3.18.18: The Fog of Irony Is Thick But The Mueller Probe Isn't Going Anywhere

Despite the fact that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired, something wasn't really even touched on, it's the Friday firing of Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, two days before his retirement and pension collection, that had everyone's attention today.

If you're trying to decide whether it's worse to be fired through Twitter or have your firing celebrated on Twitter by the president, the latter is clearly the choice. The irony that a person whose catch phrase on television was, "You're fired," can not seem to do it for real, face to face. I'm sure that isn't lost on anyone. But knowing he couldn't be the one to fire Mr. McCabe, the president celebrated it on Twitter. He said, "It is a great day for Democracy," of all things, which is ironic in and of itself because it's really a sad day when the President of the United States demeans the office by being so small minded and petty so publicly.

The president felt the firing presented another good opportunity to lash out at the Mueller probe, essentially saying it is a politically partisan witch hunt. Nothing new there. However, it also emboldened Mr. Trump's lawyer, John Dowd, to issue a statement to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, demanding that he shut down the Russia investigation.

With that said...
You have to agree with The National Review's Jonah Goldberg when he explained the irony of this distasteful firing (McCabe's) being an actual preventative measure in saving the Mueller probe because it saves Attorney General Jeff Sessions' job, which blocks Mr. Rosenstein from direct attack, which in turn keeps Special Counsel Muller in place.

And Press Secretary Sarah Sanders called Mr. McCabe a bad actor?

The irony is so thick you can practically smell it. Unfortunately, it smells like a fart, powerful enough to humble.

Speaking of humble, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) certainly seemed to be one public official humbled in the last month or so by the events in his state - the Parkland shooting of course, but also the passed legislation that ensued, and now this week's bridge collapse. For Democrats who get their underwear in a twist about the potential firing of Mr. Mueller, Senators like Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham are in strong support of the special counsel, and as he said today, he supports the probe and in any direction it leads. Frankly, Mr. Rubio has had it with Trump; you can see it in his face. This attests to today's journalist-full panel accounts that Republicans in private are nervous and say they dislike the president's actions and statements. However, in public they're are stuck in supporting him because his popularity among the Republican base is greater than congressional Republicans.  For Mr. Rubio though, it's getting more difficult to hide his feelings.

The probe is not going away; not as more stories keep coming like the one discussed today, in which it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica, doing work for the Trump Campaign, had somehow obtained the Facebook profiles of 50 million people. Did this organization somehow help Russian operatives spread fake news? That's the question Mr. Mueller and his team are investigating.

Facebook's role in all this lead to The Cook Political Report's Amy Walter asking whether the technology has gotten away from Facebook that they can no longer control the platform they created? Or are they just unwilling to spend the money to stop it from happening? You'd have to go with the latter again since Facebook has been trying to accommodate Chinese sensors for years so they're willing to spend the cash there to penetrate the market.

The other big news this week was that the Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee wrapping up its Russia investigation because it said it found no evidence of collusion. In studio with Chuck Todd, making his first Sunday show appearance ever, was member of said committee Congressman Mike Conaway (R-TX). However, Mr. Conaway has a little explaining to do about his explaining because what he said today didn't make any sense at all. At one point in his interview he said the committee wasn't focused on Russian collusion but later said they found no evidence of it. Chuck Todd's point that if it wasn't a focus and you weren't looking into it, how could you find any? But then Mr. Conaway did say they investigated collusion. However, he explained that in terms of Vladimir Putin's intention to help Mr. Trump, he didn't see it.

At the 3:30 mark of the video, the discussion of the investigation begins...



Mr. Conaway didn't agree with Chuck Todd's assessment that the committee went 'off the rails' and said that oversight is constant. He also said that if there was something that surfaced that caused the committee to reconsider reopening, it's possible. However, that's unlikely because as long as Devin Nunes (R-CA) is the chair of the committee, it is in fact off the rails and will not reopen. They didn't even do a full investigation of the Russian meddling so how would they if something else came up? They didn't even interview George Papadopoulos, a key figure in it all.

There will be a time when congressional Republicans have their reckoning for being complicit and in many cases supportive of the president's constant attacks on our institutions, further deteriorating them by the day. Republicans in the Senate who think more long term, it seems, understand this more than their party brethren do in the House, and you can see Senate Republicans slowly souring. But it may not matter because as Poltico's Eliana Johnson pointed out, the Republicans have no legislative agenda for this year, which won't bode well come November.


Panel: Eliana Johnson, Politico; Amy Walter, The Cook Political Report; Jose Diaz-Balart; NBC; Jonah Goldberg, The National Review

A few more things...
Chuck Todd threw out something today that didn't really get any follow-up discussion, but it was a great nugget. He said that Trump Organization lawyers have joined Michael Cohen in trying to push the Stormy Daniels' case back into private arbitration, which means it's official that Mr. Trump was involved in some way with Ms. Daniels. Awesome.

Jose Diaz-Balart was right with the whole notion of 'emotional spasms on Twitter' for sure, and I agree that Comey, Trump, Brennan et al should all stay off of Twitter, but this one from former CIA Director John Brennan is something... because wouldn't he have such insight? 

 

3.11.18: A Typical Week of The Trump Presidency Testing Our National Sanity

At the top of the program, Chuck Todd said that people are running out of ways to describe a week in the Trump presidency, alas Mr. Todd settled on 'crazy.' However, it's seems ever more clear that President Trump aspires to call a week such as this as 'typical,' because with this administration that's what a week like this has become. This 'typical' is also testing our national sanity on a weekly basis.

Each week there are so many things swirling that you inevitably hear someone in the TV media say, "That happened last week? It seems like a year ago." So next week, we'll be able to say that last year it was fmr. campaign aide Sam Nunberg, Tariffs, Gary Cohen, Stormy Daniels and the PA campaign rally. All this still does leave a columnist with the dilemma of where to start.

What stuck with Mr. Todd was the president's campaign stop in Pennsylvania on Friday night, particularly the president's continued attacks on the media, but when you're show is called "Meet The Press" it's understandable that such attacks would get up into your craw and stay there. Not to mention that little bitty about the press in the First Amendment in the Constitution and its freedom. And that's why it's totally justified for Mr. Todd to lay into the Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, about it because the president is supposed to uphold and defend the Constitution, something neither this secretary nor the president understand. Mr. Mnuchin dismisses vulgarity on the part of the president at a campaign rally as something of no consequence, indicative of a shill whose moral compass only points to money.

The campaign rally intended to support state legislator Rick Saccone's congressional candidacy instantly became a campaign for the president. Mr. Trump wouldn't have it any other way. Despite his appearance, Mr. Saccone's campaign is flagging and many political prognosticators are predicting that his opponent Connor Lamb is going to win in a conservative district in the Pittsburgh suburbs where the last Republican ran unopposed and Mr. Trump won by 20 points.

Mr. Trump's bombast and unpredictability keep growing as the undercurrent of these special congressional races show support for the president dwindling rapidly, which may fully manifest itself this November.

His appearance nor steel tariffs are going to turn this around in Pennsylvania or the country. In a conservative upper middle class district like PA18, it's more troublesome that the president's chief economic advisor Gary Cohn resigned over tariffs than it is keeping steel tariffs low. Never mind that he didn't resign over Charlottesville, which he should have, his exit is another sign of informed analysis and stability leaving the White House.

Or so it seems...

There may be a method to this madness if you'll indulge me for a few moments. Domestically, Mr. Trump attacks the press and anyone else (Republican, Democrat, celebrity or non) who vocally speaks out against him. Internationally, he's implementing steel tariffs that disproportionately hurt our traditionally allies setting off potential trade wars with Europe, while saying this week that he'll meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in May. If you look at all these steps in totality, Mr. Trump is realigning the United States to be more reflective of countries that we've stood opposed to in philosophy for the past 70 plus years. Russia's not a threat, Steel and Aluminum tariffs hurting our allies is good, Xi and Duterte are great guys and I'll meet with Kim Jong Un...

As The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson said about the Stormy Daniels story (which we'll get to in a minute), these things are a big deal as to what they're showing us about conservative Republicans. The Republican Party has never supported positions mentioned above, but now with a few exceptions are so neutered that they have nothing to say. On tariffs, House Speaker Paul Ryan and other leaders vocally opposed them but were too impotent to do anything. The President signed the tariffs into law on Thursday.

The evangelicals as Mr. Robinson explained have been left supporting a man they're giving 'mulligans' to on multiple affairs, the latest with a porn star. And let's not pretend that it's alleged. Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council clan have shown themselves to be more hypocritical than other group doing back flips to support this president, and they're becoming more and more irrelevant in doing so.

The panel debated whether the Stormy Daniels affair is of significant importance. Yahoo News's Matt Bai didn't think it a big deal while Andrea Mitchell spoke about the imperative of truthfulness and transparency in the presidency.  The conversation reference The New York Times Michelle Goldberg's column that explained the Stormy Daniels story was not a sex scandal as much as it was a campaign finance scandal. Yes, but ultimately, this story will not damage the president politically. The big rub is that it will further damage the president's marriage and most probably his number one legal sycophant, personal attorney Michael Cohen will be disbarred. Maybe it will be confirmed that the president did in fact have the affair, something we already knew because Press Secretary Sarah Sanders admitted it this week from the podium.

Former campaign aide Sam Nunberg? As for him, we all know someone like him who will make a big deal of himself saying he won't do this or that, and I dare them... blah, blah, blah. But at the end of the day, he's going to do what's he told and he was told to testify, which he did. Mentor or not, if Roger Stone has to go down because of Mr. Nunberg's testimony then so be it in the mind of Sam Nunberg.

This leaves us with the big announcement on North Korea, in which the President of the United States of America agree to meet with dictator Kim Jong Un in may, the details for which have not yet been laid out. I state it like that because one would have to agree with the panel consensus that it's largely a win for Kim to get the meeting. They also pointed out that usually the diplomacy comes first and then the summit, but this seems to be the other way around. However, with this president it seems that these two things are going to happen simultaneously. And now that Gary Cohn is gone when you look around the room in the Trump administration you have to ask, who's going to get this done? As Andrea Mitchell pointed out, we have no Korean expert in the administration, no ambassador to South Korea.

We'll see how it all goes, but we probably know how this summit's going to start...

Kim: Do you know Dennis Rodman?

Trump: I do know Dennis, too much metal in his face but a good guy.

Kim: He is my friend...


Panel: Andrea Mitchell; NBC News; Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal; Matt Bai, Yahoo News; Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post

3.4.18: Russia Is the Reason for the Crazy Season

The chyron read, "crisis, chaos and confusion" as a description of the White House's current state under Donald Trump's leadership.

The chaos is being sown from the continual personnel exodus, President Trump's rash and ill-timed decisions made under duress and scandal after scandal the most significant this week centering around the president's senior advisor, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner who lost his top secret security clearance. Then the news broke that during the transition Mr. Kushner held meeting in the White House about securing financing for his Manhattan property, 666 Fifth Ave. basically self-dealing using the power of the White House to enrich himself. Given both, Mr. Kushner should have been out the door last week. The only advice to offer Mr. Kushner at this point should be to 'be polite and hold the door for your wife first on the way out.'

Insert "pot-shot with purpose" here: Where is Republican leadership with all this corruption occurring in executive branch of our government? The reason for this becomes more significant farther into the column.

The administration's confusion is obvious because clearly President Trump is confused about policy, history and his day to day statements which are constantly changing. Guns are just the latest example of this. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, in his interview today, said "What ever his final decision is, is what will happen. What he has said, he has said. If he says something different, he says something different. I have no reason he's going to change." For the love of God... He just said that the president changes his mind, so what, but to be sure he does not change his mind. And then when Chuck Todd challenged him on the ridiculousness of this, he rephrased it, but essentially repeated the same notion.

Here it is:



Not only that, but Mr. Ross's defense of the president's decision to raise tariffs on steel by 25% and aluminum by 10% bordered on senile, saying that retaliation has nothing to do with the cost of a can of beer. He also said that it wasn't a rash decision because the president had made this promise on the campaign trail. Fine, but the timing of such an announcement without any significant consultation qualifies it as just that, rash. The administration's top economic advisor, Gary Cohn, has threatened to resign.

Senator Angus King (I-ME) in his interview explained that there need to be extensive negotiations with the countries that are our trading partners, all of which are allies with the exception of China, before making this kind of decision.  For his part, Mr. King did not say he was opposed to these tariffs, which is curious, but like all of us is questioning the random timing and ill-process of such a decision. Every state could be negatively impacted by this decision, especially ones where Mr. Trump's base resides. Also curious was the fact that Mr. King said he was not prepared to comment on whether or not Mr. Kushner was self-dealing in the White House, which must mean that his committee has concluded that he has.

All this because Russia is the reason for the crazy season. Communications Director Hope Hicks resigned this week because she didn't want to get any muddier from an investigation getting ever so closer to the Oval Office. Not to mention that when you're the White House Communications Director and it's leaked that in your congressional testimony that you tell 'white lies' for the president, let's just say it doesn't help you're long-term prospects on the job.

And you know what they say about 'white lies...'

Twice as sweet as sugar, twice as bitter as salt
And if you get hooked, baby, it's nobody else's fault,
So don't do it!

(OK, that's from Grandmaster Flash's "White Lines," but you get the idea.)

More seriously, Mr. Mueller and the special counsel's office have handed down indictments in regard to a cyber attack on our country and as Doris Kearns-Goodwin explained, the president is derelict in his duty to uphold the Constitution by not protecting our democracy. Here's something key to remember: If we've heard of a question that Mr. Mueller is asking of interviewees, he and his team already know the answer. So does Mr. Trump and that is the reason why there's so much chaos, crisis and confusion in the administration. Mr. Mueller's investigation is truly making Mr. Trump batty; 'unglued' is the term used in the press.

With all that is known, Mr. Trump has taken no initiative to defend the country. NBC's Katy Tur noted that NSA chief Admiral Mike Rogers has not received an direction from the White House in terms of responding to Russia's cyber-aggression. The president is blaming the Obama Administration for not having done enough when it was in power. You don't get away with arguing that your predecessor didn't do enough when since the time you've taken over, you've done nothing. Yet, fmr. Obama Administration White House Chief of Staff, Denis McDonough, was on to defend his former boss, and what was clear from the interview was that the Obama Administration could have done more, but got hamstringed. Mr. McDonough explained that there wasn't a sense of urgency on the part of the Republican members of the 'group of 8' leadership group with regard to Russian election activity, specifically from Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Senator McConnell's name always seems to come up when the country writ large gets let down. Once again, not speaking out and on the wrong side of a decision that would be beneficial to the country. Mr. McDonough reluctantly admitted that Mr. McConnell didn't want to sign onto a bipartisan statement outlining and condemning Russia. What that did was make any potential out front statement by President Obama political and then seen as trying to tip the scale in favor of Mrs. Clinton. Image if Mrs. Clinton had been elected with Republicans still in control of congress. Hearing would be going on right now about how the Obama Administration tipped the scale. But McConnell and Republicans did nothing. Interestingly, Mr. Donough explained that the Russians didn't do some of the things the Obama Administration thought they would because the face to face meeting Mr. Obama had with Mr. Putin, where the president got into the Russian's face had an effect.

Despite that of course, Mr. Trump has done nothing so we see Vladimir Putin still able to smirk at the Trump reality-TV administration as he denies any role or knowledge of in what these indicted Russians have done. He's given himself free reign as far as acting and facing no repercussions. As this, while Xi in China consolidates even more power. Without presidential leadership there's no direction and we're just a dog chasing its tail in an ever-maddening circle.

But hey, be optimistic, the other news this week was that Mr. Trump announced his reelection bid this week as well.


Panel: Katy Tur, NBC News; Tom Brokaw, special correspondent NBC News; Doris Kearns-Goodwin, presidential historian; Al Cardenas, Republican Strategist

2.25.18: Arming Teachers Is Colossally Stupid/ The Russia Investigation Under The Radar

The debate on firearms dominated the interviews today so major developments in the Russia investigation were subordinated to a brief end game conversation on today's "Meet The Press," but justifiably so.

David Brody from the Christian Broadcast Network made the point that people in the heartland [of America] don't care about the Mueller probe and memos and convoluted talk of Russia oligarchs, which makes total sense. Fmr. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest lent the perspective that they may not care now, but when the investigation is finished and Mr. Mueller reports his findings then people will be listening. Basically, what they're telling you is that the American people aren't paying attention to the investigation and because it doesn't effect their daily lives, they don't care. Fair enough.  It does remind me of how the American people came around on their collective opinion of the invasion of Iraq. At one point, many people were lead to believe that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11 and that the dictator had weapons of mass destruction. When the heartland started really paying attention to things, it came to conclude that the Iraq War was a terrible decision.  People will come around.

But for the readers of a blog such as this, the intrigue of the Russia investigation continues and this week saw the Special Counsel level more charges against Paul Manafort, a cooperation with Rick Gates, and the release of the Democratic memo, which refutes the political motivations of the FBI as outlined in the Nunes memo. (You can read the entire memo below):

U.S. HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE MINORITY MEMO

It's also worth noting, American Enterprise Intitute's Danielle Pletka's point that the connection between Trump and the Russia investigation is constantly reinforced by Trump himself, and that the Special Counsel hasn't come forth with any such evidence. But given what the evidence that Mr. Mueller's investigation has presented, we know that the same Russian oligarch that we mentioned in last week's column, Yevgeny Prigozhin, that owns the Russian troll farm in St. Petersburg is also running a mercenary army made up of Russian soldiers in Syria. As Chuck Todd flatly stated, these Russian mercenaries attacked American soldiers and American-backed troops.

This is a grave matter and the president has no stated position, opinion or plan in light of this revelation. Nor does he acknowledge any sort of need to protect our elections - more examples in an endless line of instances where presidential leadership is need and is absent from this Administration.

Despite the Administration's inaction, it's good to know that individuals in congress, like Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) are putting legislation forward the puts some regulatory measures on advertising placed on social media, a minimal first step, but absolutely necessary. There are regulations for advertising in all other media spaces, why not on social media?

I don't even want to get started on the whole conversation about where Republican Congressional leaders have been in all this, which is nowhere to found.

But...

As Mr. Brody explained, the people of Peoria aren't concerned about the Russian investigation, and I guess by extension Russian soldiers under no flag attacking American soldiers or that a foreign power launched a cyber-war against the United States. (I know, that's not necessarily true, but...)

What they care about is the gun debate, Mr. Brody mentioned, and really it is no less important so understandably it took over today's conversation because we're witnessing the beginning of a political change in this country on guns. The biggest loser will be the NRA, whose own defensive rhetoric is working against itself.

As the panel noted, the NRA's rhetoric is outdated and tone-deaf [David Brody], showing little to no sympathy for the victims, and people are turned off by it as they should be. After so many mass shootings, the argument for every other factor except for the availability of the gun, assault weapons especially, no longer holds up.

When NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch says that the mainstream media loves mass shootings for the ratings and the organization's head, Wayne LaPierre, blames Democrats and their socialist agenda about eliminating the Second Amendment, there is no reason to take you seriously anymore because of its uncompromising extremism.

Corporations who had partnership deals with the NRA are now walking away. Apparently, many companies gave discounts to NRA members and by them walking away, NRA memberships are less enticing because you don't get all those discount benefits that are promised. The question is why did these companies have these discount programs with the NRA in the first place? You get a special discount because you own a gun? How American.

And hardening schools... What does that even mean? The big idea from the right is to arm teachers as President Trump suggested, nay - the NRA suggested and the president repeated. If teachers were armed then they could confront a shooter and protect students, hence needing more guns in the equation to solve the problem. Arming teachers is idiotic on so many levels.

For Mr. Trump, Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA), Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) and anyone else who thinks it's a good idea to arm teachers, they have no idea what they're talking about. It's a terrible proposal. Teachers are at school to teach, not to be an armed guard. There really aren't enough columns one could write on why this is such a bad idea. The tragic hypotheticals are endless and the questions about how these guns would be handled in the school leave no one feeling comfortable, to say the least. But ludicrous ideas like this advocated by figures on the national stage like the president and Senator Toomey say leave it to the school districts and states to decide. That's what is called passing the buck so that you can stand by ideology without having to take responsibility.

Conversely, None of the proposed regulations such as raising the purchase age or prohibiting bump stocks or requiring universal background checks or banning assault weapons like Mr. Massie argued would stop a mass shooting unto itself, which is an effective argument that gun advocates make because it's true. However, each put the responsibility on a single segment of the society when we all have to be responsible. As a society we haven't been and several measures need to be taken. "Well regulated" doesn't impede "not infringed" which are two phrases used in the Second Amendment. So we should be able to accommodate both.


Panel: Danielle Pletka, American Enterprise Institute; Helene Cooper, The New York Times; Josh Earnest, fmr. White House Press Secretary; David Brody, Christian Broadcast Network

2.18.18: From Parkland To St. Petersburg, America Under Attack

Sometimes one can just sit here undecided as to where to start the weekly column because of the unbelievably dire things that happened this week, namely the mass shooting in Parkland, FL at Majory Stoneman Douglas High School and the Special Counsel's filed indictment of a Russian company in St. Petersburg, the Internet Research Agency. Not to mention the God-awful responses by the president on both.

But gnawing fact: 14 year olds.

How many times can it be said in this column, we as a society have failed to act responsibly with our Constitutional rights so laws need to be enacted to protect Americans from gun violence.

Here's the Second Amendment verbatim from the U.S. Constitution:
(Never mind the fact that it's called an Amendment, meaning it can be changed; couldn't agree more with NBC's Carol Lee's opinion of conservative columnist for The New York Times Brett Stephens' call for a repeal of the Second Amendment, and that it was an academic exercise.)

Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

If you fight for the Second Amendment, you have to fight for all parts of it, and "well regulated" we are not.

Extrapolating that out, the president and congress are derelict in their oath to protect the American people. As NBC's Carol Lee pointed out, in the wake of this latest mass shooting, the political response has been standard from all sides, with the noted exception of the student victims who are speaking up and shaming politicians on social media. And it is important to note that at the very end of the Mr. Todd's interview with Broward Country Superintendent Robert Muncie, Mr. Muncie said that he was going to support giving a platform to students to speak out on this issue. These students can make a difference if they're empowered by the adult community, and in Florida that certainly seems to be the case. So Rick Scott and Marco Rubio are definitely on notice. In all these mass shootings, the particular circumstances are all a bit different, but the underlying fact remains the gun. Republican politicians and the president, as evidenced by his 7-minute speech, not only do not account for guns in the equation but don't even acknowledge their existence.

As Emma Gonzalez succinctly and appropriately put it: We call B.S.

In Florida, you can buy an AR-15 at eighteen years of age, but you have to wait until you're 21 to buy a handgun. Despite Senator James Langford (R-OK) quoting statistics that outline how more murders are committed with handguns in an attempt to make sense of this law, it simply doesn't measure up. And let not forget that neither does Florida's Stand Your Ground law. It's commendable that Mr. Langford is working on fix the background check, but it's not enough. Mr. Langford was also very clear that there shouldn't be any changes in the ease to purchase firearms, including the AR-15 because according to him they are used for hunting. For the record, any self-respecting hunter doesn't use an AR-15, period. The Oklahoma senator also calmly pass the buck at one point saying that only the courts can change gun laws, which is not the case. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for his part, clarified that he is against such weapons being for public purchase.

CNBC's Rick Santelli said that gun laws need to be made on a local level, but the suggestion is short-sighted because it doesn't account for buying guns in one state and bringing them to another. He also suggested a point system as the background check where everything you've done is taken into account. Again short-sighted in conservative doctrine as it creates a national database registry system. 

For those who say it's not the appropriate time to talk about policy, you would have to wonder whether they're waiting for these tragedies to occur with enough frequency that there is no appropriate time and space to speak about them. It's ridiculous.

As for the NRA... Here's where wish list gets tied to reality.

The other big story of course is the Special Counsel's indictment of 13 Russians. You can read the entire 37 pages right here:

SPECIAL COUNSEL'S OFFICE INDICTMENT, FOR THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
U.S. vs. INTERNET RESEARCH AGENCY, LLC




One of the indicted individuals is a Russian oligarch named Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as Putin's chef, who provided significant funding to the Internet Research Agency, all but implicating the Kremlin in the decision to undertake such an operation as outlined in the indictment.


As Chuck Todd outlined at the very top of the program, the week started out with the heads of all the U.S. intelligence agencies testifying to Congress that Russia committed a cyber attack against the United States, something Russian operatives termed 'warfare,' and it ended with the Mueller indictment confirming it. Yet, the president can only view this attack through a lens solely focused on himself, ignoring the larger implications of what this means for the country. Sadly, we've come to expect as much from Mr. Trump.

But damned if he does and damned if he doesn't comment on Russia, according to Mr. Santelli, who by the time we got to this point in the program should have just kept his mouth shut, spouting shallow opinions. The president shouldn't comment on an attack against the United States?  OK, Rick...

As NBC's Hallie Jackson explained, the White House undercut the statement from National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster and really has no coherent response to what to do about the actions of these Russian individuals. And no mention of punishment or prevention. This is something that everyone sees, with the lone exception of the president, or not... Cornell Belcher took us to that logical place, asking where are Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell to take the lead? If these two can not do anything on gun regulation, they have to at least do something on this. If not, then what the point of them? They'd both prove themselves utterly useless by doing nothing on both.

As Ms. Lee explained, this indictment is very narrow, does not implicate or exonerate the president, and is only the beginning. If you've read the indictment and followed the investigation, you know that we haven't even gotten to the financial part of the investigation, which we're sure is coming from Mr. Mueller.

This financial part could include Russian money funneled through the NRA then contributed to the Trump campaign. (It's been out there in the press, from Axios: https://www.axios.com/report-fbi-investigating-whether-1516308991-1efd1e3d-3774-4e6b-abf2-39dff9d6f1d0.html). Name checking a Warren Zevon song, it's all about lawyers, guns and money, but if this is proven to be true there won't be enough of any of them for the NRA to salvage them.



Panel: Hallie Jackson, NBC; Carol Lee, NBC; Rick Santelli, CNBC; Cornell Belcher, Democratic Pollster

2.11.18: What Kinda Unit You Running Here, Soldier?

Lots of discussion on today's program was devoted to White House Chief of Staff General John Kelly and his performance. More importantly, what's President Trump's opinion of his handling a series of issues such as his statement about the wall contradicting the president or his 'DACA applicants are lazy' admission that complicated the administration's stance. Last but not least of the performance questions is General Kelly's handling of Staff Secretary Rob Porter's domestic abuse history, his comments from from day to the next, and Mr. Porter's subsequent firing/resignation.

Here's one obvious but neglected question that needs to be asked of General Kelly:
What kinda unit you running here, soldier?

Someone get Colin Powell in here to give him a dressing down.

The Trump Administration is an utter mess. How many times can you say, "This was the worst week for the Administration?" Seriously. Chuck Todd used the words 'spinning out of control' while The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan repeated the phrase 'chaos and disorder' to describe the administration. What happened to the president hiring 'the best' people? Where's there even a sense of rudimentary professionalism? White House Communications Director Hope Hicks is dating Mr. Porter, and she is the one to write the official statement. White House Counsel Don McGahn has known about Mr. Porter perpetrating domestic abuse for a year. General Kelly we come to find knew about all this in November. All the while neither the president nor (of course) the vice-president knew anything about any of this.

Then...

Marc Short comes on today's program and says the president has 'confidence' in General Kelly. Mr. Short continued that the FBI clearance process for National Security has taken this long to complete, when it was the FBI who had informed Mr. McGahn back in January 2017, and essentially blaming the FBI for slow vetting and that's why they haven't acted until now. After all that, he say that he isn't blaming the FBI. Jared Kushner hasn't been approved for the highest security clearance and he is reading the president's daily briefing, Chuck Todd explained. Mr. Short doesn't, couldn't possibly, have a good answer for any of this.

NBC's Kristen Welker explained that the president isn't going to replace General Kelly because he 'doesn't want more drama' in the administration, which is laughable if it weren't so serious. Understandable questions of character brought by Mr. Gaude unavoidably have to be considered. Ms. Noonan pointed out that many qualified people just didn't want to get Trump's political cooties on them.

The Resurgent's Erick Erickson provided some consolation explaining that under General Kelly, the Administration did get tax reform done. Whether you agree with the policy or not, it's fine to agree that it's good the administration can function on some level. That's what he's really saying. Mr. Erickson said later in the program the President Trump is not a role model. Coming from him, that strikes a chord, be it a soft one.

But here's the rub. Given all the ridiculousness described above, there are more serious matters afoot, namely the Administration denying release of the Democratic rebuttal memo on the Russia investigation. There is no hypocrisy, as Mr. Short charged, in that the Democrats didn't vote for release of the Mr. Nunes's memo while both Republicans and Democrats voted for the release of the rebuttal memo. No... The reason Republicans members of the Intelligence Committee voted for the rebuttal's release is because they're all sick of Mr. Nunes's stupid, nakedly partisan antics, in a committee that shouldn't be partisan.

So when fmr. FBI agent Clint Watts comes on the program and discusses Russian meddling in our elections, of which the aforementioned memo release plays a part, there's little faith in anything being done. With the president trying to block the truth of the matter and his base going along with the notion of 'there's nothing to see here,' the two most important words Mr. Watts uttered: Paper ballot.


Panel: Kristen Welker, NBC; Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal; Eddie Gaude, Jr., Princeton University; Erick Erickson, The Resurgent

One More Thing...
At the end of Mr. Todd's Olympics segment, there was a coming together of which sport both liberals and conservatives could come together on. Without going back, I can't remember what it was because I didn't care. Point is, do us a little favor a do a profile on an athlete or an interview with a former Olympic great instead of having to feel the need to do tongue-in-cheek politicizing of everything. I know, what a Debbie Downer I am. 

2.4.18: A Smoking Memo Unmasked As Dry Ice and the House Speaker's Agenda

If it's printed on a real sheet of paper, it must then be official. I see people on television with it in their hands. They point to paragraphs and specific words.

Regardless of the contents of the memo, which you can read by clicking below, the end result is that despite it being a dud in its explosiveness it accomplished its minimum goal, which was to add something else in the mix to further muddy and attempt to discredit the Mueller investigation.



 Now that it's out, members of both parties are unhappy with the result. Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA) once again proved his loyalty over reason in his defense of the president. Not only has he further whittled away at the reputation and our trust of the FBI and the Department of Justice, but of his own House committee of intelligence, a critical area that needs to remain nonpartisan. Yet now, we have to await a Democratic response memo to Mr. Nunes's memo. As the panel marveled, it's astounding how the party of supposed law and order is attacking the FBI and the Democratic party is the one coming to its defense. Pointing out problems in a institution and still having faith in it do not have to be mutually exclusive notions. However, for Mr. Trump unfounded conspiracy theories fuel unhinged paranoia.

The entire #releasethememo Twitter hype rally was just that. That people out there in the ether would by into such things is one thing, but for politicians to be influenced by Twitter trivia is another. This is akin to Senator Ron Johnson seeing the words 'secret society' in a text message and then actually believing there is one.

Or defensiveness due to the reality he's facing... There's something to the notion that a wounded animal backed into a corner is at its most dangerous. Because it's in its most desperate state. That's where Mr. Trump is with the Russia investigation and though this memo throws out another morsel to chew on, it's not enough to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein or Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Getting back to Mr. Nunes, we know he's a partisan sycophant of the president - not a very shrewd one - so the release of a memo that even White House Counsel Don McGahn called a political opinion piece. Congress Trey Gowdy (R-SC) who had a significant role in crafting the memo said the memo in no way diminishes his faith in the Mueller investigation. Former Director of the CIA, John Brennan, said in his interview that he's never seen anything this extremely partisan like from what's coming from the House Intelligence Committee now, and that is showed a lack of moral and ethically leadership. Still, we've come to expect as much from Mr. Nunes.

 When Chuck Todd asked the Cook Political Report's Amy Walter what she made of all this, I think she summed it up best with, "I'm confused."

What was to be a smoking memo turned out to be four pieces of paper on dry ice.

But the motivations and responsible individuals come into more focus when you think of things in the following terms. These shenanigans and the outward spiraling of chaos they cause rests at the feet of Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan (R-WI), plain and simple. No matter what twists and turns and turmoil the president causes or is caused by the Russian investigation, Mr. Ryan is going to keep moving his agenda forward while at least some people are distracted. If he wanted all this to stop, he could do it at any time by removing Mr. Nunes chairmanship. But he doesn't, and nor will he.

In fmr. White House Chief of Staff, Reince "I felt" Priebus's interview, he gave the simple explanation as to why. Since Mr. Ryan was twenty-one years old, he's been trying enact these kinds of policies and deregulation in line with his Ayn Rand philosophical inclinations. It's Mr. Ryan's ideological agenda is his motivation and for him, Russia and Nunes and memos and tweets all provide a smokescreen for things like the tax bill. Surely, if the president wouldn't keep sabotaging Republican policy efforts along the way, there would be more.

With that said, enough is enough and Mr. Ryan should remove Mr. Nunes from the chairmanship of the committee. From the House Intelligence Committee, there should only be one statement agreed upon by the members of both parties, but under Mr. Nunes that will never happen. He's gone so far that there's no possibility of ever coming back to a compromising position.  In other words, the current state of the American politic writ large.


Panel: Yamiche Alcindor, PBS News Hour; Amy Walter, Cook Political Report; Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post; Hugh Hewitt, Salem Radio Network

One more thing...
I won't get into the the entire discussion of the NFL's rating and the problems with the game, of which there are many. The future of the game will be what it will be, but right now, it's pretty widely celebrated, which is good too. It's a good thing that Mr. Trump isn't doing the Super Sunday presidential interview. Football was something that always brought Americans together until Mr. Trump came along so it's good that my stomach won't be upset by an interview while I'm upsetting my stomach with too much food.

What was interesting about the Bryant Gumbel interview was that it was a true 'meet the press' moment as all members of the panel asked the guest a questions. That along with two in-studio interviews... Make someone is listening... or reading as it were.

Have great fun today on Super Bowl Sunday.... Go E-A-G-L-E-S, Eagles!

1.30.18: Notes and Thoughts from Mr. Trump's First State of the Union Address

Was having a bit of fun with the notes and thoughts; got a little snarky at times so don't take it too seriously... or take it very seriously.


Not that much clapping and applause... Subdued for sure.

Sitting behind Trump is the right nut and the wing nut, with him at the head.

(Maybe he'll make it short.)

 It's scripted so he'll do well and his supporters will say he hit it out of the park.

(You better mention the first lady, buster.)

Is he going to start slurring his words again. That would be priceless.

Platitude and Applause...

Always like salutes to first responders and soldiers, as long as they don't get political.

Trying not to question the president's sincerity, but it's hard not to.

Set aside our differences, unity for the people we were elected to serve.

Nancy Pelosi had a look on her face like, "What a fucking bullshitter."

The state of our union is strong because our people are strong. (But she stood for this statement.)

Rising wages I think are due to how it dominates the social everyday working person conversation.

He's riding the economy that the previous administration cleaned up and got back on track, but Trump would be flunking politics 101 if he didn't take credit for it.

Repealed the core of the disastrous Obamacare. The individual mandate is now gone.

35% to 21% so US companies can compete and win.

This is our new American moment.

(Rah-rah really isn't what we need but so be it.)

How could he bring up the NFL, in not so many words, but standing for the National Anthem... How are we united in one moment when in the next he's reminding us of his dog whistle politics.

Ugh.

Wait what, empowering cabinet members to fire whomever they want?

We ended the war on clean coal! At least that's one war we've ended, right?

The terminally ill can experiment, they should have the right to try... (marijuana for the first time).

The whole prescription drug thing was a Republican policy that didn't allow the government to negotiate the prices. A giveaway in other words.

1.5 trillion for infrastructure, on top of the 1.5 trillion for the tax cut? 3 trill, all in?

(This speech is bizarro...)

Open vocational schools so people can realize their full potential...

Reforming our prisons...in Republican parlance that means further privatizing.

I wonder if the staff calls the president "The Extreme" like Bill Paxton in Twister. Because Trump always goes to the extreme example, extreme rhetoric. Never tempered.

His constant concern is our poor? Have you ever heard of Twitter?
Oh, and everybody matters.

Americans are dreamers too... hmmmm....

Calling for bi-partisanship on immigration, but for cryin' out loud, he had the Graham-Durbin bill in his hand!

Now, he's negotiating from the podium?

Building a great wall... Chinese anyone?

Merit-based immigration system. Statue of Liberty be damned!

Chain migration is the ugly term for family immigration.
Limiting it this immigration reform is good for the future of white America.. Weird dog whistles throughout this speech.

Bring immigration into the 21st century? Didn't you mention a wall? It was just a mention.

(Addiction, not eddiction.)

We have to stop the drug dealers and the pushers to stop the opiod epidemic? The pharma sales reps., the doctors, and the pharmacies better look out.

(He ain't making it short.)

Foreign policy...

Mr. Trump will ask congress to end the defense sequester and fully fund the military.

Who clapped when the president said that sadly we're not "there yet" on agreeing on eliminating nuclear weapons.

I want to know what really happened to Sgt. La David Johnson in Niger? Why were four US soldiers positioned in a place with no support? Among other questions...

This speech is getting like the book version of the "American Carnage" speech on Inauguration Day.

(Thank you General Mattis for keeping the president hand away from the button.)

We're keeping Guantanamo open. We're going after anyone we deem a terrorist anywhere they are? Anywhere? That sounds unconstitutional, don't you think?

UN voted against our right to make that decision. Pass legislation that money only go to friends of America, not enemies... like the Palestinians.

The Iranian nuclear deal - wants congress to look at the terrible deal.  That would be dangerous to renege on that.

"Finally..."
(Finally.)

How many 'uplifting' stories can we endure?

In talking about Sung Ho, he's the exact type of person Mr. Trump wants to keep out of the country.

The Capitol is the monument to the American people... important cheer leading moment, I guess.

He actually looked back at the teleprompter in the middle of "God Bless... America."

One of the longest... but not in terms of word count.

Given the recalibrated the scale, and that he didn't kill anyone - jk, and that he didn't focus on himself which was refreshing, I give him a really generous B-, or a C++. Take your pick.

(But I'll be honest, I don't feel in anyway uplifted.)



From Fall River, MA - Rep. Joe Kennedy - Democratic Response

A town built by immigrants.

Fractured fault lines across our country.

A straight up counter-punch speech, putting forth the Democratic vision. Democrats choose both.

Well played; well delivered.

1.28.18: If The President Wanting To Fire Mr. Mueller Didn't Actually Happen, Does It Still Matter?

The irony isn't lost on anyone that what once brought Donald Trump so much success and the presidency, which would be firing people, now puts him in political and legal peril. The firing of then FBI Director, James Comey set off a chain of events, well-documented now, that has put the United States in a very precarious position.

We found out this week via The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/us/politics/trump-mueller-special-counsel-russia.html) that the president wanted to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, but White House Counsel Don McGahn ultimately threatened to resign rather than give that order. To be clear, the president initially did give the order to fire Mr. Mueller, but rescinded it due to the circumstances and we can only think cooler heads prevailing.

While certainly newsworthy inasmuch as it raised the questions of whether the president once again obstructed justice and if there should be legislative protections enacted to keep Mr. Mueller's investigation in place. Ultimately, you'd have to agree with Tom Brokaw who said that it's really a nonissue for the country at this point - six months ago the president wanted to fire Mr. Mueller but it ended up not happening. Also, fmr. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made the point to question whether such legislative protections could even be done legally as the special counsel is an executive branch decision. How it goes is that the president, heading the executive branch, is going to do what he's going to do, and then Congress will act accordingly. That's where the real doubt comes in.

Chuck Todd posed the question to Congressman Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) that aren't Republicans going after the investigators instead of really paying attention to the investigation itself? Republicans don't like the way the facts are shaping up so they are going after the investigators' integrity. The House majority leader said that he had confidence in Mr. Mueller, but that there were some things that have been less than transparent, and that is what is most important. He said that he wanted government to be 'fair and open.'

This is laughable. Mr. McCarthy is providing cover to a president who hasn't been transparent since the day he declared his candidacy for office, never having publicly released his tax returns. The president wanted to fire Mr. Mueller and the question, same as it's always been, is why. The president says Russian collusion is a hoax, and maybe there was no collusion on his part. But what's there that the president feels he has to cover up, prompting all these indemnifying actions? Michael Wolff, in his book Fire and Fury, quotes fmr. Senior White House Strategist Steve Bannon as saying it was all about money laundering. The speculative short answer: most probably.

[Show Note: Good to see Mr. McCarthy in studio. Get more of these people in there, live. Literally being under the lights with the interlocutor right there in your face puts people on the spot, in a good way. More of that, please.]

With that said, Mr. McCarthy's comments and actions are tepid compared to the likes of Congressmen Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Darrell Issa (R-CA) and ringmeister Devin Nunes (R-CA) whose comments and actions carry the obstruction buckets of water for the administration. Not to mention Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) and his utterly stupid comments about a 'secret society' against the president. Actually Ron, I'm part of the society, what do you want to know? 

What a goofball. But in all seriousness, these people are acting unseemly in their efforts to undermine this country's institutions, specifically the FBI in this case. Sadly, we've come to expect it from our president but not from members of Congress, particularly not a senator, who should always yield to facts and law.

Also, Devin Nunes is like a Leatherman, he's a multi-tool. He previously recused himself from the Russia investigation for making ill-conceived statements about the wiretapping Trump Tower, from in front of the White House no less. We come to find out that he's been causing trouble for the House Intelligence Committee by running side meetings putting together a memo that is rumored to discredit Mr. Mueller's investigation. It is also said that the memo in question cherry picks content from the classified documents and is misleading. Either way, Mr. Nunes has been a completely counterproductive individual for both sides of the aisle. In fact, he's a tool so big there isn't a shed to hold him.

Heather McGhee was correct when she said that these people, in twenty years, will find themselves on the wrong side of history for putting party over country.

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) said that Mr. Nunes had 'neutered' the House Intelligence Committee's integrity and that the Senate's investigation will have to be the one that people should trust more. And though I didn't delve into immigration at all, Mr. Manchin in his response to a question about it and another used phrases like 'New York talk' and 'West Virginia talk' and that he didn't understand the former. Let's just say that this is the kind of rhetorical regionalizing that Senators should avoid because it just reinforces hopeless misunderstanding where there shouldn't be any. Beside, what the hell is he talking about anyway?

I could go on...


Panel: Kasie Hunt, NBC News; Heather McGhee, President of Demos; Rich Lowry, The National Review; Tom Brokaw, NBC News

A couple more things...
The least of Steve Wynn's problems is that he lost his gig as RNC Finance Chair. As Kasie Hunt said, Steve Wynn is at 'Harvey-level' type numbers. This story is only going to grow in attention so watch out. For those hoping for Republican political repercussions, stop.

As for the immigration debate, the current deal is not acceptable if you are anywhere from the center-right leftward. It limits legal immigration and prohibits family reunification which is counter intuitive if you want the people that immigrate here to succeed.

Oh, and the State of the Union is in 2 days!
Not sure what I'm doing for this... Definitely watching!... most probably a short column of some sort. Check back.

And it's revving up - @mtpopinion on Twitter.