BREAKING: President Trump says CIA chief Pompeo to become Sec. of State, thanks Tillerson for his service, and elevates Gina Haspel to top CIA post. https://t.co/JqlOHLpp1U pic.twitter.com/AnOuIgyCXZ
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) March 13, 2018
Open thread
by David Anderson| 64 Comments
This post is in: Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Not Normal
BREAKING: President Trump says CIA chief Pompeo to become Sec. of State, thanks Tillerson for his service, and elevates Gina Haspel to top CIA post. https://t.co/JqlOHLpp1U pic.twitter.com/AnOuIgyCXZ
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) March 13, 2018
Open thread
Comments are closed.
PsiFighter37
McMasters next? I get the sense we are in for a lot of turnover now, since Trump’s idea of success is to make a shitshow of everything.
rumpole
Tillerson just said that it was Russia that poisoned those folks in Britain and that there was no doubt about it. Coincidence?
Steve in the ATL
And the CIA is now run by a woman who ran a black site and later ordered the evidence of the torture three destroyed lest it mark her career. God help us.
jimmiraybob
The Miller–Putsch…..or, the week of the long tweets?
raven
Your new CIA Director!
Betty Cracker
Trying to figure out what this means. Pompeo is definitely more of an ideologue and Trump ass-kisser than Tillerson was, so maybe it’s related to the tariff thing? Timing is interesting too.
MomSense
@Steve in the ATL:
I doubt she will be more than acting. He’ll probably put someone like Cotton or Gowdy in there. God help us.
raven
I winder if Rex will spill the beans on the “moron”?
raven
What’s all this “god” bullshit, didn’t you get the memo?
Quinerly
@Betty Cracker: Timing very interesting indeed. Tillerson’s dad died recently. Tillerson out of the office for a couple of weeks. Was returning from Africa a day early. Arrived back at 4:00AM this morning. Supposedly decision was made Friday to fire him.
Thoroughly Pizzled
I hope this doesn’t mean war with North Korea.
p.a.
Ummm… don’t know what this means. Outside of consistent kleptocracy and attacking POC, this misadministration is too anarchic to predict anything, except the continuous ‘hold my beer’ effect. Interesting, though, that the CIA chief gets State at the same time there’s talk of talks with the DPRK. Awaiting the next ‘hold my beer’ moment.
MattF
@Thoroughly Pizzled: It’s always something.
japa21
Both Pompeo and Haspel will need to go through confirmation process again, right? Pompeo hasn’t been a total toady.
SiubhanDuinne
@rumpole:
I noticed the same thing. Timing was interesting. And now, of course, we know why Rexxon Drillerson “took ill” and had to return early from Africa. Well, at least Trump didn’t leave him stranded in Nigeria.
CaseyL
I cry no tears for Tillerson, who oversaw the dismantling of the State Department (and who only took the job in the first place to get Russian oil leases for his old company).
Pompeo will be a disaster as SoS, and Haspel probably a disaster as CIA Chief… but it’s not like Dolt45 was going to name smart ethical people, so I guess we should be thankful he didn’t replace Tillerson with his golf caddie or Pompeo with the lady who waxes his ass crack.
JPL
I think that Rosenstein made statements of support for the special counsel in order to preempt discussion of Mueller being fired.
Rosenstein won’t do it, so I assume he’ll be fired soon, and replaced soon.
different-church-lady
Maybe he thinks this is still The Apprentice and the goal is to shrink the cabinet down to one victor.
ewrunning
Appears that Tillerson was told on Friday, i.e., while he was visiting s***hole countries.
different-church-lady
@CaseyL:
Why are you doing this to us?
MomSense
Didn’t Pimpeo recently meet with the heads of the three Russian intelligence agencies? Job interview? We only knew about that meeting because it was on Russian State TV
SiubhanDuinne
@CaseyL:
A mental image I don’t need first thing in the morning. Or, really, any time.
jimmiraybob
@CaseyL:
We’ve got 21/2 years to go. They’re working down the list.
different-church-lady
@JPL: Can Trump actually fire Rosenstein directly? Wouldn’t he need to get Sessions to do it, or replace Sessions with someone who won’t recurse themselves who will then fire Meuller?
Quinerly
President’s “body man” also leaving.
randy khan
Not that I think Pompeo will be good, but he probably has a better idea of what State actually does than Tillerson, so perhaps there’s some hope that he won’t continue hollowing it out.
SiubhanDuinne
@MomSense:
Good catch! Yes, yes he did.
Coffee at dawn ☕
Ugh, not just a teabagger, but a teabagger from the failed state of Kansas. And Haspel, the torturer.
different-church-lady
Ah, here we are:
Betty Cracker
@japa21: Pompeo hasn’t been a total toady? The only non-toady moment I can recall was when he was pressed on the IC’s conclusion about Russian interference in the 2016 election, and he agreed that Russia had interfered, but even Trump has done that when cornered.
JPL
@different-church-lady: There was an article from last month indicating that he can, although he might have to answer questions about why. Paul Ryan would simply say it’s unhelpful and not bother with questions.
dr. bloor
@rumpole: He already knew he was on the way out. That’s the only reason he said it in the first place.
bluefoot
When does the Saturday Night Massacre start?
With any other administration, impeachment proceedings would have started months ago.
SiubhanDuinne
@Quinerly:
Do you mean Keith Schiller or someone else? Schiller, his long-serving bodyguard, left several weeks ago (yes, I realize “bodyguard” and “body man” are not the same — just hadn’t heard of this particular departure).
MomSense
I’m getting my mass demonstration preparedness checklist out. Time to be ready for action.
LAO
@SiubhanDuinne: John Mcentte —
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Hi MomSense. Is that something you could post a link to? After the past few days, I think we might be nearing that point, too.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Always an interesting detail
Steve in the ATL
@LAO: escorts in the trump White House? Not surprising.
ewrunning
Now an official statement from the Department, Undersecretary Steve Goldstein, indicating Tillerson had not intended to leave and never heard from Trump about his departure.
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
Here’s one.
right to protest
WaterGirl
@MomSense: That doesn’t appear to be a link?
MomSense
@MomSense:
Link is borked. Go to right-to-protest dot org
LAO
@Steve in the ATL: I see the nym change, are you back home?
Quinerly
@SiubhanDuinne: McEntee. He’s supposedly going to the reelection campaign.
jonas
@raven: Ugh. Not that this is surprising, though. John Brennan may be tweeting and saying the right things about Trump now, but on his watch under Obama, his Job Nr. 1 was to make sure no-one in the CIA was ever held accountable for anything done during the early years of the War on Terror (including himself), so here we are, with people like Haspel now running the place. And there are plenty more where she came from. Of course under Trump “participated in documented war crimes” is an asset, rather than a liability.
SiubhanDuinne
@LAO:
Thanks. I must admit I never heard of him.
Steve in the ATL
@LAO: I am, though I’ve actually spent more time in the Bay Area than in Atlanta this year!
waspuppet
@rumpole: No. There is no coincidence. And in other non-coincidence news, Devin Nunes shuts down the Russia probe the first House business day after Britain reveals that the poisoning was a Russian job — i.e., the first House business day after it was revealed that if you don’t do what Russia says they will find you and hurt you wherever you are. Just saying.
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne: no worries—he’s never heard of you either
LAO
@Steve in the ATL: Well, welcome home for the time being. And for as long as it lasts.
MomSense
Tom Cotton said he knew about Tillerson before trump’s Tweet which means he knew before Rex.
Ramalama
Does Pompeo have to be approved of by Congress to become SoS?
Sheila in NC
@waspuppet: also the day that Isikoff’s and Corn’s book has come out documenting the Russian involvement in the election and their support for Trump.
Immanentize
@Ramalama: Yes, Pompeo must be confirmed by the Senate
No Drought No More
Although he intentionally overstated the case by 45% or so, Mitt Romney’s “47% philosophy” is one shared by none other than Vladimir Putin. It’s little wonder, then, why congressional republicans have chosen to honor and protect Putin from retaliation, that is, by betraying their own country and oaths of office in the process. They are immoral, cold blooded scum, ALL of whom currently, and after great deliberation, aid and abet a mortal enemy of American democracy, every hour of every day. Some will later profess to be shocked and surprised when Trump falls, and his crimes exposed. Don’t believe them, because they won’t be.
That congressional republicans have proved themselves traitors to The United States will also simplify the campaign strategies of democratic candidates everywhere.
“So what if they’re Russians?” Putin said of the people named in last month’s indictment. “There are 146 million Russians. So what? … I don’t care. I couldn’t care less. … They do not represent the interests of the Russian state.”
Gin & Tonic
@Ramalama: Yes.
celticdragonchick
@rumpole:
Putin could poison 21 people on fifth avenue with nerve agent and he wouldn’t lose Trump’s vote.
No Drought No More
C.I.A. guy Phillip Mudd: “The [congressional republicans] responsibility was not to represent party, Democrat or Republican, but to represent people”.
It’s disingenuous of Phil- to say the least- to profess surprise that congressional republicans mean it when they say, “corporations are people too, my friend”.
Jazzman
The new Republican 11th commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of thy fellow oligarchs.
TenguPhule
@No Drought No More:
Firing squad or Noose?
patrick II
@Quinerly:
I am surprised they let him fly home on a government plane. That’s not like Trump.
Bookeater (formerly JosieJ)
@waspuppet:
Not that I necessarily disagree with you, but if Devin Nunes is only just realizing that now, he’s even denser than he looks.
Shana
My first thought on hearing this was rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.