke of President Trump on Thursday afternoon, in a national address that characterized Mexico as willing to cooperate with the United States but not at the expense of its sovereignty or dignity.... Peña Nieto, speaking Thursday from the presidential palace in Mexico City, noted that the Mexican Senate and all four leading candidates in the July 1 presidential race had condemned Trump's comments, adding: 'As president of Mexico, I agree with those remarks.'... The address to the nation was remarkable because Peña Nieto has endured, with diplomatic courtesy and sometimes stony silence, about two years of insults and threats from Trump over Mexican immigrants, the trade relationship, border security and the fight against drug traffickers."

Frank Rich: "Trump is listening to no one except the morning hosts of Fox & Friends and any other Fox News talking heads, phone cronies, or Mar-a-Lago dining companions he recognizes as tribunes of his base. It doesn't matter if illegal border crossings have been at their lowest since 1971; he's going to send in the Marines (or whomever) because Fox is hyperventilating about a caravan of mainly women and children escaping from Honduras to Mexico.... Nor does it matter that DACA is inapplicable to any immigrant who might illegally cross the border today; Trump is going to redundantly kill the program a second time and blame the Democrats. Similarly, he flip-flopped on his threat to withdraw immediately from Syria only after Fox & Friends told him to. If he really does tamp down his trade war with China, it will be because he is instructed by Rupert Murdoch or Sean Hannity.... Even if Trump gives away the nuclear codes to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un in his proposed summits, it's hard to picture Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan doing anything more than hiding under their desks."

Madeline Albright in a New York Times op-ed: "... fascism -- and the tendencies that lead toward fascism -- pose a more serious threat now than at any time since the end of World War II.... If freedom is to prevail over the many challenges to it, American leadership is urgently required. This was among the indelible lessons of the 20th century. But by what he has said, done and failed to do, Mr. Trump has steadily diminished America's positive clout in global councils."

Julie Davis: "President Trump denied on Thursday knowing of a $130,000 payment his lawyer made to a pornographic film actress who claims to have had a sexual encounter with him, referring questions about the transaction to his personal lawyer. Mr. Trump made his first public remarks about the matter on Air Force One as he returned to Washington from White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., where he had held a round table on tax cuts. Asked by a reporter whether he knew about the payment to the actress, Stephanie Clifford, known in her films as Stormy Daniels, he said, 'No.' Asked why Michael D. Cohen, his personal lawyer, had made the payment, Mr. Trump said, 'You'll have to ask Michael.' The president said he did not know where the money had come from." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Some teevee lawyer-pundits are having a field day with Trump's assertions as they imperil both Trump & Cohen. ...

... Kevin Hall, et al., of McClatchy News: "Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators this week questioned an associate of the Trump Organization who was involved in overseas deals with ... Donald Trump's company in recent years. Armed with subpoenas compelling electronic records and sworn testimony, Mueller's team showed up unannounced at the home of the business associate, who was a party to multiple transactions connected to Trump's effort to expand his brand abroad, according to persons familiar with the proceedings. Investigators were particularly interested in interactions involving Michael D. Cohen, Trump's longtime personal attorney and a former Trump Organization employee. Among other things, Cohen was involved in business deals secured or sought by the Trump Organization in Georgia, Kazakhstan and Russia. The move to question business associates of the president adds a significant new element to the Mueller investigation, which began by probing whether the Trump campaign and Russia colluded in an effort to get Trump elected but has branched far beyond that." ...

... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "... Robert Mueller's office moved to seize bank accounts at three different financial institutions last year just one day before former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was indicted, prosecutors disclosed in a court filing Thursday. The previously unknown move against the bank accounts was revealed in a list of search and seizure warrants prosecutors submitted to a federal court in Washington after Manafort's defense team complained that the government was withholding too many details about how the warrants were obtained.... Prosecutors said some information about the various searches was withheld from Manafort because it relates to the identity of informants or to ongoing investigations that are not the subject of either of the current prosecutions involving Manafort.'"

Jeremy Herb & Manu Raju of CNN: "Corey Lewandowski had a blunt message for Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee: He wasn't going to answer their 'fucking' questions. Lewandowski, President Donald Trump's former campaign manager, was the final witness in the yearlong House investigation that descended into vitriol and back-biting -- ultimately resulting in two separate partisan reports that will leave the American public no closer to learning how the Russians interfered in the 2016 elections.... Lewandowski ... agreed to come back to the committee a second time in March after initially refusing to answer questions about topics occurring once he left the campaign in June 2016.... And, according to four sources with direct knowledge of the situation, the Trump confidante repeatedly swore at Democratic lawmakers to make the point he wasn't going to talk further."

Kevin Collier of BuzzFeed: "Twitter DMs [direct messages] obtained by BuzzFeed News show that in the summer of 2016, WikiLeaks was working to obtain files from Guccifer 2.0, an online hacktivist persona linked to by Russian military intelligence, the clearest evidence to date of WikiLeaks admitting its pursuit of Guccifer 2.0. '[P]lease "leave," their conversation with them and us,' WikiLeaks asked journalist Emma Best, who was also negotiating with Guccifer 2.0 for access to what it had teased on its blog as 'exclusive access' to hacked Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee files.... But by the time of the DM conversation with Best, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had shifted the story of how WikiLeaks acquired those emails, giving repeated TV interviews that floated Seth Rich, a Democratic staffer who had been murdered in what police concluded was a botched robbery, as his real source. The messages between Assange and Best, a freelance national security journalist and online archivist, are the starkest proof yet that Assange knew a likely Russian government hacker had the Democrat leaks he wanted. And they reveal the deliberate bad faith with which Assange fed the groundless claims that Rich was his source, even as he knew the documents' origin."

Scott Pruitt's Rehabilitation Campaign Is Going Very Well. Timothy Cama of the Hill: "Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt said he wasn't aware that two close aides received pay raises after the White House refused to allow it. 'My staff and I found out about it yesterday and I changed it,' Pruitt told Fox News in an interview published Wednesday, adding that he wasn't sure who was responsible for the raises. 'You don't know? You run the agency. You don't know who did it?' Fox's Ed Henry asked the EPA head. 'I found out this yesterday and I corrected the action and we are in the process of finding out how it took place and correcting it,' Pruitt responded." Mrs. McC: Totally believable. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Since his $50-per-night, vacation-style rental agreement with the wife of an energy lobbyist was publicized, Pruitt's defenders have focused on two things: 1. That an ethics official at the EPA supposedly signed off on the deal, and ... 2. That the lobbyist, Steven J. Hart, didn't have business before the EPA and received no official actions in return. 'Mr. Hart has no clients that had business before this agency,' Pruitt told Fox News on Wednesday. Both of those have now been undermined. That same ethics official ... Kevin Minoli [now] notes that ... Pruitt apparently had access to other parts of the house, rather than just the room he was renting. Pruitt reportedly had his daughter stay at the condo.... Minoli's new memo also clarifies that his previous memo addressed only whether the lease was at fair market value; it did not, he emphasized, take into account whether renting from the wife of an energy lobbyist would violate ethics rules.... The lobbyist's name, Steven J. Hart, appears on the lease as the legal representative of the landlord, but it is crossed out and replaced with his wife's name, Vicki Hart. [Mrs. Hart made the change.]" ...

     ... Sam Stein & Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "'[Steven] Hart,' Pruitt claimed in an recent interview with Fox News on Wednesday, 'has no clients who have business before this agency.' A review of lobbying disclosure forms and publicly-listed EPA records, however, suggests that Pruitt is either lying or is woefully unfamiliar with the operations of his own agency. Far from being removed from any EPA-related interests, Hart was personally representing a natural gas company, an airline giant, and a major manufacturer that had business before the agency at the time he was also renting out a room to Pruitt. One of his clients is currently battling the EPA in court over an order to pay more than $100 million in environmental cleanup costs.... Hart himself was part of a team of four Williams & Jensen lobbyists that has reported lobbying Pruitt's EPA. They did so on behalf of Owens-Illinois, a glass bottle manufacturer that paid $39 million in 2012 to settle EPA allegations of widespread Clean Air Act violations by a subsidiary." ...

... AND This Is Hilarious. Eliana Johnson & Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "... Scott Pruitt was at times slow to pay the rent on his $50-per-night lease in a Capitol Hill condo, according to two people with knowledge of the situation -- forcing his lobbyist landlord to pester him for payment." ...

... Pamela Brown & Kaitlin Collins of CNN: "... Donald Trump floated replacing Attorney General Jeff Sessions with Scott Pruitt as recently as this week, even as the scandal-ridden head of the Environmental Protection Agency has faced a growing list of negative headlines, according to people close to the President. 'He was 100% still trying to protect Pruitt because Pruitt is his fill-in for Sessions,' one source familiar with Trump's thinking told CNN." ...

     ... Eric Levitz: "One of the (many, many) odd things about the Trump presidency is the fact that administration officials routinely lose their jobs for offenses that the president has unambiguously committed himself. For example, this week, a Defense Department staffer resigned after CNN revealed that he had once shared birther conspiracy theories and anti-Muslim sentiments over Facebook.... Trump doesn't mind corruption (let alone birtherism), but he could do without bad headlines. And Scott Pruitt has generated an awful lot of those those this week. And yet Trump apparently can't decide whether Pruitt is too corrupt to run the EPA -- or just corrupt enough to be his attorney general.... Since Pruitt has already been confirmed by the Senate, Trump could theoretically install him as attorney general -- without Senate confirmation -- for 210 days. Which is to say: For much more time than it would take for Pruitt to take out [Robert] Mueller." ...

... Eric Lipton, et al., of the New York Times: "At least five officials at the Environmental Protection Agency, four of them high-ranking, were reassigned or demoted, or requested new jobs in the past year after they raised concerns about the spending and management of the agency's administrator, Scott Pruitt. The concerns included unusually large spending on office furniture and first-class travel, as well as certain demands by Mr. Pruitt for security coverage, such as requests for a bulletproof vehicle and an expanded 20-person protective detail, according to people who worked for or with the E.P.A. and have direct knowledge of the situation. Mr. Pruitt bristled when the officials -- four career E.P.A. employees and one Trump administration political appointee -- confronted him, said the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly.... A sixth official, Mr. Pruitt's chief of staff, Ryan Jackson, also raised questions about Mr. Pruitt's spending, according to three E.P.A. officials. He remains in his job but is considering resigning, agency officials said.... In speaking to reporters on the plane, [President Trump] described Mr. Pruitt as 'very courageous,' while suggesting he was reviewing the complaints about him. 'I'll make that determination,' Mr. Trump said. 'But he's a good man, he's done a terrific job. But I'll take a look at it.'" ...

... Julianna Goldman of CBS News: "Several weeks after taking the helm of the Environmental Protection Agency, Administrator Scott Pruitt was running late and stuck in Washington, D.C., traffic. Sources tell CBS News that he wanted to use his vehicle's lights and sirens to get to his official appointment, but the lead agent in charge of his security detail advised him that sirens were to be used only in emergencies. Less than two weeks later that agent was removed from Pruitt's detail, reassigned to a new job within the EPA. Special Agent Eric Weese, a 16-year veteran of the EPA, was replaced by Pasquale 'Nino' Perotta.... Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Tom Carper ... want to know why Perrotta and one of his business partners received an EPA security contract. Perrotta, they noted..., runs a side business called the Sequoia Security Group. His business partner, Edwin Steinmetz, who runs another security company, was awarded a $3,000 contract to sweep Pruitt's office for bugs. 'Two other contracts,' both under the $3,500 threshold for public reporting, 'were given for the purchase of biometric locks.'" ...

... Moving Right Along. Coral Davenport & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "Samantha Dravis, Mr. Pruitt's top policy adviser, has recently told him she is resigning, according to two E.P.A. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the news has not been made public. And his chief of staff, Ryan Jackson, has grown frustrated enough with his boss that he has considered resigning, according to people in whom Mr. Jackson has confided.... Both Ms. Dravis and Mr. Jackson are seasoned Washington insiders who have worked for years among the capital's top conservative Republicans and industry lobbyists. Ms. Dravis' departure comes on the heels of questions raised by Senator Thomas Carper, a Democrat from Delaware, about her work history. According to a letter that Mr. Carper sent to the E.P.A. inspector general, Ms. Dravis did not attend work or perform her duties for most of November, December and January while continuing to draw a salary.... Thursday afternoon, though, Mr. Trump when asked aboard Air Force One if he had confidence in his E.P.A. chief, he responded: 'I do.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Rachel Maddow ties Pruitt to Carl Icahn. Long-winded but illuminating:

Ken Sweet of the AP: "Mick Mulvaney..., Donald Trump's appointee to oversee the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has given big pay raises to the deputies he has hired to help him run the bureau, according to salary records obtained by The Associated Press. Mulvaney has hired at least eight political appointees since he took over the bureau in late November. Four of them are making $259,500 a year and one is making $239,595. That is more than the salaries of members of Congress, cabinet secretaries, and nearly all federal judges apart from those who sit on the Supreme Court.... Mulvaney, as Trump's budget director, has long railed against government spending. One of his first directives as acting CFPB director was to announce he needed zero dollars in funding to run the agency, pledging to spend down the bureau's surplus fund this quarter before requiring more money from the Fed -- the CFPB is funded by the Fed and not through the traditional congressional budget process."

They're All Corrupt, Ctd. Carolyn Kormann of the New Yorker provides a picture (literally) of how Energy Secretary Rick Perry fits right into Trump's Ring of Corruption. Perry's co-conspirator in the case Kormann cites is Bob Murray, the coal baron (who sued John Oliver after Oliver aptly described Murray as "a geriatric Dr. Evil"). Murray had given Perry $100K for his presidential bid, after which Perry welcomed him with a big hug to the DOE. Perry returned Murray's $100K bribe donation by urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to require "that all coal plants in certain areas, including many that do business with Murray Energy..., keep a ninety-day supply of coal onsite to provide 'fuel-secure' power.... The language in Perry's letter clearly echoed Murray's 'action plan'" which Murray delivered to Perry on Hug Day. After a DOE whistleblower -- Simon Edelman -- circulated a photo of the Big Hug, Doe seized his belongings (including a copy of the periodic table! because science), ushered him out of the building & later fired him. FERC, possibly as a result of Edelman's photo, rejected Perry/Murray's proposal.

Ed Kilgore: "Mitch McConnell has been a member of the U.S. Senate for a third of a century.... When he was asked by a Kentucky interviewer about the his biggest accomplishment as a senator..., McConnell says 'the decision I made not to fill the Supreme Court vacancy when Justice Scalia died was the most consequential decision I've made in my entire public career.'... The wily old wire-puller surely understands that his ability to deliver judicial confirmations, particularly for SCOTUS, may be the best reason members of his party's dominant conservative wing continue to put up with him.... Judges are the best bait to keep hard-core conservatives in the party harness. And for a broad swath of them, from anti-abortion activists to anti-regulatory warriors to gun nuts to advocates for unlimited money in politics, SCOTUS is the ball game." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you are worried about what would happen in a "Constitutional crisis," remember Mitch. The answer is "Democrats wail & Republicans prevail." In other words, not much.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "The Atlantic magazine fired a controversial columnist on Thursday just a few days after hiring him, making him the latest journalist to take a quick trip through a revolving door after an outcry on social media. The venerable magazine pushed out Kevin Williamson, whose hiring last week sparked an appalled reaction after some influential Twitter users learned that Williamson had once commented that women who have abortions should be treated as murderers, subject to the death penalty. Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg initially stood by Williamson, a longtime columnist for the conservative National Review.... But Goldberg withdrew his support after the liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America on Wednesday unearthed a 2014 National Review podcast [in which] Williamson said ... he was 'absolutely willing to see abortion treated like regular homicide under the criminal code,' and that what he 'had in mind was hanging' for women who were convicted of it. He repeated the statement later in the podcast." ...

... Ashley Feinberg of the Huffington Post: "Atlantic Fires Kevin Williamson After Suddenly Realizing He Believes The Things He Says." Mrs. McC: Funny headline & absolutely true. It is dismaying that relatively liberal editors like Jeff Goldberg & James Bennet of the New York Times think they're doing a service to their readers by incorporating so-called "conservative" shitstreams into their editorial pages. They should publish opposing views; they should not pay writers -- no matter how clever their writing -- to spout crap. A basic job requirement should be "has a soul & sense of decency." ...

... digby: "Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, hired a writer who actually believes that women who've had abortions should be hanged. And that begs the question: Why? 'I recognized the power, contrariness, wit, and smart construction of many of his pieces.' The mind boggles. Goldberg's saying he could overlook murderous misogyny in a guy if he can write good. (And I won't repeat what the same writer wrote about 9-year-old child who doesn't share his skin color.)"

Beyond the Beltway

Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "The Kentucky legislature passed a sweeping tax overhaul this week, and now lawmakers are asking Gov. Matt Bevin to sign a bill that would slash taxes for some corporations and wealthy individuals while raising them on 95 percent of state residents, according to a new analysis.... Bevin's position on the tax overhaul, Kentucky's biggest in more than a decade, remains unknown.... The state's nonpartisan legislative staff estimated the plan will, on net, raise money, although other experts are skeptical." (Also linked yesterday.)