The White House released the following photo yesterday. Trump even included it in a now-deleted tweet.
(Agricultural Roundtable with members of Congress and Governors, April 12, 2018.)
If you look at a close-up of chief of staff John Kelly, you can see why the White House decided to take down the president’s tweet.
Presumably, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa is explaining some basic concepts of his state’s economy and their farmers’ reliance on exports to China that would be negatively impacted in a trade war. Whatever the specifics, Kelly is cringing because it’s painful when an adult needs to be addressed like a first grader and that adult is the president of the United States and your boss.
It’s possible that this picture was not released by accident at all, but as evidence of the kind of disrespect Kelly shows the president in settings like this, which would certainly justify his termination as chief of staff. Did the White House already know that Kelly would be cited in James Comey’s book as saying that Trump and his advisors were “dishonorable people” for firing Comey the way they did? Did they know that Kelly told Comey that he intended to resign from the job he then held as Secretary of Homeland Security before Comey asked him to reconsider?
Nancy has already covered the steps the administration is taking to form predicates for firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, but the Wall Street Journal confirms that the process is in the works and also includes an intent to fire Jeff Sessions.
Two people who spoke to Mr. Trump during the week said they came away thinking both Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who appointed Mr. Mueller, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions would soon be gone, potentially sparking a political and constitutional crisis.
“It’s a matter of when, not if,” said one person who has discussed the matter with Mr. Trump.
“Eventually, it will happen,” a second person said, adding that the Cohen raid was “not good for the long-term relationship between the president and Sessions and Rosenstein.”
An “intent” to fire Jeff Sessions appears to be one of the four core pillars of the obstruction of justice case Mueller is building against Trump, and Nancy was correct to note that Mueller’s shop is the only possible source for that information. It came out now from an investigative team well-known for its lack of leaks because it wants Trump (and the public) to understand that an intent to fire Sessions and Rosenstein is already a criminal offense that will be part of an impeachment referral. Actually doing it would not help his case.
With the news that that Mueller team is going to be producing a large amount of charges and documentation for the next 6 weeks I assumed that we’d see everything but the obstruction case as it would be the last to drop.
I thought that because it seemed reasonable that an obstruction case would be more on solid ground if the underlying crimes were already out in front.
But then with news of Trump’s reaction to the Cohen raid and his reversing course to refuse to be interviewed and the reporting that Mueller’s team already had enough to proceed on obstruction without an interview and indeed that they could proceed faster without Trump, I’m now thinking it will all be simultaneous.
It is Friday the 13th afterall.
It’s exactly the opposite because they understand the political element- i.e. if the obstruction stuff drops first, then any action Trump takes afterwards to thwart the investigation will be clearly seen in that context of obstruction such that even his Republican collaborators in congress will have a difficult time denying the reality of the situation. Oh hell, who am I kidding. Reality isn’t going to matter to these crackpots- they are already tossing wild ass nonsense conspiracy theories around on T.V. However, it might help with the rest of congress and the American people. Ultimately, thanks to our constitution, Trump is a political problem, and not so much a legal one.
ha, yeah. Well with obstruction they need to prove intent which makes the underlying crimes pretty powerful. I’m just hoping Friday 13th drops T into a black hole.
Will this be the night of the Friday night massacre when Sessions and Rosenstein are fired, maybe Mueller and Kelly? What obstruction are you talking about, they all gone? Those tapes Cohen is said to have and now outing the love child and his buddy at AMI may be more than Trump can bear. He may surmise it is better to go out fighting.
My surmise is that Trump will go down (IF, in fact, he does “go down” – imo that’s not certain) fighting.
I cannot invision Trump “peacefully” leaving. It’s simply not his style, and we’ve ample evidence of what his style is. Combative, pugnacious, obnoxious, attack, attack, attack. That’s what he’ll do ’till whatever the bitter end happens to be.
So, if Sessions, Rosenstein, and Mueller are all gone, then what? Civil war? A military coup? Or just a funeral for constitutional government?
I suppose we could all hope the Republicans in Congress would rise up and throw him out.
Sure.
The GOP does not need to have a summer recess or any recess until the Mueller investigation is completed. At this point that is the only way our constitutional government will continue.
. . . again! The cliché applies: so spot-on start to finish it defies excerpting, you should just click the link and go read the whole thing. So just consider this a teaser (but also as concisely accurate a summation of what a fraud Ryan always was as I have seen or can even imagine):
(h/t digby)
As soon as I heard that Ryan was retiring, I was wondering what Krugman would say about him. I was hoping it would be something like this, in which Krugman played a medley of his greatest hits (pun intended) on Ryan. Not only that, but he put the blame on the centrist pundits and bothsiderists in the media as well.
Krugman did add something new to the mix.
Oh, yeah, Krugman exceeded my expectations.
The only thing that Paul Ryan “stood for” was his two Uncle Sugar Koch’s money. The end.
Any attempt to paint him as some sort of “serious person” or “wonk” is just pushing (for real) fake “nooz.”
Ryan’s just an empty suit. Nothing there except greed and grift; what’s in it for ME? And I got MINE, EFF you.
. . . excerpting” excerpts I declined to excerpt.
But yeah, spot-on.
In an administration that started out with Crackpot Cabinet, it is sobering to think that Der Trumper thinks he needs ever more sycophantic loyalists. This is almost certainly the model for all cultic anti-democratic movements where an unqualified charismatic incompetent is seen by the reactionary Volk as the National Savior of Past Glory. History does not reveal that there is any way out for a democracy in such a death spiral.
When the Nazis came to power, Chancellor Hitler included a number of “respectable” German nationalists in his chancery, mostly in commerce, banking and finance. They were winnowed away as the Hitlerian True Believers accumulated more and more power and Hitler no longer saw any need to retain the fig leaf. Ultimately that rightwing “class” was completely purged, of course.
Purging The Littlest Confederate is hilarious, since he is one of the Trumpites most committed to (and successful in) implementing Der Trumper’s white nationalist agenda. Presumably Trumper intends to perform the Vacancies Act Pruitt switcharoo. And it obviously will be simple to get another “conservative” anti-environment nut-job confirmed by the Repub senate for the Environmental Destruction Agency.
Finally, with Kelly out, who is to be the new Martin Bormann? Some courtier certainly has his eye on the job. Is is the Fuhrer’s Fireman Mick Mulvaney, who just got “conservative” praise for his open contempt of Congress? Surely he would be in favor of an American Reichstag fire, should it ever be necessary….
I think everyone is missing a small number of very salient facts:
People, the conditions for are serious and concerning. But there will be no dictatorship with THIS crew. I won’t say it can’t happen in the US. I won’t even say it won’t happen, But it can’t and won’t with THIS bunch.
Please make sure no one hires Kissinger
Yes. Back before the election, I warned anyone who would listen that Trump’s primary success was, itself, a symptom of a deeply sick society. “He won’t win,” I said, “but sooner or later a smarter, more able populist/nationalist will come along.” He or she, I argued, would tap into the same poisoned currents in our political life, and that person would destroy our already-crumbling institutions.
Obviously, I was wrong on many levels. Don’t ask me to pick the horses at the track, either. However, I still fear what comes after Trumpism no longer has Trump. Someone far more dangerous could take over the movement.
Anyone remember “The Mule” from Asimov’s Foundation series? I’ve been thinking about that lately. Trump is a donkey, but he’s not The Mule.
Republican ideology/philosophy in general tends to bring forth a “Look out for Number One” attitude. This will be an ongoing problem for the GOP, for reasons such as you have noted.
(of course, the dedication to lying and creating an alternate reality also has a downside).
Excellent points, of course. Hitler was indisputably a far greater ideologue, political strategist and partisan than our lazy bonehead Trump. Our political criminal Trumper is definitely a poor-man’s Hitler, a faint shadow of the original. But Hitler (like Trump) was still utterly unqualified and unfit for position to which a (minority) of Germans raised him. And he led his nation to complete catastrophe—Gotterdammerung.
Yes, Donald Trump could never himself have built the “conservative” movement and American Nazi Party that he now heads and “directs” to some degree. That party was built by very dedicated and committed “conservative” cadres, financed by plutocrats created by St. Reagan’s tax cuts. They labored 30 years to create the party that the incompetent Trumper now leads, as well as create and manipulate The 46%, the braindead voters who thought Donald Trump was a plausible prez. That party and movement has unquestionably allied itself to Der Trumper.
While DeVos, Perry and Pence are obvious idiots and cranks, they do appear dedicated and loyal to the political criminal that got them into power. Likewise, non-imbecile True Believers like Sessions, Pruitt, Bolton and Mulvaney are competent and appear dedicated to serving Trumper as a “game changer” and “visionary”. There were many sycophants, rubes, clowns and imbeciles in the Nazi ranks as well. Dedication doesn’t confer competence, not that you were saying it does.
History doesn’t repeat itself, but patterns can surely be discerned. Here a charismatic authoritarian fool has emerged to take over a dedicated, longstanding authoritarian movement, instead of having the talent and dedication to himself build it from the ground up. Both situations tend(ed) toward the same reactionary result, and seem quite dangerous to democracy to me.
Germany had also been crippled by crushing war debts from WWI , had official unemployment above 30%, and had basically lost half of their commercial industrial output as a result of the Great Depression.
Again, get those signs ready. Kvetching will do nothing.
Absolutely.
We can at least pledge that we will not stand around in fear like Weimar Germans.
Mueller’s team does not leak – getting the four core pillars out in the public was strategic. (As was referring the Cohen matter to the SDNY US Atty.)
People who get their “news” from Fox are already convinced that Mueller (and all of the FBI for that matter) is corrupt, and needs to be taken out with yesterday’s garbage. The majority of the country, however, has not seen anything yet that casts doubt on Mueller’s legitimacy.
Getting the four pillars out serves several purposes, not the least of which is it gives me hope in these depressing times. More importantly, it is a very obvious signal that even if he is fired today, his report will come out (in one form or another), and it will not be pretty. (Almost like he is giving DC Repubs one last chance to save their souls . . . or something.)
Sigh . . . not looking forward to another Friday evening where I will be hitting refresh on my news feed regularly, waiting for the Mueller firing to be announced. It is just a matter of time, Trumps Razor and all.
The jig is likely up for Rosenkrantz this weekend.
They probably have some playbook from “Democrat” Dershowitz to follow….
There is no doubt that the shithole ratbag traitor Dershowitz came up with some Playbook to follow.
What a scumbag rat Dersh is, but hey: like, we didn’t already know that.
Wonder if Dersh made sure he got paid up front cuz he sure won’t get paid otherwise.
Oddly enough, I had a private one-hour meeting with Dershowitz back in 2001 (arranged and paid for by my client, who was panicking about his legal exposure) – and it was one big rip-off. Not a single word of substance.
I don’t know
I am seeing Friday the 13th 2018 as the day the entire Republican part imploded on itself
Eh? The Ratpublican Party will not go down without a yuuuuge fight. They may be pushed towards the ropes, but their far from done at this point.
Too much $$$$$ behind them.
Yet ANOTHER stellar example of GOP/Republican governance in 21st Centry America!
A Republicans POTUS lead Constitution crisis in which ONLY the GOP/Republican lead Senate and House can save our democracy,
The very democracy THEIR POTUS, policies, practices and “tax cuts” have made great strides in destroying!
Don’t hold your breath … even their leadership IS scurrying for the exits … WITH … their financial futures secure!