New @PressSec statement on DACA injunction: “We find this decision to be outrageous, especially in light of the President’s successful bipartisan meeting with House and Senate members at the White House on the same day.”
— Monica Alba (@albamonica) January 10, 2018
TRUMP: “I think a clean DACA bill, to me, is a DACA bill, but we take care of the 800,000 people … but I think, to me, a clean bill is a bill of DACA, we take care of them, and we also take care of security."
His mind is a constant mudflow.
— Vive la Resistance (@stanimals) January 10, 2018
SOOO successful! Just ask the Grey Lady’s finest knob-polishers:
For 55 minutes, with cameras rolling, President Trump engaged in a vigorous discussion of immigration with congressional leaders of both parties in a setting usually reserved for bland talking points and meaningless photo opportunities.
In effect, the president and his visitors threw away the blah-blah scripts and negotiated possible legislation in front of the nation. “I hope we’ve given you enough material,” a pleased Mr. Trump joked with reporters as he finally ushered them out of the Cabinet Room in the White House.
That was the point. After days in which his very fitness for office was debated, Mr. Trump appeared intent on demonstrating that he could handle the presidency. He was in command of the meeting while inviting input. He did not berate anyone. He did not call anyone derogatory nicknames. He signaled that he was open to compromise.
The bar, of course, was historically low given that Democrats and even some Republicans have been describing him as so unstable that he should be removed from office. For his advisers, the meeting was a relief, a chance to reset the narrative and make Mr. Trump look more like a traditional president. And his critics, grading on a curve, called it a welcome change, a moment of constructive engagement that they hoped would lead to more.
Yet it was a measure of Mr. Trump’s political weakness that anyone seemed surprised.
He did not lapse into incoherence but neither did he demonstrate mastery of policy details after a year in office. At one point, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California seemed to lead him into agreeing to an immigration deal on terms that she and fellow Democrats have sought, only to have an alarmed Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House Republican leader, jump in to steer him back toward his own policy.
Indeed, Mr. Trump made clear once again that the details of governance do not really matter to him as much as success, telling congressional leaders that he would approve whatever they send him. “I will be signing it,” he said. “I’m not going to say, ‘Oh, gee, I want this or I want that.’ I’ll be signing it.”…
YAY “Our Team” for the win! At least the Repubs have found someone to blame it on…
GOP negotiators say Trump aide Stephen Miller is standing in the way of an immigration deal https://t.co/fiATysk4vq
— Anita Kumar (@anitakumar01) January 10, 2018
Here’s one thing even Republicans negotiating an immigration deal agree on: Trump aide Stephen Miller is hurting their chances of getting anything done.
They blame him for insisting the administration gets approval for an unrealistic number of immigration policies in exchange for protections for young people brought into the country illegally as children. They loathe his intensity when delivering his hardline views. And they accuse him of coordinating with outside advocacy groups that oppose their efforts…
Some Republicans say Miller has tried to poison the deal with policies he knows will never survive a vote in the Senate, where Republicans hold a slim majority and are constantly searching for Democratic votes. “He’s trying to craft a deal he knows is not viable because he doesn’t want a deal,” said a Republican strategist who has long sought an immigration overhaul.
Miller declined to be interviewed for this story. Two senior White House officials described Miller as a policy expert Trump values who has a wealth of knowledge and expertise on immigration. “He is trying to make a deal,” one official said. “He doesn’t want to sabotage a deal.”…
The White House said that Miller has great relationships with lawmakers and provided McClatchy with a list of four House Republican leaders’ offices to speak to about him. A spokesperson for one of them, Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, referred calls to the House Committee on Homeland Security, which he chairs. But the office was not aware of the White House’s request that the chairman vouch support for Miller.
A second, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, was not available to talk.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, issued a statement: “Stephen is an incredibly bright mind on immigration policy and reflects the administration’s focus in fixing our broken immigration system. He has been of tremendous value for members on the hill and for the administration during this debate.”
And in the fourth office, an aide to House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, said Miller has been up front about what the White House position is and that his interactions with the office had been “constructive recently.” A longtime Ryan staffer who works on immigration issues speaks to Miller regularly, sometimes even daily, the aide said…
IIRC, Miller is the last hardcore “nativist”, aka xenophobe, still embedded in the Trump occupation now that Bannon’s persona non grata; booting him for failing to appreciate the ‘evolution’ of Dear Leader’s anti-immigration policies would make it easier for Ryan, McConnell, et al to focus on their preferred looting & pillaging policies without Donny Dollhands getting publicly distracted.
President elected to build a wall and block amnesty will have given us amnesty and no wall. https://t.co/uCPTDFRMMv
— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) January 9, 2018
“Ambulatory cream cheese sculpture” (h/t BettyCracker):
"When everybody says you're drunk you'd better sit down," is my favorite Irish saying. When everybody in MSM is saying the move was a genius one –referring to @realDonaldTrump WH meeting on immigration– its pretty tough to do other than laugh at Michael Wolff 25th Amd nonsense
— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) January 10, 2018
NARRATOR: Everybody in the MSM wasn’t saying this. https://t.co/4QvxkBOsYu
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) January 10, 2018
randy khan
I don’t know why anyone in Congress is paying attention to Miller. Trump will sign whatever is put in front of him.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Muh Wall
dmsilev
Look, Donald Trump is saying that Donald Trump is a genius, and that’s good enough for Hewitt.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Kelly is hardcore nativist, xenophobe, racist.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Drumpf’s mother was an immigrant. 2 of his wives are immigrants. 4 of his 5 children are anchor babies.
But they’re the right color.
efgoldman
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Every time I hear about The Wall, I can’t help thinking about the play within a play (Pyramis and Thisbe) from Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Aardvark Cheeselog
Ahhh, the work that “seemed to” does for the NYT. If they would ban it from the stylebook they could actually tell their readers what really happened!
debbie
@dmsilev:
No, there are others. I just listened to Boris Epstein slathering love on Trump for the genius move. He wants all meetings to be televised and insists it will force the Dems to actually work. I think televising will expose Trump’s inadequacy as a president. I think I want that.
Calouste
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: The only ancestor of the shitgibbon who wasn’t an immigrant was his father. Bronx Zoo has had orangutans pretty much since it opened.
trollhattan
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Sessions, also, too.
FlipYrWhig
So is Hugh Hewitt one of the “news anchors” sending Trump “letters” extolling his brilliant meeting?
Maybe one day Trump will mature beyond the “mommy, look, I went poopoo in the potty!” stage. 70 years is a long time for arrested development.
sigaba
@debbie: There’s an entire vertical industry of people suggesting Trump do things that are obviously self-destructive but can be twisted into a positive headline. Then, when Trump doesn’t do this thing, the proposer claims that the only reason he can’t is because of The Democrats/Mitch McConnell/The Swamp.
Omnes Omnibus
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: This is true.
SFAW
I never liked Miller, but I’m starting to hate him almost as much as I do his idiot boss.
Toward that end, I think it would be interesting were Mattis or McMaster to come up behind him and yell “Juden ‘raus!” at the top of his lungs. Then, after Miller shits his pants, saying to him “Remember what Niemoller said, motherfucker? You’ve gotten rid of everyone else, and YOU’RE NEXT. How do YOU like being singled out because of your ethnicity, motherfucker?”
Shit, I need to decompress.
Mike J
@efgoldman: Ahem. Crannied hole or Asian.
tobie
God, has the bar been lowered. The President agreed with everything Dianne Feinstein said, even though it was the exact opposite of everything he had said regarding immigration for months. If that’s not incoherence, I don’t know what is. Are we supposed to congratulate him because he didn’t drool?
ETA: I didn’t want to give the NYT article any clicks, so I don’t actually know who wrote it. Was it Haberman again?
Omnes Omnibus
@SFAW: I no longer trust that either Mattis or McMaster will do anything decent.
SFAW
@tobie:
“He did not start muttering ‘reeble deeble wubble zim zing f’tang,’ but neither did he shit himself and announce that he “made a poopy.’ So, on this day, he truly became President!”
He “did not lapse into incoherence”? FTFNYT. How about “he didn’t threaten to kill all the first-born in California, so it wasn’t TOO bad.”
Hey, Pinch Junior! Just because your father was a spiteful right-wing moron/asshole, it doesn’t mean you have to follow in his footsteps.
I can feel my BP spiking as I write this. God-fucking-dammit.
dmsilev
@tobie: Peter Baker, not Maggie Haberman.
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus:
I understand, and don’t disagree. I just couldn’t think of anyone else in the WH for whom it was even approaching semi-feasible. If Lee Papa were somehow to get a job there, he’d be the guy to say it, but …
different-church-lady
@efgoldman: We don’t need no education.
Mike in NC
@FlipYrWhig: The dotard is pushing 72. His whining in front of the Norweigian PM today about witch hunts and no collusion was a new low even for shitgibbon.
Omnes Omnibus
@SFAW: The McMaster thing is big for me. I knew him when we were company level officers. i am really disappointed by his performance.
Amir Khalid
@Mike in NC:
I heard he met wth the Normegian PM.
Suffragette City
Monty Python:
what is my theory.
Host: (slightly impatient) I am asking.
Elk: And well you may. Yes my word you may well ask what it is, this theory of mine. Well, this theory that I have–that is to say, which is mine– …is mine.
hitless
@dmsilev: Thanks for looking it up…I was wondering as well.
Can there be a more damning indictment of an organization that purports to describe reality to its readers than saying
He agreed to a bill that was effectively the antithesis of what he stated was required before, during, and after the session. That is the f**king definition of incoherent.
B.B.A.
A consummate bullshitter in his element. If you pay attention, you can tell he hasn’t got the slightest clue what he’s talking about – but the NYT isn’t in the business of paying attention. Hell, I don’t blame them, every time I pay attention to him I start pining for the sweet embrace of death.
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus:
I didn’t realize that (although you’ve probably mentioned it in the past).
For what it’s worth, I had initially considered putting Kelly’s name in there, primarily because of his position. But then I figured, in addition to his racism/bigotry, it wouldn’t surprise me if he were anti-Semitic as well. And the idea was to use someone relatively unbigoted. (Not that I actually know whether McMaster or Mattis is, of course, I just figured it’s less likely than with Kelly.)
tobie
@dmsilev: Well, he’s gross too then. How can the article start by saying he “engaged in vigorous discussion of immigration” and “negotiated possible legislation” only to mention at the very end that he didn’t show any mastery of policy? The article itself is incoherent; its end contradicts its beginning. Aaaargh.
Mary G
High Hewitt has always been a shameless right wing stenographer with an undeserved reputation for intellect because he can use bigger words than the usual right wing writer, but the lies are just the same.
dmsilev
@tobie: For whatever it’s worth, the commenters on the NYT article are pointing out the flaws in the article as much as we are (though fewer curse words; NYT moderators are delicate souls).
Yarrow
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m sorry. It’s difficult when someone you have respected lets you down or acts in a way that shows they’re no longer worthy of your respect.
hitless
@tobie: It’s cliche at this point, but I can’t imagine what articles would have been written about Obama after a performance like that.
No…wait…actually I can. There would have been serious discussions about the need to remove an incompetent from office. The Times absolutely would have felt that Biden, a sure and steady hand, should take over for the neophyte in over his head.
The refusal of the media in this society to confront the truth is a fundamental failure. Maybe the robots will do better when they take over.
SFAW
@tobie:
Because this is their idea of vigorous discussion.
Amir Khalid
The sense I get from the NYT story is that Trump maintained the basic personal decorum required at a formal business meeting; but he had little idea what was being discussed, and was too easily led by whoever had most recently spoken. Ignorance and weakness of intellect don’t sound like attributes of a person in command of his own thoughts, let alone of a national government.
Roger Moore
Yeah, like the ones that just destroyed large parts of Montecito.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.)
I can’t believe this fuckface is the president of the United States. I mean, I can believe it, but I can’t, if you know what I mean. I find myself saying this a lot lately…
clay
@Mike in NC:
I hope 72 pushes back. Hard.
tobie
@dmsilev: That’s good to hear. Yay for NYT commenters, who sound like they’re sharper than the paper’s reporters these days.
@hitless: Spot on. They would have subjected Obama to blistering criticism, if he had shown such ignorance of policy. One talking head or another yesterday compared Trump’s befuddled performance at the immigration meeting to Obama’s discussion of healthcare at the Republican summit in Baltimore in 2009. I almost gasped. Obama made mincemeat of the Republicans at that meeting through his mastery of detail. DiFi made mincemeat of Trump yesterday.
Mnemosyne
@hitless:
Trump is everything they claimed Obama was: a shallow, ignorant celebrity who has no clue what he’s doing and is in way over his head. Some of them are so convinced of it that they looked at this event today and Obama’s meeting with the Republicans about healthcare and think they went exactly the same way.
tobie
@SFAW: Thanks for the link. I’d forgotten that classic. (No, you didn’t. Yes I did.)
Redshift
@FlipYrWhig:
No, at least not for this round. Hewitt was responding to the list of TV news reactions compiled by the White House, which the not at all incoherent Trump apparently thinks are letters sent to him because they were transcribed and printed on paper. Or more likely, he was knee-jerking to the White House claims before they put it the list, since even their list of favorable quotes consists of a lot of “fascinating,” “remarkable” and “unusual”; “genius,” not so much.
Mnemosyne
@tobie:
Heh. We were both typing the same thing at the same time. They are so blinded by white supremacy that they actually think the two events are equivalent and that Obama’s performance then was as bad as Trump’s was today.
Yarrow
@Amir Khalid: That’s pretty much it.
Redshift
@Mnemosyne:
Well, they kind of did go the same way. In both meetings, Republicans came full of unjustified confidence, and got thoroughly embarrassed by Democrats.
hitless
@Mnemosyne: Yeah – I’m actually amazed at how they elected someone that embodies everything they thought Obama was. Treasonous narcissist who rose to his position through preferential treatment rather than merit. Also, someone who manages to be a bully and weak at the same time. It’s mind-boggling.
Yarrow
Did this make it over here yet?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: If it helps a bit, apparently(per Wolff) Trump hates him and thinks he was a bad hire.
tobie
@Mnemosyne: We must have seen the same talking head and I’m glad that we’ve both managed to forget–your screen name notwithstanding–who it was and on what channel. Forgetting can be a valuable tool!
NotMax
5:00 a.am. Eastern time Thursday, TCM is airing Crisis. A film crew was given pretty much open access to the White House and elsewhere, and this film (under an hour) about the standoff over desegregating the University of Alabama was the result. Shows how real presidentin’ is done.
When it aired on TV not long after the events portrayed, a segment of the public called in to complain that movie cameras had been allowed in the Oval Office. It was, indeed, a different time.
SectionH
@Mary G: That’s wonderfully creative name for Hewitt, whether a typo or deliberate.
Mr S and I just had to go out for a bit tonight because Issa. Of course I’m continuing my automatic contribution to Applegate. And will do more if needed. Fuck a bunch of little sucker fish. But the new promised land is CA-50. And hell, I used to live in Escondido. That would be so sweet.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax:
Now days alot of us carry still and movie cameras with us everywhere.
SFAW
@Yarrow:
Chuck amuck!
Yarrow
@SFAW: I hope it gets more coverage.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Digital blankies for the post-puberty set.
;)
Yarrow
I also saw this and hope David will give it some coverage.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: Around here it’s the pre-puberty set too.
Yarrow
I’d missed this video of people celebrating outside Issa’s office after he announced he’s not running. Excellent!
Elie
@Yarrow:
Here Here!
I love this tweet…. gets right down to it and truer words were never spoken…
Yarrow
@Elie: I know. Isn’t he the one who was speaking out against Trump a year ago when he was bragging about saving jobs? I think he is but I can’t remember.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Yarrow: Yup
Gretchen
Within the last few days I saw a video of a guy with red hair and beard singing a song. Then an older Italian man comes in, and sings a gorgeous song in Italian, and the young red-beard listens, awe-struck. I listened to it several times a few nights ago, and can’t get it out of my head, and also can’t find it. Did I see it here? Can anyone help me out?
joel hanes
@hitless:
they elected someone that embodies everything they thought Obama was
It’s always projection.
Always.
Ruckus
@B.B.A.:
Not yours I hope.
Ruckus
@joel hanes:
Yes it is projection. But it might also be because they are doing all the shit and expect that everyone else must be doing the same. They think they are normal, even it if it is politician normal. But of course it isn’t normal. Ignorant, asshole republicans. But I repeat myself.
Yarrow
@Gretchen: Ed Sheeran and Andrea Bocelli “Perfect Symphony”, maybe? Link.
Yarrow
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Thanks! He was right then and he’s right now.
Gretchen
@Yarrow: Yes! Bless you! It’s not the same video, but it’s the same guys! Thank you so much! I’d despaired that I’d ever find it again!
Yarrow
@Gretchen: You’re welcome. I’m glad you mentioned it because I didn’t know they’d made it. The “red hair and beard” guy kind of gave it away. Ed Sheeran is a pretty popular singer with red hair and beard. Now that you know who they are maybe you can find the video you remember.
Gretchen
I found several videos with them, thanks to you. Thanks again. One video says that Bocelli was interested because his two sons were fans of Sheehan. One video shows the two sons being very protective of their dad and also happy to be working with Sheehan. As an old, I loved the aspect of the talented young person wanting to work with a respected older person, and the older person’s kids hovering around him protectively and seeming satisfied with the results. The whole thing was just nice people working together and respecting each other. Rare enough in our world to merit watching multiple times. Thank you.
Chet
I googled this phrase, and Hugh Hewitt is literally the only one who says it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Chet: Sounds like a bunch of malarkey from the ambulatory cream cheese sculpture.
Ascap-scab
If the White House press office was so willing to lie on the official readout of what Trump actually said in a televised meeting that was so easily verifiable, in how many other official readouts have they lied about what Trump actually said?
patrick II
Meetings like this always remind me of one of my favorite Obama moments – – when Obama was selling the ACA and went to a republican leadership retreat to talk about it. Like Trumps’ DACA meeting, it was televised. Somewhere between 10 and 12 Republicans sat around him and they came loaded for bear, but what they got was Obama. He proceeded to kick all of their butts. It was like a verbal Bruce Lee surrounded by henchmen. Except instead of that angry Bruce Lee look he smiled as he riposted their every attack with facts, logic and the sense of good it would do for people who needed healthcare.
Watching him that day was one of my favorite Obama moments. What a difference from what I saw yesterday.
J R in WV
Well. When I’m awake at this time of day. I often imbibe, sometimes it helps me get back to sleep, or to sleep for the first time.
Wife M has the terrible cough, on top of regular loud snoring. I play classical music, like Rachmaninoff concertos or symphonies to attempt to drown that out, sometimes that helps. sometimes I fall to sleep, sometimes I just lay and listen to the music.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@patrick II: There were two meetings where he did that, one at Blair House for ACA* and one where he went to the GOP House Leadership meeting in Baltimore IIRC. Obama pants them both times.
*That’s the one where he told John McCain “Elections have consequences John.”.
Adria McDowell
@Yarrow: I don’t feel bad for any Midwest yokel who fell for der Doofus’ bullshit (I don’t know if Chuck Jones did personally, but you know what I mean).
Just one more canuck
@Ascap-scab: the WH said the omissions from the transcript were inadvertent- did they ever issue a revised one (he asked rhetorically)?
aarrgghh
stephen miller is that nazi who’s desperate to prove to his parents that he’s not jewish.
aarrgghh
patrick ii @ 74:
i enjoyed that trip into the lion’s den so much i had to memorialize it: “gop retreat”
schrodingers_cat
The problem with getting a clean DACA bill is not Miller or even Kelly. It is the man on the top. The buck stops with him. He sets the tone. Hate and bigotry elevated him to the Presidency. This is exactly what he wants. There is a reason he has attracted people like Miller, Gorka, Sessions etc. He is a true believer, despite whatever he may have said yesterday. Look at his actions.