The Commentariat -- August 12, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Liar-in-Chief. Hope Yen & Christopher Rugaber of the AP: "... President Donald Trump is pulling numbers out of thin air when it comes to the economy, jobs and the deficit. He refers to a current record-breaking gross domestic product for the U.S. where none exists and predicts a blockbuster 5 percent annual growth rate in the current quarter that hardly any economist sees. Hailing his trade policies in spite of fears of damage from the escalating trade disputes he's provoked, Trump also falsely declares that his tariffs on foreign goods will help erase $21 trillion in national debt. The numbers don't even come close."
Victoria Guida of Politico: "Rudy Giuliani on Sunday said ... Donald Trump and former FBI Director James Comey never discussed former national security adviser Mike Flynn, backtracking from July comments in which he indicated otherwise. 'There was no conversation about Michael Flynn,' Trump's personal attorney said on CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'That is what he will testify to if he's asked that question.' He also told CNN's Jake Tapper that he never said the president had asked Comey to give Flynn a break. 'I said that is what Comey is saying,' Giuliani said." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Comey wrote in his opening statement before a Congressional hearing in June 2017 that "Trump said: "'I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.'" In oral testimony, under oath, Comey said "that he understood the President to be requesting that he drop the investigation into Flynn." It isn't foolish to question Comey's veracity, but it is hard to believe he made up out of whole cloth Trump's remarks about Flynn. Making up stuff is Trump's modus operandi. See AP report above.
Stephanie McCrummen of the Washington Post: "Omarosa Manigault Newman, the fired White House aide seeking publicity for her new memoir about her time in the Trump administration, said in an interview Sunday that the way Chief of Staff John F. Kelly dismissed her involved a 'threat' and played an audio recording of Kelly that she said she made in the Situation Room. The recording was played on NBC News's 'Meet the Press,' where Manigault Newman was interviewed by Chuck Todd. In the purported recording, which would constitute a serious breach of White House security, Kelly is heard complaining about her 'significant integrity issues' and saying that he wants to make her departure 'friendly and without 'any difficulty in the future relative to your reputation.'" ...
... Here's the recording:
... Mrs. McCrabbie: If this conversation was recorded in the Situation Room, as Manigault Newman claims, why was that? The Situation Room is a secure site "to monitor and deal with crises at home and abroad and to conduct secure communications with outside (often overseas) persons." Why a "secure conversation" with Omarosa? This is just weird. ...
... Update: See Patrick's response in today's Comments. He explains why holding a termination interview in the Situation Room isn't so "weird."
... Javiar David of CNBC: "The fact that Manigault Newman recorded a conversation in a classified area could create considerable legal problems that add to her existing credibility issues. On social media, political watchers from the left and right ripped into Manigault Newman for having made the recordings in the first place."
*****
Election 2018
The New York Times posts Hawaii's primary election results, only half-tallied at 4:20 am ET. ...
... Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Hawaii Gov. David Ige, a Democrat, survived a primary challenge from Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, as voters favored incumbents for the November midterms in one of the country's bluest states. Down the ballot, former congressman Ed Case, a centrist Democrat who supported the Iraq War, took a big step closer to returning to the House with a primary victory in the state's 1st Congressional District. In the 2nd Congressional District, Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard won renomination by a wide margin. Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono, meanwhile, was unopposed. The Democrats are widely favored to win all three congressional races and the contest for governor in the midterms."
Nothing to Worry About, Folks. Kevin Collier of BuzzFeed News: "This weekend saw the 26th annual DEFCON gathering. It was the second time the convention had featured a Voting Village, where organizers set up decommissioned election equipment and watch hackers find creative and alarming ways to break in.... In a room set aside for kid hackers, an 11-year-old girl hacked a replica of the Florida secretary of state's website within 10 minutes -- and changed the results." Emphasis added.
More Twitter Massages for a Rainy Afternoon. Deirdre Shesgreen of USA Today: "... Donald Trump blasted Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Saturday.... Trump's sideswipe at his own chief law enforcement officer came in a pair of afternoon tweets that seemed to allege unspecified malfeasance the Department of Justice in its handling of the Russia investigation. Trump has criticized Sessions before but Saturday's missive was particularly pointed. 'Our A.G. is scared stiff and Missing in Action. It is all starting to be revealed - not pretty. IG Report soon? Witch Hunt!,' the president tweeted from his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey." The story puts the remark in the context of a broader attack." Mrs. McC BTW: Trump's description of Nelly Ohr as "beautiful" is a potshot. She's a perfectly ordinary-looking woman, so the Misogynist-in-Chief naturally uses her appearance to demean her. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "I' have never seen anything so Rigged in my life,' Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to reports about meetings between a Justice Department official and a former British spy who helped compile a dossier that contained unverified but potentially damaging allegations about Mr. Trump.... The reports, featured mostly in conservative news outlets, suggest that even after the Justice Department stopped using the former spy, Christopher Steele, as an informant, he continued to meet with a top official at the agency, Bruce Ohr. For months, Republicans have attacked Mr. Ohr because his wife, Nellie Ohr, worked as a contractor for FusionGPS, the opposition research firm that hired Mr. Steele. The two men had known each other before Mr. Steele began working for Fusion. But Mr. Ohr worked on counternarcotics at the Justice Department, not counterintelligence, and he is not known to have played any role in the Russia investigation."
Noah Weiland of the New York Times: "As white nationalists planned to gather in front of the White House on Sunday to mark the anniversary of last year’s violent rally in Charlottesville, Va., President Trump denounced 'all types of racism,' but did not specifically condemn the supremacists.... Mr. Trump's general call for unity, as Washington braced for the possibility of violence between the white nationalists and counterdemonstrators, echoed his reluctance a year ago after the deadly Charlottesville rally to single out the supremacists for condemnation. In what is seen as a defining mark of his presidency, he blamed 'both sides' for the violence, eliciting widespread criticism for what was seen as drawing a moral equivalence between hate groups -- some of whom supported his candidacy -- and those who protested them." ...
... Likely a Ghostwritten Trump Tweet. Brent Griffiths: "... Donald Trump on Saturday called for the nation to 'come together' ahead of the one-year anniversary of a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. 'The riots in Charlottesville a year ago resulted in senseless death and division,' Trump [Mrs. McC: or somebody] wrote on Twitter. 'We must come together as a nation.'... On Saturday, Trump [Mrs. McC: or somebody] wrote that he condemns 'all types of racism and acts of violence. Peace to ALL Americans!'... The president ... earlier Saturday returned to his criticism of current and former FBI officials, echoing calls from his congressional allies that the Justice Department had not turned over documents related to officials like former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe in a timely manner. 'Why isn't the FBI giving Andrew McCabe text messages* to Judicial Watch or appropriate governmental authorities,' the president wrote. 'FBI said they won't give up even one (I may have to get involved, DO NOT DESTROY). What are they hiding?'" Mrs. McC: Okay, he wrote the earlier tweets. He was probably on the golf course by the time a staffer tweeted the unity stuff. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
* Update: What Trump or his ghosttweeter actually typed was "text massages." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jelani Cobb of the New Yorker on the conveniently-timed tease of Omarosa Manigault's memoir thing in which she discovers that Donald Trump is a racist, after all. "The issue of whether Trump used the word in question is almost completely inconsequential, yet the fact that it does not matter is itself of great consequence. The elastic tolerance of the otherwise intolerable is the looming context in which Robert Mueller will deliver his expected reports on whether Trump obstructed justice as President or colluded with Russia in 2016. In matters of race, as well as competence, decency, character, and fitness, the public either already knows what it needs to know or intractably believes what it wishes to believe. Omarosa Manigault’s book is unlikely to change the balance of either." Mrs. McC: This the sort of book review worthy of its subject: Cobb doesn't pretend to have read the book. And why would he?
Kristine Phillips of the Washington Post: "First lady Melania Trump's immigration attorney is criticizing the president's hostility toward 'chain migration' -- a process by which U.S. citizens or permanent residents can sponsor family members to come to the country -- and said the attacks are 'unconscionable.' 'This is a tradition that happens in all rank and all files of life, whether you're president of the United States -- and this is the first naturalized first lady that we have -- or people who eventually navigate through the waters into America,' Michael Wildes told CNN on Friday. Wildes, a high-profile attorney who has worked for numerous celebrities on immigration cases, represented the first lady's parents, who became naturalized citizens Thursday.... Responding to the president's comments, clips of which were played in succession during the [CNN] interview, Wildes denounced claims that chain migration allows people to simply bring in any relative to the United States."
David Von Drehle of the Washington Post reminds us, "Trump's résumé is rife with mob connections." Von Drehle names a few. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Sad! Kyle Cheney & Jimmy Vielkind of Politico: "Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), who was charged this week as part of an insider trading scheme, is suspending his re-election campaign and will attempt to remove his name from the ballot. The third-term congressman announced the decision Saturday morning on Twitter, just days after he vowed to clear his name and remain on the ballot. Collins is facing multiple counts of securities fraud, as well as charges of wire fraud and lying to investigators. His son and another associate were charged in the scheme as well.... Under New York law, Collins' name can be supplanted on the ballot at this stage of the cycle only if he dies, moves out of state or is nominated for another office.... According to Erie County GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy, the exact mechanisms are still being worked out, but he noted Collins owns houses in Florida and Washington, D.C." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... ** Katie Thomas & Sheila Kaplan of the New York Times: Sen. Christopher Collins' (R-NY) "stock scandal has rippled through Congress, where his favorite stock tip had enticed at least seven former or current House Republicans into investing along with him, his two grown children and other friends. I provided new ammunition for Democrats seeking to take back the House, and forced Mr. Collins to announce on Saturday that he would not seek re-election to a fourth term. While the other congressmen who invested in Innate were not implicated in the indictment, the allegations against Mr. Collins have revived calls for stricter rules about financial investments or corporate board seats held by members of Congress while they are sitting on committees with oversight into those businesses.... One-third of its members [of the House Energy & Commerce Committee] also bought and sold biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device stocks.... Beyond Innate Immunotherapeutics, Mr. Collins, among the wealthiest members of Congress, has held leadership roles in other biotech companies that were little known or mentioned on Capitol Hill.... Mr. Collins did not disclose these ties in committee hearings when topics overlapped with his business interests...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Collins is a bad joke. Between the incredible amount of work he had to devote to his business interests & the ridiculous amount of time members of Congress spend fundraising, this guy did not have a minute left to "represent the people," a notion he probably considers downright quaint. Why are we not surprised he was the first MoC to endorse the Scammer-in-Chief?
Annals of Journalism, Ctd. The Fourth Estate Fights Back. Cleve Wootsen of the Washington Post: "Trump labeled the news media 'the enemy of the American people' a month after taking the oath of office. In the year that followed, a CNN analysis concluded, he used the word 'fake' -- as in 'fake news,' 'fake stories,' 'fake media' or 'fake polls' -- more than 400 times. He once fumed, the New York Times reported, because a TV on Air Force One was tuned to CNN. And last week, at a political rally in Pennsylvania, Trump told his audience that the media was 'fake, fake disgusting news.'... He pointed to a group of journalists covering the event. 'They don't report it. They only make up stories.' Now, the editorial board of the Boston Globe is proposing that ... opinion writers that staff newspaper editorial boards ... produce independent opinion pieces about Trump's attacks on the media [to be published August 16]. So far, according to the Associated Press, 70 news organizations have agreed -- from large metropolitan daily newspapers such as the Miami Herald and Denver Post to small weekly newspapers with four-digit circulation numbers." ...
... Brian Stelter of CNN: "As of Saturday, 'we have more than 100 publications signed up, and I expect that number to grow in the coming days,' Marjorie Pritchard, the Globe's deputy editorial page editor, told CNN. The American Society of News Editors, the New England Newspaper and Press Association and other groups have helped her spread the word. 'The response has been overwhelming,' Pritchard said. 'We have some big newspapers, but the majority are from smaller markets, all enthusiastic about standing up to Trump's assault on journalism.'"
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Karen Attiah of the Washington Post: "Ahead of the one-year anniversary of Charlottesville, NPR decided to give an on-air lesson on the proper care and feeding of white nationalists and neo-Nazi ideology. On Friday's Morning Edition, NPR's Noel King interviewed Jason Kessler, the organizer of Sunday's Unite the Right 2 rally in Washington." Attiah goes on to demolish NPR for this & for the interview that followed: "Black Lives Matter of Greater New York official Hawk Newsome, who was asked why he declined an invitation to Kessler's rally. This was a poor choice to contextualize the interview. For starters, it is extremely tone-deaf to put the onus on a person of color to defend why they would want no part in participating in a rally with white nationalists. More insidiously, such framing effectively positions Black Lives Matter as the ideological counterpart to white supremacists." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Aaron Rupar made a number of the same points as does Attiah, in a post linked here yesterday, but it never hurts to pile on to this type of "journalism," especially when exercised by a news outlet of such broad appeal.
Beyond the Beltway
Totally Trumpish. Tim Swift of WPLG Miami: "A Republican candidate for the Florida House lied about having a college degree and posed with a fake diploma after a news outlet questioned her credentials. Melissa Howard, who is running in Florida's 73rd House District near Sarasota, had claimed she graduated with a bachelor's degree from Miami University in Ohio.... FLA News Online, a political news website, citing the National Student Clearinghouse, reported Howard did not graduate from the Ohio college. Howard said the story was false and posted a picture of her and her mother on Facebook with a framed diploma. The news site apologized to Howard and briefly retracted the story. However, a closer look at the diploma found several inconsistencies.... Miami University General Counsel Robin Parker later confirmed to FLA News that Howard attended the university, but did not graduate from the school.... 'Melissa is focused on her family -- not fake news this morning,' Anthony Pedicini, a campaign consultant, told FloridaPolitics.com."
Way Beyond
Brexit Regrets. Michael Savage of the Guardian: "More than 100 Westminster constituencies that voted to leave the EU have now switched their support to Remain, according to a stark new analysis seen by the Observer. In findings that could have a significant impact on the parliamentary battle of Brexit later this year, the study concludes that most seats in Britain now contain a majority of voters who want to stay in the EU. The analysis, one of the most comprehensive assessments of Brexit sentiment since the referendum, suggests the shift has been driven by doubts among Labour voters who backed Leave." Emphasis added.
News Lede
Space.com: "NASA's Parker Solar Probe lifted off this morning (Aug. 12) at 3:31 a.m. EDT (0731 GMT) from a pad here at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, its powerful United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket carving an arc of orange flame into the predawn sky. If all goes according to plan, the Parker Solar Probe will end up traveling faster than any craft ever has, and getting unprecedentedly close to the sun; indeed, it will fly through our star's outer atmosphere, known as the corona. And the measurements the probe makes there will reveal key insights about our star's inner workings that have eluded scientists for decades."
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Reader Comments (7)
While most see Drumpf's Charlottesville tweet's reference to "Peace to ALL Americans!" as a minimalist reference to being president* of all Americans, I have to admit I hold a darker view after witnessing his machinations and use of the "best words" over the last two years.
The emphasis on 'ALL' Americans isn't a big bear hug to show Agent Orange really does, for one tweet, actually consider people outside of his base of Gullibles, but rather a big fat wink and nudge to all those KKK white "supremacy" wishers that celebrated the death of Heather Heyer and all the other despicable acts of violence and humiliation put upon people with darker skin tones of their own. With the all caps "ALL", all the insecure Neo-Nazi circle jerkers are high-fiving that the White House is actually throwing out mini "zig heil" to all the foot soldiers. One year after Donny donned his own KKK hood and no longer had to borrow daddy's, he gives out another "people on both sides" tweet, straight to the computer screens of his loyalists.
If the Moron has one quality, it's branding himself and selling to suckers. When he's not rambling in front of an open mic, he does sometimes carefully choose his "best words". I think we've just seen an example of that.
Bea asks, "Why is that?" concerning Kelly's termination sitdown with Omarosa. Why use the Situation Room?
Within the WH Sitroom is a secure conference room, which has plenty of secure communications and audio-visual gear. But when it is not in use by principals for its primary purpose (dealing with emergencies or high level coordination), it is just an empty conference room, and all the screens are black. Nobody has a workplace in that room. The linked Wikipedia piece doesn't make clear that the conference room is an internal space in the WH intell center, which is staffed 24/7. The whole thing is called the Situation Room, but it contains more than one room.
So I imagine that Kelly just found that conference room to be the most convenient empty conference room at the time.
What security protocols are in place for the WH Situation Room if someone such as Omarosa 'easily' captured/recorded a conversation? Evidently none. Or else no one thought that far ahead. Makes one wonder if there are similar recordings tucked away by other staff members' in safe deposit boxes.
Just saw Patrick weighed in on the topic. Guess there's not a need to restrict for 24/7 privacy.
BTW, I think that Omarosa may have taken Rudy Guiliani's autobiography title, "Unhinged". Though I suppose he could call it "Unhinged Too"
If Agent Orange doesn't manage to tweet a shout out to the blastoff of the newest Parker Solar Probe, then we know his week-long obsession with the Space ForCe is all a ruse. It's all got all of the big adjectives he loves to sell...
I have Blasted a Most Powerful rocket, the FASTEST EVER! into SPACE, getting UN-PRESIDENTALLY close to the BIGLY hot sun. Training for the #spaceforce!
@safari: Good point. I just checked @realDonaldTrump's twitter droppings for the day. He had time to watch Fox & Friends, cite Darrell Issa, Mike Huckabee & Fox. & complain about Harley Davidson, but not a word about Space Farce or the successful launch of the first rocket ever to (near the) sun.
I guess the NASA team shoulda put Trump's picture or logo on it if they wanted Trump to notice. When a "rocket carving an arc of orange flame into the predawn sky" isn't shiny enough for the Orange Flame of Bedminster, it's, well ... Sad!
MAG - the security protocols for the Situation Room are based on the individuals who enter having the required clearance level. Which means that they have been briefed (when they got that clearance) not to bring any electronic devices into that area. And there are BIG signs at the entrances reminding people of the prohibitions. There are similar types of areas in lots of government secure facilities, and they have little lockers outside for your cellphones, laptops, bluetooth devices, etc.
Many non-career people who work in the WH (or a cabinet secretary's staff, or...) who receive those clearances violate the rules until one of them gets fired or jailed. Stupid, forgetful, or arrogant? You decide.
What OM did is a jailable offense. I'm not sure how the Secret Service can avoid charging her.
Jennifer Rubin in the WaPo has a good piece for more on the 'taping' tale including this remark:
“The whole thing raises questions about this White House’s ability to handle security, and it highlights their dysfunctional personnel situation,” says former head of the Office of Government Ethics Walter Shaub. “It’s weird that [John] Kelly would take her into a secure facility just to tell her he’s firing her. .."
Yeah, it is weird.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2018/08/12/omarosas-book-isnt-news-but-what-she-did-sure-is/?utm_term=.d856990d3f3c