President Trump responds to question about firing special counsel Robert Mueller.
"Well, I think it's a disgrace what's going on… This is a pure and simple witch-hunt." https://t.co/UWoaiimcAo pic.twitter.com/lTht6dPE7D
— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 9, 2018
Sources talking to @GloriaBorger say President Trump is more angry at Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein than Robert Mueller.
— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) April 10, 2018
But they’re on “his” payroll! Doesn’t being President just mean you no longer have to pay your subordinates for that RICO stuff?!?…
It's disgraceful when the FBI raids the office of the president's attorney and nobody can even guess which scandal it's about.
— Paul Wells (@InklessPW) April 9, 2018
Trump on raid of Michael Cohen: "It's an attack on our country in a true sense. It's an attack on what we all stand for." pic.twitter.com/6aKs0A5Y3k
— Axios (@axios) April 9, 2018
Nah, that was Charlottesville https://t.co/M1BwP7QgWd
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) April 10, 2018
Calling around the president's circle. His allies are taken aback. Rattled. Worry the president has a small legal team that lacks a heavy hitter. Worry that Mueller is making big moves and, in essence, prodding the president to finally sit down for an interview…
— Robert Costa (@costareports) April 9, 2018
Giuliani on phone w/ Post. Will POTUS now consider firing Mueller or Rod R?
"I don’t think that’s in the cards. Too explosive, the whole process is too near the end."— Robert Costa (@costareports) April 9, 2018
Giuliani: "The only thing that's happening, perhaps, is that Mueller is trying to compel the president to testify. There is the legal battle and the public-relations battle, and this kind of thing amps up the pressure to get it all over with."
— Robert Costa (@costareports) April 9, 2018
and it's not believed to be Russia-related so SUPER telling that Trump is acting like it is.
— Zed Wood Junior (@Zeddary) April 9, 2018
Breaking News: A Ukrainian magnate paid Donald Trump’s charity $150,000 in 2015 after Trump gave a video talk. Robert Mueller is said to be investigating. https://t.co/1mXETS7COJ
— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 10, 2018
First connection between Mueller investigation and @realdonaldtrump’s foundation that I know of. https://t.co/NiTLH1CLP1
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) April 10, 2018
cain
Poor Trump. snicker.
Major Major Major Major
I mean, it’s not in any actual sense Mueller’s warrant, sure, but isn’t it based on evidence mueller brought to the US Attorney’s attention?
Adam L Silverman
On the right is GEN Milley, Chief of Staff of the Army, sitting next to the VP. This is not his happy face!
NotMax
Half expect Dolt 45’s
crack legal teamflunkies to suggest he sign an NDA with himself which he then can cite as reason for not answering questions from the special counsel.Wapiti
@Adam L Silverman: he’s mentally calculating how soon he can retire.
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
Pence looks like he’s not paying attention at all. It’s a very Homer Simpson look.
Adam L Silverman
Ruh Roh!
MisterForkbeard
@NotMax: Can we call them “crack legal flunkies”? I think that might be the best description I’ve heard in a long time.
Origuy
@Mnemosyne: Mentally rehearsing the Oath of Office.
Adam L Silverman
@Wapiti: He’s got 4 stars. So anytime he feels like it.
Ken
If evidence is found that the Trump foundation was more a slush fund than a charity, could the IRS make adjustments to the returns of donors?
dmsilev
@Adam L Silverman: I guess we can now say that Pruitt is an honest politician, of the ‘stays bought’ sort.
Perhaps his lobbyist aquaintance purchased him on layaway?
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: That’s his stern resolve look. Same one he made at North Korea. It’s Jesus tested and Mother approved!
clay
“Sarah, will you clarify why the President thinks that prosecuting bank fraud and campaign fraud are attacks on ‘what we all stand for’?”
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
Mentally undressing the women in the press pool.
danielx
@Mnemosyne:
From someone who has had the dubious pleasure of observing Mike Pence as governor and congressman, I can attest that is not an unusual expression for him.
MisterForkbeard
@Mnemosyne: He’s trying VERY HARD to not pay attention to anything in the Trump White House.
Mnemosyne
@Origuy:
Nah. More like this.
dmsilev
@NotMax: Mother would not approve.
danielx
@dmsilev:
Probably concerned that Mother would have his nutsack for a coin purse, which is likely true.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Looking around twitter and seeing– hang on to your wigs and keys– no reaction from elected Republicans to trump’s declaration that this seizure of documents is ‘an attack on our coutnry’
Mnemosyne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
“L’État, c’est moi.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Adam L Silverman: anyone else get the impression that reporters are hearing rumors that Samantha Dravis– who got a no-show job and a trip to Paris and Morocco– was Pruitt’s girlfriend? Even the normally prim and proper Doc Maddow seems to be smirkingly hinting at it
Adam L Silverman
@danielx: It’s all the saltpeter that Mother puts in his food.
Mnemosyne
@NotMax:
There’s not even that much expression on his face. He looks like a Roomba sitting on its charger. Completely vacant.
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m just getting to Maddow on the DVR now. So this is the first I’ve heard of it. Wouldn’t surprise me. These are not very smart people. Damned determinedly corrupt people, not very smart people.
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: The Roomba’s more intelligent. And useful.
Major Major Major Major
Kobe beef.
cain
@Adam L Silverman:
Not pigeon droppings?
Adam L Silverman
How’s everyone enjoying Infrastructure Week? Having a good time so far?
dmsilev
@Adam L Silverman: On the other hand, I’ll bet that a video of a cat sitting on Pence’s head as he randomly walks about a room would garner plenty of views, so in that sense he’s on a par with a Roomba.
Peale
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: frankly, I prefer the pre drained swamp, thank you very much.
dmsilev
@Adam L Silverman: Infrastructure Week seems to come earlier and earlier every year. I can barely get the decorations up in time.
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: Made from real basketball player?
Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev: Only if he can suck dog hair up at the same time.
Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev: It’s an Infrastructure Week miracle!
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: the General has a bit of a “WTF is this shit?” face going on. Could there be a sudden retirement in his near future?
sukabi
@dmsilev: please. NO. MORE. SEX. SCANDALS!
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: sure.
Adam L Silverman
@sukabi: Doubtful. The Joint Chiefs will all stay in place as long as they are able to protect their Services. All of them were put in place by President Obama. GEN Milley is 1/2 way through his first three years as Chief of Staff. The most he would serve as Chief of Staff before retirement is two 3 year assignments. So six years total. Then he’d retire.
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: Then you’re good to go!
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Will (gingerly) cross that bridge when I come to it.
dmsilev
@Adam L Silverman: Ah, the story of the first Infrastructure Week, when one concrete mixer truck miraculously lasted the whole week.
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: I’m actually loving Mueller’s Infrastructure Week moves. Think he’s doing a FINE job.
Ruckus
@danielx:
So, he always looks constipated.
danielx
@Adam L Silverman:
It’s true. I mean, Pruitt is almost a caricature of a corrupt pol, starting at the state level and increasingly obviously upon reaching to the DC stratosphere. His deeper relationships with the awl bidness, as Molly Ivins called it, are much the more serious of his crimes as far as I’m concerned, but it’s the venial ones that are going to be his undoing. The one which may have doomed him with Trump is the lights-and-sirens demand. If anybody in a black limo or SUV is going to be driven around in DC with lights and siren it’s going to be the shitgibbon and nobody else, thankyewverymuch.
It’s like Pruitt suddenly forgot everything he ever heard about keeping a low profile if you are going to be a crook.
That’s bad enough, but watching Trump going off his rocker…slipping his gears…losing his shit…over the last few days has been and is getting more and more frightening. It becomes more and more obvious that he really does not know what he’s doing or what to do, and the only advisors he is willing to listen to are Fox and Friends and John Bolton.
Adam L Silverman
@danielx: I’m waiting for him to explain how he got an $850,000 mortgage on a $131,000 salary as Oklahoma AG.
Frankensteinbeck
@Mnemosyne:
Not joking, I don’t expect expressions from Pence. The one thing he has shown he’s good at is playing partisan robot. He says what he’s told and doesn’t even acknowledge when he’s corrected. The guy has ‘bland liar’ down to a science.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
OK so it’s not constipation, that’s his smug look, his smart look, his what’s for dinner look, his intent in thought look, his I wonder if anyone would notice if I scratch myself in that place look, IOW his entire range of facial expression.
I guess it would be difficult to have more than one considering all the power contained behind it.
Major Major Major Major
Wait, are they really doing infrastructure week again?
Mnemosyne
@danielx:
They are assuming that since they have control of both Congress and the presidency, they will never be prosecuted.
Worst part is, they may well be right.
Ken
@Major Major Major Major: Infrastructure week will continue until they get it right.
efgoldman
@Major Major Major Major:
They sent your invitation to your home address, didn’t know you were traveling.
efgoldman
@Mnemosyne:
There are a whole bunch of assumptions that are going to bump up against reality.
West of the Rockies
Just to see how the other half lives, I popped over to the Fox News website. The lead story is about Chinese tariffs. Story two is framed as the Mueller witch hunt. Stories three through five are about Katy Perry, someone who ate a bunch of chili peppers, and two black men accused of gang raping a 13 year old.
It is a stunning disconnect of propaganda, idiocy and racism.
Gretchen
@Mnemosyne: Thank you for “roomba on its charger.” I needed the laugh.
Peale
@efgoldman: he’s not really traveling. He’s stranded until someone fixes the bridge.
jl
@Major Major Major Major:
” I mean, it’s not in any actual sense Mueller’s warrant, sure, but isn’t it based on evidence mueller brought to the US Attorney’s attention? ”
Mueller to Rosenstein: “It’s just one heck of a thing, Rod. We were getting ready to clear that nice Mr. Trump, but dangitall, look what we just found. That could be kind of bad huh? Waddayoo think Rod? Could that be kind of bad?’
joel hanes
@Adam L Silverman:
“Flowers for Bergeron” is a brilliant nym
danielx
@Mnemosyne:
Yeah, I know, I know….I went on a rant in some thread recently in which my point, although it may have been some what spittle-inflected, is that if people at that level keep getting away with…everything…they will keep on doing it. Why not? There’s no downside.
ETA: Starting with Nixon, who was never even admonished for the most serious of his crimes.
Major Major Major Major
@jl: “you know how we’ve always talked about the possibility of something going wrong with the president. The PRESIDENT, Rod. President trump. Well now, what happened is, it’s just, one of his lawyers, he had a sort of… well, he went a little funny in the head, and uh, he went and did a silly thing…”
Ninedragonspot
That expression on Pence’s face suggests a man trying to stifle impure thoughts about a rugged, yet gentle security agent on his detail.
patrick II
@danielx:
Pruitt saw Tom Price go and took at as a challenge. He is not just passively breaking norms, regulations, and laws he is actively seeking opportunities for new levels of Trump administration corruption. But he will never beat the master.
jl
@Ninedragonspot: A commenter above, as I understand it, said it had something to do with Pence’s ‘power constipation.’ So, I don’t need to know any more about it, whatever it is.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Adam L Silverman: Wow, you can see him thinking “This is the apex of my carrier?”
EDIT FOR LEGAL COMPLIANCE: Did you know this is infrastructure week?
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Mnemosyne:
They won’t get away with it. Whether they’re punished by the justice system or destroyed electorally (why not both?).
jl
@Major Major Major Major: I laughed a laugh. But Trump is more than a little funny in the head, and he could do a silly thing in an attempt to get out of whatever crimes he and/or all his cronies are in to up to their necks.
One thing I don’t think we need to speculate about is that, if it directly involves Trump, then Trump’s Razor will be in effect and it will be unimaginably dumbass. Might be heinous, might be despicable, or might not. Maybe pathetic, but maybe not. But absolutely surely dumbass.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@West of the Rockies: On the same note my You Tube Suggested Videos tonight was hilarious, on the Breaking News category all the networks and papers the video title on their report was “FBI agents raid Trump attorney” EXCEPT for Fox News which was “Is Cohen raid an overreach of Mueller probe?” The people who watch Fox have to know they are only being told what they want to hear. But it is Infrastructure Week.
Aleta
Leaning back and trying to persuade himself he’s still king of rope a dope. Except he looks like a solid born loser. And those crazed saps keep pretending, because they’re that stupid and they’re thieves, that nobody will see him scrabbling behind his back for a way through the wall.
dm
I’m so glad we can say “Merry Infrastructure!” again. I was getting so tired of “Cement’s Greetings”.
different-church-lady
@clay:
HUCKABEE-SANDERS: “Were you born after 2008 or something?”
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: what’s interesting in that set of pics, is that Pence is sitting on drumpfs’ right, Bolton on his left…so Pense’s expression of blank nothingness is even more ‘interesting’.
different-church-lady
a) The body language. This is a man who feels the walls closing in.
b) The hair. He’s losing it in front now, no longer has enough to get his forward-oriented flock-of-seagulls pompadour to sit correctly anymore.
Aleta
Isn’t it time to cut off the power to the WH air conditioning and water pumps and regular lights and TVs, and to every freezer with ice cream or steak in it. Time to seize Kushner’s property by civil forfeiture for suspected crimes; and auction it off to pay refunds to anyone willing to publicly claim in the newspaper that they voted for Hilary Clinton.
danielx
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
What, Fox News is treating it like it’s a question instead of immediately going directly to “blatant Federal overreach”? Could it be the times they really are a-changing?
SATSQ: No. They will start that shit tomorrow.
Musing earlier: it’s strange to see the ending of an era while not feeling any real change in my day-to-day life, as I suppose it is for most BJ commentators. Economic effects of the present unpleasantness won’t hit most people for a while yet. But hit they will, with the most violent effects starting in…five years or so. Trump will leave office eventually, whenever* or however he does, and a presumably more sane** person will sit in the Oval Office. Butttttt…it’s not like we – the collective we – can go back to people overseas and say hey, sorry, we fucked up and elected a lunatic. Can we go back to being friends, with our-now-nonexistent-diplomatic-corps leading the way?
All together now and with spirit: ain’t happening.
Things have changed and they are never, ever going to be the same. Electing Bush to preside over the biggest political/diplomatic/military fuckup in history, certainly US history, was bad enough. Electing this utter incompetent corrupt fuckup – for I know no other way to describe him – was worse, and our putative allies are never going to see the US the same way again.
Redshift
If you run Trump’s statement through a narcissist to English translator, it arguably makes more sense.
“The country” = I/me
“Everyone” = I/me
“Our values” = my values
Etc.
Terrifying, but more coherent.
danielx
@danielx:
Done forgotted:
*Math does not appear to add up to Trump impeachment, conviction vote ain’t happening in the Senate. Note: should happen? yes. Could happen? no, for a number of shitty reasons.
**whoever it may be, the person has to be more sane and stable than Trump. My estimate of what is required to achieve the presidency has been shattered, but I think a new baseline has been established.
ETA: I used to joke about how the number of assholes who looked in the mirror and saw Republican presidential timber. It’s not so funny now.
John Revolta
@danielx:
I like a bit of hysteria as much as the next guy………………but come on.
Mary G
Don’t know if it will turn out to be true, but if so, this is exciting:
sukabi
@John Revolta: I know, right? Drumpf hasn’t completed his “hold my beer” gambit yet.
danielx
@John Revolta:
Ummm….please describe a bigger political/diplomatic/military fuckup in US history, than invading and occupying Iraq. Seriously. If there is one, I want to know.
JR
@Mary G: Sure, it’s true. But the second part is critical. Pharmacokinetics is a thing.
Major Major Major Major
@danielx: ……Vietnam?
JR
@danielx: Setting aside the Civil War, 3/5ths compromise, etc. as purely domestic fuckups:
The “banana republic” era in the Caribbean
Vietnam
World War I
Iraq is up there, though!
Manyakitty
@Adam L Silverman: While Pence carries on with his interpretation of “smell the fart” acting.
Manyakitty
@Adam L Silverman: TGIF! WOOHOO! oh, wait…
Manyakitty
@Peale: Where’s that confounded bridge?
Jack the Second
It’s like on a crime drama when they realize the blood soaked murder weapon doesn’t match the victim’s blood or wound, and are like, “shit, can someone else find the body that goes with this knife?”
RedDirtGirl
Looks like Trump’s dentures are coming loose again in that video.
Kristine
There T*%#p is with the folded arms again. Every time he’s cornered, or sitting with people he doesn’t like, or in some other way threatened.
The Simp in the Suit
@Mnemosyne: And it’s partner:
“Après moi, le déluge”
SFAW
@Adam L Silverman:
Zero points! Zero closing costs! Zero Interest! Almost-zero Principal!
Because he “knows a guy who knows a guy who will set you right up.”