White House in crisis

[Rewind]

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are not getting paid because of Trump's mean-spirited partial shutdown of government. Trump, of course, doesn't have to worry about buying food or making house payments so he doesn't care about the workers who are going unpaid. He just wants his stupid wall. Do you think his economic adviser cares about the unpaid workers? Do you even have to ask?

Trump's chief economic adviser Kevin Hassett to federal workers: Get a loan

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trumps-...rs-get-a-loan/

[Rewind]

Michael Cohen, Trump's attorney -- the man who Trump insisted was not his attorney -- has confessed to arranging, at Trump's direction, for polls to be rigged in Trump's favor. Trump reimbursed him -- and Cohen now says, "I truly regret my blind loyalty to a man who doesn't deserve it."

Cohen hired technology firm to rig early CNBC, Drudge polls to favor Trump

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...ump/ar-BBSmWtP

[Rewind]

Yoni Appelbaum, senior editor of The Atlantic, has written a lengthy essay -- very lengthy -- calling for the impeachment of Donald Trump. The essay was posted today on the magazine's website and it will also appear in the March 2019 print edition. Appelbaum explains the process of impeachment and discusses the impeachments of Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton and the resignation of Richard Nixon (who was facing impeachment). Applebaum says we need not, and should not, wait for the results of the Mueller investigation. Trump, he says, is clearly unfit for office and is "undermining American ideals." Here is an excerpt; the complete essay is linked below.

Impeach Donald Trump
Yoni Appelbaum, The Atlantic, Jan 17 2019

On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump stood on the steps of the Capitol, raised his right hand and solemnly swore to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. He has not kept that promise.

Instead, he has mounted a concerted challenge to the separation of powers, to the rule of law and to the civil liberties enshrined in our founding documents. He has purposefully inflamed America's divisions. He has set himself against the American idea, the principle that all of us, of every race, gender and creed, are created equal.

This is not a partisan judgment. Many of the President's fiercest critics have emerged from within his own party. Even officials and observers who support his policies are appalled by his pronouncements and those who have the most firsthand experience of governance are also the most alarmed by how Trump is governing.

"The damage inflicted by President Trump's naïveté, egotism, false equivalence and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate," the late Senator and former Republican Presidential nominee John McCain lamented last summer. "The President has not risen to the mantle of the office," the GOP's other recent nominee, the former Governor and now Senator Mitt Romney, wrote in January.

The oath of office is a President's promise to subordinate his private desires to the public interest, to serve the nation as a whole rather than any faction within it. Trump displays no evidence that he understands these obligations. To the contrary, he has routinely privileged his self-interest above the responsibilities of the Presidency.

Trump has evinced little respect for the rule of law, attempting to have the Department of Justice launch criminal probes into his critics and political adversaries. He has repeatedly attacked both Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Special Counsel Robert Mueller. His efforts to mislead, impede and shut down Mueller's investigation have now led the special counsel to consider whether the President obstructed justice.

As for the liberties guaranteed by the Constitution, Trump has repeatedly trampled upon them. He pledged to ban entry to the United States on the basis of religion and did his best to follow through. He has attacked the press as the "enemy of the people" and barred critical outlets and reporters from attending his events. He has assailed black protesters. He has called for his critics in private industry to be fired from their jobs. He has falsely alleged that America's electoral system is subject to massive fraud, impugning election results with which he disagrees as irredeemably tainted. These actions are, in sum, an attack on the very foundations of America’s constitutional democracy.

The electorate passes judgment on its Presidents and their shortcomings every four years. But the Framers were concerned that a president could abuse his authority in ways that would undermine the democratic process and that could not wait to be addressed. So they created a mechanism for considering whether a President is subverting the rule of law or pursuing his own self-interest at the expense of the general welfare -- in short, whether his continued tenure in office poses a threat to the republic. This mechanism is impeachment. Trump's actions during his first two years in office clearly meet, and exceed, the criteria to trigger this fail-safe. With every passing day, Trump further undermines our national commitment to America's ideals.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine...-trump/580468/

[Rewind]

Since 2015, Noah Bierman has been the Los Angeles Times' Washington DC-based White House reporter. Prior to that, he reported for the Boston Globe. In 2013, he and five colleagues were co-winners of the Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for distinguished reporting of Congress. Today, Bierman explains why the man who bragged about being a "great negotiator" and a "great deal-maker" is unable to negotiate and make deals. Here are the opening paragraphs:

Why can’t Trump make deals? No one trusts him anymore.
Noah Bierman, Los Angeles Times, Jan 18 2019 3:00 AM

Senator Mitch McConnell was jolted with a fresh reminder of President Trump’s capriciousness last month: The majority leader persuaded Republican colleagues to take a politically difficult vote to temporarily fund the government, but not a border wall, only to see Trump withdraw support — initiating the longest shutdown in history. House Republicans learned the same lesson early in Trump's Presidency when he rallied them to repeal Obamacare, then described their effort as "mean."

As Trump reaches the halfway mark of his term, he has left a trail of negotiating partners from both chambers of Congress, both political parties and countries around the world feeling double-crossed and even lied to. The result is that the President who campaigned as the world’s best deal-maker, vowing that he alone could fix Washington's dysfunction, has been stymied as he looks for achievements before facing the voters again. Two years in, the man who built a political reputation as a guy who tells it like it is has lost the essential ingredients to closing deals: credibility and trust.

https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-...118-story.html

[Rewind]

In today's "I want my wall!" speech, Donald Trump declared, "Heroin alone kills 300 Americans a week, 90% of which comes across our southern border." CNN notes that Trump's statement is true (albeit slightly exaggerated) but also notes that a wall would have little effect on heroin smuggling:

"While Trump's statistics on heroin deaths are true, it's unclear what a border wall would do to reduce the amount of heroin coming across the border. The CDC reported that in 2017 a total of 15,482 people died from drug overdoses involving heroin in the US. That averages out to about 297 individuals each week. In addition, the DEA's Heroin Signature Program, which analyzes heroin samples to determine where they were manufactured, determined that heroin from Mexico made up 86% of the samples analyzed in 2016. However, the majority of heroin that comes across the southern border is smuggled in privately-owned vehicles and tractor-trailers at legal ports of entry, where the drug is co-mingled with legal goods, according to the DEA's 2018 annual drug threat assessment."

Fact-checking Trump's border speech and DACA offer

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/19/polit...ech/index.html

[Rewind]

Donald Trump continues to claim that we have a "border crisis" and a "humanitarian crisis." Will Hurd, whose Congressional district in Texas includes 820 miles along the border with Mexico, disagrees. Yes, there really are a few Republicans who aren't afraid to contradict Trump.

Republican Congressman Will Hurd: Trump's border crisis is a 'myth'

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...yth/ar-BBSqYYT

[Rewind]

Here is Saturday's succinct summary of the sordid, scandalous saga surrounding The Donald:

Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about hush-money payments and negotiations for a Trump Tower in Moscow, telling the court, "I made these misstatements to be consistent with Individual 1’s political messaging and out of loyalty to Individual 1." Did Donald Trump, "Individual 1," instruct Cohen to lie? That is what BuzzFeed claims in a story published two days ago. In a rare public statement, Robert Mueller's office said specific portions of the story are "not accurate." The statement did not identify them.

Prior to posting the story, BuzzFeed's Matt Mittenthal spoke with a Trump Organization lawyer who said the story was "flawed." Mittenthal said, "We trust our sources over the organization still run by Donald Trump's family. That organization is directly implicated in the allegations related to the Trump Tower Moscow project and refused to speak on the record for our story."

Mittenthal said today BuzzFeed stands by its story, which came from "high-level law enforcement sources who have helped corroborate months of accurate reporting on the Trump Tower Moscow deal and its aftermath." He said, "As we've reconfirmed our reporting, we've seen no indication that any specific aspect of our story is inaccurate. We remain confident in what we reported and will share more as we are able."

BuzzFeed has asked Robert Mueller's office to clarify what parts of their story are inaccurate. There has been no response. House Democrats have vowed to investigate the allegation. Suborning perjury is an impeachable offense. All this would make a good television drama. Oh wait, it already is.

[Rewind]

In an editorial today, the Los Angeles Times agrees with Democrats' refusal to accept Trump's latest proposal. It is "a deal not worth taking" because it includes Trump's "obstinate wall demand" and a "three-year freeze on deportations for some noncitizens, including Dreamers" which "wouldn't make the Dreamers much better off than they are now." The editorial notes that Trump is responsible for the Dreamers' dilemma because he terminated Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Trump "has to be willing to actually negotiate, not just offer to solve another problem he created in exchange for getting the wall he fetishizes."

The Times also takes a closer look at McAllen, Texas, the town Trump visited January 9, and sees absolutely no evidence of Trump's alleged "border crisis," "security crisis" and "humanitarian crisis."

On the Texas-Mexico border: Crisis? What crisis?

https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na...119-story.html

[Rewind]

Logically, what would be BuzzFeed's reason to release a report that they know to be false? I can't think of a reason. I have to assume the authors have irrefutable evidence showing Trump instructed Cohen to lie. I also believe Trump, who lies an average of 15 times a day, would have no qualms about instructing one (or more) of his associates to lie. House Democrats promise an investigation and BuzzFeed stands by its story.

BuzzFeed reporter says bombshell account is 'solid' despite pushback
The Hill, Jan 20 2019

BuzzFeed's Anthony Cormier today defended his explosive report that President Trump directed his former lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress. Cormier said on CNN's Reliable Sources that his report is "solid" and "accurate" despite special counsel Robert Mueller's office issuing a statement last week disputing it.

"I'm solid. My sources are solid. This reporting is accurate," he said. He added, "I have further confirmation that this is right. We're being told to stand our ground. Our reporting is going to be borne to be accurate and we're 100% behind it."

Cormier and BuzzFeed colleague Jason Leopold, citing two federal law enforcement officials, reported last week that Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower project in Moscow. They added that the special counsel learned that Trump ordered Cohen to lie through interviews, internal emails from the Trump Organization, text messages and other documents. A spokesman for Mueller's office, however, disputed the report. Buzzfeed News editor Ben Smith has since called on the special counsel's office to be clearer in which parts of the report the office is disputing.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...ack/ar-BBSuZZ1

[Rewind]

Last month, President Trump announced plans to pull US troops out of Syria because ISIS is "badly defeated." On January 16, an ISIS suicide bomber killed 16 people in Manbij. Four Americans were among the dead. A Washington Post editorial observed, "Trump said he beat ISIS. Instead, he's given it new life." Today there was another ISIS attack in Syria. Fortunately, nobody died -- but ISIS is not "badly defeated."

Another bomb blast targets US troops in Syria

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/syria-b...bij-americans/