Maybe it is just me, but it seems like everything was ratcheted up a notch over the last couple of days. Possibly the most consequential development was the Department of Justice’s issuance of 17 superseding indictments against Julian Assange, including violations of the Espionage Act. Most people are justifiably anxious about what this portends for the future of press freedom in our country, but it’s also possible that the purpose is to discourage the United Kingdom from abiding by our extradition request. Sweden has requested that Assange be turned over them to face rape charges, and that might be a more attractive option than giving him over to Trump on trumped-up charges than could land him in prison for life. On the face of it, this represents a serious escalation of the president’s war with the media and it sets a dangerous precedent even if it’s really a clever way of protecting Assange from the American justice system. Either way, there’s something odd about Trump going after Assange like this after telling everyone how much he “loves” Wikileaks.
What’s less ambiguous is Trump’s decision to unleash Attorney General William Barr on his detractors in the Intelligence Community.
President Trump took extraordinary steps on Thursday to give Attorney General William P. Barr sweeping new authorities to conduct a review into how the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia were investigated, significantly escalating the administration’s efforts to place those who investigated the campaign under scrutiny.
In a directive, Mr. Trump ordered the C.I.A. and the country’s 15 other intelligence agencies to cooperate with the review and granted Mr. Barr the authority to unilaterally declassify their documents. The move — which occurred just hours after Mr. Trump again declared that those who led the investigation committed treason — gave Mr. Barr immense leverage over the intelligence community and enormous power over what the public learns about the roots of the Russia investigation.
In a chilling appearance before the press, the president not only accused James Comey and Andrew McCabe of treason but didn’t disagree that the appropriate punishment for treason is death. He said that they came after the wrong person and suggested that they’d be paying a severe price. I can’t remember witnessing a more ominous performance by an American president.
Trump interactions with Congress were not normal either. He’s bypassing their ban on selling weapons to Saudi Arabia by declaring a ludicrous national emergency. In return, the Senate passed a disaster relief bill that included money for Puerto Rico that the president did not want but lacked the money for his Mexican border wall that he did want. Meanwhile, he and Speaker Pelosi spent the day exchanging insults. Trump called Pelosi “crazy” and tweeted out a doctored video of her that made her appear drunk. He repeated his hilarious claim that he’s a “very stable genius” and said that Pelosi is the one who has “issues.” For her part, Pelosi suggested that someone should take the president away in a straightjacket:
“I pray for him. I wish his family or his administration staff would have an intervention for the good of the country,” Pelosi told reporters during her weekly press conference on Capitol Hill. “Maybe he wants to take a leave of absence.”
She went on to argue that the president is losing his mind because he desperately wants to be impeached and the Democrats are not obliging him. Then she said he totally could be impeached for ignoring subpoenas and obstructing justice. After watching that performance, I’m not so sure that someone shouldn’t carry Pelosi away in a straightjacket.
Meanwhile, Robert Mueller is still being a pain in the ass by refusing requests that he testify publicly. I’m getting tired of his Sphinx act. He needs to be on television where all of America can see his gestures and facial expressions. A transcript is not sufficient.
Trump’s troubles didn’t stand still in the midst of all this madness. Now it’s being reported that he’s been corruptly trying to steer a Corps of Engineers contract to a big Republican Party donor and Jared Kushner is caught up in Paul Manafort’s banking crimes. He’s still feeling the sting of losing two federal court cases this week that will make it harder for him to conceal his finances. On top of that, New York State will now hand over his tax records to Congress and stands willing to prosecute anyone he pardons.
While all this was going on, his former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson snuck into Congress to testify about how ill-prepared he was to meet with Vladimir Putin at the 2017 G20 meeting in Poland. Apparently, Tillerson actually initiated this appearance, which indicates he’s on a warpath.
The only guy officially running against Trump for the Republican nomination also stuck in the knife.
“I celebrate that America has always been a melting pot,” [William] Weld said at the speaking event on Tuesday. “It seems [Trump] would prefer an Aryan nation.”
It’s probably a good thing that everyone is going home for a long holiday weekend. When the tension gets as high as this, it’s only a matter of time before something shatters and the shrapnel starts to fly.
It sure does feel like something could blow up any time now. I’m not sure what exactly it is, but it seems like things are getting squeezed, and there is not very much room left for wiggling around. Something has to give. I don’t think Pelosi is losing it, she just senses that Trump might do something blatant enough to change the situation and create an obvious need for impeachment, versus the much longer process of going through the Mueller investigation.
Yes, it’s almost like a gamble that his financial records are bad enough he will resign.
Yep, and when it does it’ll be important for democrats—both small and large ‘d’—to keep a couple of things in mind:
1 – the reason things are exploding is the consistent and persistent pressure applied to Trump from a hundred different directions: the Mueller investigation, Ways & Means seeking his tax returns, Government Oversight conducting oversight, Judiciary issuing subpoenas, NY state passing legislation to make his state tax returns available if Congress wants them, the Mueller investigation, convictions and report, judges dismissing his attorneys’ legal arguments and ruling against him, the broad-based, organized opposition to ICE and Trump’s immigration policies, the broad-based, organized opposition to Trump’s (and his party’s) misogynistic policies and laws, his continued high disapproval ratings from the citizenry, the dozen or more ongoing legal investigations into Trump and his administration, etc.
2 – when/if Trump (and/or his followers) does explode, there will be a crucial need for democrats (again, small and large ‘d’) to maintain their focus and discipline, to channel their anger into focused action that 1) aims to provoke Trump to act against his own interests, and to divide his base; and 2) aims to build the power and size of the pro-democracy movement to act and speak ever more effectively on and in defense of its values.
I’m really struck–because I’m shocking naive–with Mueller’s fear of appearing ‘political.’ I never though he was a hero (fond memories of ‘Fitzmas’), just a Republican, hence mildly racist, sexist, establishmentarian assholish, ‘straight-shooter.’ At least, I figured that, like Comey, he’d prioritize the well-being of his beloved DOJ above that of the country. But his continued moral cowardice even when Barr is all-in with the FBI ‘spying’ against Trump, and the death threats, etc…. yikes. Him and, frankly, though here’s my naivete again, every single elected Congressperson save Amash. I would’ve guessed that a massive four or five percent of them would’ve broken ranks by now. Instead, it”s what. .5%?
I’m even more struck by the flaccidity of the Deep State. I was never a big believer, but I remember nodding along to analyses of the Obama and Clinton years, and how they were limited by unspoken, but very real, intelligence community ‘rules.’
If I really want to scare myself, I wonder what a halfway competent Republican president could do if tapping into Trump’s Green Lantern powers.
Trump is losing it — and frankly, he had nothing to lose in the first place. But Barr (his not-so-secret weapon) is on a tear.
This was my follow up question to Booman – the “Deep State” seems to be wholly unable to assess and meet the threat coming from Trump and now the Trump appointees at the top of these institutions who are actively trying to persecute and smear the lower echelons of workers as well as the institutions as a whole.
It could be they are out of ammunition, but it seems more likely that they are just reluctant to appear to be against Trump (as President) even though Trump (as criminal and dictator) is getting further entrenched with every day.
I think that Mueller’s preference to not have to present his report to Congress, after nearly explicitly saying within the report and in his own words that this was meant to be interpreted by Congress, is complete bullshit. No matter how complete a piece of writing may be, you need to talk to the sources about meaning and also (especially in the case of the many people surrounding Trump who appear guilty of various crimes and who COULD have been charged) why he did not go further on a great many cases.
Congress should be expanding this investigation, and I don’t care if it is called impeachment or not but we need answers and the public deserves them because they sure as hell won’t be coming from Barr or Trump himself.