The Commentariat -- November 12, 2019
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court's conservative majority on Tuesday appeared ready to side with the Trump administration in its efforts to shut down a program protecting about 700,000 young immigrants known as 'Dreamers.' The court's liberal justices probed the administration's justifications for ending the program, expressing skepticism about its rationales for doing so. But other justices indicated that they would not second-guess the administration's reasoning and, in any event, considered its explanations sufficient." A USA Today story is here. ~~~
~~~ Michael E. Hayden of the Southern Poverty Law Center: "In the run-up to the 2016 election, White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller promoted white nationalist literature, pushed racist immigration stories and obsessed over the loss of Confederate symbols after Dylann Roof's murderous rampage, according to leaked emails reviewed by Hatewatch. The emails, which Miller sent to the conservative website Breitbart News in 2015 and 2016, showcase the extremist, anti-immigrant ideology that undergirds the policies he has helped create as an architect of Donald Trump's presidency."
Quint Forgey of Politico: "Pete Buttigieg, whose presidential campaign has been steadily gaining ground in Iowa over recent weeks, now sits narrowly atop the 2020 Democratic field in the first-in-the-nation caucus state, according to a new survey. A Monmouth University poll published Tuesday shows that the South Bend, Ind., mayor is the first choice of 22 percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers -- outrunning all other rivals in Iowa for the party's nomination to challenge ... Donald Trump. Former Vice President Joe Biden ranks in second place with 19 percent support, followed closely by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts with 18 percent and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont with 13 percent."
Caitlin Byrd of the Charleston, S.C., Post & Courier: Mark Sanford ended his presidential bid outside the state capitol building in Concord, N.H. "Sanford had originally planned to be inside a Statehouse office on Friday, to have his name added to the ballot in the first-in-the-nation primary. Instead, it is where his run ended days after he vowed to spend all of November campaigning here."
Luke Broadwater of the Baltimore Sun: "Maryland Democratic Party Chairwoman Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, the widow of U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, is running for her husband's seat, arguing Monday she is the best option to carry out his legacy and continue his vision.... Rockeymoore Cummings, a public policy consultant who is founder of the Washington consulting firm Global Policy Solutions LLC and a former 2018 candidate for governor, said her husband told her months before he died he would like for her to succeed him.... Candidates must file by Nov. 20 to run in a special Feb. 4 primary for Cummings' 7th District seat, which includes parts of the city of Baltimore and areas of Baltimore and Howard counties. The special election will be April 28, the same day as a regular primary for all of Maryland's U.S. House seats.... Eight Democrats ... and three Republicans have filed to run in the special primary. Five candidates have filed to run in the regular GOP primary, along with seven Democrats."
Maggie Haberman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "President Trump has discussed dismissing the intelligence community's inspector general, Michael Atkinson, because Mr. Atkinson reported a whistle-blower's complaint about Mr. Trump's interactions with Ukraine to Congress after concluding it was credible, according to four people familiar with the discussions. Mr. Trump first expressed his dismay about Mr. Atkinson around the time the whistle-blower's complaint became public in September. In recent weeks, he has continued to raise with aides the possibility of firing him, one of the people said.... He has said he believes Mr. Atkinson, whom he appointed in 2017, has been disloyal, one of the people said.... Inspectors general are supposed to be insulated from politics so they can follow the facts and provide oversight of the executive branch. While presidents have the authority to remove them, they are supposed to take that action only in cases of misconduct or failure to fulfill duties."
Sideshow, Ctd. Say, remember that lawsuit Mick Mulvaney (1) tried to join last Friday? Well, he (2) withdrew from that effort yesterday. Then he said he (3) would file his own damned lawsuit. Then (4) ... Morgan Chalfont of the Hill: "Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Tuesday reversed plans to file a lawsuit regarding his compliance with a subpoena for congressional testimony in the House impeachment inquiry into President Trump. His attorneys notified a federal court that Mulvaney, after further consideration, 'does not intend to pursue litigation regarding the deposition subpoena issued to him by the U.S. House of Representatives' and will instead obey directions from Trump to ignore the subpoena altogether." Mrs. McC: Maybe now you'll be a little less stunned & amazed by all those stories titled, "White House in Chaos."
Stephanie Ruhle & Carol Lee of NBC News: "Former national security adviser John Bolton derided ... Donald Trump's daughter and son-in-law during a private speech last week and suggested his former boss' approach to U.S. policy on Turkey is motivated by personal or financial interests, several people who were present for the remarks told NBC News.... Bolton outlined [a portrait of] of a president who lacks an understanding of the interconnected nature of relationships in foreign policy and the need for consistency, these people said.... Like other former Trump advisers, Bolton said regardless of how much evidence is provided to Trump that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, the president refuses to take any action because he views any move against Moscow as giving credence to the notion that his election is invalid, the people present for Bolton's remarks said." Also, he plugged his upcoming book.
Trump Is as Pure as the Driven Snow. Mike Allen, et al., of Axios have more-or-less updated an earlier post, linked below, to explain the GOP's "defense" of Trump: "Confronted with a mountain of damaging facts heading into tomorrow's opening of the public phase of impeachment, House Republicans plan to argue that 'the President's state of mind' was exculpatory." Mrs. McC: Sure he shot a guy in cold blood on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight, but he was thinking of the American flag waving in a blue sky when he did it. ~~~
~~~ BUT Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times writes, "... the House Republicans who are actually involved in the hearings seem set to go all in on the fantasy of Ukrainian election interference. To exonerate Trump, they are ready to help cover for Russia." Devin Nunes, the ranking member of the House Intel Committee wrote to chairman Adam Schiff Saturday, "of Trump's 'documented belief that the Ukrainian government meddled in the 2016 election,' which 'forms the basis for a reasonable desire for Ukraine to investigate the circumstances surrounding the election.' The conspiracy theories that undergird the president's 'documented belief' aren't really coherent, but they don't have to be to serve their purpose, which is sowing confusion about the well-established fact that Russia assisted Trump's campaign.... 'George Soros was behind it. George Soros's company was funding it,' [Rudy] Giuliani said on ABC in September, spinning tales of Hillary Clinton's collusion with Ukraine. Speaking to The Post, Giuliani accused Marie Yovanovtich, the former ambassador to Ukraine, of 'working for Soros.'"
Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "President Trump unleashed on former President Obama and so-called Dreamers hours before the Supreme Court will hear arguments about Trump's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. 'Many of the people in DACA, no longer very young, are far from "angels."Some are very tough, hardened criminals,' Trump claimed in a tweet early Tuesday without providing details. 'President Obama said he had no legal right to sign order, but would anyway. If Supreme Court remedies with overturn, a deal will be made with Dems for them to stay!'... Obama used an executive action in 2012 to establish DACA, something the Trump administration has called 'an unconstitutional exercise of authority.'" Mrs. McC: Kind of ironic, inasmuch as Trump issues executive orders as often as Reagan passed around the jellybean jar. ~~~
~~~ Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), a combat veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said she celebrated Veterans Day in Tijuana, Mexico, with U.S. veterans who have been deported since fighting for the country. 'I am ashamed of and heartbroken by how our nation is treating the deported Veterans I met with today,' Tamworth said in a statement after her Monday trip. The senator said the veterans are 'Americans all but on paper.' Many enlisted after President George W. Bush signed an executive order fast-tracking citizenship for 'for those willing to serve -- but who, because of things like lost paperwork, fell through the cracks, never officially became citizens, she said."
Married to the Mob. David Kirkpatrick & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "Behind President Trump's accommodating attitude toward Turkey is an unusual back channel: a trio of sons-in-law who married into power and now play key roles in connecting Ankara with Washington. One, Turkey's finance minister, is the son-in-law of its strongman president and oversees his country's relationship with the United States. Another is the son-in-law of a Turkish tycoon and became a business partner to the Trump Organization. Now he advocates for Turkey with the Trump administration. And the third is Jared Kushner, who as the son-in-law of and senior adviser to Mr. Trump has a vague if expansive foreign policy portfolio.... The three men have developed an informal, next-generation line of communication between Mr. Trump and ... President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who only weeks after his military incursion into northern Syria is scheduled to visit the White House on Wednesday. At a moment when Mr. Trump has come under bipartisan criticism from Congress for a series of stands favorable to Mr. Erdogan, the ties among the three men show how informal and often-unseen connections between the two presidents have helped shape American policy in a volatile part of the world.... 'Trump is replacing formal relations among nations in several cases with family-to-family relationship, or crony-to-crony relationships,' said Eric S. Edelman, who served as under secretary of defense for policy and United States ambassador to Turkey during the George W. Bush administration." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: When there's no handy family connection, Trump has Rudy & his mobster friends execute "U.S." policy. And Congressional Republicans are defending this guy -- the same guy who is defying not just formal diplomats but also the Congress? What is wrong with these people?
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Stefan Becket of CBS News: "Democrats in the House released a transcript of testimony by Laura Cooper, a top Pentagon official who appeared behind closed doors before the impeachment committees on October 23. Cooper is deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia whose responsibilities include overseeing U.S. military assistance to Ukraine." A pdf of the transcript of her testimony, via the House, is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ ** Andrew Desiderio & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Investigators also released transcripts of Catherine Croft's and Christopher Anderson's testimony. Croft and Anderson served as top aides to Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special representative for Ukraine negotiations. Both officials had visibility into the hold on military aid -- including the extent to which Ukrainian officials knew of the hold before it was publicly revealed. by Politico on August 28. Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia and Ukraine, told investigators that Trump's abrupt hold on the critical security assistance sent all corners of the administration into a frenzy to get it released -- and to understand what motivated Trump's decision." The reporters outline Cooper's testimony & describe the timeline she established for who knew about Trump's hold on the aid & when. They also highlight aspects of Croft's and Anderson's depositions.
"Cooper told investigators that Michael Duffey, a senior official at the Office of Management and Budget who handles national security issues, said during a July 26 meeting that the president ordered the hold on aid to Ukraine because of his 'concerns about corruption.' But Cooper also said an inter-agency review for corruption concerns had already been completed. During the review process, Pentagon officials 'affirmed that we believed sufficient progress has been made,' Cooper added. 'It was unanimous with the exception of the statements by OMB representatives, and those statements were relaying higher level guidance,' Cooper said.... Duffey was subpoenaed by impeachment investigators but, like other OMB officials, he refused to appear for testimony, depriving Democrats of potentially explosive information about the hold on military aid to Ukraine." ~~~
~~~ Don't Upset Putin. Mrs. McCrabbie: Do check out the phone call Trump made to John Bolton's home, according Cooper's testimony. It's kinda unrelated to impeachment, but it's another indication of Trump's fear of Putin. More important, and in that same vein: Catherine "Croft revealed that a previously unknown hold was placed on a separate aspect of U.S. lethal military aid to Ukraine. She told investigators that OMB put a hold on a transfer of javelin missiles to Ukraine -- and that Mick Mulvaney ... expressed concerns that 'Russia would react negatively.'"
~~~ Adam Edelman & Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "Laura Cooper, the top Pentagon official overseeing U.S. policy regarding Ukraine, told House impeachment investigators last month that ... Donald Trump directed the relevant agencies to freeze aid to Ukraine over the summer, according to a transcript of her testimony released Monday.... Cooper said that she attended a meeting on July 23, where "this issue" of Trump's 'concerns about Ukraine and Ukraine security assistance' came up. She said the president's concerns were conveyed by acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. Days later, on July 26, she testified that she found out that both military and humanitarian aid had been impacted. Asked if the president was authorized to order that type of hold, Cooper said there were concerns that he wasn't.... Top Republicans, including Trump himself, have said there couldn't have been a quid pro quo because, they claim, the Ukrainians were not aware that military aid was being withheld in the first place. However, Cooper testified that she had concluded from conversations she'd had with Kurt Volker, the then-U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, and [Bill] Taylor, that that couldn't possibly be true." ~~~
~~~ Michael Shear & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The White House began asking administration officials detailed questions about military assistance to Ukraine after a meeting with President Trump in mid-June, nearly a month before the aid was abruptly frozen, a top Pentagon official told impeachment investigators last month." Shear & Fandos outline some of the testimony of Cooper, Croft & Anderson, but their most shocking reporting is directly about the Mad King:
"On Twitter, [Trump] accused Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, of releasing 'doctored transcripts' of the administration officials who testified behind closed doors, though he offered no evidence. In fact, even the president's most loyal Republican allies, who participated in hours of closed-door questioning of the witnesses, have refrained from raising doubts about the veracity of the transcripts that have been released so far. But Mr. Trump said the effort to remove him from office was an 'Impeachment Scam,' and he has repeatedly demanded that Republicans join him in undermining the legitimacy of the Democratic-led inquiry. In one tweet on Monday, Mr. Trump called on Republicans to 'put out their own transcripts.'" Mrs. McC: Why can't Congressional Republicans just admit Trump is crazy & move on?
Zachary Basu & Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Republicans on the three House committees conducting the Trump-Ukraine investigation have settled on 'four key pieces of evidence' that they claim will undermine Democrats' arguments for why the president should be impeached, according to a staff memo circulated to committee members Monday night.... 'The July 25 call summary -- the best evidence of the conversation -- shows no conditionality or evidence of pressure; President Zelensky and President Trump have both said there was no pressure on the call; The Ukrainian government was not aware of a hold on U.S. security assistance at the time of the July 25 call; and President Trump met with President Zelensky and U.S. security assistance flowed to Ukraine in September 2019 -- both of which occurred without Ukraine investigating President Trump's political rivals.'" The story includes a reproduction of the memo. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Sorry, boys, this is full bull, contradicted by hard evidence. (1) The July 25 phone call is all pressure; after Zelensky mentions his desire to purchase Javelins, Trump says, "I would like you to do us a favor, though," and goes on about the supposed Ukrainian server & the Bidens, and keeps telling Zelensky to call Bill Barr & Rudy Giuliani to set up the deal. (2) Trump bearing witness to the effects of his own extortion plot is meaningless, and there is plenty of evidence Zelensky felt the pressure of Trump's demands; Zelensky's claiming no pressure is like the shopkeeper who tells the cops the mob isn't shaking him down so the mob won't break his legs; (3) numerous witnesses testified to voluminous evidence Zelensky's people knew about the shakedown before it became public; and (4) Zelensky got lucky that John Bolton ordered release of the aid just before Zelensky was scheduled to go on CNN to announce the fake investigations. Zelensky cancelled the interview. ~~~
~~~ BTW, Akhilleus revealed in yesterday's Comments that he has acquired what is at least a partial Republican witness list.
Jonathan Chait: "Yesterday, Representative Mac Thornberry appeared on ABC's This Week to elucidate the Republican case against impeaching President Trump. To say that his appearance did not go well would understate the case considerably.... He treats the phone call as if it's the entirety of the case. But then, rather than insist the phone call was 'perfect,' he concedes it was kinda bad. At that point, though, Thornberry pivots to pointing out that the call is no different than things Trump 'says in public all the time.' That's true! Trump does solicit foreign countries to investigate his rivals in public all the time. He's even declared that he has an 'absolute right' to do the very thing he's being accused of. Of course he pressured Ukraine to smear his opponents.... You can't impeach Trump for a crime he does 'all the time.'" Mrs. McC: A fun read, which would be way funnier if it were only half a dozen yokels spouting these lines of "reasoning." Instead, it's almost every elected Republican, & those hoping to get elected to something. (Also linked yesterday.)
Mrs. McCrabbie: Sunday, Sen. Rand Paul (RTP-Ky.) went on "Meet the Press" and "argued ... that allegations that Trump and other top officials threatened to withhold aid to Ukraine to pressure the country to investigate Biden and his son's business dealing there is 'exactly' what the former vice president did while in office." Then Chuck Todd, the useful idiot, "counters" with, "So two wrongs make a right?" I saw a report of the interview yesterday & decided to ignore it because Todd pissed me off. I should have looked further, because as Greg Sargent of the Washington Post wrote Monday, Chuck's next guest was Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), and Himes ripped both Paul for expressing & Todd for accepting this outlandish false equivalency:
~~~ Greg Sargent: "This is the important subplot lurking beneath the scandal headlines -- that in leaving Ukraine vulnerable to Russia in order to strong-arm Ukraine into carrying out his own self-interested corrupt designs, Trump retreated from the United States' posture of siding with Ukraine in a broader battle between liberal democracy and illiberal authoritarian kleptocracy. [Same link as above.] As Franklin Foer has shown, Biden was trying to pull Ukraine into a more democratic orbit, and Trump in effect pulled in the other direction, mingling his own corruption with Russian geopolitical interests. Importantly, the diplomats horrified by Trump's misconduct have also testified to this broader story. As Ambassador William B. Taylor Jr. suggested, Trump betrayed a 'democratic neighbor' that is 'eager to join Western institutions and enjoy a more secure and prosperous life.'" ~~~
~~~ Jonathan Chait: "The American politician with the most impressive record of anti-corruption activism in [Ukraine] is Joe Biden. The New York Times, the Washington Post and L.A. Times have all conducted deep dives into Biden's record, and portrayed him as a forceful and effective advocate for reform.... The Ukraine policy architecture that Trump inherited was already geared toward fighting corruption in Ukraine. A thorough review of the transcripts of the impeachment hearings by Slate's Will Saletan found that Trump simply ignored all the official efforts to oppose corruption there.... To call Trump uninterested in corruption in Ukraine is to flatter him. Trump's policy was in fact to roll back the country's reforms and recorrupt its judicial system and, especially, its energy sector. To that end, Trump dispatched Rudy Giuliani, who in turn was hired by Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two figures linked to the Russian underworld. If you're looking to fight corruption, you obviously don't ignore official diplomatic channels and hand over diplomacy to Russian mobsters." Emphasis added.
Perhaps you'd like another glaring example of how Trump & Co. were encouraging, rather than discouraging, corruption in the new Ukraine government. Sad to oblige: ~~~
~~~ Desmond Butler, et al., of the AP: "Two political supporters of U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry secured a potentially lucrative oil and gas exploration deal from the Ukrainian government soon after Perry proposed one of the men as an adviser to the country's new president.... Ukraine awarded the contract to Perry's supporters little more than a month after the U.S. energy secretary attended Zelenskiy's May inauguration. In a meeting during that trip, Perry handed the new president a list of people he recommended as energy advisers. One of the four names was his longtime political backer Michael Bleyzer. A week later, Bleyzer and his partner Alex Cranberg submitted a bid to drill for oil and gas at a sprawling government-controlled site called Varvynska. They offered millions of dollars less to the Ukrainian government than their only competitor for the drilling rights, according to internal Ukrainian government documents obtained by The Associated Press. But their newly created joint venture, Ukrainian Energy, was awarded the 50-year contract because a government-appointed commission determined they had greater technical expertise and stronger financial backing, the documents show. Perry likely had outsized influence in Ukraine. Testimony in the impeachment inquiry into Trump shows the energy secretary was one of three key U.S. officials who were negotiating a meeting between Trump and the Ukrainian leader."
MEANWHILE, at the White House.... Erica Werner, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House's bifurcated and disjointed response to Democrats' impeachment inquiry has been fueled by a fierce West Wing battle between two of President Trump's top advisers [Mick Mulvaney & Pat Cipollone], and the outcome of the messy skirmish could be on full display this week, according to White House and congressional officials.... Mulvaney'office blames White House counsel Pat Cipollone for not doing more to stop other government officials from participating in the impeachment inquiry.... Cipollone, meanwhile, has fumed that Mulvaney only made matters worse with his Oct. 17 news conference, when he publicly acknowledged a quid pro quo.... Cipollone did not want Mulvaney to hold the news conference...." Trump has complained about both Mulvaney & Cipollone. Of course.
Impeachment: A Sideshow. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "A long-simmering feud within the White House broke into the open on Monday as a lawyer for John R. Bolton, President Trump's former national security adviser, filed a motion trying to keep Mick Mulvaney, the president's acting chief of staff, from joining a lawsuit over impeachment testimony. Mr. Bolton's lawyer argued in court papers that Mr. Mulvaney should not be allowed to jump into the existing lawsuit as a plaintiff because his interests are significantly different. But the legal schism underscored a broader rift between Mr. Mulvaney, who facilitated Mr. Trump's effort to pressure Ukraine for damaging information about Democrats, and Mr. Bolton, who tried to resist it. The lawsuit, filed by Charles M. Kupperman, a former deputy national security adviser and longtime associate of Mr. Bolton's, asked a court to decide whether Mr. Kupperman should obey the president's dictate or a House subpoena. While not technically a party to the lawsuit, Mr. Bolton, who left his post in September after clashing with Mr. Trump, is represented by the same lawyer, Charles J. Cooper, and is taking the same position as Mr. Kupperman in waiting for the court to decide whether he should testify or not." Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Update. Stefan Becket & Rob Legare of CBS News: "Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has withdrawn his request to join a federal lawsuit over whether White House officials should comply with congressional subpoenas for testimony in the impeachment inquiry, indicating he plans to file his own separate case.... Mulvaney's decision to refile the suit came after attorneys for [Charles] Kupperman and the House both told the court Mulvaney should not be allowed to sign on to the effort." The NBC News story is here. ~~~
~~~ Trump Lit Corner, Ctd. "This Is the Way Democracy Ends, Not with a Bang but a Book Deal." Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "Now, Bolton could certainly serve his nation right now by confirming what Fiona Hill has testified to regarding the effort to extort Ukrainian assistance in cooking up oppo research for Trump.... Bolton's lawyer said in a letter to House Democrats Friday that Bolton 'was personally involved in many of the events, meetings, and conversations about which you have already received testimony, as well as many relevant meetings and conversations that have not yet been discussed in the testimonies thus far.' Which sounds like an elevator pitch for an awesome book-to-movie deal. But it's also a reason he should appear before Congress. Except he has declined to testify, and presumably will not until a federal judge reaches a decision compelling him to do so, a decision that ... may come long after the impeachment trial has wrapped. For Bolton, the constitutional imperative lies in locking down the book deal." Lithwick cites other book deals in the Trump Lit Corner. "It's a quaint and sad irony that an American political experiment, born of radical and courageous evolutionary tracts, pamphlets, papers, and books, is now drowning under a multimillion-dollar tsunami of self-absorbed self-promotion."
Brianne Gorod & Elizabeth Wydra of the Constitutional Accountability Center, in the New Republic, write up articles of impeachment. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
We Interrupt Our Regularly-Scheduled Programming ... Joe Concha of the Hill: "ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS on Wednesday will preempt their regularly scheduled programming for live coverage of the House Intelligence Committee's open impeachment hearings of President Trump. As expected, all of the major cable news networks, including Fox News, MSNBC, CNN and CSPAN will also offer live coverage. William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, on Wednesday is slated to be the first to publicly testify regarding possible efforts by Trump administration officials to link U.S. military aid to Ukraine in exchange for investigating former Vice President >Joe Biden ... and his son Hunter Biden for business dealings in the country. Taylor's testimony will be followed by Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs George Kent."
Trump Is Very Confused, Thinks He Was POTUS* in 1989. Washington Post live updates @4:15 pm ET Monday: "Trump sent a tweet Monday afternoon appearing to lament signing the Whistleblower Protection Act. But Trump actually did not sign the law which was passed by Congress in 1989. 'To think I signed the Whistleblower Protection Act!' Trump tweeted. He was responding to a message sent by the White House Twitter account listing ways that Trump has been 'looking out for our veterans.' But the White House's tweet had listed a separate measure, VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, which Trump did sign into law in 2017." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Michael Gold of the New York Times: President Trump returned to his hometown on Monday to kick off the 100th annual New York City Veterans Day Parade, his second visit to the city since he announced he was making Florida his primary home. In an 18-minute speech, Mr. Trump expressed his gratitude to American veterans, but also used his remarks to pay tribute to the city, where he remains deeply unpopular.... Even before the president arrived, protesters had gathered along the streets, a number of them from an anti-Trump group, Rise and Resist. They carried signs calling for Mr. Trump's impeachment and repeatedly shouted, 'Shame!' In the windows of a nearby glass tower overlooking the dais where Mr. Trump spoke, large signs placed in the windows spelled out the word 'impeach.' A few floors higher, letters spelling 'convict' were placed in another set of windows. Some of his supporters gathered nearby, many of them wearing hats bearing Mr. Trump's 2016 campaign slogan, 'Make America Great Again.' But raucous boos and chants jeering Mr. Trump could also be heard throughout the president's remarks. A chorus of people shouted 'lock him up!' and 'traitor' and blew whistles as he spoke, causing some veterans to complain that the din was drowning out the president's speech." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "A Trump-appointed federal judge decided Monday that ... Donald Trump can't sue New York state officials in a Washington, DC, court at this time to stop the release of his tax returns to Congress. The case is one of many where the President or his administration have asked federal judges to intervene before House Democrats obtain Trump's financial records. Effectively, the ruling is a loss for Trump but a less significant one then the blows other courts have dealt him in cases involving Democrats' pursuits of his financial records. Courts have sided with the House multiple times in cases where its committees have subpoenaed Trump's financial records. Trump is still appealing those rulings, keeping the House subpoenas on hold." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Corruption All Around! Dan Diamond & Adam Cancryn of Politico: "At least eight former White House, presidential transition and campaign officials for ... Donald Trump were hired as outside contractors to the federal health department at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, according to documents newly obtained by Politico. They were among at least 40 consultants who worked on a one-year, $2.25 million contract directed by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma. The contractors were hired to burnish Verma's personal brand and provide 'strategic communications' support.... CMS agreed to allow at least four consultants to bill up to $204,000 over the length of the contract. That included one longtime Verma ally -- Marcus Barlow, her spokesperson while she was an Indiana-based consultant to then-Gov. Mike Pence -- who was greenlighted to bill as much as $425,000 for about a year's worth of work.... Senior career officials in the CMS communications department were paid about $140,000 last year. HHS Secretary Alex Azar's annual salary is $203,500, a spokesperson said." --s
Nahal Toosi & Gabby Orr of Politico: "Aides to ... Donald Trump are drafting plans to condition U.S. aid to other countries on how well they treat their religious minorities, two White House officials said. The proposal is expected to cover U.S. humanitarian assistance, and could also be broadened to include American military aid to other countries. If the proposal becomes reality, it could have a major effect on U.S. assistance in a range of places, from Iraq to Vietnam. Its mere consideration shows how much the White House prioritizes religious freedom, an emphasis critics say is really about galvanizing Trump's evangelical Christian base.... But experts on U.S. aid also warn that picking and choosing which countries to punish could be a very difficult task, not least because several countries that are partners or allies of the United States have terrible religious freedom records." --safari: TrumpenAmerika wouldn't qualify for TrumpenAid.
E.P.A.: No. More. Science. Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "The Trump administration is preparing to significantly limit the scientific and medical research that the government can use to determine public health regulations, overriding protests from scientists and physicians who say the new rule would undermine the scientific underpinnings of government policymaking. A new draft of the Environmental Protection Agency proposal, titled Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science, would require that scientists disclose all of their raw data, including confidential medical records, before the agency could consider an academic study's conclusions. E.P.A. officials called the plan a step toward transparency and said the disclosure of raw data would allow conclusions to be verified independently.... The measure would make it more difficult to enact new clean air and water rules because many studies detailing the links between pollution and disease rely on personal health information gathered under confidentiality agreements."
** How Far We've Fallen. Christopher Sherman, et al. of AP: "This month new government data shows [there are] ... an unprecedented 69,550 migrant children held in U.S. government custody over the past year, enough infants, toddlers, kids and teens to overflow the typical NFL stadium. That's more kids detained away from their parents than any other country, according to United Nations researchers. And it's happening even though the U.S. government has acknowledged that being held in detention can be traumatic for children, putting them at risk of long-term physical and emotional damage." --s
Gwen Aviles of NBC News: "The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, was established in 2012 by former President Barack Obama and allowed teens over 16 and adults younger than 30 who were brought to the United States when they were children to work and study without fear of deportation.... More than 800,000 young immigrants ... have enrolled. The Supreme Court is hearing arguments Tuesday on a Trump administration challenge to lower court rulings that blocked the administration from ending the program, which ... Donald Trump announced he would do in 2017. Administration officials argue the program interferes with its immigration enforcement efforts and sanctions the violation of federal law, but they have been challenged in court by civil rights, legal and immigration groups. A number of national groups will rally outside the Supreme Court as Democratic lawmakers, including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus will be holding a press conference and a prayer breakfast with national leaders in support of the program as the oral arguments begin inside the Supreme Court." Update: The New York Times story is here. ~~~
~~~ Amy Howe of ScotusBlog outlines the legal arguments. "The justices will consider three consolidated cases -- filed in California, the District of Columbia and New York. The challengers in all three cases argued that the termination of the program violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which is the federal law governing administrative agencies, as well as the rights of DACA recipients, and the lower courts ordered the government to keep DACA in place.... [The Court] agreed to tackle two questions: whether the government's decision to end DACA is something that courts can review at all and, if so, whether the decision to end DACA is legal. In its brief on the merits at the Supreme Court, the government maintains that its decision to end DACA is not reviewable. The lower courts, the government explains, ruled that the decision to end DACA should be set aside because it is 'arbitrary and capricious' -- that is, not the product of reasoned decision-making -- under the Administrative Procedure Act. But, the government continues, a court can't review an agency's decision under the 'arbitrary and capricious' standard if the agency's action is one that it has the discretion to take." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: You read that right. Trump is arguing he has a right to be "arbitrary and capricious." And good news, Nikki Haley agrees! ~~~
~~~ More from the Trump Lit Corner. Michelle Cottle of the New York Times: "Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations, has been causing quite a stir with her new memoir, in which she recounts how, during her time in the Trump administration, other top officials lobbied her to help them undermine the president. In 'With All Due Respect,' Ms. Haley writes that Rex Tillerson, then the secretary of state, and John Kelly, then the White House chief of staff, considered some of Mr. Trump's policies so harebrained that they ignored his directives and began recruiting other aides to derail his agenda.... Ms. Haley makes clear that what disturbed her was Mr. Tillerson's and Mr. Kelly's arrogance.... She really should be more concerned that we have a president whom top aides saw as a threat to the country." Cottle goes on to cite other instances where top aides claimed they undercut or disobeyed Trump's dangerous orders.
Voted Off & Deleted. Sad Ending for Another Ex-Trumper Just Trying to Make a Buck. Alexander Del Rosario of the Hollywood Reporter: "... Sean Spicer was voted off of ABC's Dancing With the Stars on Monday's show. Spicer's Dancing With the Stars days came to a close when the show's panel of judges, along with low fan votes, gave him the boot after the former U.S. press secretary performed a foxtrot to Destiny's Child's 'Bills, Bills, Bills' with dancing partner Jenna Johnson.... Earlier in the night, Trump had tweeted that viewers should 'vote for Sean' and that 'He is a great and very loyal guy who is working very hard.' After Spicer was kicked off the show, that tweet was deleted."
Karma Allen of ABC News: "Former President Jimmy Carter was hospitalized on Monday for a procedure to relieve pressure on his brain, caused by bleeding due to his recent falls, a spokesperson said. Carter, the oldest living ex-U.S. president, was admitted to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on Monday evening ahead of the procedure, which is scheduled to take place Tuesday morning."
Presidential Race 2020
Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts has told Joseph R. Biden Jr. and other Democratic officials that he is considering making a last-minute entry into the presidential race, the latest evidence of how unsettled the party's primary is less than three months before the Iowa caucuses. Mr. Patrick told Mr. Biden in a phone conversation last week that he was weighing a bid, according to a Democrat directly familiar with the call, but did not indicate that he had fully decided to run. Mr. Patrick's conversations with other party officials was confirmed by two other Democrats with knowledge of those talks.Mr. Patrick has told party leaders that he doesn't think any of the candidates running have established political momentum and that he thinks there is an opening for somebody who can unite both liberals and moderate Democrats, according to Democrats who have spoken to him." Politico's story is here.
Note to Trump: This Is What "Acting Presidential" Really Looks Like. Quint Forgey of Politico: "Mayor Pete Buttigieg ... on Monday hailed Barack Obama's legacy after a journalist acknowledged misquoting the Democratic White House contender as making a statement critical of the former president's time in office. Evan Halper of the Los Angeles Times tweeted Monday morning that a line in his Sunday story on Buttigieg's campaign, in which the candidate referred to the 'failures of the Obama era,' was erroneously reported. 'That's an inaccurate quote -- the result of transcribing a noisy recording at a loud rally. His exact words were "failures of the old normal,"' Halper wrote. '...This one really hurts because it went viral,' he continued, going on to post Buttigieg's full remarks, corrected. Buttigieg replied to Halper's messages less than an hour later, tweeting that he appreciated 'this reporter's swift and honest correction of a misquote on my views of' the Obama presidency.' 'From health care to DADT repeal to the rescue of the auto industry, my appreciation of the great leadership of Barack Obama comes from a very personal place,' he wrote." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Molly Olmstead of Slate: "Don Blankenship, a former coal baron and ex-convict whom ... Donald Trump once spoke out against for being too extreme, said on Monday that he planned to run for president as a third-party candidate.... Blankenship, who spent a year in prison in connection with 29 coal miners' deaths, ran for a Senate seat in West Virginia in 2018. His campaign was rooted in anger (mostly related to his own past incarceration) and xenophobia. He called Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who was born in Taiwan and moved to the U.S. as a child, a 'China person,' and he blasted out an ad claiming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is married to Chao, had been bribed by his 'China family' into creating jobs for 'China people' instead of Americans. When pressed about the ad, Blankenship rejected criticism by saying he could not have been racist by just mentioning Chinese people: 'Races are Negro, white Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian. There's no mention of a race.'"
Congressional Race 2020
Farewell to Peter King. Jim Newell of Slate: "The news of [Peter] King's [(R-N.Y.) retirement] announcement was met, in some quarters, with musings about one of the last remaining 'moderates' within the House GOP hanging it up. That was the interpretation that Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who has served in the Capitol with King for the entirety of King's career, ran with this morning in a tweet of effusive praise.... While King may not have shared some of his party's fanatical opposition to things like refundable tax credits, he went above and beyond many of them in his harassment of minority communities.... King's maximalist approach to terrorism done by Muslims showed none of the nuance he applied in the 1980s to the Troubles.... He was a vocal defender of the Irish Republican Army...." ~~~
~~~ Eoin Higgins of Common Dreams: "Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was heavily criticized Monday for expressing sorrow at the announcement from Republican Rep. Peter King that the New York congressman would not seek re-election to the U.S. House." ~~~
~~~ Jesse McKinley of the New York Times: Schumer's tweeted encomium to King "prompted more than 10,000 replies, mostly negative and some downright nasty. Videos of thumbs-downs, eye-rolling and heads shaking 'no,' flooded into Mr. Schumer's feed, as the word 'resign' got tossed about. Many of those outraged by Mr. Schumer's praise pointed out Mr. King's more controversial positions and statements, including when he said that there are 'too many mosques' in America; that protesting N.F.L. players are similar to Nazis; and that Eric Garner's death was the result of his obesity and asthma, rather than the chokehold applied by a New York Police Department officer. Add in Mr. King's frequent support for President Trump and his policies, and Mr. Schumer's comments seemed even more galling -- and divisive -- to some on the left."
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