The Commentariat -- May 13, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump on Friday denied that the voice of 'John Miller' on a 25-year-old recording obtained by The Washington Post is, in fact, his own. Appearing on NBC's 'Today' show, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee disputed a Post report that he posed as his own spokesman under a fake name during a 1991 telephone interview with a reporter -- something he did habitually for years, often going as 'John Barron' as well.... During testimony in a [1990] lawsuit..., the real estate mogul was asked if he had ever used the name 'John Barron.' 'I believe on occasion I used that name,' Trump replied.... The liberal super PAC American Bridge posted a partial transcript of Trump's testimony Friday afternoon." A copy of the partial transcript is included in the story. -- CW
Marie's Guide to Making Billions (out in paperback soon) -- Buy Trump for what he's worth & sell him for what he says he's worth.
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump said Friday that he doesn't believe voters have a right to see his tax returns, and insisted it's 'none of your business' when pressed on what tax rate he himself pays -- a question that tripped up Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential race. Mr. Trump made the comments in an interview on ABC's 'Good Morning America,' as he continued to try to answer questions about his change in explanations over the last year about why he won't release the taxes." -- CW
*****
Getty image, via MAG.... Julie Davis & Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "The Obama administration is planning to issue a sweeping directive telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity. A letter to school districts will go out Friday, fueling a highly charged debate over transgender rights in the middle of the administration's legal fight with North Carolina over the issue. The declaration -- signed by Justice and Education Department officials -- will describe what schools should do to ensure that none of their students are discriminated against." -- CW
** David Corn of Mother Jones: "Anthony Senecal, who worked as Donald Trump's butler for 17 years before being named the in-house historian at the tycoon's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, has repeatedly published posts on his Facebook page that express profound hatred for President Barack Obama and declare he should be killed.... Senecal regularly posts screeds on his Facebook page from a far-right perspective in which he decries Obama and his wife -- along with Hillary Clinton, other Democrats, and Republican leaders.... Several times he has called for the president's execution. He confirms that he has written all the posts on the page that have appeared under his name. 'It's all me,' he says." -- CW ...
... Elahe Izadi of the Washington Post: "The longtime former butler to ... Donald Trump called for President Obama to be killed, and now the Secret Service said it will conduct an investigation.... 'The U.S. Secret Service is aware of this matter and will conduct the appropriate investigation,' agency spokesman Robert Hoback said in an email Thursday. The Trump campaign denounced Senecal's messages and distanced itself from the former butler at ... Mar-a-Lago...." -- CW ...
... Asewin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "Donald Trump's longtime butler wants President Obama killed -- thinks Hillary Clinton is a 'LYING DECEIVING C**T !!!!!!!' and that Ferguson, Missouri, should be 'carpet bombed.'" Also, too, he hates "negroes." "In March, Senecal was profiled by The New York Times, which noted that 'few people here can anticipate Mr. Trump's demands and desires better than Mr. Senecal,' and that he 'seems to reflect his boss's worldview [in that he] worries about attacks by Islamic terrorists and is critical of Mr. Trump's ex-wives.' As Mother Jones notes, the lengthy profile does not mention his social-media rants." CW: Nice work, Jason Horowitz of the NYT! P.S. It isn't a "profile" if you wrap the guy in sugar & omit little facts like, "wants to kill the president" & and all the "negroes." It's a hagiography. Or a cover-up. ...
... Steve M.: A "doctored photo of Michelle Obama in a teal dress [with a penis bump] also shows up on the Facebook page of Robert Morrow, the half-insane Obama- and Clinton-hater (and current chair of the Republican Party in Travis County, Texas) who co-authored a book with Trump pal Roger Stone called The Clintons' War on Women." CW: This is Trump's "brain trust," but you're not going to read that in the New York Times, either.
Matthew Daly of the AP: "The Obama administration issued a final rule Thursday to sharply cut methane emissions from U.S. oil and gas production, a key part of a push by President Barack Obama to reduce methane emissions by nearly half over the next decade. The rule by the Environmental Protection Agency is the major element of an administration goal to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas drilling by up to 45 percent by 2025, compared to 2012 levels." -- CW
Sarah Kliff of Vox: "Former House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) filed a lawsuit last July contending that the White House had broken the law by giving insurance companies money that Congress hadn't authorized. DC District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer ruled Thursday that the House Republicans were right: The Obama administration does not have legal authority to provide low-income Obamacare enrollees with subsidies to help pay their deductibles and co-payments. The ruling is not final; the Obama administration will near certainly appeal this ruling to an appellate court. But if other courts were to find in the Republicans' favor, and the decision to hold, it would have sweeping implications, significantly reshaping the relationship between the executive and legislative branches and striking a significant blow against the people Obamacare was designed to help." CW: Collyer is a Bush II appointee & is the chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Spencer Hsu, et al., of the Washington Post: "The judge's logic drew a quick rebuke from White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, who called the lawsuit a new low in the battle over the controversial health care law and predicted the ruling would be overturned by the courts because it charted new ground in the separation of powers between presidents and Congress. 'This suit represents the first time in our nation's history that Congress has been permitted to sue the executive branch over a disagreement about how to interpret a statute,' Earnest said." -- CW
Mike Isaac of the New York Times: "Facebook ... published internal editorial guidelines on Thursday, the company's latest attempt to rebut accusations that it is politically biased in the news content it shows on the pages of its 1.6 billion users. The 28-page document details how both editors and computer algorithms play roles in the process of picking what should appear in the 'Trending Topics' section of users' Facebook pages." CW ...
... Sam Thielman of the Guardian: "Leaked documents show how Facebook ... relies on old-fashioned news values on top of its algorithms to determine what the hottest stories will be for the 1 billion people who visit the social network every day.... This week the company was accused of an editorial bias against conservative news organizations, prompting calls for a congressional inquiry from the US Senate commerce committee chair, John Thune [R-S.D]. -- CW ...
... Hanna Trudo of Politico: "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to meet with influential conservatives to discuss concerns about the alleged suppression of right-leaning stories on the social media website." -- CW
Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "American Special Operations troops have been stationed at two outposts in eastern and western Libya since late 2015, tasked with lining up local partners in advance of a possible offensive against the Islamic State, U.S. officials said. Two teams totaling fewer than 25 troops are operating from around the cities of Misurata and Benghazi to identify potential allies among local armed factions and gather intelligence on threats, according to the officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive mission overseas." -- CW
Philip Shenon of the Guardian: "A former Republican member of the 9/11 commission ... said Wednesday he believes there was clear evidence that Saudi government employees were part of a support network for the 9/11 hijackers and that the Obama administration should move quickly to declassify a long-secret congressional report on Saudi ties to the 2001 terrorist attack. The comments by John F Lehman, an investment banker in New York who was Navy secretary in the Reagan administration, signal the first serious public split among the 10 commissioners since they issued a 2004 final report that was largely read as an exoneration of Saudi Arabia, which was home to 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11." -- CW
The Incremental Pope. Elisabetta Povoledo & Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "Pope Francis suggested on Thursday that he was open to studying whether women can serve as deacons in the Roman Catholic Church, revealing an openness -- if nothing else -- to re-examining the church's long-held insistence on an all-male clergy. The pope's comments were made during an assembly of leaders of female Catholic religious congregations, and were consistent with his off-the-cuff style: a seemingly impromptu remark that opened a broad horizon of possibilities...." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Presidential Race
This Week in Liberal Hillary, Part 1. Ylan Mui of the Washington Post: "Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton said she would support changes to the top ranks of the Federal Reserve, an issue recently championed by progressive groups amid debate over how long the central bank should keep supporting the American economy.... In a statement to The Washington Post, Clinton's campaign said she supports removing bankers from the boards of directors and increasing diversity within the Fed." -- CW
This Week in Liberal Hillary, Part 2. Danielle Paquette of the Washington Post: "Hillary Clinton this week unveiled her vision for more quality child care in the United States, a lofty plan that includes raising pay for the industry's workers. But the boldest idea targets parents, who now face day-care costs that rival college tuition. Clinton wants to cap that expense at 10 percent of a household's income." -- CW
Jose DelReal & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan struck a conciliatory tone after meeting in Washington Thursday, seeking to ease tensions that flared last week when Ryan said he is not ready to endorse [Trump].... 'While we were honest about our few differences, we recognize that there are also many important areas of common ground,' Trump and Ryan (R-Wis.) said in a joint statement...." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Jennifer Steinhauer & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Significant fissures remain between Mr. Trump and Republican congressional leaders: Mr. Ryan reminded him privately that many voters opposed him in the primaries, and in a separate meeting with senators, several lawmakers urged Mr. Trump to moderate his tone on immigration.... Mr. Ryan gave no public signal that he was poised to back Mr. Trump, and two people briefed on their private meeting said they did not discuss a possible endorsement." -- CW ...
... Rachel Bade of Politico: "One of Donald Trump's top allies in Congress slammed the presumptive GOP nominee after he failed to meet with rank-and-file lawmakers backing his campaign during his ballyhooed trip to Capitol Hill on Thursday. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) told Politico that Trump refused multiple requests to meet with members of Congress working to round up support for him in Washington. 'There is no reason not to have as many people on your side as you can ... and he missed a real opportunity here.'" -- CW ...
... digby: "Poor Duncan. The first endorser always does the heavy lifting in the beginning and then gets dumped for a sexier leader once his candidate makes it to the top.... But come on, Dunc had to know Trump was that kind of guy. Just ask Ivana." -- CW ...
... "Weasel Words." Ed Kilgore: "As political theater, the 'summit' between Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan was first-rate.... The 'joint statement' the two men issued after a meeting in the presence of RNC chairman Reince Priebus was a quick espresso shot of nothingness topped with pious hopes for 'unity.' It left everyone free to interpret it as they wish. Like a truce between Roman generals and a barbarian chieftain in late antiquity, the 'summit' will probably be regarded by each side as representing the first stage in the other's surrender." -- CW
Paul Krugman on "Trump & Taxes" -- Trump's own & his "plan." CW: Krugman is an opinion writer, of course, but the things he reveals about Trump are the sorts of things that should appear in straight news pieces. All the time. Everywhere. But, as Krugman points out, the media will hide Trump's ignorance & lies. ...
... Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "After days of confusion over Donald J. Trump's hints that he would change his tax plan to reduce its budget-busting cost and make it less generous to the rich, his spokeswoman on Thursday sought to clear things up: He plans no changes, Hope Hicks said, and advisers who say otherwise do not speak for him. One of those advisers, Stephen Moore of the Heritage Foundation, had his own response: 'I'm a little bummed out if his spokeswoman says they're not going to make any changes to the plan.'" ...
... CW: I'll admit that many of the Trump campaign's flipflops are a function of his & his staff's remarkable ignorance, but it's also fair to say that "confusion" isn't a flaw in Trump's candidacy; it's a strategy. Unlike Paul Ryan, for instance, Trump isn't very good at doublespeak, so his feints are comparatively crude, but his purpose is always to pretend he's on your side, whatever side that may be. ...
... Jonah Shepp of New York agrees: "Like everything else in Trump's world, tax policy is whatever you want it to be, baby. Just as long as he doesn't have to show anyone the taxes he himself has been paying." CW: Or not paying.
Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "As headlines popped up this week declaring that Donald Trump had softened his position on banning most foreign Muslims from entering the United States, some Republicans celebrated the news. Except that Trump has not actually walked anything back.... [He] still wants to ban nearly all ...[Muslims] from entering the United States in an effort to prevent terrorist attacks." ... CW
Marc Fisher & Will Hobson of the Washington Post: "A recording obtained by The Washington Post captures what New York reporters and editors who covered Trump's early career experienced in the 1970s, '80s and '90s: calls from Trump's Manhattan office that resulted in conversations with 'John Miller' or 'John Barron' -- public-relations men who sound precisely like Trump himself -- who indeed are Trump, masquerading as an unusually helpful and boastful advocate for himself, according to the journalists and several of Trump's top aides." -- CW
A Man, a Plan, Panama, and Oops...Telesur, the Latin American television network" "... Donald Trump has been linked to anonymous companies created by the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, according to documents released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists known as the ICIJ.... The leaked documents show that the Trump empire is linked to 32 offshore companies, including the real estate project Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower in Panama. His name appears 3,540 times in the database, but according to media reports that doesn't mean he is directly involved since Trump has sold his name to other investors in different countries." -- Akhilleus (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
** Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "Back in 2013, Steve Benen came up with the perfect way to describe the current iteration of Republicanism: post-policy nihilism. After the disastrous Bush administration, it was demonstrated that Republican policies - both foreign and domestic - were complete and utter failures. In response, rather than re-think those policies, conservative leaders drafted a plan of total obstruction to anything President Obama and the Democrats attempted to do. In order to get their base on board with that plan, they fanned the flames of fear and racism ... that is what took the place of actual policies. It should therefore come as no surprise to anyone that ... [Donald Trump] is running a post-policy campaign based on fear and racism. It is why none of the other contenders for the Republican nomination could ever lay a hand on him. Their choice was to either defend the failed policies of the Bush administration or challenge the fear and racism that animated his supporters - either option was doomed to fail." -- CW
Tim Egan: "The ascendancy of Trump is part of a great debate on the best route to achievement, pitting talented know-nothings against less-flashy long-sloggers. Malcolm Gladwell refined much of this conversation with his book 'Outliers,' popularizing the idea that 10,000 hours of deliberate practice are needed before you can become really good at some things. Achievement 'is talent plus preparation,' Gladwell wrote." CW: Trump has neither talent for governing nor preparation.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Todd Gittlin in the Washington Post: Donald Trump has "cracked campaign reporters' code. And if they don't want to get rolled again in the general election, journalists have to change tactics.... Trump regularly runs circles around interviewers because they pare their follow-up questions down to a minimum, or none at all. After 30-plus years in the media spotlight, he knows how to wait out an interviewer, offering noncommittal soundbites and incoherent rejoinders until he hears the phrase, 'let's move on.' He takes advantage of the slipshod, shallow techniques journalism has made routine, particularly on TV...." CW: Meant to link this yesterday.
Beyond the Beltway
Freida Frisaro of the AP: "An online auction was halted without explanation Thursday for the pistol that former Florida neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman used to kill unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin. The weapon was removed from the GunBroker.com website, minutes after the auction was to begin. It was not immediately clear why the website took down the listing." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Benjamin Weiser & Vivian Yee of the New York Times: "Dean G. Skelos, the once powerful Republican majority leader of the New York State Senate who was convicted with his son in December on federal corruption charges, was sentenced to five years in prison on Thursday." -- CW
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Reader Comments (14)
Ms LeTourneau has it right. Fear and hate (and I would add resentment, envy and jealousy to round out the roster of consanguineous Republican sins) always lurking in Republican politics, have entirely replaced any pretense of policy, which doesn't leave a self-styled policy wonk like Ryan, who I understand took his charts to today's meeting, anywhere else to turn.
Ryan and most Serious Republicans will come around to Trumpism because no one cares about their charts, and truth to tell, the vast majority of Americans don't like the policies those bloodless charts are designed to illustrate (or obscure).
Those policies, i.e., cutting taxes on the wealthy in order to cut the deficit(!), voucherizing Medicare and weakening Social Security, all in the name of a claimed fiscal responsibility to be achieved on the backs of the middle and lower classes are simply not supported by voters, even those who call themselves Republicans.
Republican policies are indeed dead at the gate. No matter how unpleasant it might be for a "reasonable," if wildly wrong, Republican like Ryan to accept what Trump represents, Trump is at least alive, and in the November horse race Ryan and his party desperately need a horse.
For a party with no moral center, any horse will do.
The Letourneau piece explains it pretty well, but I'd add just one thing to post-policy nihilism: post- truth politics.
All politicians obscure the truth and flip flop like beached crappie in on a summer day, but post-truth politics was elevated to a higher art form by the elder statesman, one Mr. Mittens Romney.
Anybody paying attention remembers the endless Pinocchios that man ran up on a weekly basis, declaring one policy position in public only to have one of his minions slither out to a newspaper and "correct" the statement. And this Romney character is still held up as an example. Well, I'll tell you who else was learning from that example, a certain Donald Drumpf.
Combine post-policy nihilism, plop in a fat chunk of post-truth politics, rev up the circus lights and enter The Donald.
On the other hand - Eurovision! Anyone not spellbound is a rotten egg!
What Trump Is Hiding. Paul Krugman suspects the real reason Trump won't release his tax returns is that he doesn't want the public to know he's not as rich as he says he is. I don't think that's it.
When you review a year or two of Bernie Sanders' returns, you can pretty much extrapolate where his family finances have been over the years (altho Jane's income has fluctuated).
But when you look at an entertainer's or a real estate entrepreneur's finances, they are apt to fluctuate wildly from year to year. So a year or two of Trump's returns don't provide an accurate picture of his long-term income, even if they offer hints. You could tell in comparing my return with Trump's that he makes more money than I do. But there's no line on a return that asks for your net worth.
So it's something else. As Krugman also suggests, it may be that he doesn't want voters to know his effective tax rate. He's got those Delaware accounts, after all (and so does Hillary Clinton), & probably offshore accounts we don't know about. Trump does remember Mitt Romney, if not fondly.
Moreover, those tax returns are going to show Trump lost a lot of money on these big deals he always brags about. Many of the losses on Trump's returns are probably Trumped-up for the sake of lowering his taxes, but whatever the results of the audits, there will be a big stack of forms showing losses. Especially in real estate holdings, where you can take (fake) depreciation, you can claim lots of losses.
The returns also likely will show, in terms concrete enough for even both-sides-do-it journalists to report, that Trump has told some serious whoppers, whoppers he might not be able to weasel out of as easily as he glides from an anti-Muslim "policy" to a anti-Muslim "suggestion."
People hide things because they're ashamed. You might think Trump has no shame, but somewhere in his psyche -- somewhere that comes out in his racism & misogyny, BTW -- he knows he's not the person he pretends to be. To the extent that the tax returns open a window into his actual business acumen, Trump has plenty of reason to hide the returns.
Marie
Oh, safari––"flip flopped like beached crappie on a summer day"––perfect! and so illustrative (The real freshwater male crappies build the nest and feed the kiddies–-their flip flops make their females faint with pleasure–-or so I imagine.)
And speaking of flip flops: The Pope is OPEN to STUDYING whether women can serve as deacons? Isn't that special! Years will go by and those women who certainly are ABLE to serve will still be awaiting on Francis' openness to an actual study (which would consist of what, I wonder?) These kinds of considerations the Church comes up with leaves me limp as one of safari's crappies or as Akhilleus has said of that glorious institution: "The greatest scam in the history of the world."
Here's something that will make you smile–-at least for awhile. James Surowieki from the New Yorker gives us positive results from Dodd/Frank–-details we don't often hear about: Bankings new normal:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/16/dodd-frank-and-bankings-new-normal
@Marie: I think you are right on about Trump's tax hidy-hide––possible nefarious dealings writ large or just plain stupid deals that went bust. And yes, the last thing Trump wants you to know about himself is that he's vulnerable.
Marie,
Trump certainly does have shame (well, some) when it comes to his personal image. Oh, he doesn't mind looking like a belligerent dickhead, but he's not happy about the public getting a look at his unhinged adolescent side.
Back in 1997, Mark Bowden, a prolific writer who went on to pen "Black Hawk Down" and "Guests of the Ayatollah", spent some time with Donald Trump for profile published in Playboy that year.
Bowden admits that he was prepared to like Trump, but even trying to make a good impression, Donaldo could not hide his true self: "Trump struck me as adolescent, hilariously ostentatious, arbitrary, unkind, profane, dishonest, loudly opinionated, and consistently wrong. He remains the most vain man I have ever met. "
Bowden describes a particularly embarrassing scene in which Trump, outraged by something on his Mar a Lago tennis court he didn't like, had himself a full blown tantrum and destroyed part of the court. Looking up at Bowden, he realized that his unseemly display of juvenile rage would be making into print. Trump later told the writer that if he agreed to play along, there'd be money in it for him: "Trump remains the only person I have ever written about who tried to bribe me."
A bribe to hide an ill timed outburst. What would he do to keep much more damaging secrets hidden?
What would he do as president?
Oh, and about that piece in Playboy? After it appeared, Bowden got a call from Trump's assistant informing him that the great man wanted a word. Bowden prepared for the worst. The assistant came back on the line after a bit and informed him that Trump was too livid to speak.
Can you see it now? Trump chief of staff, Ted Nugent, picks up the phone after a call that doesn't go Trump's way and says "Sorry 'bout that Mr. Putin, but the president is really too pissed to talk right now."
@Akhilleus: Good illustration. What a surprise that Trump figured he could hide his true nature merely by greasing the right palm. I wouldn't put it past him to try the method out on a few low-paid IRS agents.
Marie
Carry on, Jeeves
Trump's (former--but still connected) butler wants Obama and Clinton killed. Surprised?
Donaldo has been surrounding himself with the like minded for years, it would seem. "Yes Mr. Trump. You are so right. That horrible Kenyan should be hung. I fully agree."
Interestingly, in the story about Trump's Playboy profile, linked in a previous comment, Bowden mentions Trump's apparent contempt for the help:
"It was hard to watch the way he treated those around him, issuing peremptory orders—“Polish this, Tony. Today."
Presumably "Tony" refers to Anthony Senecal, Jeeves to Trump's Bertie. But come to think of it, Senecal, an unreconstructed racist with a large helping of misogyny on the side, who calls the president a prick and has used the C word to describe Hillary Clinton (with plenty of screaming caps and exclamation marks), doesn't strike me as the Jeeves type. But then again, Trump is no Bertie Wooster either.
Okay, never mind.
My apologies that the URL takes you to Trump's web site, but it is where the Ryan-Trump joint statement is posted. Most news stories about it didn't bother to include or link to the text (most are clearly not of Marie's quality, technical competence or conscientiousness -- "You comment, you link!!)
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/a-joint-statement-from-house-speaker-paul-ryan-and-donald-j.-trump
As I read this it reminded me of almost every joint communique issued by US Presidents and Chinese Premiers since Nixon: "We have our differences but we are determined to develop our common interests .... etc. etc." Not exactly bull, but usually indicating "We met and want to say the least problematic things about our meeting that we can, because we acknowledge we can cause each other huge problems."
Trump is probably looking at Ryan and the GOP the way Beijing looks at Taiwan: "You know you're mine, and I know it, and I can afford to wait."
@Akhilleus: Senecal has always worked for a rich, powerful asshole, & the rich people he has been around -- Trump's associates -- are assholes, too. Despite the fact that we've just learned he's a "professional historian" (and I'm not), I'd say he's both ignorant and uneducated; ergo, he probably assumed, based on his limited experience with Drumph & Friends of Drumph, that all rich and powerful people are assholes.
Like all confederates, Senecal thinks the only deserving person is himself. Everybody else is some degree of jerk. So when powerful people are not only assholes (e.g., Obama & Clinton), but they also want to help (give free stuff to) all the jerks, it enrages Senecal.
If you want to know what's in confederates' hearts, Senecal's posts give you a clue, but it's probably worse than what he's willing to share with Mark Zuckerberg. Life can't be good when you have feelings like Senecal's. If they weren't such miserable scumbags, you'd feel sorry for him & his kind because they're such miserable scumbags.
Marie
It appears that Donaldo has secured the much sought after endorsement of Dan Quayle, another guy with all the best words.
Let there be dancing in the streets. His victory is nearly complete.
Pleased with this amazing coup, Donaldo invited the former vice president to visit him at his Trump Tower office where they will split a baked potatoe. And maybe a taco bowl.
So take that, Paul Ryan.
(And it's a good thing Quayle is no Jack Kennedy. Otherwise, Ted Cruz's dad would be after him.)
@Patrick: Now, Patrick, if you'd been paying close attention, you'd see that I (or rather Ed Kilgore) already linked to the Trump-Ryan joint statement, as provided by CNN.
And, yes, as you (and Kilgore) point out, the statement is a big nothingburger of the kind pretend-friendly heads of state make.
Marie
Thank you Miz Marie for the Buy/sell comment. That used to be a common put down here in the north part of the swamp state, often applied to someone "serving" in Tallahassee. One other I can think for the GOP establishment/outsiders is "roll them downhill in a barrel and there will always be a SOB on top".