6.24.18: Without Compassion, Immigration Reform Will Not Happen

In agreeing with the moderator, Chuck Todd, it is unusual in the era of the Trump presidency that one topic has lasted a full week in the news cycle, but make no mistake that the issue of immigration will be at the forefront of our political discourse writ large all the way through the midterm elections in the fall.

Mr. Todd asked the panel at one point if the child separations at the southern border is President Trump's 'Katrina,' to which Heather McGhee responded that the Hurricane Maria and the damage and death it caused in Puerto Rico is really his 'Katrina' moment. What both have in common is they are the product of President Trump's bigoted approach to governing the country, and what he's never understood is that when you are the president, you represent all Americans whether they disagree with you or not. Mr. Trump has only governed to with distinct minority of people in mind, and not only is it hurting the majority of Americans but it's also starting to hurt his supporters as well.

While immigration is obviously a very emotional issue, in listening to Senators James Lankford (R-OK) and Angus King (I-ME), compassion and rule of law can coexist. Immigration is an issue where the middle has to win the day. However, as Mr. King explained, the Senate had a bill where many Democrats held their collective noses and gave Mr. Trump his wall in exchange for passage of a DACA fix, but then the right-wing fringe in the House moved the goal posts and killed the bill. Not to mention that the Senate was going to allocate American taxpayer dollars for Mr. Trump's wall, which he has always said Mexico would pay for. That's such a sham, and there shouldn't be a wall if Americans pay for it, by his logic.

There aren't easy fixes and what it takes is a concentrated, coordinated, compassionate and consensus approach meaning that legislators have to legislate instead of just bomb throwing on cable television news.

Make no mistake, the Obama administration deported more people than the Bush administration by a long shot  and people were incarcerated but the difference is that the Obama administration didn't employ a 'zero-tolerance' policy mandating that children become separated from their parents. That did in fact happen as well under Mr. Obama, but it wasn't policy as Attorney General Jeff Sessions mandated under Mr. Trump. That's a major difference. Mr. Sessions, Stephen Miller, and Mr. Trump have inclination to compassion for families. Mr. Trump using terms like 'infest' to describe migrants is not only unhelpful but despicable and once again demeans the office of the presidency in a way that should draw the ire of all Americans.

In addition to the inexcusable rhetoric, the Trump administration does want to take the necessary steps to correct the problem, namely the Flores Amendment which Senator Lankford explained. Migrant families can only be held for 20 days, but it takes an average of 35 days to get a hearing so more judges are required to hear immigration cases. Yet, the Trump administration doesn't want to allocate those resources to mitigate the back log. And just so we're clear from all sides, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) should not be abolished as some on the left have called for. The way to fix ICE is to have laws and policies in place that provide clear instructions on what the agency is mandated to do and part of those should be the humane treatment of migrants.

In the longer term, the countries of El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua need assistance from the United States, another strategy that Mr. Trump has no inclination to even think about. NBC's Richard Engel reported the 10 percent of the population in El Salvador have some affiliation to gangs with approximately 100,000 armed active members. That's a gang army, from which people are justifiably fleeing, making it indeed a refugee crisis, as Mr. Todd posed during the hour. The United States needs to work with these Central American countries in an inter-country coordinated fashion to help them combat this problem and that would in the longer term ease the stress at the United State's southern border. The problem with this is that the Trump administration has yet to illustrate the capacity of any sort of long term, carefully planned strategy on anything.

It's also notable that Mr. Engel illustrated that the country of Hungary, which has some of the most strict immigration laws in the world right now doesn't even separate families. A further implicit indictment of the president's bigoted views which lack any sense of understanding of the human condition. 

As long as Republican legislators are lead blindly by the nose by this right-wing fringe bigoted president, sensible and humane immigration laws will not be passed. And let's face it, by now it should be perfectly clear that Republicans CAN NOT govern. Every opportunity the voters of this country give them to do it, they fail. Zero tolerance and zero sum is not how democracy works, and they absolutely need to shove this notion down the president's throat.


Panel: Heather McGhee, president of DEMOS; Kasie Hunt, NBC News; Stephen Hayes, Editor in Chief of the Weekly Standard, Erick Erickson, Editor of The Resurgent

One more thing...
The culture wars: Instead of focusing on Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders being asked to leave a restaurant, there's another example that wasn't mentioned that could be more instructive. First, it must be said that Ms. Sanders conduct in the White House press room has been inexcusable and she should resign due to her continuing lies, deflections and personal condescending comments toward members of the press corps.

With that said, Seth Rogen said to Stephen Colbert this week that he refused to take a photo with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan because of what the Speaker has done in his leadership role. He refused the Speaker in front of Mr. Ryan's two teenage sons. So here's how Mr. Rogen should have handled it. Rightfully he should told Mr. Ryan that he would not take a picture with him as a matter of principle but at the same time he should have offered to take a photo only with his sons who are fans and don't make policy. Right? Maybe use that as an instructive example.

6.17.18: Sowing the Seeds to Kill the Idea That Is America

It's clear that President Trump peddles propaganda of the moment as evidenced by his statements on Friday to "Fox and Friends" and then to the unusual press scrum that followed. Mr. Trump will say anything that serves his purpose at that moment and both settings were ideal for him to accomplish his goal of continually misleading the American people. "Fox and Friends" will never disagree or call out any of the president's misstatements, and the in a frenzied press scrum, no one is able to fact check him on the spot. Mr. Trump simply doesn't care if you fact check him later and prove that what he had said was false because he'll just change the story next time. For example, he tweeted that he fired Michael Flynn for lying, but on Friday said that he wasn't. Or when he was quickly called out for saying that he'd like people to stand up at attention when he speaks like North Koreans do for Kim Jong Un, to which he later said he was joking. The first example illustrates lying as a strategy and the second clearly illustrates a lack of personal discipline.

And as Republican strategist Al Cardenas explained, it's better to tell 18 lies than just one. The press doesn't know where to focus their collective attention because of so many blatant falsehoods and the public simply becomes numb, using his word, to it all. Listening to Mr. Cardenas and Congressman Mark Sanford (R-SC), who just lost in his primary race, is obvious that the Republican party does not consist of conservatives. Conservatives still in the Republican political party are retiring or being drummed out of office. The Republican party now consists of Trump sycophants and the president is building on that cult of personality on a daily basis.

But make no mistake, the president sowed some bad seeds this week in ending the idea that is America, and that's why it's significant. First, he insulted the United States' closest allies at the G7 summit while carrying the water for the authoritarian president of Russia. Then, since the summit in Singapore, Mr. Trump has continually sung the praises of the world's most repressive dictators, saying he's 'honorable' and that he 'trusts Kim.'

The president all but admitted that he lied to The New York Times about the letter that he dictated for his inept son, Donald Jr., while his campaign manager, a man he's known for over twenty years, is now in jail, while his personal lawyer/fixer is considering cooperating with Federal Prosecutors. And no, the Inspector General's report did not in the slightest exonerate the president of wrongdoing.

However...

In a rare moment this week when the actions of the president have spoken louder than words, which received condemnation from all Americans and especially (thankfully) evangelicals is the Trump Administration policy of separating children from their parents at the southern border. Cruel, non-Christian, inhumane, un-American - take your pick, but more appropriately take them all. This policy is putting a stake through the heart of what America is as an idea.

Chuck Todd prefaced a question to presidential advisor Kellyanne Conway as harsh when he asked if the administration was using these children as a bargaining chip to get Democrats and moderate Republicans (a dying breed) to the table for immigration negotiation - an unnamed White House official said so. Ms. Conway forcefully called that out saying that she dared to that unnamed official to say that to her face. Her righteous indignation, as Helene Cooper noted, was laughable because the fact is that the administration is using these kids as a bargaining chip for a stupid, unnecessary wall, basically extorting pols who aren't going along.

Donald Trump on Friday said this was a Democratic law, but like so many others, this is a false statement. It is a Trump Administration policy that could end with a single phone call, as Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said this week.

As for the economy, the one thing that has been good, the president doused his bad seeds with fire water, solidifying trade wars with rivals and allies alike (He denies there is a trade war.), and Iowa farmers are already seeing the rotten fruit, or soybeans as it were.


Panel: Carol Lee, NBC News; Helene Cooper, The New York Times; Al Cardenas, Republican Strategist; Bret Stephens, The New York Times

6.10.18: Donald Trump, the American Gift to Mr. Putin That Keeps On Giving

(This week's "Meet The Press" is preempted by the French Open.)

As you're reading this, President Trump is on the ground in Singapore readying to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, in which Mr. Trump said that he'd be able 'size him up' in the first five minutes about whether Mr. Kim is serious about denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

But let's be clear, North Korea has the ability to hit the United States with a nuclear weapon so anything less than getting 97% of their nuclear capabilities out within 10 years, which include a stringent inspection regime would be a worse deal than the Iran nuclear deal.

The U.S. should make no conciliatory steps in 'good faith' with the North Korean leader such as lifting sanctions or pulling U.S. troops out of South Korea unless the aforementioned conditions are met. The reasoning behind this opinion is that North Korea has broken the conditions of every deal negotiated in the past so pardon if there is a bit of skepticism here. The only leverage that Kim Jong Un has on the world stage is the fact that he has nuclear weapons and it's difficult imagining him giving them up.

Giving the North Korean dictator such a expedited audience with the President of the United States works more to Mr. Kim's advantage than it does to America's show of strength. Optics matter and looking congenial with a regime that's killed hundreds of thousands of its own people without even bringing up human rights doesn't bode well for the world's greatest democracy.

Also, after the verbal jousting and bad photo-ops that have come out of the G7 meetings, does anyone find it disconcerting that the U.S. president walks away from democratic allies and toward the leaders of China and Russia? The world order over the past 70 years, of which the United States is the architect, is being dismantled by Donald Trump. The president's call for Russia to be readmitted to the G7 is completely unacceptable. Russia was removed from the group for its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, which Mr. Trump blamed on President Obama. He should blame Vladimir Putin for that, but instead Mr. Trump carries Mr. Putin's water for him. Not to mention that little thing of Russia, at the direction of Mr. Putin, meddling in, nay subverting, The United States' democratic process.

Mr. Trump is the American gift to Mr. Putin that keeps on giving. The biggest beneficiary of the G7 meetings was Mr. Putin. Mr. Trump despite differences with the other six countries, should have signed the joint communique as a statement of solidarity, but instead he refused to sign it thus causing further discord between western democracies.

Donald Trump is irreparably damaging America's principles, democracy and its democratic institutions. The American people better wake up to this because the 'freedom' we so cherish is becoming less free.

6.3.18: According to Rudy Giuliani, No One's Above the Law Except Mr. Trump

Today was one of the more cognizant interviews that Mr. Guiliani has done in recent memory where he didn't say anything that was incomprehensible. That doesn't exclude having said things that are controversial such as suggesting the president is somehow above the law. Mr. Guiliani explained that the president can not obstruct justice, which the National Review's Rich Lowry agreed with, and can shut down any investigation he wants. The reason Mr. Guiliani gave for the president not doing this was for PR reasons.

So essentially, the president's lawyers are asserting that the he is above the law and that only Congress can hold him accountable, only in a political sense through impeachment. By that rationale, Mr. Trump, as president, can indeed shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it because as Mr. Guiliani said, he can pardon himself.

That's an extreme example of course, but is this column the one out there that were now considering the notion that the president is above the law? Mr. Todd also asked Mr. Guiliani if the president could open an investigation on anyone he wanted to as well, to which he demurred in his answer. With regard specifically to the Russia investigation and the special counsel, Mr. Guiliani said that the president would only sit down with the special counsel is if the DOJ hands over all the documents with regard to the FBI's informant.

Speaking of PR, but more succinctly of the public, the only way the American people are going to get the truth is if Mr. Trump is subpoenaed to testify in front of a grand jury. But come to think of it, even if he lied to the grand jury, which is a criminal offense for every American citizen, he could pardon himself for lying, according to Mr. Guiliani.

As NPR's Joshua Johnson explained that Mr. Guiliani and the president's lawyers' strategy/explanation is that the president is too busy focusing on other things to be bogged down with an investigation that they deem illegitimate. And along the way, as Katy Tur explained confuse everyone along the way with such things as first the president says he fired James Comey because of the Russia investigation and then he tweeted that that was not the reason. Also, Jay Sekulow, one of the president's attorneys, said that the president didn't craft the letter for his son on Air Force one, but then this week we learn that Mr. Trump indeed dictated the letter.

However...
What can not be ignored is if the investigation is illegitimate and the president is not guilty of anything then why isn't he cooperating with the FBI and the intelligence community to get to the bottom of Russia meddling in the U.S. election? Why is he acting like someone who has something to hide?

And yes, the president does have major issues to attend to and that his focused should be concentrated to these issues simply doesn't wash. If he's so busy then how does he have time to tweet 19 times this week about Russia and weigh in on culture controversies like Roseann Barr and Samantha Bee. It's a weak argument.

And speaking of other issues, as this column explained last week the summit with North Korea is a lose-lose for the United States. The Administration is not going to get North Korea to give up its nukes and they get photo-ops, as a seemingly equal power, with the president. The president should have never met with Kim Yong Chol this week. Go to this article at Foreign Policy and you'll understand why.

Not to mention that while Mr. Trump is making friends with a dictator who kills his own people and who fires missiles over one of our closest allies, Japan, he's putting tariffs on our unquestioned closest ally, Canada (along with Mexico and Europe).

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is right to question this action if it is as the president said, based on security concerns. If there's any other country we can trust, it would be freaking Canada! Mr. Trudeau was correct; it's completely insulting, and it's going to hurt both Canadian and American consumers. By the way, it was VP Mike Pence who informed the Canadians that the U.S. wanted a sunset clause on a new NAFTA deal, which makes no sense at all.

Congressional Republicans are grumbling over this and may take action against the president, but they don't have a good track record thus far. Never mind obstruction or collusion or money laundering or potentially opening oneself up to blackmail because of all of the above, trade is the 'criminal' act that has pushed them too over the edge.


Panel: Katy Tur, NBC News; Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal; Joshua Johnson, NPR; Rich Lowry, The National Review

One more thing...
Pardons - Rich Lowry is correct in saying the Joe Arpaio pardon was "grotesque." And Peggy Noonan is absolutely correct in saying these pardons by the president are frivolous; however, if she is going to wax poetic about these pardons, could she at least get Jack Johnson' name correct (not Joe Johnston). Jeez.

5.27.18: Making a Mockery of The Office

With regard to the on-again, off-again summit between President Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, the feeling is that it is going to happen, if not solely for the sake of the event and the photo opportunity. But make no mistake, Mr. Trump decision to rush into this summit diminishes the status of the United States and is amateurish in deal-making at the least.

It's a lose-lose for President Trump. He's not going to get the concession he wants, which is total denuclearization of North Korea while the North Korean dictator gets recognized with equal status to the president. Way to go, Mr. Trump.

As Victor Cha explained today, North Korea who has been building toward nuclear capability for the past 50 or so years is not going to just give it up. Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) answered Chuck Todd's query by saying that the best we could hope for is that North Korea winds down their nuclear program over time. And what makes us think that Kim Jong Un will act in good faith? Answer: Nothing. Yet, the United States going to give the sanctions relief for saying a few conciliatory words? That's called 'getting played.'

And though China doesn't have a seat at the table, it is definitely pulling the strings. President Xi is the one to come out ahead in all this. He'll be able to resume economic assistance unfettered with North Korea while getting help to put ZTE back into full business in the United States, something that even many Republicans in Congress have come out against due to the national security risk. Senator Flake called it 'commercial espionage.'

One has to wonder when this administration is going to get on the same page with regard to North Korea, let alone anything else. National Security Advisor John Bolton wants to send this country to war with North Korea, and Iran for that matter. The lives of American soldiers amount to very little in his historically ill-advised hawkish ideology. He cited the Libya model, and we know how that turned out for Muammar Gaddifi. Kim certainly has that in mind and simply will not give up his nukes, not now and not eventually. And speaking of Iran, Andrea Mitchell, who always makes a good point, asked the question of having thorough inspections. How would inspections in North Korea be more thorough than the internationally-back strict regime of inspections of Iran's nuclear program, a deal that Mr. Trump pulled out of. 

Not only is Mr. Trump succeeding at making a mockery of the office of the presidency of the United States domestically, he's doing his best to achieve the same status on the international stage as well.

Let's end it there for today...


Panel: Andrea Mitchell, NBC News; Amy Walter, The Cook Political Report; Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post; Matthew Continetti, Washington Free Beacon


A couple more things...
NFL owners are gutless. It's true that the kneeling during the national anthem wasn't a real issue until President Trump made it one. His state that players who kneel should be in the country is beyond the pale. The owners of the NFL teams gave into this bullying and therefore really aren't deserving of the profits they're trying so hard to protect. As for fans who disagree with the protest, if you can not separate your feelings of not liking it while respecting an individual's right to protest, you're not a patriotic American.

And speaking of patriotic Americans, as always on Memorial Day we should be thinking of our troops who put their lives on the line daily to protect our rights to liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness. However, this Memorial Day it's impossible not to think of the fact that more students have died in school shootings than active service members have died in combat this year. Depending on what site you look up, the exact numbers are different but they all show the same dynamic - twice as many students have been killed than soldiers in 2018.

5.20.18: On the Cheap - Prayers and Mr. Trump

One can not help to think that if the Republican-controlled Congress had the information that we all now know and a Democrat was the president, they would already be halfway through an impeachment process at this point, even without knowing all the facts.

And that is what is needed, the facts. Operatives for the president, like Roger Stone and Rudolph Giuliani are expected to put up a fierce defense, and as infuriating as their answers and conduct can be, we'd expect no less.

However, when you pledge to defend the Constitution like Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH), Mark Meadows (R-NC) and Devin Nunes (R-CA) have and then break that oath, it's not only reprehensible but un-American. These three men need to be called out because they do not deserve the offices they hold.

In terms of Roger Stone and his answers to Mr. Todd's queries, he obviously had advanced notice of what Wikileaks was going to do to damage the Clinton campaign. He can nuance his answers all that he wants but any reasonable person would understand that Mr. Stone knew what was going to happen and that a foreign actor was going to meddle in the campaign for President of The United States. He can go into the semantics all he wants, trying to convince, incorrectly, that 'the' means plural or other such nonsense, but it just doesn't wash. As Hugh Hewitt pointed out, Mr. Stone is worried about 'extraneous crimes,' in lieu of his statement that no collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign has been proven. But what about other entities?

Well, in today's reporting by The New York Times, we now know what Donald Trump Jr.'s main job was during the campaign and that was to get campaign help from as many foreign entities, actors and governments as possible to help his father win. Doing this is a crime by the way despite what Mr. Giuliani would tell you.

Chuck Todd pointed out to guest Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), ranking Democratic member of the Intelligence Committee that four people have not been interviewed by the special counsel - Donald Trump Jr., Brad Parscale, Michael Cohen and the aforementioned Mr. Stone. Mr. Schiff outlined two possibilities for this. One, Mr. Mueller's team is saving those interviews or that these individuals are targets of the investigation. Well, considering that Michael Cohen is about to be indicted in the Southern District of New York, it's logical to conclude that it is because the others are targets, as they should be.

Hallie Jackson reported that the Administration, Mr. Trump, is furious about all these stories coming out, so why would that be? He's furious that the truth is coming out and that it's being reported to the public? If the investigation is a 'witch hunt' as the president says it is then why hide these meetings?

Chuck Todd speculated that these foreign entities, including Israel, saw Mr. Trump as a transactional figure, from whom they could extract something for themselves. Some great deal maker, Mr. Trump moved the embassy to Jerusalem without asking anything of Benjamin Netanyahu. He got played. Mr. Trump, it seems, can be bought and sold on the cheap.

What also seems to be cheap these days is prayers. Prayers for more victims of another school shooting, nice as they are which Mr. Trump offered, do nothing. "Not surprised, just scared," Paige Curry, student survivor at Santa Fe High School said of the shooting. Texas's Lt. Governor Dan Patrick is on record recommending fewer doors in schools and arming teachers. In the Socratic method, one can not illicit 'dumb' answers, but Mr. Patrick has proven that axiom false. As this column has stated before, arming teachers is not the solution. Typically, every 'solution' will be put on the table with the exception of even modest gun control measures. As the panel discussed, state governors will act, because their state residents will demand it, but as Ms. Jackson said, Congress has little appetite for any gun laws because they salivate for NRA cash contributions.

As PBS's Yamiche Alcindor said, it will be up to today's young generation to change things because they've "grown up at rock bottom." Our leaders have really failed us on this.


Panel: Hallie Jackson, NBC News; Yamiche Alcindor, PBS News Hour; David Brooks, The New York Times; Hugh Hewlitt, Salem Radio Network

One more thing...
I disagree with Hugh Hewitt on many things, but he did have a likeable quote today, "Live with what you tweet." He directed it at Roger Stone, but that was one for the president as well.

5.6.18: President Trump Is Compromised From All Sides

When the discussion all week via conservative media outlets and more liberal media outlets is about the president's credibility, you know there is a problem, and in this case a big one. As Danielle Pletka from the American Enterprise Institute put it, we should be worried because it's a matter of leadership or the lack thereof.

There's little dispute that President Trump lies to the American people on an unprecedented scale and frequency. The president and his stupid new lead attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, have made enough conflicting statements about the $130,000 payment to Stephanie Clifford that they have both lost all credibility on the matter, and until the matter actually comes up in court, Ms. Clifford's attorney, Michael Avenatti is going to try this case in the press. (The case they have against Michael Cohen has been delayed due to Mr. Cohen's criminal legal troubles.) What Ms. Clifford and Mr. Avenatti are fighting for is the right to tell her complete story without legal repercussions that of course would cause great personal embarrassment to President Trump. What it will cost President Trump is not only embarrassment, but also what he covets the most, money. If the alleged affair officially moves from that status to being confirmed, surely Mrs. Trump will file for divorce, which will come with a heavy price tag. Additionally, the president's political fortunes will also turn, especially if he loses evangelical support amongst his base. Why evangelicals still support Mr. Trump is beyond reason, but that's a longer discussion for another time.

All these conflicting explanations on the part of his president and his attorney have compromised the president's ability to be taken seriously and to do what is best for the country and the American people. As The Boston Herald's Kimberly Atkins stated, the facts have become irrelevant. If the president can not level with the American people on the small stuff, how are we to believe him when a real crisis hits, or to do the right thing to protect our democracy, which he is definitely not doing therefore breaking his oath as president to uphold the Constitution and protect the American people.

And here we're talking about Russian meddling in the 2016 election. As The Washington Post's Robert Costa noted, the administration seems to be operating separately from the president himself. The Administration, Mr. Costa explained, are continuing to carry out many policies of the Obama Administration, but when it comes to Russian election meddling, it's the president sets the agenda, the response, the preventative measures.

Why hasn't President Trump taken action? It's clear that in some way, shape or form that President Trump is compromised by the Kremlin.

Whether it's something more intimate stemming from the Steele dossier or it's the president's finances or both, the president is not taking the initiative to stop the Kremlin from meddling in U.S. elections, and the danger is if Mr. Putin decides to move from disinformation to straight up hacking to do permanent damage to our democracy, the president will once again lie about it and use it for his own authoritarian inclinations.

Former ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul outlined a number of reasons behind Mr. Putin's motivations for 'taking the gloves' off when it comes to going on the offense against the United States, which were:

Hillary Clinton's statements as Secretary of State, saying that Mr. Putin's election wasn't legitimate;
the national embarrassment over the Olympic doping scandal;
the release of the Panama papers, which exposed the wealth of Mr. Putin and other Russia oligarchs;
and the last straw, Mr. Putin blaming the CIA for the ousting Viktor Yanukovych as president of Ukraine.

Speaking of Ukraine, with all due respect to Alan Dershowitz and the judge in Virginia both saying that the Mueller investigation is going outside its scope in bringing money-lauding charges against former Trump Campaign chairman Paul Manafort, it's hypocritical. The parameters have been set by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and include any criminal activity stemming from the investigation. The reason it's hypocritical is that President Bill Clinton was investigation by Specical Counsel Kenneth Starr for the Whitewater land deal, but then the Monica Lewinsky affair came to his attention and he went after President Clinton for that. How did that affair have anything to do with real estate? Nothing.

President Trump for his part has been forced to admit that there was Russian meddling in the U.S. election, but since he's done nothing about it. And why? Because President Trump, it surely seems, has been compromised.  There's no other explanation.

For additional reading on Russia protests of Mr. Putin's fourth term inauguration, see this article from yesterday's Washington Post: Russian Police Detain 1,600 Protesters


Panel: Kimberly Atkins, The Boston Herald; Danielle Pletka, American Enterprise Institute; Robert Costa, The Washington Post; Jon Meacham, historian


One more thing... 
Though this column has not always agreed with his positions, and over the years he has made some questionable decisions (haven't we all), Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is a true American patriot and hero. America needs more leaders like him who stand up for their principles though you don't always agree with them.

That needed to be written into this blog's record because President Trump dishonoring Senator McCain has been among his most despicable statements.

Best to the Senator and his family in a most difficult time.

4.29.18: Credibility and Bad Actors

Everyone on either side of the political aisle has an axe to grind with fmr. FBI Director James Comey, but the notion that he should have waited to write a book bout his experiences is ridiculous. When he was fired by President Trump, mainly because of the Russian investigation, he became a private citizen and was therefore free to write a book, make money, and do interviews. So anyone upset by that saying that he has a sense of duty to wait, get over yourself. He was unceremoniously relieved of his public duty so now, like every other private citizen, his duty is to himself and his family. If people are upset that he's made money from the book, well, welcome to the world.

With that, Mr. Comey is correct in his assessment that the House report on Russian election meddling is a political document, and as NBC's Kasie Hunt simply stated, Republicans have their own set of facts when it comes to the Russian investigation. The House Intelligence Committee has been indeed wrecked as Mr. Comey said, and as much as this column loathes Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA) and his actions in heading up the committee, he's not the worst actor in all of this. The worst person in all of this has been the current Speaker of House, Paul Ryan (R-WI).

Mr. Ryan has fully enabled and sanctioned Mr. Nunes's shenanigans in terms of the Russia investigation. Mr. Ryan has fully proven himself a man of little integrity, which was further reinforced just this week when his firing of the House Chaplin became public. Political partisans didn't like what the Chaplin has to say in prayer so Ryan bowed to the pressure to be the first House Speaker to fire a Catholic priest from the post. And why? Because Father Patrick Conroy reminded House members that Jesus was a fighter and advocate for the poor? Jesus didn't teach the 'prosperity gospel,' despite what some House members would wrongfully tell you.  Mr. Ryan's actions and non-leadership have been disgraceful, to say the least.

You don't always have to agree with New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, but she accurately summed it up when she said that Mr. Ryan now feels that the House doesn't need a Chaplin anymore because Republicans have sold their soul to President Trump.

And speaking of the president and credibility, nothing Mr. Trump says in terms of the Russian investigation is to be believed. At his Friday night rally, Mr. Trump said that Vladimir Putin was now telling Russians embroiled in the Russia meddling to incriminate themselves because the U.S. president has been so tough on Russia. As Mr. Comey accurately assessed this morning, it gives little hope that the president is thinking clearly.

The Washington Examiner's Stephen Moore said that Mr. Comey has politicized the FBI, but like on most things political Mr. Moore is incorrect. The politicizing and diminishing of our institutions falls squarely on Mr. Trump's shoulders. Mr. Moore was also wrong today when he assessed the Russia investigation as a partisan 'witch hunt.'  Now, had Mr. Comey made mistakes? Yes, a lot, which were driven by his own self-importance that clouded his judgement at times. However, Chuck Todd said that Mr. Comey prejudged the president, which isn't necessarily true because Mr. Comey during the election knew something that the public and the press didn't know, which was that his campaign manager and others were already under investigation for improper Russian contacts during the election.

Where we shouldn't prejudge the president is with regard to the historical events that occurred on the Korean Peninsula this week, with the small exception that Mr. Trump shouldn't take credit for 'everything.' More campaign-style hyperbole from our hyperbolic president. What we must understand going in is that denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is going to be a long process. Taking Kim Jung Un's word for it, just isn't going to cut it. However, the North Korean dictator sees the writing on the wall, in which he and the elite leaders in his country are now the ones also being squeezed financially, not only his people, which he has mercilessly oppressed. Political and economic pressure is now coming from Kim's biggest benefactor, China, so he has to make a move and his aspiration is to set himself up as a junior Xi - leader for life in a system he completely controls, but one that is slightly more open. Pressure has indeed come from Mr. Trump, but what does it say when the dictator of North Korea considers the President of the United States to not be a rational actor. Ouch.


Panel: Kasie Hunt, NBC News; Maureen Dowd, The New York Times; Edward Glaude, Princeton University; Stephen Moore, The Washington Examiner

4.15.18: Sinking In the Depths of Trumpian Seas

For the purposes of this week's column, it's expedient to cover the last major segment first, which was the interview with the Speaker of House, Paul Ryan (R-WI). In good faith, you can respect Mr. Ryan's desire to spend more time with his family, which played a major factor in his reasoning to not seek reelection. However, in equally large part, Mr. Ryan is jumping ship before his party sinks beneath the Trumpian sea. The Republican party's complicity with the president and his cabinet's many ethical violations, not to mention the seediness of the various allegations of the president's affairs along with the general daily chaos in the White House have left the prospects dim for Republicans controlling the House after the midterms. There is no way that Paul Ryan wants to be minority leader and neither does he want to have to defend this president another two years. The writing is on the wall.

And the tapes are in the drawer...

Though Michael Cohen fashions himself a Ray Donovan style fixer, he is a lawyer and more specifically Donald Trump's lawyer. For FBI agents to conduct surveillance leading up to this week's search of his office, home, and hotel room, the threshold needs to be very high with a high degree of certainty that Mr. Cohen may destroy potential evidence. Unbelievably, Mr. Cohen recorded many conversations and it's known that he's used those recordings as leverage on the president's behalf. If anyone knows which closet all of Mr. Trump's skeletons are located it would be Michael Cohen. No matter what filing Mr. Cohen's lawyer offers for an injunction, it will fail and now the District Attorney in the Southern District of New York and the FBI will know as well. Plausible deniability on the part of the president is thin, at best.

Not only will this collected evidence play a part in the more salacious stories of pay-outs to women for their silence, but could also play a part in the Russia investigation as well. As John Brennan said today in his interview with Chuck Todd, the revelation that Michael Cohen did in fact travel to Prague as confirmed by McClatchy news service, after Paul Manafort stepping aside as campaign chairmen, could be "explosive." Mr. Trump's lawyer, already known to make shady payments, may have met with a Russian contact in Prague, to pay 'cut-outs' for the Kremlin to meddle in the 2016 election. If proven, it's direct evidence that Mr. Trump and his campaign subverted American democracy with the help of a foreign government.

Let that sink in for a moment.

That opens up the possibility of the President of the United States being blackmailed by a foreign government, not just of any country but Russia and Vladimir Putin. 

At a rally about a week and half ago, the president stated that the American military would be getting out of Syria and said that it should be left to others. When the Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad heard that, he took it as a green light to commit another atrocious act in the form of using chemical weapons. Then on Monday, the FBI seized evidence from the president's personal lawyer. On Friday night, in cooperation with Britain and France, targeted airstrikes took out Assad's chemical weapon capabilities.

There was talk about a 'wag the dog' situation, in which the president was conducting a military operation to distract from all these domestic investigations. It would seem that way, but that's a degree of cynicism that this column cannot indulge in. Without a response, the use of chemical weapons would become normalized and that just cannot stand.

The New York Times Magazine's Mark Leibovich rightly said that the president doesn't get to define the red line when it comes to investigations of Russian meddling and potential illegal payments made by his fixer. However with regard to Syria, the president can and should draw this line. One would have to agree with Mr. Brennan that despite the many criticisms one could throw at this administration, it has acted in a measured, appropriate way in response to Assad's use of chemical weapons.


Panel: Kristen Welker, NBC News; Carol Lee, NBC News; Mark Leibovich, The New York Times Magazine; Al Cardenas, Republican strategist

One more thing...
With regard to fmr. FBI Director James Comey's book, Chuck Todd asked the a key rhetorical question. What does it say about a president that the former FBI director would characterize him the way he did? It also needs to be said that the president calling him an 'untruthful slime ball' and the president's press secretary calling him a 'partisan hack' just shows the American people the quality of this administration, or the sore lack thereof.  Both comments are contemptible.