ABC: Sessions offered to resign as AG while Trump still fuming over his recusal https://t.co/92PNQAL6aP pic.twitter.com/WHZ0WHirwU
— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) June 6, 2017
Jefferson Sessions took the job to gut civil rights and nonwhite immigration. Trump hired him to kill #Russiagate. https://t.co/GtmprnVY4u
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) June 6, 2017
Ms. Reid is, of course, correct: Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III scrambled aboard the ‘Trump train’ early, because Trump seemed like his best chance for a position where he could really abuse all those uppity people of color / women / liberals with impunity. And Donald J. Trump welcomed the Malevolent Leprechaun aboard, because he assumed that their shared revanchist social goals would keep ol’ Jeff from looking too closely at Don’s myriad ethical peccadilloes.
Now Jeff feels that Trump is treating him like a house… servant, someone required to yes-massah the Big Man’s every whim. And Don feels like Sessions is attempting to weasel out of his contract, as so many of the losers and haters in Don’s past have attempted to do…
Few Republicans were quicker to embrace President Trump’s campaign last year than Jeff Sessions, and his reward was one of the most prestigious jobs in America. But more than four months into his presidency, Mr. Trump has grown sour on Mr. Sessions, now his attorney general, blaming him for various troubles that have plagued the White House.
The discontent was on display on Monday in a series of stark early-morning postings on Twitter in which the president faulted his own Justice Department for its defense of his travel ban on visitors from certain predominantly Muslim countries. Mr. Trump accused Mr. Sessions’s department of devising a “politically correct” version of the ban — as if the president had nothing to do with it.
In private, the president’s exasperation has been even sharper. He has intermittently fumed for months over Mr. Sessions’s decision to recuse himself from the investigation into Russian meddling in last year’s election, according to people close to Mr. Trump who insisted on anonymity to describe internal conversations. In Mr. Trump’s view, they said, it was that recusal that eventually led to the appointment of a special counsel who took over the investigation…
David B. Rivkin Jr., a lawyer who served in the White House and Justice Department under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, said Mr. Trump clearly looked at the case from the lens of a businessman who did not get his money’s worth.
“He’s unhappy when the results don’t come in,” Mr. Rivkin said. “I’m sure he was convinced to try the second version, and the second iteration did not do better than the first iteration, so the lawyers in his book did not do a good job. It’s understandable for a businessman.”…
However, Mr. Trump is said to be aware that firing people now, on the heels of dismissing James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, would be risky. He has invested care and meticulous attention to the next choice of an F.B.I. director in part because he will not have the option of firing another one. The same goes for Mr. Sessions, these people said…
To quote an old saying: May they be chained to each other in hell.
Feels like an alt hed for this could be "Sessions Distances Self From Trump As Obstruction Investigations Progress" https://t.co/exDBDipjbc pic.twitter.com/OBEx4oPtf9
— Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) June 6, 2017
Trump is having such difficulty recruiting top-tier people that the threat to resign might be particularly potent right now. pic.twitter.com/XKMdtDP2ak
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) June 6, 2017
Two things – if Sessions was serious about resigning, he would have. And Trump isn't firing someone who would leave him with Rosenstein.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 7, 2017
Gin & Tonic
It’s a goddamned act, by a “reality” TV entertainer, and you people are falling for it.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@Gin & Tonic: This. As Kay said, Sessions “leaked” this to make himself look good. He and Trump love each other. And front pagers should stop quoting the Trump family stenographer as well.
Villago Delenda Est
As I commented yesterday over at Wonkette, if Donald fires Jayuff, Jayuff will flip faster than Ozzie Smith in his prime. Donald dare not fire him. But then again, when has Donald done anything that wasn’t bone stupid, like side with the Saudis over Qatar, where we’ve got 11,000 servicemen and women stationed?
Big Ole Hound
What a sham…the little raciest shit and the orange tweeter are joined at the hip on how to punish the unwanted.
Corner Stone
@Gin & Tonic: What is the act part? And what does us falling for it buy Team Trump?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
meanwhile…
Villago Delenda Est
@Gin & Tonic: I don’t think it’s even that calculated now. Donald is just lashing out at anyone and everyone.
satby
I don’t think too many people are really falling for it, other than our idiot, easily led media.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: I really don’t believe this is an act — It may not be as serious as reported, but it certainly fits the Trump tantrum/incompetence/Little Hitler truths. Trump doesn’t love anyone. He sees Sessions as stepping on his dick. Sessions is complaining that Trump is edging his territory. Trump hates that kind of thing.
Trump knows no loyalty outside of demanding it to Himself.
Corner Stone
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s fine. This is fine.
rikyrah
I don’t believe one word from Attorney General White Citizens Council
He has no honor.
He is in all the Russia mess up to his neck.
Plus, he is getting to live out his White Supremacist fantasies.
He didn’t offer shyt.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@satby: If Maggie Haberman is calling bullshit on Sessions’ spin (which is the camp I’m in, too), don’t know who’s falling for it. I also don’t sense a tidal wave of popular disgust
Jeffro
This is kind of hard to believe, even in this new wacky era we’ve found ourselves in: Pro-Trump Group to Run Anti-Comey Ad During Comey Testimony
It’s being run by Great American PAC. (Maybe some of youse have inside info about who funds it? Ed Rollins runs it.)
I mean, what. the. fuck??!?
Reverse parties/positions, and Republicans would be SCREAMING for everyone involved in a Pro-HRC PAC running ads against the FBI Director she fired to be arrested for obstruction (and/or any other charge they could think up).
Chris
Oh please, please, please, fire this prick. He’s the single member of the Trump administration I most want gone.
Gin & Tonic
@Corner Stone: It’s just like “ooh, ooh, Bannon is out.” Bullshit he’s out. He’s just as influential as ever. Distract the rubes with bullshit. Now Sessions is positioned to look as if he has principles. It’s a WWE spectacle, after which the principals probably go for beers together and laugh at the suckers.
MisterForkbeard
I mean, this probably happened, but I don’t know how it actually matters unless Sessions resigns. Weren’t we hearing that Bannon was on the outs for a couple months, before he advises Trump to do something that horrifies the world and pleases conservatives and suddenly Trump loves him again?
Even if Trump is pissed at Sessions, it doesn’t matter at all until/unless Sessions’ leaves. Because Trump can and will change his mind at any time for any reason.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
too many crackpot mega-rich to count, but the Mercers are at least an even bet. Foster Friese, Adelson, Ken Langone, Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio’s sugar-daddies, whichever one of those seemingly immortal billionaires from the 80s that’s closest to trump (Icahn? Malone? Redstone?)
MJS
I get the idea that the story of Sessions offering to resign may be fake and floated by Sessions himself, but the bigger take away here, that is not helpful at all to Trump, is that he (Trump) is angry that Sessions recused himself. There can only be one explanation for such anger, and that’s that Trump wanted Sessions available to obstruct the investigation. Even if the intent of this leak was to show that Sessions really did recuse himself (he didn’t), that still leaves the question of why Trump is angry about it.
Jeffro
J-Rubs: The Other Shoes Start Falling
ET
The Trump Sessions dance is one where both sides are learning the others moves.
Sessions took the job for his own reasons and thought (incorrectly) that he could control Trump which is what a lot of Hill Republicans thought. Trump wanted some he saw (rightly) as a suck up for his reasons.
Sessions like that GOP veneer of what they feel is right for the country but really care less about that than they do about living to party orthodoxy. Trump doesn’t care about veneer and he is only about himself and what he wants.
They have both begun to see the real person and motivations of the other and they are both disappointed though for their own reasons. Sessions could have resigned if he wanted to and I think he feels there is so more to muck about with so didn’t really want to. Trump may want to keep someone he sees as a useful idiot. It is a match made in…. heaven?
Jeffro
Btw…I hope everyone is out there asking all their RWNJ friends and relatives: does any of this look like the actions of an innocent man?
The Moar You Know
Straight up bullshit. I’d bet everything I own that this did not happen in any way, shape or form.
Immanentize
@Chris: This. a million times this.
MJS
@Jeffro: Sorry, but nothing gets through to RWNJ friends and relatives. This is the “So What” president. Either Hillary did the same thing, or some other Democrat has done the same thing, or it doesn’t matter because the world’s on fire and only Trump can put it out, or Russia’s actually or friend, or etc., etc. etc. Those people are like Trump himself – they will never, ever admit they made a mistake.
catclub
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
what the heck?
Immanentize
@The Moar You Know:
Can’t you imagine Trump threatening to “get rid of Sessions” and Sessions saying to him something Junior High like:
“Well, I am hurt by that, I truly am. I am your most loyal supporters. I was with you before anyone else. And I will be with you til the bitter end (at Appomattox). But you know what is best for you and I support all of your brilliant decisions. You are President. And if you feel like I can no longer serve you as you deserve to be assisted and counseled and supported, then I think, for your sake and this great nations, that I should maybe perhaps resign.”
MisterForkbeard
@Jeffro: I’m STILL getting facebook posts from old acquaintances about how awful Hillary is, and how her recent comments in interviews about Russia are just proof that the Media and Hillary are horrible people that are obviously lying and #MAGA.
Agree with MJS here – nothing gets through to them at all. They’re black holes of factual information, operating on spite and willful ignorance.
catclub
@MJS:
counterpoint to ‘the world’s on fire”. Terrorism deaths.
Gin & Tonic
Reuters is saying that Iran is blaming S.A. for the Tehran attacks.
Looks like interesting times ahead.
gene108
@Villago Delenda Est:
Jeffy has his fat Senate pension to fall back on, if quits. He also has a boat load of wingnut-welfare bucks waiting for him.
The right-wing machine – from fundies, to tax cutting nuts, etc. – are heavily invested in Trump succeeding, which is why so many fundie preachers are all-in for Trump, and Fox News is reporting an alternate reality from all the other news networks.
There’s a lot of money on the table for staying loyal to Trump.
Camembert
The only good thing from all of this is that we as Democrats finally understand that all Republicans are violent racist nutbags who hate poc more than they love their children (yes, even the voters. yes, even your gran), and we’re gonna stop pretending they can be worked with.
Maybe this time we won’t take them back after their teary-eyed apology.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: I would believe it too — Qatar sits right poking out into the Gulf between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
I wonder if Adam is on this thread as well as the one below. Or Cheryl. Could Trump have green-lighted a SA attack on Iran?
Adam L Silverman
@catclub: Mueller is absolutely correct and his work on this topic is excellent and, all too often, overlooked despite his being senior faculty at the Merschon Center.
Villago Delenda Est
@gene108: Jayuff’s fat senate pension won’t help him much in jail.
Adam L Silverman
The Moar You Know
@Immanentize: Nope. Gin & Tonic’s post at #1 is what’s going on.
@MJS: The only two people I have to report to at my workplace are in this category. It’s mostly “some other Dem I heard about once did this, and also the Weathermen were Democrat suicide bombers, just like ISIS”.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Immanentize: I could see him grinning and nodding through an indirect (and flattering) statement of intention from the SA’s that he didn’t even come close to understanding.
MisterForkbeard
@Camembert: Distinction: All republicans VOTED for violent racist nutbags, but may not be violent racist nutbags themselves.
But, you know, they believe VRNs should be the people running the country, so I guess it’s a distinction without merit. :)
The Moar You Know
@Camembert: shut the fuck up, troll.
japa21
@Gin & Tonic: ISIS or SA? Hmmm… I have a feeling the two are joined together somewhat tightly, so blaming one is as good as blaming the other.
Immanentize
I disagree. It seems that by saying that this administration is masterful at clever deceptions and diversions that, frankly, only fools like us follow with any interest, we are the ones normalizing this administration. They are not strategic. Or tactical. They are the gang that couldn’t shoot straight run by a very limited meglomaniac. No chess here. No checkers. That would have been possible with Cheney — maybe. But even then this particular ploy would have helped no one.
Everything is a distraction from everything. Why is this distraction less true than any other?
Immanentize
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: just so.
Immanentize
@Adam L Silverman: Literally or figuratively?
Frankensteinbeck
@Gin & Tonic:
I am absolutely positive none of this is an act, except maybe on Sessions’s part. Trump is, and has demonstrated it repeatedly, not smart enough for this convoluted bullshit. 20 years ago, yeah, that was him. Now he is a whiny toddler who lashes out at any disappointment. Has he not proven this as absolutely as anyone can? Yes, he’s mad at Sessions because Sessions didn’t make the Russia thing go away, and yes Bannon was ‘out’… temporarily. Trump has the attention span of a toddler as well. Bannon got his love again. All of this is exactly why nobody likes working for him and the White House leaks like a sieve. It’s Hell working for a jackass that blames you for his mistakes and changes who he’s mad at every five minutes.
Waspuppet
And the lens of a businessman to whom it never occurs that other people are actually doing things that benefit him and that he’s not just showering beneficence on the townspeople below.
Spanky
@Adam L Silverman: Burning crosses in the lobby again?
Chris
@Adam L Silverman:
Welp, I’m at Union Station and I can hear fire trucks going by. Maybe related.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@japa21: I think the SA/IS relationship is like a 17th European power turning a blind eye to piracy as long as the pirates only target other European powers, but magnitudes more short-sighted, reckless and dangerous
catclub
@Frankensteinbeck:
more importantly, Bannon got off the front of Time magazine.
japa21
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Tend to agree. And that European power would occasionally make requests of the pirates in consideration of their turning a blind eye.
SatanicPanic
@Immanentize: Yup, not buying that it’s an act. Trump is as impulsive and dumb as we think he is. Is Sessions is cover his a** I doubt he’s gone out of his way to explain that to Trump.
chopper
@Jeffro:
this is one of those situations where i can’t even do the ‘what if it was clinton doing this’ because it’s so cray-cray it makes my head hurt.
gene108
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Good thing we have a State Department to handle these things diplomatically…
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: Fascinating…had not heard of the book “Chasing Ghosts” before
From the Amazon summary:
I’m not even sure that half of the Democratic party could unite around this common-sense message, unfortunately, to say nothing of the Constant Fear Party…
schrodingers_cat
T has delivered on his promise to treat immigrants like they are criminals, that’s always been on Sessions agenda. # of people dead in ICE detention keeps climbing everyday and people without criminal records are still being deported. Though the travel ban has been lifted, extreme vetting is taking place at embassies and consulates keeping the riffraff away. Pakistani physicians’ J-1 applications for example seem to be summarily rejected.
All of the current AG’s dreams are coming true, I give no credence to these rumors unless I actually see him leave. Do not trust the Vichy Times. They are in bed with T and company.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@gene108: I’m sure McMaster and Mattis are all over it.
Jeffro
@chopper: It is weird. I feel like a bit player in a 21st century Kafka novel…
JGabriel
via Anne Laurie @ Top:
I’m beginning to wonder if Trump didn’t just know about but insisted that Sessions take all those meetings with Kislyak and other Russians during the campaign – on the belief that it would keep Sessions on board if the shit ever hit the fan about their collusion with Putin’s administration.
SatanicPanic
@Jeffro: That Lahren quote is bananas:
They’re focused on making America great for the people who PUT THEIR FAITH in Trump. How about making it great for everyone?
gene108
@Villago Delenda Est:
You think Congressional Republicans will let this investigation spill out beyond Trump?
I think the only reason Senate Republicans are taking this is sort of seriously is to make sure the Russia investigation is limited to only taking down Trump and does not reveal how far up to their necks the rest of the Republican Party is with regards to working with Russia during the 2016 investigation.
I think there are people that would be more than happy to give Sessions immunity, in order for him to make sure nothing beyond “It’s all Trump’s fault” makes the news.
Plus, if Trump goes, Pense is always there to pardon anyone, who might talk.
This is beyond just protecting Trump. It’s about protecting the Republican Party as a whole, and that means isolating Trump.
Sessions could either be collateral damage or he could be used by others to contain this to Trump.
Kay
Everybody wants something in that administration. We’re watching people make these gross, cynical deals in real time and in public.
Sessions wants to lock certain people up and stop certain people from voting and all this LAW BREAKING around him is getting in the way of his goals. I love how crazy it is- Sessions can’t catch the criminals and they’re right in front of him! They’re in Trump’s office WITH him.
Kay
Trump is right in a way. No one is loyal to him. They aren’t “loyal” to anyone or anything. It’s wholly self-interested people pursuing individual agendas. It can’t be a conspiracy- a conspiracy requires some small measure of solidarity, some cooperation, shared goals. They don’t even have that.
Peale
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Christ. This is looking like Libya all over again. And Yemen. A much wealthier Yemen.
Chris
@SatanicPanic:
“If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it just might be a duck.”
– Walter Reuther
Peale
@Kay: Its kind of like a gang, though. They are all involved with at least one crime with each other (and that includes Sessions) so that none of them can squeal and walk away.
sdhays
I don’t think this is an act. I think it’s absolutely true that Trump is raging over Sessions not protecting him from the Russia investigation because he’s 100% guilty (of what, who knows? But I guarantee you it’s very bad). I also believe that Sessions “offered to resign” with the intention of shutting Trump up. “You know, Mr. Preznit, I don’t need this job, so if you think you can find someone better…” All of Trump’s whining is causing him problems putting certain people “in their place”.
This does all make me more curious about what A.G. KKK actually discussed with Kislyak (sp?) on three separate occasions that he “forgot” to tell the Senate about. If he was totally guilty, wouldn’t it have been better for him to brush off calls for recusal? I guess he thinks that there’s definitely nothing solid implicating him, no matter how bad it looks from the outside.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Peale: with more than 10,000 US military personnel, I believe
LAO
@Adam L Silverman: I really hate how much I just enjoyed that tweet.
hovercraft
@Immanentize:
One of his biographers pointed out that The Apprentice dynamic, everyone competing to “win” his favor is really the dynamic he fosters in his company and now the White House. He believes it keeps everyone on their toes and has the added benefit of making them compete to see who can be the best kiss ass. Anyone sent to the doghouse has to work harder than everyone else to get back on his good side. That’s why in spite of all the stories about people being in the doghouse and on the cusp of being fired, none of them have been. He enjoys the power he holds, and thinks that having competing factions, none of whom are immune from his mercurial nature, makes people work harder. Moron.
LAO
@Immanentize: why not both?
Peale
@SatanicPanic: Why should they? Was that inagural address given by someone who wants to be President for all Americans or the free world?
catclub
@gene108:
I would argue it is ALL about protecting the party in the investigation, and that simply includes protecting Trump.
Are the GOP defense attorneys (Sens and reps on the committees) hard at work looking for leakers – but not interested in hearing what the witnesses are saying?
trollhattan
@Big Ole Hound:
My read as well. If animosity exists it’s along the lines of “Area men, known assholes, discover they don’t get along.”
Kay
@hovercraft:
That’s self-selecting though. He hires for traits that will allow people to stay in the environment he creates. These people aren’t in there by accident. He chose them specifically for weakness- they by definition have to be lower quality than he is or he can’t have them around.
Ian G.
So how hard will the media on all sides try to bury the Tehran attacks? The media-industrial complex dedicated to maximum demonization of Iran is bipartisan and goes well past the incompetent twit in the White House. Anything that destroys the myth of Iran = ISIS needs to be suppressed. Anything that might suggest Iran is a natural ally in the battle with ISIS, or the lesser of two evils in the rivalry with our “friend” Saudi Arabia also must be squelched.
Felonius Monk
@Adam L Silverman:
Is this because Trump’s pick for FBI Director is employed by a law firm that represents Trump?
SatanicPanic
@Ian G.: It’s front page on WaPo. I don’t know about other sources.
Frankensteinbeck
@hovercraft:
I think ‘keeping people on their toes’ is an excuse to play god-king, but there’s no question this is his professed and long-running management strategy.
Cheryl Rofer
Kay
So the intelligence chiefs won’t tell Americans anything that happened with the President?
They need to let us know when they’re ready to reveal something. We actually need information. We’ve gotten none. There is no voter in this country who has any idea what happened with Russian interference in the election. Warner said state election officials haven’t even been notified. We have a vital interest in this. This does not “belong” to Donald Trump and the people he talks to. These are OUR systems and OUR elections. We own them.
rikyrah
Quick Takes: Mueller Hires Experts in the Mafia and Fraud
A roundup of the stories that caught my eye today.
by Nancy LeTourneau
June 6, 2017 7:00 PM
* As Martin noted today, Trump is having a hard time finding lawyers to represent him. Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller doesn’t seem to be having that problem and his hires send a strong signal about where this investigation is headed.
Frankensteinbeck
@Ian G.:
The media loves all war, hates all brown people, is too dumb to tell other countries apart, and this is exciting. I don’t think they’ll bury it.
catclub
@Cheryl Rofer: Does that mean that the Secret Gang of 13 has come up with nothing, so they are just going to try to pass the House version of the AHCA?
Corner Stone
@Chris: But does Sessions weigh the same as a duck?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Gin & Tonic: Eh, Narcassits shit on underlings until the underling fights back. As Anna said Sessions is just showing Trump that Sessions won’t be tolerated being treated as a house servant like Brandon.
rikyrah
Kansas lawmakers reject Brownback’s ‘experiment,’ force taxes higher
06/07/17 09:20 AM
By Steve Benen
Just how spectacularly has Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s (R) radical economic “experiment” failed? Enough to lead a Republican-led legislature in a ruby-red state to force taxes higher.
The Wichita Eagle reported overnight on GOP officials in Kansas embracing the one policy contemporary Republicans almost never even consider.
m0nty
Fire at the Reichstag, you say?
bemused
@Cheryl Rofer:
I’d love to make life hell for Republican senators but mine are Franken and Klobuchar.
hovercraft
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
You know they are in trouble when even friggin Judith Miller pushes back on their bullshit, and it’s not just the Sessions BS, this was her the other day on FOX.
At this rate, between Britehate being called a sellout, and FOX news apologists calling them out on their bullshit, Twitler and Co. will soon be reduced to just watching Infowars.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/6/17
Trump pressed Coats for way to stop Russia investigation: WaPo
Adam Entous, national security reporter for The Washington Post, talks with Rachel Maddow about new reporting that DNI Dan Coats told associates that Donald Trump had pressed him on ways to get James Comey to stop the Trump-Russia investigation.
Keith P.
Angus King is a tenacious one, isn’t he?
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/6/17
Trump’s deadbeat past hurts him in search for scandal lawyers
Rachel Maddow reviews Donald Trump’s history of not paying his debts and notes how that is a contributing factor as he is reportedly facing rejection from outside law firms as he seeks to bolster his defense in the face of mounting scandals.
gvg
@gene108: The republican party wants to indulge their racist paranoia and cut taxes. I despise those goals but democracy sometimes pick lousy goals. If that was all they were doing, I don’t think we would even be talking impeachment and I don’t think the whole party would be covering up. we’d fight about it in the next elections.
Gerrymandering and vote suppression, maybe but probably not.
Colluding with Russia and taking foreign bribes…that is another story. and the question is, why is the party covering up this going back to McConnell refusing to support Obama warning us? It’s already turned out that a surprising number of them have Russian ties or investments. I think they are acting guilty and it’s the Russian connections that are a problem.
If I was a democrat in office I would be openly divesting of any Russian stock. It looks like Russia has been playing a long long game and shortly all things connected to them will be toxic.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/6/17
Trump being Trump worries prospective lawyers
Michael Isikoff, chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News, talks with Rachel Maddow about why top law firms are turning down the opportunity to work on Donald Trump’s defense as scandals continue to pile up.
Corner Stone
@bemused: Thank the FSM for your blessings. Cruz doesn’t take messages and bounces emails. The only person who could make his life more miserable is named Goldman Sachs.
LAO
I’m super looking forward to Comey’s testimony tomorrow. Apparently there are DOJ corroborating witnesses!.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/6/17
Mueller adds heavy hitter prosecutor to Trump investigation team
Rachel Maddow reports on some of the prosecutorial accomplishments of Andrew Weissmann, who has left the fraud section of the criminal division of the Justice Department to join Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of the Trump-Russia affair.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/6/17
Mueller would gain resources as scope of Trump probe widens
Rachel Maddow reports that in the event that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation takes on the Paul Manafort and/or Mike Flynn cases, he would also inherit the considerable resources devotes to those investigations.
Immanentize
@LAO: True. It’s not binary.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/6/17
Comey firing probe could mean new role for DoJ’s third in line
Rachel Maddow explains how Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of the firing of James Comey would force recusals of Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein in the matter, elevating the DoJ’s third in line, Rachel Brand.
LAO
@rikyrah: I mentioned this days ago — I know Weissman and adding him to the team is a huge, positive deal.
Chris
@Corner Stone:
Let’s build a bridge out of him and find out!
bemused
@Corner Stone:
Oh, I smile every time of think of my senators and really proud of Franken questioning Sessions during the evil little under bridge dwelling troll confirmation hearings. We lucked out when vote was so close between Franken and Norm Coleman who I believe went on to greener Republican pastures lobbying for Saudis.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
And speaking as someone who had two Trump like narcissists bosses – the more the narcissists needs the employee the more vicious the narcissist gets. Sessions saw with Comey that when Comey finally stood up to Trump, Trump did the coward run for cover and then backstabbed Comey. Sessions is merely getting his story in first so Trump can’t pull a whispering campaign when the knife comes.
Of course none of this changes that Trump can’t afford to let Session quit and Trump knows it. But it is amusing to think it kills Trump to be in this situation.
Villago Delenda Est
@hovercraft: This is what Donald does not get. These people swore oaths to defend the Constitution, not the current President. He can’t accept that.
Quinerly
For those not watching: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/warner-coats-trump-fbi-investigation
Peale
@gvg: Invest a few billion to buy 20% of a Russian Oil Giant, and suddenly, all of your neighbors aren’t talking to you. While I know that the issues in the Gulf States have been simmering for awhile, I’m a bit skeptical about why they all suddenly have decided to make regime change in Qatar their signature issue. I don’t think its just terrorism or al Jazeera or the Brotherhood. I am going to guess that there’s something toxic in that transaction last December that needs to be shoveled under a carpet.
Adam L Silverman
@Immanentize: @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Unlikely to no. This was ISIL, not Saudi. I’m just about ready to post my ISIL attacks Iran post. I’ll have a Qatar post later today/this evening.
Chris
@Adam L Silverman:
I’m intrigued to read your thoughts on the Qatar thing. I knew they and their neighbors had a lot of issues, but this was a hell of a drastic move.
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: Whenever I’ve taught a course on terrorism I use Mueller’s book.
Cheryl Rofer
@catclub: Who knows. If they pass the same version, it’s over. If they pass something different, the House will have to vote again.
@bemused: Yeah, I have the same problem. Mine are Heinrich and Udall. But call them every so often to tell them they’re doing a good job. I met a Heinrich aide a few weeks back who said your phonecall will at least improve an aide’s day. They get calls pushing them to vote for disaster.
rikyrah
Whether Dirs. Rogers & Coats felt pressured is not issue – whether @POTUS sought to interfere is. Public deserves an answer; we will get it.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) June 7, 2017
hovercraft
Okay so maybe Sessions really is in trouble.
Conway Says Trump ‘Has Confidence’ In His Staff Amid Reports Of Sessions Rift
Top White House adviser Kellyanne Conway on Wednesday said President Donald Trump “has confidence” in his employees, despite several reports that Trump has increasingly fallen out with Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Conway told Axios that Trump “has confidence in the people who work for him” and dismissed unspecified reports about the rising and falling fortunes of various White House staffers.
“I disagree with that premise completely,” Conway said. “All of those people who you said are in the dog house… are still in this moment at the White House.
You can’t believe anything she says, so………….
TriassicSands
Trump requires a kind and degree of loyalty (Trumpian loyalty = subservience + obedience + praise) that is utterly incompatible with anyone doing a significant government job in anything remotely resembling independence. As a result Trump is almost inevitably going to clash — eventually — with virtually all government employees with whom he has regular contact. Every important government job has requirements that will put the employee in conflict with Trump, who demands servants, not employees.
At this point, I would think Trump is having difficulty finding anyone to join him on the Titanic of administrations. Prospective employees would, first and foremost, have to be masochistic — Trump will eventually get around to insulting, berating, or blaming everyone he hires. (Except, maybe, family members. OTOH, I wouldn’t want to be anyone, family member included, who was alone on a sinking ship with Trump — literal or metaphorical — if there was only one lifejacket.)
It is also necessary to be willing to publicly deny reality and to lie brazenly.
The potential employee pool is larger than usual because in the Trump administration employees don’t have to be even minimally qualified for the job in question. All positions are treated like ambassadorial positions for large campaign donors. Competence, even minimal intelligence (see B. DeVos) is not an issue.
Quinerly
OT: They picked a side and are going to stick with it. We will never reach these people and should quit trying: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/7/15674380/obamacare-kentucky-trump-ahca
Adam L Silverman
@catclub: It means McConnell is writing his own revision and is going to try to jam up his own caucus and then the House GOP caucus if he can get whatever he’s creating through the Senate.
Applejinx
@hovercraft:
Interestingly, this also describes Sears and may well be what’s behind companies like Uber. One could say it was a major corporate trend in recent decades: they’ve gone all Ayn Rand on themselves and eat their own poison dogfood. It’s pretty much destroyed Sears.
This is why some of us react really poorly to the idea of embracing corporate money and being all business-friendly. You could end up with something like THIS calling the shots, even for the Democrats. It would be nice if social responsibility was a win for stockholders but recent studies suggest it’s really not, and that companies/entities like this accurately define what you get out of market capitalism. Sorry to break it to Nancy “We’re capitalists. That’s just how it is” Pelosi.
Might be time to start coming up with alternative foundations for power. The bright side to this is, organizations like this destroy themselves. We just have to not be taken down with them.
Immanentize
@Adam L Silverman: As LAO said in another context — why not both ISiS AND SA? I really look forward to your posts.
SFAW
@hovercraft:
If they start using phrases like “1000 percent,” then maybe I’ll believe it.
[You’re probably too young to catch that ref.]
Immanentize
@SFAW: I like how Conway(?) thinks of the AG as “staff.”
rikyrah
Eric Trump: President’s detractors are ‘not even people’
06/07/17 10:18 AM—UPDATED 06/07/17 10:30 AM
By Steve Benen
For a guy who’s supposed to be helping lead Donald Trump’s business empire, and steering clear of politics, Eric Trump maintains a surprisingly active political schedule. Eric Trump recently sat down with officials at the Republican National Committee, for example, to discuss ways in which the party could help his father. He also tried to discredit the investigation into the Russia scandal during an ABC News interview this week.
Last night, however, The Hill reports that presidential son took his political rhetoric to a whole new level.
Julie
@Adam L Silverman: Like, literally or figuratively? Because these days, who knows. ? ? ?
ETA: I see that Immanentize got there ahead of me. ?
Steeplejack
@Anne Laurie:
“Few Republicans were quicker” link is broken.
Boatboy_srq
It all boils down to a gang of bullies and abusers unable to agree on who to abuse first.
Boatboy_srq
@MJS: The first step in beating any addiction is admitting you have a problem.
hovercraft
@SFAW:
No I didn’t, I googled and all I found out was the Twitler was with the CIA, a 1000%, and Assange was 1000% sure the Russians didn’t the DNC.
Jeffro
@rikyrah:
Did you see Joy Reid’s tweet-response to this (posted in an earlier thread)? Something along the lines of “This? From the second son of the first-of-three-wives lady parts grabbing teen ogling creep??” LOL
Calouste
So any bets on how high the gas price will get if the Qatar kerfuffle breaks out into a war? $6 or $7?
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: Added to the ‘wish list’ – thanks!
Citizen Alan
@Quinerly:
I despise these people. They hate Democrats more than they love their own children. Even more than they care about their own lives. Nearly every single person mentioned by name in that article could die in misery, and I would not be moved to care one bit.
Camembert
@Citizen Alan: Yep. No more Republican daddies, no more defunding ACORN, no more ignoring CrossCheck.
Peale
@Camembert: CardCheck. Cross checking is o.k.
Chris
@Applejinx:
And it’s also a dynamic that’s typical of authoritarian regimes, especially when it comes to their security forces, using their rivalry with each other to safeguard your own throne. Wehrmacht/SS in Nazi Germany, Red Army/KGB in the Soviet Union, every regime in the Middle East that’s broken up its forces between a regular military and a praetorian elite force. (Saddam’s Iraq might take the cake: a regular military, a Republican Guard to keep the regular military in check, and then a Special Republican Guard to keep both of them in check).
This is something that doesn’t get nearly enough attention among critics who attack professional civil services in the West as a Stalinesque dictatorial entity: actually, Stalinesque dictatorships don’t want large professional bureaucracies. They want a feudal, factionalized shit-show driven by cutthroat competition. It’s what keeps them on top.
MisterForkbeard
@Quinerly: That article basically validates everything I thought about Trump voters. “He’s a businessman, he’ll make it work” and “I just assumed it would miraculously come together” and “I didn’t think about what a republican plan would actually look like”, paired with “I get most of my news from republican representatives”.
And finished off with them deciding to stick with republicans and trust them anyway, for no particular reason other than they already voted for them and can’t really admit they’re wrong.
If there’s anyone that ever needed to stop voting, it’s these folks.
Quinerly
@MisterForkbeard:
And, we, as Dems should just give up on them.
MisterForkbeard
@Citizen Alan: Well, as a result of the AHCA, there’s a good chance they WILL die in misery, so there you go. It’s sad, but they are literally voting to kill themselves.
Quinerly
@Citizen Alan:
Agree 100%.
Spanky
@Jeffro: Yeah, but the purpose of dehumanizing Others is that it makes them easier to kill.
Can’t wait to see how prevalent this meme becomes.
Chris
@Citizen Alan:
As Golda Meir said and I often quote: we won’t have peace until they love their children more than they hate us.
No Drought No More
Sessions is perfectly positioned to finish Trump. Were he to resign tomorrow on the heels of Comey’s testimony and cite the former Director’s testimony as grounds for doing so, i.e., as grounds for impeachment, it would, in turn, lay perfect cover for congressional republicans to rally and rid itself of The Party’s worst nightmare in no muss, no fuss fashion…. oh, yeah, and for the good of the country, too.
MJS
@Boatboy_srq: But much like addiction, the RWNJ aren’t going to listen to anyone else tell them they have a problem. They will somehow have to hit rock bottom. For some of them, it may be losing health coverage. For others, it may take seeing a family member ship off to fight another war of choice in the Middle East. But until something Trump is responsible for impacts them personally, they won’t change.
catclub
@Peale:
zerohedge thought it was a giant ransom Qatar paid to get back a royal family hunting party taken hostage in Iraq. Which was very strange.
The split was between Iran, Alqueda like Sunni extremists, and maybe some shia militias in Iraq.
bemused
@Cheryl Rofer:
I do but should call them more often.
Nobody likes being taken for granted.
Quinerly
Just seeing this on Sessions and the DOJ: https://medium.com/oversightdems/sessions-declines-to-testify-before-oversight-committee-53afb21ebb2f
Adam L Silverman
@Quinerly: He can’t be sure he won’t perjure himself again.
Jeffro
@Spanky: It’s all part of (yet another) GOP double standards: “Don’t call us – or things like repealing the estate tax – evil, but liberalism is a mental disorder and liberals are, well, bound for hell”
Origuy
@Adam L Silverman: According to the article at the link, this is about Fast and Furious. They’re still holding hearings about that?
manyakitty
@Immanentize: And there you go, quoting excellent music again!
Jeffro
I see that Pittsburgh officials have taken out a full-page add to tell Trumpov he’s wrong on pulling out of the Paris agreement.
L
O
L
Quinerly
Comey’s opening statement released. Pete Williams reporting on it: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/read-opening-statement-comey-senate-intelligence-committee-trump-conversations
ruemara
@Quinerly: I’ve said it in private and I’m going to start saying it publicly. Leave these people to die. Listen to the way they rationalize supporting a man who has not improved their communities despite 18 terms – not years, terms – to do so. Listen to how they give Trump a pass for his failures, “He’s got a lot on his plate. I guess it’s a trade off.” Listen to what they say about pre-existing conditions THAT THEY FUCKING HAVE, “You can’t insure a wrecked car, so I guess that’s fair.” Listen to the fact that they limit information to just the propaganda they get from their chosen republican. Listen to the fact that they admit they picked a side and whether or not that side actually benefits their lives, they will stay on that side. Fuck them. Fuck their communities. Help people who want to vote, vote. Help minorities vote. These people disgust me.
Chris
@ruemara:
I’ve thought for years now that even if the whole “demographics!” thing ultimately played out in our favor, the best case scenario for the near future United States would be something like after 1877 – a bunch of red state bastions that are basically electorally impregnable and in which we’ll have only a very limited ability to effect change. In other words, “leave these people to die?” We may not have a choice, even if the Republican Party implodes at the national level (which is already a very optimistic scenario).
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Literal or metaphorical?
Quinerly
@ruemara:
Well said. I agree. Personally, I would like to see those people in Alabama die first.
ruemara
@Chris: Look around. We’re the marginalized party. We’re the party that’s imploded. We’re the ones who leave power right by the roadside because we don’t like the person we mostly agree with and we let the scoundrels have it. If we don’t get our shit together this year, not next, we will lose even more seats. And I do predict a constitutional convention to give more power to the federal government, and install a level of dynastic succession to the Trump family. My gut tells me that. It’s been right on pretty much everything. We will be several blue-ish territories with a re-invigorated, powerful white nationalist movement conducting terror attacks within our blue states and attacking others directly within their states. Possibly for a good set of decades.
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
Remove enough pounds of flesh and he does.
Miss Bianca
@Jeffro: keep wondering when and if J-Rubs is going to have a “come away from the party of Jeebus” moment and declare herself a Democrat…
Chris
@ruemara:
Yeah, there’s a reason I said “even the most optimistic scenario.” It’s not the most likely scenario by a long shot. The point is that even in more optimistic years, I couldn’t see any way to save red states from themselves.
I might quibble with a few details, but yeah: I really do see something basically like what you’re describing as a perfectly plausible outcome of the next few years. Have since last November.
Shana
@hovercraft: Trump has confidence in his “employees”? His “employees”?
J R in WV
@Immanentize:
No one in the executive branch “works for Trump”. They all work for the government, and office holders swear their oath to protect and defend the Constitution, not the President.
Trump may get that here eventually… he hasn’t yet, so far. Perhaps he can’t grasp that fact, that he took management of a huge organization whose members do NOT work directly for him, but for the nation.
The worst possible outcome for Trump – head of a large group of people not paid to work to protect him, specifically. How sweet for the rest of us.
ruckus
@hovercraft:
That sounds like the guy ruining Sears/Kamart. Same MO, everyone inside the company competes with each other. The whole thing is a clusterfuck of infighting.