"A producer would reject it," The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan said in response to Chuck Todd's assertion that the FBI opening a counterintelligence investigation into the President of the United States was like a bad Hollywood movie script.
But this is where we are...
Donald Trump is taking this country into all kinds of unknown dangerous terrain on several different levels, the first of which to address is what is now the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, with federal workers now having missed their first paycheck. In listening to both Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Time Kaine (D-VA) during their respective interviews, both sides are blaming the other for rejecting bills that would have kept the government open. Even if there is ambiguity on which party is at fault, there is certainty that the Republicans in the Senate were prepared to vote on a Continuing Resolution that the president squashed by tweeting that he would reject such a bill. The biggest obstructing factor in this situation is the president, himself.
The wall or barrier is a vanity project of the president's that the majority of Americans do not support. Even many Trump supporters on the Texas border do not support it, but it was Mr. Trump's loudest promise on during the campaign so he's being egged on by xenophobic right-wing media while he has effectively stifled Republicans in congress afraid of their base that has been taken over by Mr. Trump. What was equally loud was Mr. Trump's promise was that Mexico was going to pay for the wall, which he is now walking back with a nuanced answer that through the new trade deal, they will, but the reality of that is the money won't go into the Treasury, instead to private corporations, and Americans will still float the bill. The wall should not be built on the backs of U.S. taxpayers. Hard stop.
In terms of declaring a national emergency, the president circumvent Congress and have the military, Army Corps of Engineers, built the wall. The president has said that "I may do it... I have the absolute right to do it... I'd rather not do it. Congress should easily do it." However, if it were really an emergency, wouldn't the president have made this declaration already? It's obviously not an emergency, or as Chuck Todd explained, the president is threatening a national emergency because of his political emergency.
On the heels of the New York Times story that the FBI opened up an unprecedented counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Trump and his relationship to Russia, we learn from the Washington Post that the president has gone to unusual lengths to keep the transcripts of his private meetings with Vladimir Putin secret from everyone in government including his senior staff in the White House. At this point, no one can say that the president has nothing to hide. He's hiding the transcripts! As NBC's Carol Lee explained, though it's not being said publicly, Republicans in Washington are concerned. And despite what defenses Senator Cruz offered today with regard to Mr. Trump's 'actions' of being tough on Russia. (As an aside: Mr. Cruz has no credibility when discussing a government shutdown, as the one he orchestrated in 2013 was purely political.) If the administration is being tough on Russia why did the Treasury Department seek to quietly lift sanctions on Russian Oligarch Oleg Deripaska in December? When Treasury Secretary was brought before Congress this week in a closed-door meeting and asked about it, he apparently didn't have a good answer.
As the New York Times Michael Schmidt explained, we now know that the FBI investigation, which the Mueller probe has now inherited, was two-pronged with the obstruction and collusion. The FBI was worried that the president may be an witting or unwitting asset of the Kremlin. Lawfare's Ben Wittes added that the FBI saw the investigations in a light that we should all should focus our attention, and that is that the obstruction - the firing of James Comey, the president's attempts to shutdown the Mueller investigation and his continued attempts to discredit law enforcement - and the collusion are linked. The obstruction of the investigation is part of the collusion with President Trump trying to prevent the FBI from figuring out what happened in the 2016 election.
As Mr. Wittes stated flatly: The investigation into Trump is about Russia. Full stop. Uncharted and devastating terrain indeed.
Panel: Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal; Carol Lee, NBC; Al Cardenas, Republican Strategist; Cornell Belcher, Democratic Strategist
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