The Commentariat -- February 13, 2019
Afternoon Update:
Dana Bash & Betsy Klein of CNN: "... Donald Trump intends to sign the border security deal to avoid another partial government shutdown, according to two sources who have spoken directly with the President."
About That "Executive Time." David Fahrenthold & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump has installed a room-sized 'golf simulator' game at the White House, which allows him to play virtual rounds at courses all over the world by hitting a ball into a large video screen, according to two people told about the system. That system replaced an older, less sophisticated golf simulator that had been installed under President Obama, according to two people.... Trump's system cost about $50,000, and was put in during the last few weeks in a room in his personal quarters, a White House official said. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity..., said Trump had paid for the new system and the installation personally. President Trump has built his schedules around long blocks of 'executive time' -- unstructured periods in the day where the president's schedules show no official meetings. He often spends this time watching TV, tweeting, holding impromptu meetings and making phone calls, aides have said.... The White House official said Trump has not used his new golf simulator during executive time -- or at all since it was put in." Right. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This morning I suggested that the government put a putting green in the exercise yard of Trump International Prison so he could pretend he was at a golf resort. Turns out there's a better option available right now, one which will allow him to pretend he's at any number of great golf courses. Perfect!
Jonathan Chait: Republicans are trying, and failing, to come up with compelling reasons to allow Trump to continue to hide his tax returns. "One common thread through all [their] defenses is that they take Trump's decision to break precedent and conceal his tax returns as a given. From there, they focus all the scrutiny on Democrats and their nefarious motives for getting the tax returns. And so none of Trump's defenders have bothered to construct a motive for Trump's decision to conceal his tax returns. It's just something we must all accept. The president has done business with, and employed, a large number of criminals, is under state and federal investigation for a wide array of alleged crimes, but his decision to keep his financial information private apparently tells us nothing whatsoever about the secrets it may contain."
Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "William P. Barr is all but guaranteed to become President Trump’s next attorney general, after clearing a procedural hurdle Tuesday with the support of not just Republicans but also a few Democrats, as well. The 55-to-44 vote to advance Barr's nomination comes after weeks in which Democrats sounded alarm bells about his previous statements regarding special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's probe of Trump and his alleged ties to Russia, including a memo Barr wrote last year questioning whether Mueller would be overstepping the law by investigating potential obstruction of justice."
Margaret Talev of Bloomberg News: "The chief executives of Apple Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Walmart Inc., are among 25 prominent Americans who will shape Trump administration efforts to develop job training programs to meet the changing demands of U.S. employers. The creation of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, announced by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and ... Ivanka Trump on Wednesday, will work with the National Council for the American Worker established last July by an executive order. Ivanka Trump, in a statement, said the board will 'ensure inclusive growth' and that the administration wants all Americans 'to have the skills and opportunity to secure good paying jobs and successfully navigate technological disruptions and the rapidly changing nature of work.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I have complete faith that a "Workforce Advisory Board" formed by Wilbur Get-a-Loan Ross & Ivanka Sweatshop Trump will be great boon to American workers.
Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "A former United States Air Force counterintelligence agent was charged with espionage after she defected to Iran and helped it target her former colleagues, the authorities said. In an extraordinarily detailed indictment made public on Wednesday, prosecutors disclosed that Monica Elfriede Witt, 39, gave the Iranians the code name and mission of a secret Pentagon program involving American intelligence operations."
"Howard Schultz's Campaign about Nothing." Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "At the start of the town hall CNN gave Howard Schultz on Tuesday night, anchor Poppy Harlow promised, 'We're going to talk about all the issues, because that's what this is about.' Unfortunately, Schultz spent the next hour studiously avoiding taking a position on much of anything. The former Starbucks CEO and potential independent presidential candidate's performance was almost a caricature of an independent candidate trying to say nothing except that the two major parties were doing it wrong. Harlow, to her great credit, repeatedly noted that he was skirting the questions and not talking about his own proposals. But Schultz would not be deterred from his anodyne generalities and platitudes."
Wisconsin. Molly Beck of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "The state Assembly passed a resolution Tuesday drafted by the Legislature's black caucus to honor prominent black Americans during February -- but only after Republicans blocked it until black Democratic lawmakers agreed to remove the name of ... Colin Kaepernick. Democratic Rep. David Crowley of Milwaukee, who authored the resolution, called the episode 'a textbook example of white privilege' and a 'slap in the face.' Crowley said he was grateful to ultimately have the Assembly pass the resolution authored by black lawmakers, 'but I had to get the blessing of all of my white counterparts.'"
*****
Dancing the Trump Fantastic. Erica Werner, et al., of the Washington Post: "The threat of another government shutdown receded Tuesday as lawmakers lined up behind a fragile border security compromise and President Trump predicted that federal agencies would stay open.... With a shutdown deadline looming Friday at midnight, the president suggested he might be able to accept the deal, saying he could take other steps to fund his wall.... After speaking on the phone with Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), Trump offered a more positive take. He praised Shelby in a tweet as 'hard working,' welcomed increased border security spending in the deal apart from the wall and wrote, 'Regardless of Wall money, it is being built as we speak!'... The House prepared to vote on it as soon as Wednesday evening, according to Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), and action in the Senate could follow Thursday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also briefed Trump, later telling reporters that he hopes to have the president's support, because 'he's got a pretty good deal here.'&" ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: The emperor has no clothes. The trick here is as simple as a child's tale. Tell Trump he won. Already he's telling the Trumpenproletariat that Wall has been built & is instructing them that their new chant is "Finish the Wall." I was thinking a few feet of concrete monstrosity should be built for future Trump photo-ops, but really, Photoshop will do. The Justice Department can scrap its memo prohibiting the indictment of a sitting president. Instead, just indict & convict Trump, then send him to a prison like the one pictured below, & tell him it's Trump Castle. Rename the exercise yard "Trump International," put in an Astro-turf putting green (say, here's one on Jeff Bezos' Amazon!), & he won't be the wiser. See also William Saletan's essay, linked below.
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania prison.
Peter Baker & Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "President Trump declared on Tuesday that he was 'not happy' about the bipartisan border security compromise negotiated by congressional leaders but would not say whether he would sign it or veto it before another government shutdown hits at midnight Friday.... But he said he thinks he can still add to the measure and avoid another government shutdown. 'I don't think you're going to see a shutdown,' he said. 'If you did have it, it's the Democrats' fault.' He added, 'I am extremely unhappy with what the Democrats have given us.'... The president said he would have a meeting later on the measure.... Republican leaders, including Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, have accepted the agreement as the best they can get at this point to avoid another government shutdown by a Friday deadline. But conservative figures have protested loudly.... The agreement includes a provision that could give the Trump administration broad discretion to increase the number of slots to shelter detained migrants, a win for Republicans that could ease the sting of Mr. Trump's failure to secure full funding for his border wall." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... The Times has a graphic -- with explanations -- of what wall exists, what Trump proposed, what Congress has approved. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... The Art of the Schlemiel. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "The deal as laid out does include some border fencing -- $1.375 billion worth, or 55 miles. That's well shy of the $5.7 billion and 200 miles in wall funding he demanded that led to the shutdown, but it's not nothing. Trump could argue that he got something out of the 35-day government closure. But only if you ignore two very important things. One is that this compromise includes a concession to Democrats, too: a reduction in the number of detention beds.... But the bigger issue is this: The amount of funding is actually shy of the original deal Republicans and Democrats reached last year that Trump rejected. At that time, the spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security included $1.6 billion for 65 miles of fencing, both slightly more than the current tentative deal. This was the deal on the table (it passed 26 to 5 in the Senate Appropriations Committee in June) when Trump initially began demanding $5 billion for his wall. He's now getting slightly less than that $1.6 billion while also making a concession to Democrats on detention beds." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Greg Sargent: The "$1.375 billion for new bollard fencing in targeted areas ... [is] nothing like Trump's wall -- it's limited to the kind of fencing that has already been built for years -- and it's substantially short of the $5.7 billion Trump wants. It's nothing remotely close to the wall that haunts the imagination of the president and his rally crowds. The $1.375 billion is slightly less than what Democrats had previously offered him. It can't even be credibly sold as a down payment on the wall.... The fake crisis that Trump invented -- and with it, his broader immigration vision -- is getting repudiated. The only question is whether Trump will agree to the surrender Republicans are trying to negotiate for him." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Trump Scandals, Ctd.
Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "After two years and 200 interviews, the Senate Intelligence Committee is approaching the end of its investigation into the 2016 election, having uncovered no direct evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, according to both Democrats and Republicans on the committee. But investigators disagree along party lines when it comes to the implications of a pattern of contacts they have documented between Trump associates and Russians -- contacts that occurred before, during and after Russian intelligence operatives were seeking to help Donald Trump by leaking hacked Democratic emails and attacking his opponent, Hillary Clinton, on social media. 'If we write a report based upon the facts that we have, then we don't have anything that would suggest there was collusion by the Trump campaign and Russia,' said Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, in an interview with CBS News last week.... The series of contacts between Trump's associates, his campaign officials, his children and various Russians suggest a campaign willing to accept help from a foreign adversary, the Democrats say." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Martin Longman in the Washington Monthly: "On Sunday, President Trump began boasting that he'd been cleared by the Senate Intelligence Committee of any wrongdoing in the 2016 election.... That's not the full context of what Chairman Richard Burr of North Carolina said.... Burr ... acknowledged that some people would see their findings (as they currently stand) as evidence of collusion. 'What I'm telling you is that I'm going to present, as best we can, the facts to you and to the American people,' Burr told CBS. 'And you'll have to draw your own conclusion as to whether you think that, by whatever definition, that's collusion.' In light of all of this investigative energy on the House side, it may be that Senator Burr doesn't feel as much pressure to get to the bottom of Russia's activities. What I know for sure is that other events will have overtaken their investigation long before they've completed writin their report [possibly in about seven months]. Contrary to what the president is saying, they haven't cleared him of anything. It's uncertain if they ever will." ...
... Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee are pushing back on a claim by the panel's chair, Richard Burr (R-N.C.), that the committee's two-year investigation has not found 'anything that would suggest there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.' And they dispute an NBC News report saying that Democrats agreed with Burr that they have yet to see clear evidence of a conspiracy between ... Donald Trump and Moscow. 'That's not true,' Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats, told Mother Jones. 'I think it's misleading. The intelligence committee hasn't discussed the matter, let alone released a committee report.' Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), a senior Democrat on the panel, and Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the committee, also said they have not reached any conclusions about their investigation. 'I disagree,' Warner said Tuesday when asked about Burr's claims.... Warner, citing the Manafort revelations, said the public record alone challenges any conclusion that the Trump campaign did not conspire with Russia." ...
... At the Grand Havana Room. Rosalind Helderman & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: An Aug. 2, 2016, encounter [at a private cigar club in Manhattan] between the senior Trump campaign officials [Paul Manafort & Rick Gates] and [Konstantin] Kilimnik, who prosecutors allege has ties to Russian intelligence, has emerged in recent days as a potential fulcrum in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation. It was at that meeting that prosecutors believe Manafort and Kilimnik may have exchanged key information relevant to Russia and Trump's presidential bid. The encounter goes 'very much to the heart of what the special counsel's office is investigating,' prosecutor Andrew Weissmann told a federal judge in a sealed hearing last week. One subject the men discussed was a proposed resolution to the conflict over Ukraine.... During the hearing, the judge also appeared to allude to another possible interaction at the Havana Room gathering: a handoff by Manafort of internal polling data from Trump's presidential campaign to his Russian associate.... What exactly might have been shared with Kilimnik at the Grand Havana Room appears to be a matter of dispute." ...
... Marcy Wheeler: "This August 2, 2016 data hand-off occurred in the specific context of Manafort trying to get whole on his $20 million debt to Oleg Deripaska. The data was [were!] also going to some Ukrainian oligarchs that Manafort expected to pay him $2.4 million in November 2016.... According to [Manafort's] grand jury testimony, at least as described by [prosecutor Andrew] Weissmann -- he clandestinely handed off recent detailed polling data to a guy connected to the agency that was still hacking Hillary Clinton, to be shared with a bunch of oligarchs who could help him reverse his financial fortunes. It seems there's a conspiracy there one way another. Either Manafort effectively stole Trump's campaign data and traded it to foreigners for monetary gain. And/or Manafort handed over that data expecting that the campaign would get a thing of value from the foreigners he was sharing it with. Richard Burr would seem to argue that's not 'collusion' unless Trump knew about it (whether he did is one of the questions Mueller posed to Trump). But it is a conspiracy, an agreement with Konstantin Kilimnik to commit one or more crimes, right there in the middle of the election season." Wheeler finds it curious that Burr & other Republicans aren't outraged that Manafort "was putting his own financial imperatives ahead of sound campaign practice." Her suspicion seems to be that Burr knows or believes that Manafort was actually working at Trump's behest.
** David Lurie in the Daily Beast: "Donald Trump's next attorney general may attempt to immunize the president from impeachment by preventing Congress from reviewing the most significant evidence against him: what Special Counsel Robert Mueller has found.... But [William] Barr's suggestion that Congress can be prevented from seeing prosecutors' evidence against Trump is wrong. A court decision that allowed the House to review the evidence the Watergate prosecutors assembled against Richard Nixon expressly states that Congress has the right to obtain all evidence gathered against a president by criminal investigators in connection with an impeachment proceeding.... An appellate court came to the same conclusion more recently in upholding the right of the House Judiciary Committee to review grand jury materials during an impeachment inquiry respecting a convicted federal judge.... The court observed that an impeachment inquiry could well be considered a 'judicial inquiry,' and to therefore fall within one of the express exceptions to the grand jury secrecy rule applicable to judicial proceedings."
Shahien Nasiripour of Bloomberg News: "The publisher of the National Enquirer, currently under attack by Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, has been facing steep financial losses that have left the once-loyal keeper of Donald Trump's secrets with more than $1 billion in debt and a negative net worth. The closely held American Media Inc. -- led by the president's longtime friend, David Pecker -- recorded a $31.5 million loss in the six months that ended Sept. 30, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg. That marked an improvement over the previous year, but nonetheless brought the company's total losses over the last 5 1/2 fiscal years to $256 million. AMI owed about $203 million more than its assets were worth." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: And these geniuses still thought the company had the wherewithal to blackmail the world's richest man.
Jeff Toobin, in the New Yorker, has an entertaining piece on Roger Stone & Jerome Corsi, the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of a comedic Trumpian adaptation of "Hamlet."
So we have, let's say, 35,000 people tonight. And he has 200 people, 300 people. Not too good. -- Donald Trump, lying of the size of rallies in which he & Beto O'Rourke participatted in in El Paso last night ...
Also too, the only people who showed up for President Obama's first inauguration were a few hundred officials forced to be there under Constitutional requirements. ...
... Rebecca Morin of Politico: "The El Paso Fire Department late Monday denied ... Donald Trump's claim that officials gave him special permission to pack more people in to his rally than the facility allowed.... 'Now the arena holds 8,000. And thank you, Fire Department. They got in about 10,000. Thank you, Fire Department. Appreciate it.'... Fire Department spokesman Enrique Aguilar told the El Paso Times on Monday that Trump did not receive permission to exceed the limit and that there were 6,500 people inside the building during the president's rally. The coliseum holds about 6,500 people. There were thousands more watching Trump's speech on big screens outside the facility.... The president also falsely claimed on Monday night that former Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who is considering a 2020 presidential run, only had a couple hundred people attend his counter-rally in El Paso.... Estimates from O'Rourke's anti-border wall protest show that 7,000 to 8,000 people attended his rally. Some other reports put attendance as high as 10,000 to 15,000." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Jon Sopel, North American Editor of BBC News: "I would really love to be able to say when I heard about the attack on our cameraman Ron Skeans that I was surprised. Or shocked even. I wasn't.... I covered endless Trump rallies in the run-up to the election and since - and there is a pattern. The attacks on the media are hugely popular with his supporters. They are every bit as much a part of his 'set' as Honky Tonk Woman and Satisfaction are part of a Rolling Stones concert. You just can't imagine it not happening.... There was no security last night, and the attack on Ron was stopped by a Trump-supporting blogger. Law enforcement were slow to get involved.... Each month that passes the attacks have become more vociferous, the violent atmosphere on these occasions more palpable.... President Trump interrupted his speech and checked that Ron was OK. But there was no condemnation. No statement that this was unacceptable." ...
... Eli Stokols & Molly O'Toole of the Los Angeles Times: "... 'Finish the wall' is [Trump's] new rallying cry. Yet two years into his term, not one new mile of a barrier has been erected along the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. At a rally in El Paso on Monday night, Trump went so far as to declare that nearby, just that day, 'the big beautiful wall right on the Rio Grande' had gotten underway. In fact, some brush was cleared in anticipation of construction, according to a check with the Homeland Security Department.... Even as the president has failed to get the funding he wants for a wall, despite two years with a Republican-controlled Congress, he has shifted to declaring victory and claiming credit for the 654 miles of fencing constructed under his predecessors -- the same former presidents he often criticizes for their border policies, as he did Tuesday by derisively referring to 'our past geniuses.' Trump himself directed campaign officials that 'Finish the wall' was to be the theme of the El Paso rally.... With the slogan on red and blue banners hanging from the rafters, and on signs distributed to the crowd, when supporters chanted the usual 'Build the wall,' Trump corrected them: 'You mean finish the wall.'" ...
... ** Trump Rule No. 1: Ignore the Facts. William Saletan of Slate: "On Monday night..., Donald Trump held a rally in El Paso, Texas. He chose the location based on his claim, delivered in last week's State of the Union address, that a border wall had rescued the city from rampant crime. By the time Trump arrived, fact-checkers had demolished this lie, pointing out that the wall had no effect. But Trump told his followers to dismiss the numbers and trust him instead. And they did, because ... they're willing to reject all other sources of information -- crime statistics, intelligence agencies, even conservative media -- when the president tells them to do so.... Trump's message [at the rally] was a recipe for incurable ignorance: Reject all contrary evidence as biased. Reject anyone who reports that evidence. Rely on your leader's anecdotes. Trust the uninformed consensus of your friends. Respond automatically. And ignore anyone who says you're a sucker. You're not being credulous. You're being vigilant against the fakers. You're 'the smart ones.' This is insanity. But among Trump supporters, it's the norm."
Martin Crutsinger of the AP: "The national debt has passed a new milestone, topping $22 trillion for the first time. The Treasury Department's daily statement showed Tuesday that total outstanding public debt stands at $22.01 trillion. It stood at $19.95 trillion when ... Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2017. The debt figure has been accelerating since the passage of Trump's $1.5 trillion tax cut in December 2017 and action by Congress last year to increase spending on domestic and military programs.... The Trump administration contends that its tax cuts will eventually pay for themselves by generating faster economic growth. That projection is disputed by many economists. Despite the rising levels of federal debt, many economists say they think the risks remain slight and point to current interest rates, which remain unusually low by historical standards. Still, some budget experts warn that ever-rising federal debt poses substantial risks for the government because it could make it harder to respond to a financial crisis through tax cuts or spending increases."
Juliet Eilperin & Dino Grandoni of the Washington Post: "The Senate on Tuesday passed the most sweeping conservation legislation in a decade, protecting millions of acres of land and hundreds of miles of wild rivers across the country and establishing four new national monuments honoring heroes including Civil War soldiers and a civil rights icon. The 662-page measure, which passed 92 to 8, represented an old-fashioned approach to dealmaking that has largely disappeared on Capitol Hill. Senators from across the ideological spectrum celebrated home-state gains and congratulated each other for bridging the partisan divide. 'It touches every state, features the input of a wide coalition of our colleagues, and has earned the support of a broad, diverse coalition of many advocates for public lands, economic development, and conservation,' said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). It's a paradoxical win for conservation at a time when President Trump has promoted development on public lands and scaled back safeguards established by his predecessors. The bill, which the Congressional Budget Office projects would save taxpayers $9 million, enjoys broad support in the House. The lower chamber is poised to take it up after the mid-February recess, and White House officials have indicated privately that the president will sign it."
Ariane de Vogue & Ted Barrett of CNN: "Republican Sen. Susan Collins, a supporter of abortion rights who cast a critical vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh, said in an interview with CNN that despite his vote in a recent abortion access case, she did not believe Kavanaugh would ultimately vote to overturn Roe v. Wade." Mrs. McC: Sen. Collins reaffirmed that she also believes in unicorns, leprechauns & Santa Claus.
Peter Beinart in the Forward: "The following two things are true. First, Representative Ilhan Omar was wrong to tweet that the American government's support of Israel is 'all about the Benjamins.' Secondly, she's being judged by a grotesque double standard. Her fiercest critics in Congress are guiltier of bigotry than she is. Were the Republicans denouncing Omar sincerely opposed to bigotry, they would not reward bigotry against American Muslims and celebrate bigotry against Palestinians in the West Bank." Beinart runs through a litany of Republican remarks & policies that "endorse bigotry."
Shocking News. Another multi-billionaire -- Bill Gates -- says Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez's proposal to raise taxes on the ultra-rich is "extreme." "But we can be more progressive, the estate tax and the tax on capital, the way the FICA and Social Security taxes work. We can be more progressive without really threatening income generation," Gates said. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Senate Race 2020. Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Chuck Schumer is actively recruiting a high-profile fighter pilot to take on Mitch McConnell in 2020 -- a calculated act of aggression against a leading Republican foe. Schumer met with Amy McGrath, a Marine veteran-turned 2018 congressional candidate, at Democratic Party headquarters last month to pitch her on running against McConnell. McGrath listened and didn't rule it out. The Democratic leader first contacted McGrath in December.... [In the 2018 race,] she was narrowly defeated by [Rep. Andy Barr (R)].
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "The Mexican crime lord known as El Chapo was convicted on Tuesday after a three-month drug trial in New York that exposed the inner workings of his sprawling cartel, which over decades shipped tons of drugs into the United States and plagued Mexico with relentless bloodshed and corruption. The guilty verdict against the kingpin, whose real name is Joaquín Guzmán Loera, ended the career of a legendary outlaw who also served as a dark folk hero in Mexico, notorious for his innovative smuggling tactics, his violence against competitors, his storied prison breaks and his nearly unstoppable ability to evade the Mexican authorities.... The jury's decision came more than a week after the panel started deliberations at the trial in Federal District Court in Brooklyn where prosecutors presented a mountain of evidence against the cartel leader, including testimony from 56 witnesses, 14 of whom once worked with Mr. Guzmán. Mr. Guzman now faces life in prison at his sentencing hearing, scheduled for June 25." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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