8.26.18: An American Hero Leaves Us With a Huge Void in Leadership

We'll stay out of the Trumpster fire this week except to say that in comparing President Trump and the late Senator John McCain, there is no comparison. Mr. Trump said that Mr. McCain wasn't a war hero because he got captured [by the North Vietnamese] and he thinks heroes don't get captured. You can imagine this column's feeling on that, even if you've only been reading for the past two weeks. Mr. McCain's response was that the president didn't owe him apology, but did owe an apology to every other POW who fought for this country. More recently, President Trump gave a speech at Fort Drum in New York and signed a new military authorization bill in front of the troops. The bill was purposely name after Senator John McCain and the president never once mentioned his name, a obvious slight to the late senator.

The reason that President Trump tries to tear down people with integrity is because he has none. This column over the years has both praised the late Arizona senator and denounced some of his political stances, but would not question the man's integrity. There's now a huge void in American political leadership that no one seems capable of stepping up to fill.

From today's "Meet The Press" and from other tributes every citizen of this country and others around the world should know that Senator John McCain (R-AZ) was:
self-knowingly flawed,
proud,
patriotic,
always thinking in terms of a cause bigger than himself,
egotistic,
forgiving,
hot-tempered,
a political maverick,
gracious in defeat,
able to issue an apology,
deeply committed to the notion that the U.S. as the exceptional nation,
willing to reach across the aisle,
a able to disagree with a fellow legislator yet call him or her friend,
a hero,
a true American.

He embodied all the traits that make us all Americans. It can't be overstated and his was a voice that we desperately need in these times with such a divisive president who has no inclination to lead all that call themselves Americans.

Here are a few examples to illustrate the larger-than-life legacy of John McCain.

At the Al Smith Dinner in 2008. Note his words about then-Senator Barack Obama (starting at 1:40)



Highlights of his best political moments, including when he corrected a woman on the campaign in 2008 about his president opponent Barack Obama



A New York Times Retrospective



Photos of an American Hero

Senator McCain, thank you for your service, sir.


Panel: Tom Brokaw, NBC News; Andrea Mitchell, NBC News; Joshua Johnson, NPR; Hallie Jackson, NBC News; Susan Page, USA Today; David Brody, Christian Science Network

8.19.18: "Truth Isn't Truth," Mr. Giuliani Has No Shame

There is something obviously wrong with the fact that President Trump has a list of individuals who he has targeted to revoke their security clearances because they have been critical of his performance as president. A letter, signed onto by over 70 intelligence officials, rebukes the president's actions of revoking fmr. CIA Director John Brennan's security clearance for what are purely political reasons and not because Mr. Brennan divulged any information vital to national security.

That takes us to the interview with Mr. Brennan who is correct in saying that he now has the proverbial target on his chest for the president's defenders. He did walk back his 'treasonous' comment in a way but not really, not like the panel concluded. Mr. Brennan said that collusion is evident, despite Mr. Giuliani's pathetic rebuttals which we'll get to in a few moments, because the Trump campaign knowingly tried to solicit damaging material from foreign nationals on their political opponent. Then Mr. Trump himself, during a press conference, uttered the statement, "Russia, if you're listening...," to which we come to find out that after hours that same day the Russians did in fact act. Where Mr. Brennan in a way walked back his statement was that he said there's no proof of conspiracy. This is where things became conflated inasmuch as Mr. Brennan's 'treasonous' comment was in response to Mr. Trump taking sides with Mr. Putin over the U.S. intelligence community on Russian election meddling. You would have to concede that saying it is 'treasonous' behavior is not completely out of bounds, but over the line for a former CIA director.

The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson explained that though the president is within his legal right to revoke a security clearance, it's not acceptable when done for the wrong reasons, namely vindictive political ones. So in line with John Brennan, the president is abusing his power, but that begs the rhetorical question of whether we could expect anything less from Mr. Trump given what we've seen so far.

Commenting on Ret. Adm. William McRaven's letter,  Hugh Hewitt would have advised him to 'save his bullets' in defending Mr. Brennan. However, the letter goes much further in being critical of the president, and it comes from a man who oversaw the operation that killed Osama Bin Laden. He also pointed out the collusion is not conspiracy, and the latter hasn't been proven, which Mr. Brennan conceded. However, the one key word left out is the word 'yet.' This column's guess is that conspiracy may not be proven, collusion must certainly, but what will certainly find is that the president has been compromised and subject to blackmail due to his extensive financial ties to Russian oligarchs. Again, always follow the money.

And because White House Counsel Don McGahn is cooperating with the Special Counsel's investigation, Mr. Giuliani doesn't feel the president needs to sit down for an interview with Robert Mueller's team to tell the truth and not worry about committing perjury because it's only a version of the truth.

Then Mr. Giuliani, the annoying ignoramus he has become, explained it with "Truth isn't truth."

Cemented is the fact the Mr. Giuliani is actually worse than President Trump inasmuch as he was a prosecutor who lead FBI agents, FBI agents in the same office who he now refers to as storm troopers. Giuliani has no shame, or to use Mr. Trump's favorite phrase, "He's a disgrace." He tried to explain that politicians are meeting with people to look for 'dirt' on their opponents so collusion isn't even possible. When Mr. Todd pointed out that it's illegal to do so from representatives of a foreign government, Mr. Giuliani responded that they didn't know they were representatives of the Russian government and continued to contend today that they weren't. Unbelievable...

Going back to Mr. McGahn for a moment, let's make clear that being White House counsel is not the same as being the president's lawyer. The White House counsel is the lawyer for the office of the presidency and protects the presidency from the person in the office. In a simpler way, Mr. Gahn advises the president on what he can or cannot do legally as president. With his 30 hours of testimony and cooperation with the Special Counsel, it's clear that Mr. McGahn has no intention of going down with the Trump ship.


Panel: Carol Lee, NBC; Yamiche Alcindor, PBS News Hour; Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post; Hugh Hewitt, Salem Radio Network

One More Big Thing...
The Catholic Church continues to despicably betray public trust. Over 300 priests abused over 1,000 children over the course of decades in Pennsylvania, according to the report issued by the state's Attorney General. Outlined in the report was a child pornography ring run by priests in the Pittsburgh area with particular child being given gold crosses to designate that they were susceptible to victimization. Utterly sickening.  Carol Lee explained that this is only one state and there's no way to fix this because the perpetrators - the priests and the hierarchy covering it up - tasked with correcting this systematic abuse and torture are the same people in this culture of secrecy. As Ms. Alcindor pointed out, before being rudely interrupted by Mr. Hewitt, this is extremely dangerous the world over because of how developing countries rely on the Catholic Church in schools and hospitals and through so many segments of society.  There was a 'playbook' for the Church on how to deal with it - see below:

Mr. Hewlitt said that Cardinal Donald Wuerl in Washington DC, who oversaw the Pittsburgh Archdiocese at the time should resign, which the Cardinal said he would not do. No, he shouldn't resign... He should be arrested immediately. Period. Hard stop.

8.12.18: The Darker Shades in Between The Trump Administration's True Colors

Former Congresswoman Donna Edwards summed it up best when she described Omarosa Manigault-Newman's disclosures during her interview as a 'mixed bag.' Yes, Mrs. Manigault-Newman admits that she was complicit when bearing close witness to many of President Trump's abhorrent statements, but how could she not have already known about Mr. Trump's discriminatory housing practices in New York or his bigoted campaign again the Central Park 5 or his ridiculous birtherism statements against his predecessor.

In a way, Mrs. Manigault-Newman is very much the same as Donald Trump inasmuch as that if a person no longer serves self-interest, that person needs to be taken down. With that said, it's not surprising or shocking to realize or assess that Mr. Trump is a bigot and a misogynist, at the very least in his public statements. This column will leave the label of 'racist' to others, but there's no doubt Mr. Trump uses race to divide this country and never defends minorities... Oh Hell with it, he's racist.
At every opportunity to do the right thing on race relations in this country, Mr. Trump goes the other way, and ultimately he fails us all. In a tweet, not a statement but a tweet, Mr. Trump condemned all types of racism. All types? What does that even mean when white supremacists will be demonstrating across the street from The White House TODAY in Lafayette Park? The New York Times' David Brooks called the tweet 'distancing,' which can be interpreted as saying enough to cover yourself but really in effect saying nothing at all. However, if the recording of Mr. Trump using the 'n' word exists and comes out, especially in October, as Mrs. Manigault-Newman contends, there's really going to be a political explosion in this country, and rightfully so.

In the meantime, in terms of Mrs. Manigault-Newman's book causing her 'awakening' to the ways of Trump, one could say there is some truth to that, but in terms of her charges to the president's character, there's truth to that as well. Former North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory (R) of bathroom legislation fame did not find Mrs. Manigault-Newman credible at all and stated that recording conversations was highly unethical. That's as far as he could go given the obviously distasteful statements and non-statements by Mr. Trump. The rest of the panel did push back on him a bit arguing that that deceptive act is the product of a deceptive culture in The White House. Also, NBC's Kristen Welker who covers the White House every day said that her descriptions of the goings-on were very familiar. What can not be disputed as evidenced by the recording we heard today of her firing by Chief of Staff John Kelly and by the Non-Disclosure Agreement is that this is an administration that bullies and shows no hesitation to harass legally or otherwise if you cross it. As for General Kelly, his credibility and legacy takes a hit every day he remains on the job. Mrs. Manigault-Newman cited that Mr. Kelly did refer to multiple domestic abuser Rob Porter, former the White House secretary, as a man of great integrity.

We know the true colors of this president and his administration, but it's the darker shades in between those colors that are even more troubling.

Conversely, there is Ohio Governor John Kasich (R-OH) who could indeed win over independents and conservative Democrats if he were to run for president; however, he would have trouble getting the nomination in the Republican party because of the base, which is solidly off the reservation of reality in its unquestioned support of Donald Trump. Make no mistake, Gov. Kasich espouses some seriously conservative policies but after not even two years of Trump, people want to hear a message of lifting other people up, bringing them together and being for something instead of constantly instilling fear.

What was disappointing is that Gov. Kasich's experience, which Chuck Todd noted, is used against him. Honestly, this is just plain stupid. Having experience in governing should be required, not a disqualifying attribute. Again, this is a product of the Republican base.


Panel: Kristen Welker, NBC; Donna Edwards (D-MD), former Congresswoman; Pat McCrory (R-NC), former Governor; David Brooks, The New York Times

One more thing...
Democrats have to run away from Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) because she is so demonized by Republicans and the right writ large. But here's the reality... The reason she is so demonized is because she's such a strong leader for Democrats and was a better Speaker of the House than Paul Ryan or John Boehner could have ever have hoped to have been. She would get the caucus behind her and get the votes unlike the chaos you see in the Republican-runned House right now. And as Donna Edwards noted, she has raised $90 million for Democrats this election cycle. This column gets it, conservative Democrats are leery of Mrs. Pelosi because of her progressive agenda, which she should make no apologies for just as hard right conservatives like Mark Meadows (R-NC) would make no apologies for his. But make no mistake, it's Mrs. Pelosi's effectiveness that Republican politicians really fear, and it would be a glaring omission if we didn't say that, let's face it, our society has been much more complicit when it comes to tearing down female political leaders, which is a disgrace. Yet, Donald Trump goes there all the time, without hesitation.

8.5.18: President Trump vs. The Trump Administration

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Chuck Todd began today's program by asking the question of whether President Trump is feeling liberated or besieged, but really it seems like the president is feeling like he has nothing left to loss. His campaign associates are either on trial, cooperating with the Feds or about to or looking at a pending indictment. "Collusion is not a crime," is the president's and his attorney Rudy Giuliani's, which is catchy but ultimately ineffective because conspiring with a foreign government to effect the outcome of a U.S. federal election is a crime. And that's what the president's campaign did and then attempted to cover it up with a weak adoption story.

Also, the president now understands that his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. may have perjured himself to a Senate congressional committee, which is also a crime. How do we know all this? From solid reputable journalism, that's where so it stands to reason, in Trump world that is, that he would call the media the enemy of the people.

However, more disturbing is that President Donald Trump doesn't seem to even be in charge of the country anymore. It's President Trump vs. the Trump Administration. In the past week the president said he would meet with Iran without preconditions, to which a few hours later Secretary of State Mike Pompeo outlined a number of preconditions. The heads of the administration's national security agencies took to the White House press room podium to declare that the Russian meddling and hacking effort is a threat and that these agencies are combating it. However, hours later at a rally the president said that Russian meddling was a hoax. Also, the president (the boss), simply 'expressing his opinion' stated that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should end the Mueller investigation, an order that Mr. Sessions seemingly ignored because he himself can not carry it out. A little closer to home, the president's daughter and administration official Ivanka Trump said that she didn't believe the press was the enemy of the people, and after the president insulted LeBron James, the first lady, Melania Trump stated her support for the work that Mr. James is doing with regard to opening a school for at-risk kids in Akron, OH. The New York Times' Helene Cooper said that Mr. Trump is redefining what a presidency is, which in this case is purely being a figurehead.

The institutions of this country are the only entities holding it up because they are certainly not getting any much needed leadership with the chief executive. And these rallies that the president holds are simply spoken word concerts where the president 'plays' his hits to make an aggrieved base of supporters forget about what the president is actually doing, which is instilling policies against their interests and putting our national security at risk.

In his interview, Senator Roy Blount (R-MO) said that he wouldn't approach the press's criticism the same way the president would, but explained that he thinks the president believes the coverage has been accurate, as if giving us a rational explanation for the president's statements which is obviously becoming more and more difficult to do. However, as the panel explained, Republican primary candidates seek the president's endorsement to win their respective primary races because as Republican strategist Mike Murphy put it, Mr. Trump's cult of personality owns the Republican base. However, Politico's Eliana Johnson explained that presidents don't usually get involved with primary races, but that President Trump has turned that on its head, which candidates are kowtowing to in a big way, the style as Robert Costa put it. Overall, they concluded that the midterm elections are going to be won or lost with Trump as the central figure.

As Republican primary candidates compete with each other to out-Trump the other, it will not bode well for them in their general contests against Democrats who look to at least take back the House.

This brings us to the NetRoots Nation conference held this week by progressives in the Democratic party, which seemed to be the Democratic equivalent to the Republicans CPAC conference. Ms. Cooper commented that the Democrats have a lot of issues to hammer out among themselves as well, which is certainly the case. However, Democrats will have an easier time in bringing these different viewpoints together for the sake of overall control. Mike Murphy was correct that the country wants a centrist but there isn't distribution for it.

A centrist Mr. Trump certainly is not as in all his time in office so far, he's only governed to 33 percent of the electorate and now he can't even govern his on administration.


Panel: Helene Cooper, The New York Times; Eliana Johnson, Politico; Robert Costa, The Washington Post; Al Cardenas, Republican strategist; Clint Watt, former FBI agent and NBC contributor; Mike Murphy, Republican strategist