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You are here: Home / Politics / America / Breaking News: The President Has Given An Interview To The NY Times Without Legal Counsel Or Aides Present

Breaking News: The President Has Given An Interview To The NY Times Without Legal Counsel Or Aides Present

by Adam L Silverman|  December 28, 201710:22 pm| 205 Comments

This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Politics, Popular Culture, Post-racial America, Silverman on Security, Not Normal

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I just got in from watching the hockey game with a friend, turned on the TV, and Ari Melber on MSNBC is reporting that the President sat for an interview earlier today with reporters from The NY Times. Without legal counsel or advisors present. According to Melber the entire interview produced twelve pages of transcripts. The NY Times has posted excerpts here.

Apparently the President has decided that his governing philosophy is l’etat est moi:

SCHMIDT: You control the Justice Department. Should they reopen that email investigation?

TRUMP: What I’ve done is, I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department. But for purposes of hopefully thinking I’m going to be treated fairly, I’ve stayed uninvolved with this particular matter.

He also believes the only collusion was between the Democrats and the Russians:

TRUMP: [Inaudible.] There was tremendous collusion on behalf of the Russians and the Democrats. There was no collusion with respect to my campaign. I think I’ll be treated fairly. Timingwise, I can’t tell you. I just don’t know. But I think we’ll be treated fairly.

SCHMIDT: But you’re not worked up about the timing?

TRUMP: Well, I think it’s bad for the country. The only thing that bothers me about timing, I think it’s a very bad thing for the country. Because it makes the country look bad, it makes the country look very bad, and it puts the country in a very bad position. So the sooner it’s worked out, the better it is for the country.

But there is tremendous collusion with the Russians and with the Democratic Party. Including all of the stuff with the — and then whatever happened to the Pakistani guy, that had the two, you know, whatever happened to this Pakistani guy who worked with the D.N.C.?

Whatever happened to them? With the two servers that they broke up into a million pieces? Whatever happened to him? That was a big story. Now all of sudden [inaudible]. So I know The New York Times is going to — because those are real stories. Whatever happened to the Hillary Clinton deleted 33,000 emails after she got [inaudible] — which you guys wrote, but then you dropped — was that you?

The President also appears to be unclear on how the GOP majority caucuses in both chambers of Congress approached the recent tax cut legislation:

TRUMP: Had they asked, “Let’s do a bipartisan,” Michael, I would have done bipartisan. I would absolutely have done bipartisan.

SCHMIDT: But they didn’t. … They didn’t …

TRUMP: And if I did bipartisan, I would have done something with SALT [the state and local tax deduction]. With that being said, you look back, Ronald Reagan wanted to take deductibility away from states. Ronald Reagan, years ago, and he couldn’t do it. Because New York had a very powerful group of people. Which they don’t have today. Today, they don’t have the same representatives. You know, in those days they had Lew Rudin and me. … I fought like hell for that. They had a lot of very good guys. Lew Rudin was very effective. He worked hard for New York. And we had some very good senators. … You know, we had a lot of people who fought very hard against, let’s call it SALT. Had they come to me and said, look, we’ll do this, this, this, we’ll do [inaudible]. I could have done something with SALT. Or made it less severe. But they were very ineffective. They were very, very ineffective. You understand what I mean. Had they come to me for a bipartisan tax bill, I would have gone to Mitch, and I would have gone to the other Republicans, and we could have worked something out bipartisan. And that could’ve been either a change to SALT or knockout of SALT.

He also wants to do away with chain migration (I’ll have a longer post on this next week), which is interesting because if it wasn’t for chain migration his grandfather would have never made it to the US from Germany, nor his mother from Scotland (and Stephen Miller’s family wouldn’t have made it out of Europe before the Holocaust).

TRUMP: I’m always moving. I’m moving in both directions. We have to get rid of chainlike immigration, we have to get rid of the chain. The chain is the last guy that killed. … [Talking with guests.] … The last guy that killed the eight people. … [Inaudible.] … So badly wounded people. … Twenty-two people came in through chain migration. Chain migration and the lottery system. They have a lottery in these countries.

They take the worst people in the country, they put ‘em into the lottery, then they have a handful of bad, worse ones, and they put them out. ‘Oh, these are the people the United States. …” … We’re gonna get rid of the lottery, and by the way, the Democrats agree with me on that. On chain migration, they pretty much agree with me.

He’s also very optimistic on his chances of reelection:

TRUMP: We’re going to win another four years for a lot of reasons, most importantly because our country is starting to do well again and we’re being respected again. But another reason that I’m going to win another four years is because newspapers, television, all forms of media will tank if I’m not there because without me, their ratings are going down the tubes. Without me, The New York Times will indeed be not the failing New York Times, but the failed New York Times. So they basically have to let me win. And eventually, probably six months before the election, they’ll be loving me because they’re saying, “Please, please, don’t lose Donald Trump.” O.K.

 There’s a lot more at the link, including some stuff about health care associations that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Perhaps Dave will eventually try to make sense of it for us.

Open thread.

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Reader Interactions

205Comments

  1. 1.

    Sarah

    December 28, 2017 at 10:27 pm

    Can I just die now?

  2. 2.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 28, 2017 at 10:27 pm

    I want a non-embarrassing President again.

  3. 3.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 28, 2017 at 10:29 pm

    This motherfucker has no fucking idea what he is saying, and what he is setting himself up for.

  4. 4.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 28, 2017 at 10:31 pm

    Donald: we’re being respected again

    All that laughing and pointing and rolling on the floor you think are signs of respect?

  5. 5.

    AliceBlue

    December 28, 2017 at 10:31 pm

    God please make it stop.

  6. 6.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 10:31 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Large sections of the transcript, which the lightly edited for context, read like bad free association. He uses words in ways that shouldn’t be used. Like bipartisan. Should be interesting to see what happens with this:

    Trump Schedules Annual Physical Exam For Jan. 12, Doctor To Release Summary https://t.co/s1nClCgpp5 via @TPM

    — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) December 28, 2017

  7. 7.

    tobie

    December 28, 2017 at 10:32 pm

    Funny how the guy always goes to the NY Times for interviews. I guess he realizes he’ll get the least aggressive questions there. Even with the reporter’s softballs, he manages to spout incoherent lies, conspiracy theories, and self-pitying sob stories.

  8. 8.

    Ken

    December 28, 2017 at 10:33 pm

    @Sarah:

    Can I just die now?

    … said every one of Trump’s aides and lawyers.

  9. 9.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 10:35 pm

    Speaking of young Master Miller:

    Cool cool. https://t.co/gQUkda1mrK

    — Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) December 29, 2017

    pic.twitter.com/SpnwA9TKhL

    — Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) December 29, 2017

  10. 10.

    Ken

    December 28, 2017 at 10:36 pm

    I wonder whether this was triggered because all those other people were getting more attention recently. You know, Roy Moore, Milo Yiannopoulos, Jesus, Santa Claus.

  11. 11.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 28, 2017 at 10:37 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I’m having mine on Jan 15. I bet I win.

  12. 12.

    Cheryl Rofer

    December 28, 2017 at 10:38 pm

    Leave the lies aside for a minute. I know that’s most of what he says, but I want to focus on the form rather than content.

    He’s very repetitious. Words, phrases, sentences. Someone tweeted that he uses “collusion” 23 times. That’s an awful lot like what is called perseveration, which is related to stroke and other brain damage.

  13. 13.

    Greg in PDX

    December 28, 2017 at 10:40 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: This is really what puzzles me…I keep seeing this over and over on conservative websites. “America is respected again” . We have seen and heard the leaders of foreign nations openly mock us. We are the butt of the joke in all of Europe. We are less respected now than we have ever been in my lifetime. It’s like they live in alternate reality universe……

  14. 14.

    Ken

    December 28, 2017 at 10:40 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: I remain convinced that, had Trump not won the election, his children would by now have had him declared incompetent.

  15. 15.

    chris

    December 28, 2017 at 10:41 pm

    Ladies and gentlemen, The President of the US of eh, what?!!

  16. 16.

    magurakurin

    December 28, 2017 at 10:41 pm

    Interesting that he is disowning SALT, just like he disowned Moore. The handwriting must be on the wall about that. It will be a bloodbath for the GOP in California and New York. After 2018 the country will be even more polarized into Red and Blue. Mitch and Paul really fucked up with eliminating SALT.
    The country is straight up being run by morons.

  17. 17.

    p.a.

    December 28, 2017 at 10:42 pm

    What better proof of a rigged system than that this idiot has kept at least some of the fortune his father left him?

  18. 18.

    Gravenstone

    December 28, 2017 at 10:42 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: This will be Walter Reed, not his pet pill pusher? Because if this is legit, someone is in for a fucking shock about what shitty shape he’s really in.

  19. 19.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 10:43 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: He used it 16 times in saying there was none and that all the Democrats are saying it. And then another six or seven when asserting that it was the Democrats that actually colluded with Russia.

  20. 20.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 10:43 pm

    And amazingly, the White House staff had no idea he was doing this:

    Good times pic.twitter.com/FhPCfKWnXb

    — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) December 29, 2017

  21. 21.

    Jay S

    December 28, 2017 at 10:44 pm

    @Ken:

    Can I just die now?

    … said every one of Trump’s aides and lawyers.

    I imagine a few said “Can he just…”

  22. 22.

    magurakurin

    December 28, 2017 at 10:45 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    which is related to stroke and other brain damage.

    I still believe “covfefe” was the result of a little stroke. He will die in office like Harding.

  23. 23.

    Cheryl Rofer

    December 28, 2017 at 10:45 pm

    It’s also instructive to compare the lightly-edited interview with the news article. The first sounds like a conversation that would make any of us very nervous. The second sounds like a basically sane person. Lying a lot and not too bright, maybe, but if you sat across the table from him, you wouldn’t be looking around for the exit or someone to help if he got violent.

    There is some reasonableness to cleaning up a person’s words. None of us speak in neat grammatical paragraphs, particularly ad hoc. (Of course, that’s why it’s not wise to do interviews with a major newspaper ad hoc, but YMMV.) So reporters clean stuff up. I prepared for a whole day for my first interview with a Times reporter, and when the article came out, there was a quote that hit me as not being what I said. I looked at it a little more closely, and it actually did reproduce what I had said, but it was much more graceful. So I was pleased.

    But the disjunction here is extreme.

  24. 24.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 28, 2017 at 10:45 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: I don’t know if it’s sound medical science, but I believe there is a link between diabetes and dementia, and I’d be surprised if he isn’t diabetic. And the stress of the presidency can’t help. The Very Serious John Harwood came close to saying trump is gaga on the MSNBC.

    @Ken: I think they, at least the three eldest, are more damaged than he is. I say that without sympathy, cause there’s really no excuse for any of them

  25. 25.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 10:46 pm

    @Gravenstone: Yep, Walter Reed Medical Center at Bethesda. The summary is going to be brutal.

  26. 26.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 28, 2017 at 10:47 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Ah, with what doctor, his personal physician, Dr. Feelgood?

  27. 27.

    SFAW

    December 28, 2017 at 10:47 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I’m having mine on Jan 15. I bet I win.

    No doubt.

    I’m so old, I can remember when his drug-addled dumbfuck of a “doctor” issued that letter saying Shitgibbon was in the best shape/health of any Presidential candidate ever, and healthier than most Olympic runners.

    I can’t think of to many Olympic runners with a BMI of 35-plus. Somebody (on the “He’s trolling me” thread, I think) said Shitgibbon was Jabba the Hutt without the gravitas. I sort of agree, except Jabba was at least somewhat of a successful businessman, unlike Lying Littledick.

  28. 28.

    Greg in PDX

    December 28, 2017 at 10:47 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: He has one of the most limited vocabularies of any person I have ever heard speak. His adjectives consist almost completely of “great”, “beautiful” “terrible” and “lying”. He actually thinks that he just off the top of his head invented common English sayings. I was a linguistics major and didn’t get too much involved in the brain part of it. But I do know that incessant repetition of phrases is a sign of a stroke or something similar. That’s why if you have ever been in the hospital for a serious illness, they will keep asking seemingly random questions, but what they are looking for is signs that you have some sort of brain damage.

  29. 29.

    japa21

    December 28, 2017 at 10:48 pm

    As someone said on another thread, if a Dem President talked the way Trump does even the Dems would be asking for the 25th amendment to be invoked. Unfortunately, I doubt the upcoming physical will include a mental exam.

  30. 30.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 10:48 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: Yep, that’s why I quoted from the transcript.

  31. 31.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 28, 2017 at 10:49 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: It will never see the light of day.

  32. 32.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 10:50 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: No, it is usually done by one of the senior uniformed physicians assigned to Walter Reed. Often the chief of medical staff. Dr. Feelgood won’t be there.

  33. 33.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 28, 2017 at 10:50 pm

    @Greg in PDX: the clip that’s used on TV a lot that jumps out at me is when he says that Flynn had led a very strong life. There’s a pause while that calcified and sugar-addled machine tries to find a good word that means good, with a little macho thrown in, because general. ETA: also, when claiming he didn’t watch TV, because… DOCUMENTS!

  34. 34.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 28, 2017 at 10:50 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: John Harwood is one of the few reporters who hasn’t pulled his punches wrt the current occupant of the WH.

  35. 35.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 10:51 pm

    @Greg in PDX: Incessant repetition is also a hallmark of certain types of salesmen, which is what the President was for decades. Repeat certain words and phrases over and over as a mental hook or bludgeon.

  36. 36.

    SFAW

    December 28, 2017 at 10:52 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    But the disjunction here is extreme.

    I am hoping that the soon-to-be new publisher of the FTFNYT takes more after his grandfather than his father. If that’s the case, then he might change the FTFNYT into something other than the comics-free “New York Post” that it currently is.

    Fuck Pinch, that evil, Clinton-hating motherfucker.

  37. 37.

    debbie

    December 28, 2017 at 10:52 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    That’s just his M.O. In “The Art of the Deal,” he says he states a lie, repeats it three times, and then seals the deal.

    Having said that, he is clearly certifiable.

  38. 38.

    Cheryl Rofer

    December 28, 2017 at 10:52 pm

    @Greg in PDX: Yes, his vocabulary is scary limited. But he also seems to get stuck on a word or phrase and repeats it over and over. That’s what I mean by perseveration.

  39. 39.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 10:52 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Yes it will. And my guess is someone will FOIA the full report, not just the traditional summary that is released.

  40. 40.

    Cheryl Rofer

    December 28, 2017 at 10:53 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: @debbie: I agree that the salesman thing could be an explanation too. Although the two are not mutually exclusive.

  41. 41.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 10:54 pm

    Great, the White House intern that did the white power sign in the picture is an Emory grad. I’ll be calling my (ETA) point of contact (POC) at the alumni office tomorrow.

  42. 42.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 28, 2017 at 10:54 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I wish I shared your confidence.

  43. 43.

    Patricia Kayden

    December 28, 2017 at 10:55 pm

    So now Trump has ginned up a non-existent “Pakistani guy”. One thing I’ll give Trump — he’s a consistent racist. He just can’t stop attacking people of color.

  44. 44.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 28, 2017 at 10:56 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: If you look at teevee interviews he did in the 80’s and 90’s, the difference is stunning. He was an asshole then, too, but he could talk reasonably intelligently about complex subjects without using the same word 23 times.

  45. 45.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 28, 2017 at 10:57 pm

    @magurakurin:

    He will die in office like Harding.

    Fucking his mistress?

  46. 46.

    debbie

    December 28, 2017 at 10:57 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Yes, most salesmen are insane!

  47. 47.

    Gravenstone

    December 28, 2017 at 10:57 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: They can lock it up with his tax returns. But if Trumpelstein’s monster doesn’t like what it says, he will lash out. Likely indiscriminately.

  48. 48.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 28, 2017 at 10:57 pm

    @tobie: He desperately wants their approval. He always has. He’s never been accepted by Manhattan high society, and he thinks that if he can get the NYT on his side, he might be.

    He is of course profoundly mistaken, but he has no earthly idea what “profoundly mistaken” is.

  49. 49.

    Jay S

    December 28, 2017 at 10:58 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: OK what’s a POC in this context? Person of color just doesn’t fit and a quick Google was no help.

  50. 50.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 10:58 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: No argument here. I think if you watch video of him from even five years ago and video from the past two there is a marked decline in his verbal skills. Given his family history with degenerative neurological disease this is very concerning.

  51. 51.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 28, 2017 at 10:58 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Give.them.hell, Adam.

  52. 52.

    SFAW

    December 28, 2017 at 10:58 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I’ll be calling my POC

    You have your very own person of color? I thought that was outlawed by the 13th Amendment?

    [I’m assuming you actually mean “point of contact,” but, as I said earlier tonight, I couldn’t resist, because I’m a bad person.]

  53. 53.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 28, 2017 at 10:59 pm

    @Jay S: Point of Contact. Military term, Adam throws them around all the time.

  54. 54.

    debbie

    December 28, 2017 at 10:59 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Yes, I remember all the Page Six crap. Maybe he’s overwhelmed trying to stay on top of all of his lies.

  55. 55.

    randy khan

    December 28, 2017 at 11:00 pm

    @tobie:

    Yeah, for a newspaper he says is failing and that he more or less says hates, he really does go there a lot. My suspicion is that it’s validation for him – the Times taking him seriously is a big deal for him.

    If I were a reporter, I would strongly consider just asking him open questions and letting him talk, with the occasionally prodding, but not really nasty, follow-up. He just doesn’t realize how awful he sounds, and so will say whatever comes to mind, but if you stuck the knife in him (metaphorically!!), he could clam up. You can get a lot without much work, and more work might actually get you less.

  56. 56.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 28, 2017 at 11:01 pm

    I might add that the first time I went home on leave after joining the Army, I cautioned my parents that I’d be throwing around acronyms and jargon and they should just stop me and ask for a definition. Fortunately, my mom worked in some defense plants during WWII and picked up a lot of lingo there. My dad was Coast Guard/Navy, so sometimes needed a translation from grunt to squid.

  57. 57.

    Jay S

    December 28, 2017 at 11:01 pm

    @SFAW: I was headed there but I could resist. And I seriously did not know the acronym. Point of Contact is in my vocabulary but not as POC.

  58. 58.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 28, 2017 at 11:03 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I’ll be calling my POC at the alumni office tomorrow.

    When I first read that, you’ll be contacting my Person of Color at the alumni office; I thought that’s odd. Oh, Point of Contact.

    @SFAW: Good, I’m not the only one.

  59. 59.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:03 pm

    @Patricia Kayden: The Pakistani guy was a staffer working for a couple of Democratic members of the House, one of them being Congresswoman Wasserman-Schultz, who got caught for bank loan fraud.
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/congressional-it-staffer-charged-with-home-equity-loan-fraud/2017/07/26/f5f402e8-71a7-11e7-9eac-d56bd5568db8_story.html?utm_term=.de5155b4a57d

    This has morphed on the alt-right via Trumpbart and Rush and Dim Jim and ultimately InHannity and TV Dinner Boy and Judge Delusional into “Democratic congressional staffer was spying for…”

  60. 60.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 28, 2017 at 11:04 pm

    Not the most important part of all this, but the interview took place at a trump golf course

    Robert Maguire‏Verified account @ RobertMaguire_
    It’s the 113th day of the Secret Service paying taxpayer money to businesses the president and his family profit from to protect him on trips he said he wouldn’t take

    the petty corruption, and the lack of comment on it, drives me crazy.

    Was the big white truck there today to block cameras from filming him golfing for (I think) the third day in a row?

  61. 61.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:04 pm

    @Jay S: Sorry, point of contact.

  62. 62.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:05 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Just a friendly heads up. The person I usually deal with is a wonderful person. My guess is that they haven’t seen this yet.

  63. 63.

    magurakurin

    December 28, 2017 at 11:05 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: whatever works. The staffer who brings the super sized meals from Micky D’s will become a goddamn hero.

  64. 64.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 28, 2017 at 11:06 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: They’ll probably be as flabbergasted as you and I am.

  65. 65.

    SFAW

    December 28, 2017 at 11:07 pm

    @randy khan:

    but if you stuck the knife in him (metaphorically!!), he could clam up.

    Right. Just as he “clams up” on twitter, now that Kelly’s in charge.

    I think having someone like James Fallows or some high-end investigative reporter asking Shitgibbon questions about his various money-laundering-activities-for-them-Russkies would not get him to clam up. On the contrary — I think hilarity would ensue, and would also get him to say something that would cause Robert Mueller’s ear to perk right-the-fuck-up. Maybe something which would leave “obstruction” in the dust.

  66. 66.

    debbie

    December 28, 2017 at 11:07 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    That’s another reason Trump sounds insane: Insane people are putting ideas in his head.

  67. 67.

    El Caganer

    December 28, 2017 at 11:08 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Fake Medicine!

  68. 68.

    SFAW

    December 28, 2017 at 11:08 pm

    @Jay S:

    I was headed there but I could resist.

    One of the reasons you are a better person than I.

  69. 69.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 28, 2017 at 11:09 pm

    @SFAW: Mueller is doing the logical, most damaging thing he can do to Donald.

    He’s following the money.

  70. 70.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 28, 2017 at 11:09 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: It’s OK, both Haldeman and Ehrlichman were UCLA alum.

  71. 71.

    Yarrow

    December 28, 2017 at 11:10 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: It’s very telling to look at interviews with him from fifteen or twenty years ago. His vocabulary is much larger and he speaks in complete sentences. It’s kind of shocking.

  72. 72.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:11 pm

    @SFAW: Point of contact. I am opposed to people owning other people.

  73. 73.

    burnspbesq

    December 28, 2017 at 11:12 pm

    It’s really disturbing to see how cognitively impaired the owner of the world’s largest military is.

  74. 74.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 28, 2017 at 11:13 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: I was just imagining the Meuller team phone tree and the junior staffers hearing those pages spill out of their printers and rounding up their highlighters as they review the prescribed color code and wonder if they’re going to get NYE off

  75. 75.

    debbie

    December 28, 2017 at 11:14 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    My memory’s failing me (uh oh), but wasn’t there some non-existent person Trump kept insisting existed during the campaign?

  76. 76.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 28, 2017 at 11:15 pm

    @debbie: he had an imaginary friend named Jim who used to go to Paris but now is afraid to go to Paris.

    It’s not me.

  77. 77.

    magurakurin

    December 28, 2017 at 11:15 pm

    @burnspbesq: It’s more disturbing to see how the Congress and Press of the world’s largest military doesn’t seem to care about it. Levers are in place to remove an impaired president…just nobody with the authority to pull them wants to. Who is more insane, the insane leader or the toadies who think they can somehow profit off of the leader’s insanity?

  78. 78.

    mike in dc

    December 28, 2017 at 11:15 pm

    @SFAW: Mueller’s team will eat.him.alive. in interviews. “So, when Hope Hicks informed you on June 9th, 2016 about your son’s meeting with the Russians…”

  79. 79.

    Yarrow

    December 28, 2017 at 11:16 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: What’s the alumni office going to do? The guy’s already graduated. Put out a statement disavowing him?

  80. 80.

    SFAW

    December 28, 2017 at 11:16 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Mueller is doing the logical, most damaging thing he can do to Donald.
    He’s following the money.

    Understood. I’m just speculating that, given the right stimulus, Shitgibbon’s response might lead someone to think that treasonous activities might also have taken place.

  81. 81.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 28, 2017 at 11:17 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I see your point. “Battle stations, Person of Interest number one is talking to the NYT!”

  82. 82.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:17 pm

    @randy khan: Elite level semi-structured interviews. It is amazing what a good tool it is for finding out things that the interviewee doesn’t want you to know when you just let them tell their story the way they want to. One of the sheikhs I interviewed in Iraq, and all my interviews with sheikhs and imams and other elites and notables were semi-structured where I basically just let them talk, told me that between how I did the interview and the human subjects protection form I gave them asking for permission to attribute or instructions not to, that he knew I wasn’t an intelligence officer. Because no intelligence officer was smart enough to do what I was doing. That guy told us stuff he never should have.

  83. 83.

    SFAW

    December 28, 2017 at 11:17 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I am opposed to people owning other people.

    Is this where I write “That’s mighty white of you”?

  84. 84.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:18 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: I apologize. I’ve been doing some consulting with/for an Army senior leader the past several weeks and a lot of the phone calls are just acronyms. So I’m spending a lot of time speaking a different language.

  85. 85.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:19 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I’ve gone back and cleaned it up and clarified. I’ve honestly only ever dealt with this person by phone and have no idea what her ethnicity is.

  86. 86.

    SFAW

    December 28, 2017 at 11:19 pm

    @mike in dc:

    Mueller’s team will eat.him.alive. in interviews.

    Boy, I hope so.

  87. 87.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 28, 2017 at 11:20 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: No problem! One of the vets here knows those acronyms and can do translation for you when you’re too busy (and in the short hand mindset) to spell ’em out.

  88. 88.

    Mike in NC

    December 28, 2017 at 11:20 pm

    What a deranged lunatic.

  89. 89.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:21 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: And doing it quietly, which just winds the President up.

  90. 90.

    Cheryl Rofer

    December 28, 2017 at 11:21 pm

    @burnspbesq: And the person in control of 7000 or so nuclear weapons.

  91. 91.

    SFAW

    December 28, 2017 at 11:22 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Fortunately, my mom worked in some defense plants during WWII and picked up a lot of lingo there.

    Which you figured out when she said you were FUBAR?

  92. 92.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:22 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: You get one bad baguette…

  93. 93.

    Cheryl Rofer

    December 28, 2017 at 11:24 pm

    @Yarrow: I’d have to look back at videos to be sure, and I don’t want to do that, but it seems to me that his verbal (and perhaps cognitive) skills have declined since last year.

  94. 94.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:25 pm

    @Yarrow: I’m not expecting them to do anything. I want to let them know this happened and has been reported and is now bouncing around social media, among both journalists and non-journalists. Given that it’s the holidays and they’re all on leave, this way they have some idea of the potential PR headache they may be dealing with.

  95. 95.

    Gravenstone

    December 28, 2017 at 11:25 pm

    @SFAW: Speaking of … I’ve heard the -R attributed to both recognition and recovery. Is there a consensus on correct usage?

  96. 96.

    randy khan

    December 28, 2017 at 11:25 pm

    @SFAW:

    Seriously, if someone interviewing him said “That’s not true, Mr. President” with evidence, he’d probably walk out. If you did it twice, he’d definitely walk out. When he’s perfectly happy to hang himself, there’s no reason to do get in the way.

    Mind you, I agree that he’d probably go off and tweet about how terrible the Times reporters were to him after the interview was over. But that’s different.

  97. 97.

    Yarrow

    December 28, 2017 at 11:26 pm

    @mike in dc:

    Mueller’s team will eat.him.alive. in interviews. “So, when Hope Hicks informed you on June 9th, 2016 about your son’s meeting with the Russians…”

    “Hope’s really great. You know Hope, she’s great. The greatest. We love her in our company. That meeting, adoption. No collusion. Hope’s been with me a long time. Ivanka. Hope and Ivanka. They work together. Donald is a good boy. He was trying to help with the adoptions. I wanted to help with the adoptions. People want adoptions. Adoptions. If they’d given me adoptions I would have said yes. We want to do the adoptions. We want to be friends with Russia. No collusion. Hillary’s emails. Why didn’t the FBI that’s why I fired him. Comey was a good, Hillary’s emails until, he, he, he, had to fire him. The server and the emails. Obama!”

    It’ll go something like that.

  98. 98.

    Jay S

    December 28, 2017 at 11:27 pm

    @Gravenstone: I’ve heard it as Repair as well. Mostly referencing hardware.

  99. 99.

    clay

    December 28, 2017 at 11:28 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Great, the White House intern that did the white power sign in the picture is an Emory grad. I’ll be calling my (ETA) point of contact (POC) at the alumni office tomorrow.

    Ugh. Just another in a small but significant line of embarrassments like Newt Gingrich and Ralph Reed.

  100. 100.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 28, 2017 at 11:28 pm

    @SFAW: LOL

  101. 101.

    randy khan

    December 28, 2017 at 11:29 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Yeah, exactly. It’s why lawyers tell their clients to say “yes,” “no,” “I don’t know” and nothing else during depositions.

  102. 102.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:29 pm

    @SFAW:

    Always remember you were a slave in the Land of Egypt

    (Deuteronomy 24:22).

  103. 103.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:30 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: I appreciate the assist!

  104. 104.

    debbie

    December 28, 2017 at 11:30 pm

    @randy khan:

    That did happen with a reporter in the Oval Office. He stopped speaking, ignored the reporter, and started shuffling papers around.

  105. 105.

    SFAW

    December 28, 2017 at 11:31 pm

    @randy khan:

    Seriously, if someone interviewing him said “That’s not true, Mr. President” with evidence, he’d probably walk out.

    I was thinking more along the lines of the reporter asking him about something not-yet-well-known, but (potentially) extremely damaging — but Shitgibbon would not be smart enough to sense a trap being baited. I guess it’s not dissimilar to your open-ended questions idea.

  106. 106.

    Yarrow

    December 28, 2017 at 11:32 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: That’s nice of you. Universities probably have social media response teams these days. Or should have if they don’t. Maybe someone from that team will have picked it up.

    @Cheryl Rofer: I wouldn’t be surprised, but I’m with you and don’t want to go looking either. I think it’s a little apples and oranges since these day’s he reads a lot of speeches from teleprompters so we don’t see as much ad lib Trump as we used to during the campaign.

  107. 107.

    Jay S

    December 28, 2017 at 11:32 pm

    @randy khan: So the response to tell me the story in your own way lawyer approved response is “No”?

  108. 108.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 28, 2017 at 11:32 pm

    @Yarrow:

    “Hope’s really great. You know Hope, she’s great. The greatest. We love her in our company. That meeting, adoption. No collusion. Hope’s been with me a long time. Ivanka. Hope and Ivanka. They work together. Donald is a good boy. He was trying to help with the adoptions. I wanted to help with the adoptions. People want adoptions. Adoptions. If they’d given me adoptions I would have said yes. We want to do the adoptions. We want to be friends with Russia. No collusion. Hillary’s emails. Why didn’t the FBI that’s why I fired him. Comey was a good, Hillary’s emails until, he, he, he, had to fire him. The server and the emails. Obama!”

    You need a lot more or a lot less of whatever it is you are taking/drinking/injecting.

  109. 109.

    randy khan

    December 28, 2017 at 11:33 pm

    @Yarrow:

    Since he can’t keep his mouth shut, I expect that Mueller’s team will leave the interview with a dozen new lines of inquiry to follow. I also imagine that they’re looking closely at all of the interviews with Trump to figure out the best way to get him talking about the topics they want without him figuring out what’s going on.

    If I were one of his lawyers (which would never happen), I would be scared to death of what that day will be like.

  110. 110.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:33 pm

    @randy khan: There’s video of that with a British interviewer asking him about Felix Sater.

    Apparently this is not a new occurrence:

  111. 111.

    Jay S

    December 28, 2017 at 11:34 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: So did I.

  112. 112.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:35 pm

    @Yarrow: This is going to be brutal:

    Omarosa could come up on $10M for a book exposing secrets from behind-the-scenes at the White House – including ones about Trump’s marriage: https://t.co/7LMFHnctkO pic.twitter.com/MUpSyELl5d

    — theGrio.com (@theGrio) December 28, 2017

    Now that Omarosa Manigault isn’t the Communications Director at the White House Office of Public Liaison, she’s ready to write her book, and it could be devastating to Donald Trump and his wife, Melania.

    Omarosa, who has known the president for some time since her stint on the Apprentice, could reportedly make up to $10 million for a book deal on the First Couple.

    “She knows how much time they spend together and whether or not they even sleep in the same bedroom,” a source told Life & Style. “How much does Melania have to put up with? Does she really agree with her husband’s stance on things? Does she believe any of the sexual harassment allegations lodged against him or are they all lies? Does she plan to divorce him once they’re out of the White House? All these questions could be answered.”

    “Omarosa has no doubt been dying to tell the world everything she knows about Melania and Donald’s relationship,” the Life & Style source said, “especially the meaning of the hand swipe. Melania swiping at Donald’s hand could have its very own chapter!”

    The book could also touch on Trump’s relationship with his daughter, Ivanka, which has reportedly been the source of friction between him and Melania.

    “Donald is captivated by his daughter. This is known. He cannot and will not ever say no to her. Ever. Omarosa knows that. Everyone in the West Wing knows that. So get ready for Omarosa to shed some light on that relationship,” the source said. “She may also write that in Donald’s eyes, Ivanka is the real first lady.”

    I’m rooting for injuries!

  113. 113.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 28, 2017 at 11:35 pm

    @randy khan: “On advice of counsel, I assert my Fifth Amendment rights.”

  114. 114.

    Cheryl Rofer

    December 28, 2017 at 11:36 pm

    @randy khan: Daniel Dale is arguing exactly that point with Maggie Haberman. Here’s part of his thread, which is worth reading in full.

    Here's an example of an interviewer – Randall Lane of Forbes – telling Trump he's wrong without derailing an interview. Trump just changes his point to the truth, immediately, and keeps rambling. https://t.co/pz6A5IwPk8 pic.twitter.com/NwPR7ol1bm

    — Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 29, 2017

  115. 115.

    randy khan

    December 28, 2017 at 11:37 pm

    @Jay S: @Jay S:

    So the response to tell me the story in your own way lawyer approved response is “No”?

    Having been in some depositions, that’s not a question you would expect to get. But if for some reason you thought you might get something along those lines, then you’d prep the shortest answer possible – “I was driving down the street, and he went through a red light and hit me.”

  116. 116.

    clay

    December 28, 2017 at 11:37 pm

    @debbie: That happened on camera. I want to say… CBS?

    Haberman seems to basically try the “act chummy and let the guy ramble on” style of interviewing. It’s great for letting Trump appear incoherent and/or insane, but bad at holding him to account for what he says and does.

    EDIT: Or, see Cheryl’s post right above.

  117. 117.

    Yarrow

    December 28, 2017 at 11:38 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Omarosa is in it to make money for Omarosa. Whatever she can come up with, real or fake, that she thinks will sell books, get her booked for interviews, and make her money, that’s what she’ll write.

    I read rumors that Donald and Melania had divorce papers drawn up, signed and ready to file after the election because they expected he’d lose. Oops.

  118. 118.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:39 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: You never see Yarrow and the President together. Coincidence? I think not…//

  119. 119.

    randy khan

    December 28, 2017 at 11:40 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    That’s a tough thing for a President to say. And Trump isn’t the kind of guy who’d want to say it.

    But if he did, I would be fascinated to see how certain Republican members of Congress would react.

  120. 120.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:40 pm

    Ooopsie!

    Awkward… https://t.co/8LWWZrE6Zg

    — Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) December 29, 2017

  121. 121.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 28, 2017 at 11:40 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: More frightening than clowns.

  122. 122.

    Yarrow

    December 28, 2017 at 11:40 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: LOL

  123. 123.

    SFAW

    December 28, 2017 at 11:41 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Always remember you were a slave in the Land of Egypt

    Someone should remind Miller.

    (Deuteronomy 24:22, by the way. )

  124. 124.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 28, 2017 at 11:41 pm

    @randy khan: It is still a response that might be useful.

  125. 125.

    Jay S

    December 28, 2017 at 11:41 pm

    @randy khan: I was in precisely one deposition as a subject matter “expert”. A portion of it included open ended questions.
    ETA, actually two now that I think about it. The other was for an insurance claim and was fairly direct, although there was a describe in your own words part.

  126. 126.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 28, 2017 at 11:44 pm

    @Jay S: Completely different situation.

  127. 127.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:45 pm

    @Yarrow: Yep and I’d read that too.

  128. 128.

    clay

    December 28, 2017 at 11:45 pm

    @Yarrow: I think the Trump marriage is the least important concern that anyone should have. Of course, it will probably sell the most books, as Omarosa has no doubt sussed out.

  129. 129.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 28, 2017 at 11:45 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: You know this wasn’t Omarosa’s first stint in the White House, she worked in the East Wing in the 90’s. Wanna guess who her boss was?

  130. 130.

    Jay S

    December 28, 2017 at 11:46 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Sure, for the first one. I was trying to explain my ignorance of the general form by my specific experience.

  131. 131.

    SFAW

    December 28, 2017 at 11:46 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    You never see Yarrow and the President together. Coincidence? I think not…//

    Hmm …. I THOUGHT I had been noticing an orange tinge to some of Yarrow’s comments of late. (Not unlike Cole’s being lilac-tinted.) I had been wondering, but now it all makes sense.

  132. 132.

    danielx

    December 28, 2017 at 11:46 pm

    Apparently the President has decided that his governing philosophy is l’etat est moi:

    The fundamental things apply….

  133. 133.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:47 pm

    Well I think this pretty well settles who he’s working for…

    Tired for being eavesdropped by NSA or CIA? Edward Snowden has useful suggestions how to turn your smartphone into anti-spy sentinel. https://t.co/pL15WvXaP4

    — Russia in Canada (@RussianEmbassyC) December 23, 2017

  134. 134.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 28, 2017 at 11:47 pm

    @Yarrow: I read rumors that Donald and Melania had divorce papers drawn up, signed and ready to file after the election because they expected he’d lose. Oops.

    Seems too good to be true, but it would explain all the Sad Melania pictures from the inauguration

  135. 135.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 28, 2017 at 11:47 pm

    @Jay S: Yeah, my comment came before your ETA.

  136. 136.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:48 pm

    @SFAW: Sorry, WP logged me out and I had to redo the comment and something got truncated when I logged back in.

  137. 137.

    GxB

    December 28, 2017 at 11:49 pm

    @Yarrow: That’s pretty close, just needs a scattering of “[inaudible]”.

  138. 138.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:50 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: She was the scheduling correspondent in VP Al Gore’s office.

  139. 139.

    trollhattan

    December 28, 2017 at 11:50 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Love that George Washington appears to be giving him a dope slap.

  140. 140.

    Yarrow

    December 28, 2017 at 11:51 pm

    @SFAW: That’s just your night time blue light minimization app, like f.lux.

  141. 141.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 28, 2017 at 11:52 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Heresy, nothing is more frightening than clowns.

  142. 142.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 28, 2017 at 11:53 pm

    @Yarrow: I am seeing a lot of non-denial denials. What’s up?

  143. 143.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:53 pm

    @trollhattan: He deserves a dope slap.

  144. 144.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    December 28, 2017 at 11:53 pm

    Dolt45 will stroke out during Muellers interview with him,if Mueller ever gets the chance to interview him. Even Dolt45 as damaged as he is will be stressed enough to stroke out.

  145. 145.

    Another Scott

    December 28, 2017 at 11:53 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Dunno if that’s quite right. Obama’s 2016 Physical was by RONNY L. JACKSON, MD, FAAEM PHYSICIAN TO THE PRESIDENT

    We know that Donnie doesn’t feel bound by any rules or norms that he doesn’t like. I don’t see why his physical would be any different.

    :-/

    But Jackson is still the Physician to the President, apparently.

    We’ll see, but I wouldn’t expect any earthshattering results from the exam if Donnie and his minions have anything to say about it.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  146. 146.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 28, 2017 at 11:53 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Great, the White House intern that did the white power sign in the picture is an Emory grad

    Emory is not a good place for an anti-Semite!

  147. 147.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 28, 2017 at 11:54 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: The idea that Trump comments here? Sui generis.

  148. 148.

    clay

    December 28, 2017 at 11:55 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: Seriously, it’s like a third Jewish.

  149. 149.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 28, 2017 at 11:55 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I heard she worked in the East Wing, for the Hildevil.

  150. 150.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:56 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Ask him about the bipartisan?

  151. 151.

    eemom

    December 28, 2017 at 11:57 pm

    @randy khan:

    It’s why lawyers tell their clients to say “yes,” “no,” “I don’t know” and nothing else during depositions.

    um, no they don’t. They might tell them to just answer the question asked and offer no more; but if they said something like that they’d be opening themselves up to ethical violations, malpractice, and subornation of perjury.

  152. 152.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 28, 2017 at 11:57 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: On a not even top 10K blog, Trump would only comment on the best blog, top 1.

  153. 153.

    debbie

    December 28, 2017 at 11:57 pm

    Colbert is a rerun of the Joe Biden interview. It’s really very good.

  154. 154.

    Mike J

    December 28, 2017 at 11:58 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Heresy, nothing is more frightening than clowns.

    A man died after he burst into flames on a street in Hull, England, on Wednesday, two weeks after London police issued a plea for witnesses of another similar incident.

    Hotter than Hull.

  155. 155.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 28, 2017 at 11:59 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I think I will stay in the boat. I don’t really need the mangoes.

  156. 156.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 28, 2017 at 11:59 pm

    @Another Scott: You mean Rear Admiral (Upper Half) Ronny L. Jackson?
    http://www.navy.mil/navydata/bios/bio.asp?bioID=953

    Rear Admiral Ronny L. Jackson
    Physician to the President, The White House
    Rear Admiral Ronny L. Jackson
    Rear Adm. Ronny L. Jackson is a native of Levelland, Texas, and graduated from Texas A&M University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology. He then went on to attend medical school at the University of Texas Medical Branch, graduating in 1995 with his Doctor of Medicine. He began his active duty naval service in 1995 at the Portsmouth Naval Medical Center in Virginia, where he completed his internship in transitional medicine.

    After completing his first year of residency training in 1996, he went on to become the honor graduate of the Navy’s Undersea Medical Officer Program in Groton, Connecticut. Uniquely qualified in submarine and hyperbaric medicine, his subsequent operational assignments included, instructor at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in Panama City, Florida; det. officer in charge and diving medical officer at Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 8 in Sigonella, Italy; and diving safety officer at the Naval Safety Center in Norfolk.

    In 2001, Jackson returned to Portsmouth Naval Medical Center to begin his residency in emergency medicine, finishing at the top of his class and receiving the honor graduate designation. Upon completing his residency in 2004, he was assigned as clinical faculty in the Emergency Medicine Residency Program at the Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia. In 2005 he joined the 2nd Marines, Combat Logistics Regiment 25, in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. From there he deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom as the emergency medicine physician in charge of resuscitative medicine for a forward deployed Surgical Shock Trauma Platoon in Taqaddum, Iraq.

    In 2006, while still in Iraq, Jackson was selected as a White House physician. Since arriving at the White House, he has directed the Executive Health Care for the President’s Cabinet and Senior Staff, served as physician supervisor for the Camp David Presidential Retreat, held the position of physician to the White House and led the White House Medical Unit as its director. He has served as White House physician during the past three administrations and was the appointed physician to the president for President Barack Obama. He currently serves as the appointed physician to the president for President Donald J. Trump.

    His awards include, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Navy/Marine Corps Commendation Medal (four awards), the Navy/Marine Corps Achievement Medal (three awards), as well as other individual, unit and campaign awards. He is also designated as a diving and undersea medical officer, naval parachutist, Fleet Marine Force Warfare qualified officer, and submarine warfare qualified medical officer.

    Jackson is a board certified diplomate of the American Board of Emergency Medicine and is designated as a fellow of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine. He currently holds faculty clinical appointments with the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and the Harvard School of Medicine affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Disaster Medicine Fellowship Program.

  157. 157.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    December 29, 2017 at 12:00 am

    Re: Trump’s Walter Reed physical

    Strikes me as very curious that Trump is getting a physical. Especially now.

    Don’t mean surprising that Trump would consent, b/c, being an insuperable imbecilic dolt, Trump prolly thinks he’s gon’ getta “even-his-shit-smells-like-rosewater!” validation. No, what’s surprising to me is that his “brain-trust” din’t kill that notion in its piss-burnt bed.

    Then it occurs to me: If you was a cornered rat (i.e. establishment Republicans) n you was looking for the easiest glide path to the lifeboats so’s you could get shed of Titanic Trump, you might get the easily manipulated man-child to agree to a thorough physical n hope some serious shit got struck. Especially if you were both cowardly and opportunistic and you *knew* (from a year’s worth of talking Trump offa the nuclear ledge) that Trump really *was* unfit for cleaning the toilets much less for bein preznit. No constitutional crisis, no emoulumets clause, no impeachment, perhaps a reset on 2018, n the Cristopathic god-bothering Uriah-Heeping ever-so-UMble Pence will sign whatever hot mess of cruel shit Republicans can churn out.

    I will be unsurprised if Trump either calls it off, or if he proceeds, if sumpin purty serious is found.

    /bullshit prediction

  158. 158.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 29, 2017 at 12:00 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Unlikely, but still terrifying in concept.

  159. 159.

    eemom

    December 29, 2017 at 12:00 am

    @Jay S:

    Absolutely people are asked open ended, own words type questions in all kinds of depositions. And again, no lawyer in their right mind would tell them to respond with anything other than the truth.

    To state the obvious, “I don’t know” can easily be proven to be a lie.

  160. 160.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 29, 2017 at 12:00 am

    @Steve in the ATL: Not in my remembrance.

  161. 161.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 29, 2017 at 12:02 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: No, she claimed to be Special Assistant for something or other, but was, in fact, just a low level staffer in VP Gore’s scheduling office. She was 23 when she worked there. She was such a pain in the ass they transferred her to the Commerce Department, where she was fired a short time after arrival for continuing to be a pain in the ass.

  162. 162.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    December 29, 2017 at 12:06 am

    re: Trump physical:

    Should sez I know it’s customary for the president to getta yearly phys at Walter Reed. Also customary to release tax returns. Point being: if Trump wanted to blow off the physical, like ever’thing else, he’d just do it, and liberals would snark about it but let it go and conservatives wouldn’t say shit if they mouth was fulluvit.

    Point being: he ain’t got to do it, and yet he is. Kinda weird.

  163. 163.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 29, 2017 at 12:07 am

    @eemom: Worked for Ronald Reagan, but then again, he really didn’t know(early to mid stage Alzheimers)

  164. 164.

    Another Scott

    December 29, 2017 at 12:07 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Yes, him. ;-)

    The point I was trying to make is that he’s the President’s physician, not some important physician, or chief of the medical staff, at Walter Reed.

    The Physician to the President (also known colloquially as the White House doctor) is the formal and official title of the physician who is director of the White House Medical Unit, a unit of the White House Military Office responsible for the medical needs of the President of the United States, Vice President, White House staff, and visitors.[1] The Physician to the President is also the Chief White House Physician.[2]

    HTH!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  165. 165.

    Chet Murthy

    December 29, 2017 at 12:10 am

    @Another Scott: Hard to believe he hasn’t been fired&replaced. Mango Mussolini is fallin’ off on the job ….

  166. 166.

    Calouste

    December 29, 2017 at 12:12 am

    @Greg in PDX: Well, America is respected again by the only state that matters to conservatives, Israel. Oh, and also Russia.

    Everyone else, not so much.

  167. 167.

    mike in dc

    December 29, 2017 at 12:12 am

    We should really update the annual presidential physical to include a neurological exam for all presidents over the age of 50.

  168. 168.

    ArchTeryx

    December 29, 2017 at 12:14 am

    A great big hearty FUCK YOU to tRump on every damn count. I’ve long since used up all my creative obscenities. R. Lee Ermey I ain’t.

  169. 169.

    Yarrow

    December 29, 2017 at 12:15 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: Would you believe a denial? In general I hope that my sentence structure is more complex and my word usage more varied than Trump’s.

  170. 170.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 29, 2017 at 12:17 am

    @Yarrow: Trump couldn’t fake being you; he hasn’t the decency – it shows through. But the fact that you can channel Trump that well should worry you.

    Edited.

  171. 171.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 29, 2017 at 12:20 am

    @Another Scott: You do understand that he is: assigned by the Navy to the President, not selected by interview and that his admitting privileges are at Bethesda, hence making him one of their most senior physicians?

  172. 172.

    danielx

    December 29, 2017 at 12:20 am

    @Greg in PDX:

    It’s like they live in alternate reality universe……

    You started noticing this when….?

  173. 173.

    Yarrow

    December 29, 2017 at 12:23 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’m not worried. He’s easy to imitate because he repeats things and uses such simple words. Thanks for the nice compliment, btw.

  174. 174.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 29, 2017 at 12:26 am

    @Yarrow: Good people need a little pick me up every once in a while.

  175. 175.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 29, 2017 at 12:27 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Sounds like a professional’s professional to me.

  176. 176.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 29, 2017 at 12:30 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Is there a legal requirement that he conduct the physical, or is it just custom? Cause custom doesn’t mean a whole lot to Trump.

  177. 177.

    danielx

    December 29, 2017 at 12:33 am

    @poleaxedbyboatwork:

    Starting with that strange strandlike growth on top of his head.

  178. 178.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 29, 2017 at 12:33 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: That I have no idea about. There may be a an operational security requirement for having the President and VP treated by military personnel because of the potential to reveal classified information under anesthesia or the effect of illness. So having someone cleared all the way up providing treatment would mitigated unintentional disclosure of classified information.

    Also, I’m pretty sure Dr. Feelgood would fail the background checks to be given a White House pass.

  179. 179.

    Yarrow

    December 29, 2017 at 12:35 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I was going to ask the same thing. From what I’ve read he’s having his annual physical “at Walter Reed.” It doesn’t say who is doing it. The doctor “will give a readout of the exam after it’s completed.” He could just read what he’s handed. Could be all faked and made up data.

  180. 180.

    seaboogie

    December 29, 2017 at 12:35 am

    @magurakurin: You made me LOL – thank you!

  181. 181.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 29, 2017 at 12:39 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I’m pretty sure Dr. Feelgood would fail the background checks to be given a White House pass.

    I don’t know, this Trump. As someone once said, “We’re though the map and off the looking glass”.

  182. 182.

    MisterForkbeard

    December 29, 2017 at 12:39 am

    @Adam L Silverman: You say that, but so would Kushner.

  183. 183.

    Yarrow

    December 29, 2017 at 12:41 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: No kidding. They brought the Russian ambassador into the oval office. Dr. Feelgood is harmless in comparison.

  184. 184.

    Another Scott

    December 29, 2017 at 12:42 am

    @Adam L Silverman: i don’t understand why you’re being stubborn about accepting my link-supported gentle corrections here.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  185. 185.

    bago

    December 29, 2017 at 12:43 am

    @Greg in PDX:
    Just watch some British game shows. The phrase “Fuck Trump!” comes out in the course of team introductions.The notion that anyone has the slightest shred of reverence abroad is absurd. (Certain sections of the Middle East excluded).

  186. 186.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    December 29, 2017 at 12:44 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    @Adam L Silverman: Is there a legal requirement that he conduct the physical, or is it just custom? Cause custom doesn’t mean a whole lot to Trump.

    According to Quora, no.

    <a href="http://https://www.quora.com/Is-the-president-of-the-U-S-required-to-have-an-annual-physical-exam&quot; rel="nofollow"

  187. 187.

    Matt McIrvin

    December 29, 2017 at 12:48 am

    @Greg in PDX: When they say “respect” it means fear. When Obama was President, our allies weren’t afraid of us. Now everybody is afraid of us, absolutely terrified at what we might do and thinking they’re all gonna die. That’s the conservative version of respect.

  188. 188.

    ruemara

    December 29, 2017 at 12:50 am

    He’s a goddamned liar and a criminal.

  189. 189.

    Ryan

    December 29, 2017 at 12:59 am

    You would never break the chain…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDG2m5hN1vo

  190. 190.

    hugely

    December 29, 2017 at 1:49 am

    @Adam L Silverman: oh fuck like that stopped anyone else on team trump? How many “edits” were done on trump jr’s sf-86?

  191. 191.

    Stephen

    December 29, 2017 at 2:51 am

    @Adam L Silverman: My interviewer for an NV2 clearance here in Oz was like that. He could talked a can into opening itself.

  192. 192.

    LosGatosCA

    December 29, 2017 at 3:13 am

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    It’s just the mindless chatter that aused car salesman will use to wear down the suckers until they sign the sales contract. Same as a water boarding victim signs a false confession.

  193. 193.

    Calouste

    December 29, 2017 at 4:49 am

    @bago: I saw on the BBC that the Bishop of Liverpool (who is about number 4-5 in the Church of England) opinioned that evangelicals aren’t Christians because they support the shitgibbon.

  194. 194.

    Citizen Alan

    December 29, 2017 at 5:29 am

    @bago:

    Probably the big fat quiz show of 2017. David Mitchell is a card-carrying socialist and utterly despises shitgibbon.

  195. 195.

    Sherparick

    December 29, 2017 at 6:18 am

    @Greg in PDX: Fox News & Rush say we are respected again, so we are respected again. These folks are not watching the BBC.

  196. 196.

    David Evans

    December 29, 2017 at 7:02 am

    @Matt McIrvin:

    A certain kind of leader likes to be feared. Oderint, dum metuant: “Let them hate, so long as they fear.” (Caligula, quoting a Roman playwright)

  197. 197.

    Daddio7

    December 29, 2017 at 7:20 am

    @Patricia Kayden: “Pakistani national and long-time DNC IT contractor, Imran Awan – who was arrested in July at Dulles Airport while trying to flee the country after having wired nearly $300,000 to Pakistan.””the Awan family – which was employed by quite a number of House Democrats, had full access to highly sensitive Congressional computer systems, both on-site and remotely from Pakistan, with which they are suspected of committing a variety of crimes – including brokering classified information to hostile foreign governments.”

    Sad when an addled Trump knows more than a Juicer.

  198. 198.

    Brachiator

    December 29, 2017 at 7:21 am

    @Greg in PDX:

    This is really what puzzles me…I keep seeing this over and over on conservative websites. “America is respected again” . We have seen and heard the leaders of foreign nations openly mock us.

    Conservative websites and Trump supporters love that America is a bully not afraid to try to throw its weight around, even if that inspires fear and uncertainty to go along with the mockery.

  199. 199.

    Brachiator

    December 29, 2017 at 7:37 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Now that Omarosa Manigault isn’t the Communications Director at the White House Office of Public Liaison, she’s ready to write her book, and it could be devastating to Donald Trump and his wife, Melania.

    Someone would pay Omarosa $10 million for a book deal? Wow. Here she would out grift Trump, who is Grifter in Chief.

  200. 200.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    December 29, 2017 at 8:20 am

    @Trollio7:

    Could you give us a source for that? Other than Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller, I mean.

  201. 201.

    SFAW

    December 29, 2017 at 8:49 am

    @Yarrow:

    That’s just your night time blue light minimization app, like f.lux.

    As Omnes pointed out, that’s one o’ them non-denial denials.

    But it’s OK, your sekrit is safe with me.

  202. 202.

    jonas

    December 29, 2017 at 10:59 am

    @mike in dc: At think at this point, people around Trump are also counting on his senility being his best defense going forward. A president who doesn’t know what day it is and thinks Fox and Friends counts as his PDB cannot possibly have been in a position to collude with the Russians. You have to have a couple of firing synapses left to pull off something like that and, well, did you see that NYT interview? (Not to mention the interviews with the WaPo and WSJ during the campaign that were similar deep dives into an abyss of anger, confusion, and incoherence).

  203. 203.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 29, 2017 at 11:04 am

    @Daddio7: He’s being prosecuted for bank fraud, specifically taking out a fraudulent mortgage. He is not suspected by Federal law enforcement, nor being prosecuted for anything dealing with espionage.

  204. 204.

    jonas

    December 29, 2017 at 11:05 am

    @Greg in PDX:

    His adjectives consist almost completely of “great”, “beautiful” “terrible” and “lying”.

    It’s the vocabulary of real estate listings: “Great location. Beautiful views!” And of a bitter old liar who projects like a godamn klieg light.

  205. 205.

    David Anderson

    December 29, 2017 at 1:00 pm

    I am on vacation right now. I will try to do an analysis of word salad later. There is a very charitable reading that’s not completely bonkers on Association health plans. I don’t feel charitable fourth time through It’s a Small World

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