Trump told a bald-faced, easily debunked lie this morning. Nothing unusual about that, but I have a theory about his motivation for telling this particular lie today. Here’s the lie, which was tweeted at 7:02 AM ET:
He’s referring to the interview he gave to Lester Holt last year in which he confessed to Holt, on camera, that he fired Comey because of “this Russia thing with Trump.” Relevant transcript below:
“He [Rosenstein] made a recommendation, he’s highly respected, very good guy, very smart guy. The Democrats like him, the Republicans like him. He made a recommendation. But regardless of [the] recommendation, I was going to fire Comey. Knowing there was no good time to do it!
And in fact when I decided to just do it I said to myself, I said, “You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won.”
NBC posted the interview for all to see here. The portion where Trump basically confesses to obstructing justice certainly appears to be unedited, and I’m sure experts will weigh in on that question eventually since Trump has now falsely accused Holt of doctoring the tape.
But why now? Trump is prone to blurting out self-incriminating things — he just did that last week on a softball Fox & Friends appearance that was supposed to be a spin session after Michael Cohen implicated Trump in a crime while pleading guilty to tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations.
As the fallout from the Holt interview was happening in real time, Trump didn’t accuse Holt of editing the video. His go-to tactic until now has been to reclassify “obstruction of justice” as “fighting back.” So why revisit the Holt interview and make up a whopper about it on August 30, 2018?
I think it’s related to soon-to-be former White House Counsel McGahn. In the reports about McGahn spending 30 hours talking to the Mueller team, it came out that Trump’s legal team wasn’t aware of the extent of McGahn’s cooperation with Mueller. I’m not a lawyer, but I find it astonishing that Trump’s attorneys weren’t extensively debriefing McGahn after each session with Mueller. But apparently, they weren’t.
So, in the wake of that report, I’m guessing the Trump lawyers belatedly debriefed McGahn and learned that Mueller was especially interested in Trump’s rationale for dispatching Comey as confessed to Holt. Hence the absurd claim from Trump this morning that the video was edited.
Anyhoo, that’s my theory — Trump is in a box because he confessed to a crime on TV. Now he worries that Mueller recognized the confession for what it was, and this lame, easily debunked lie about Holt is the only response he’s got.
Open thread!
Platonailedit
What totus lawyers?
LeeM
IANAL, but if we’re talking about Guiliani, because his legal prowess is not all it’s hyped to be.
Ramalama
What if NBC released the full unedited interview to show Trump being worse — more mention of grabbing women crotch or talking about ‘watermelons’ or something else wholly inappropriate/wrong but not really news worthy in the eyes of NBC?
eric
he did not use the words “monkey” or “articulate.” Big win for the White House staff.
JPL
Maybe it means that someone else is going to be indicted. At least that’s what I hope.
MattF
There’s an interesting Slate article on Trump’s psychology. Basically, the author says that Trump’s an antisocial personality, rather than a narcissistic one.
It’s entirely appropriate to be suspicious of analysis-at-a-distance– and uncertainty about Trump’s exact psychological malady is evidence in favor of that suspicion. That said, it’s interesting.
PenAndKey
<blockquoteThe portion where Trump basically confesses to obstructing justice certainly appears to be unedited, and I’m sure experts will weigh in on that question eventually since Trump has now falsely accused Holt of doctoring the tape.
And as we’ve all seen, what the experts say won’t matter a bit to Dear Leader’s diehard defenders. He said it, they’ll believe it, and we’ll all end up taking another step out the backside of the looking glass.
Baud
Why would NBC do such a thing? They’re despicable.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Ramalama: LOL I can some future congressional inquiry
Dem Rep “So in this interview the former president told the interviewer, and I quote – the sooner we can get the blacks back on the farms like it’s 1858, except with out all the racists nonsense about the Irish, the better, end quote. Why was that omitted from the broadcast?”
NBC Ceo “Well come on, that was hardly news worthy and we didn’t want to distract out viewers of Trump telling us what a great report he had with his fellow world leaders at the G-7 conference”
PenAndKey
@Baud: Trump slandered them and made provable false attacks against their credibility. Craven self interest, if nothing else, would demand they slap his claim down with prejudice.
raven
It’s nearly time to start whining about football. As far as I’m concerned we shouldn’t even have football threads anymore.
“A local derby (pronounced daarby) between amateur students”
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody just fall apart like this, and I’ve damned sure never seen anybody in public office do it. I guess maybe this has happened in other countries, but never here as far as I know.
This is hard to believe, and yet so easily foreseen . Anybody who thought this guy was ever going to be anything but what he is is an idiot.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@MattF: Kind of splitting hairs – basically says Trump doesn’t give a shit about anyone else and just lies all the time. But I still think the argument for Narcissism is more convincing because Trump has the need to tear everyone around him down. In fact everyone else must lose is such a compulsion for Trump it ruins every victory he has had.
mad citizen
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): This 1,000 times. Will never understand it. My thinking was, the last thing that middle american yahoos are going to take to is someone from New York City, especially a failed real estate casino operator with bad hair, etc. Well these things have been listed a million times here.
I do feel much better when I reply to his tweets with a stock tweet about him being compromised by Russian organized crime.
Cheryl Rofer
Another thing that is probably spinning Trump up is the attention John McCain is getting. And that he’s been explicitly disinvited to the funeral.
Betty Cracker
@Cheryl Rofer: That’s gotta be driving him buggy. If his aides are smart (and they are not), they’ll keep him away from cameras this week. He’ll blurt out something hideously inappropriate.
artem1s
He can actually be both a narcissist and have a antisocial personality. I think that is too kind though. He is a narcissist and a sociopath.
A Ghost To Most
Maybe someone could convince him that if he offed himself, he’d get that parade he’s jonesing for.
lahke
Hi, everyone. Anyone know if the Boston meetup is still on for Saturday night?
Baud
@Cheryl Rofer: Wait until Obama gives good eulogy.
Baud
@Baud:
Good = his
Don’t even know how that happened.
Betty Cracker
@raven: I probably won’t ever post a football thread on this blog again — it’s not worth the trolling and complaints! I do love Stephen Fry’s anthropological excursion into Alabama though! :)
Snarki, child of Loki
Trump is prone to blurting out self-incriminating things
Which is why, when Trump is finally put in the dock for Treason, it’s likely that he’ll meet the high standard of “a confession in open court”.
The televised execution by hanging? RATINGS GOLD!
raven
@Betty Cracker: I agree, fuck em if they can’t take a joke.
MattF
@Platonailedit: And he lights the new one with the dying embers of the old one.
Jeffro
@MattF: I just saw that and was gonna post about it here, but you beat me to it.
The descriptive part is, well, spot-on. The part that concerns me is the latter half, where the author talks about how this damaged person can be contained:
Why, it’s almost like he would tell the basest part of his base lies like “Democrats are violent” and continue to lie about the nation’s top law-enforcement agency or something.
On a related note, because of this and because the Trumpov maladministration is actually denying passports to American citizens and because 3,000 Americans dying is “a fantastic job…a 10 out of 10″…last night it dawned on me that We Are Here. The Moment Has Arrived. This racist, corrupt-to-the-core president* and his goon squad are completely off the rails. And so, I am ramping up now with my calls to my Senators (absolutely NO to Kavanaugh or any other SCOTUS pick from this scumbag), and starting to make donations, and making plans NOW to volunteer across Sept, Oct, and early Nov.
This country cannot take two more years of GOP malfeasance, of looking the other way while president* bwah bwah bwah wrecks everything we hold dear. Get fired up. We can’t control what will happen when Mueller drops hundreds of charges on dozens of conspirators. We can’t control the next Hurricane Maria or lack of a response to it. But we sure as hell better be firing on all cylinders these next 10 weeks and make this blue wave happen, or we are goners.
JPL
@Cheryl Rofer: The aides are planning a Camp David weekend in order to keep him away from the public eye. Maybe the Palin’s can join him.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Jeffro: I’m reading with horror the stories about citizens having their passports taken. If that gets a foothold, what’s to stop them?
I was born in a border town (Detroit) and my father was a Canadian citizen at the time. Luckily for me, my skin color is in favor. But what about my politics? Maybe it turns out I’m anti-American. Maybe I’m not a good citizen after all.
VOR
My theory is his Legal team made it clear to him that he made a mistake saying that in the Holt video. And since we all know Donald Trump is incapable of making mistakes, the only logical answer is that NBC News management altered the video. I seriously believe he is so narcissistic that he gaslights himself.
gratuitous
One point that shouldn’t get lost: Trump’s tweet says that “Holt got caught.” He’s not making some “new” allegation, he’s saying it’s already been established that the interview tape was fudged. You know what might clear up some of this? A press conference, which Trump hasn’t held since the early days of his administration. Come on, media, do your jobs and get clamoring for one. Or can’t you think of anything you’d like to ask Needy Amin?
VOR
@JPL: I thought he hated Camp David and preferred to go to the Trump place in Virginia.
OzarkHillbilly
@VOR:
I guarantee he does, it’s what pathological liars do.
bemused
@MattF:
He does display all those anti-social traits. His die hard fans and the GOP have more than distant resemblance with these behaviors, imo.
Cheryl Rofer
@JPL: I read somewhere that the beautiful Sarah was disinvited to McCain’s funeral too, but I’d like to see it confirmed.
Haroldo
@lahke:
I was unaware one might be in the works. I’d be interested as well.
Frankensteinbeck
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
@mad citizen:
We need to stop pretending Republicans are decent people. He’s an asshole. They’re assholes. Yes, they thought he would be a great president, because they think being an asshole is the greatest thing ever and the asshole way of doing things is always right. The coastal/heartland divide was never anything except shorthand for how much assholes resent the larger nation stopping them from hurting whoever they want.
A Ghost To Most
@Cheryl Rofer: Yes. Rawstory had an article about it yesterday.
Cheryl Rofer
NIne tweets this morning so far. I’m gonna have breakfast and then will be required to walk the kitties.
Cheryl Rofer
Charles Pierce is speculating that something big is gonna drop today. I think that Betty’s and the other speculations here are sufficient, but I guess we’ll see.
A Ghost To Most
link to rawstory about palin disinvite
Eric S.
OT, so going personal. I’m sitting in an urgent care waiting room. I have a swollen, sore eye. I fear pink eye. I’ve beget had it before. I’m 36 hours away from my flight to Paris for 2 weeks in France.
Immanentize
@raven:
You crack me up.
Every thread here is an open thread, pet thread, and football thread….
OzarkHillbilly
@Cheryl Rofer: @A Ghost To Most: Fox news: Sarah Palin not invited to McCain funeral: reports
rp
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s not a lie if you believe it!
OzarkHillbilly
@Eric S.: Almost perfect timing. Perfect would have been showing itself tomorrow.
Betty Cracker
@A Ghost To Most: Wow, that’s a HUGE snub. Good.
OzarkHillbilly
@rp: Exactly.
BC in Illinois
This is the Lester Holt interview that I remember:
1. Trump admits obstruction of justice in firing Comey
2. Holt asks his staff, “Is that it? Did I get him?”
3. Staff informs Holt, “No. Nothing matters. Absolutely nothing matters any more.”
Is there another tape?
rikyrah
@Eric S.:
Hope that they can get you patched up for your trip to France.
Redshift
The local DC news was covering the preparations for McCain’s funeral last night. They were pointing out the front row which was reserved for former presidents. The chair on the aisle, they said, is normally reserved for the current president, but since Trump isn’t invited, it’s believed that Obama will sit there.
I have no great love for McCain, but he was a vicious bastard, and I like to believe he knew enough about state funerals to deliberately make that a bonus FU (on top of being disinvited) to Trump. I hope that description gets repeated a lot.
Jeffro
@gratuitous:
WIN
#stealingthis
rikyrah
@BC in Illinois:
Surely they don’t think that NBC only sent by the snippet of that interview. I’m sure Bobby Three Sticks has ALL the tape of the interview.
Dupe1970
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Rob Ford?
But Her Emails!!!
An interesting thing to remember is that McCain invited Bush and Obama to deliver eulogies. These are the two guys who kept him from becoming President. Bush in particular used some seriously nasty sliming to do so. McCain’s choices weren’t motivated just by spite, you apparently have to be a special kind of asshole not to be invited.
Frankensteinbeck
@BC in Illinois:
Bear in mind, if Trump pins his own ass to the legal wall with public confessions, that takes months, years to go through the system. It looks like nothing is happening for a long time, and then the hammer drops.
westyny
@Betty Cracker: I love your football musings!!
eric
@rikyrah: I would not be so sure. He would need to subpoena NBC news, who would fight the subpoena over the unaired footage. I have done that on behalf of news organizations before.
Elizabelle
@Cheryl Rofer: Give us all something to talk about over Labor Day weekend.
Happy Thursday, jackals.
But Her Emails!!!
@Redshift:
I get the distinct impression that McCain planned this funeral, so it’s probably a huge fuck you to Trump. I’m only giving it a 9.5 out of 10 though. He would have needed to sit Hillary there to get full points.
Jeffro
@Cheryl Rofer:
Drop or not, the walls are completely and totally closing in on this clown, and not a moment too soon. The midterms are 10 weeks away, the Dems are going to crush the GOP, and then it is SUBPOENA TIME, baby! Wall to wall investigations for the next two year and a guaranteed no re-election*
*knock on wood
The SDNY investigations continue to mount up. Mueller rolls on. Jeff Sessions is still in place. Manafort tried to cut a plea deal before this second trial of his. McGahn talked. Nobody gives a shit about the Blessed Tax Cut or the tariffs (except in a negative way). North Korea isn’t working out so well. It isn’t “no collusion!” anymore, it’s “collusion isn’t even a crime and we’re proud of ourselves”. And Trumpov knows full well that any day now, hundreds of charges against dozens of conspirators could drop.
He’s trying to tell people that if he’s impeached, the stock market will crash and “everyone will be very poor.”
He’s trying to tell the basest of his base that if Dems win in November, we’re going to “act out violently.”
This is why I’m saying We Are Here. The Time Has Come. A US president* is essentially trying to fear-monger** his way out of the hole he keeps digging for himself, by turning citizens against each other, by acting like a cheap thug towards our economy. We Are Here.
Charles Blow did a nice job on this in the NYT today, btw: The Commander of Fear
So true.
Elizabelle
@But Her Emails!!!: How cool would it be to see Hillary and Bill Clinton in a place of honor at McCain’s DC services. I think HRC and JSM3 got along rather well on several issues they worked together on. And then we learn the family kept that quiet, so as not to have the media running their mouths and spooling up controversy, as they do. Being greed-asses and airheads.
cmorenc
How many of the United States’ best Presidents have been immediately followed by a malevolent nincompoop as POTUS? The two obvious instances are:
Obama followed by Trump
Lincoln followed by Johnson
Bill Clinton followed by GWBush and Jimmy Carter followed by Ronald Reagan come to mind, and GWBush and Reagan do sharply contrast as nincompoops compared with their predecessor, but I wouldn;t list either Clinton or Carter as among our best Presidents. Another possibility that comes to mind has the same flaw: John Quicey Adams followed by Andrew Jackson. Jackson was the Donald Trump of his day in attitude and John Quincey Adams was a fine public-spirited man, but like Jimmy Carter, was simpy the wrong fit at the wrong time to fulfill any greatness in office.
It will be difficult to come up with anywhere near so compelling exmples than Obama => Trump or Lincoln -> Johnson for great to terrible transitions in the Presidency.
Mai Naem mobile
I think Mueller must be coming down with some big indictments tomorrow because Orange Nutjob is going crazy on the Twitter machine. Please let it be Kushner.
A Ghost To Most
McCain chooses Russian dissident Kara-Murza as pallbearer
I doubt this escaped Shit Hitler and his boss
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
I’m sure it will be good!
oldgold
.@Cheryl Rofer:
I am not sure if it will come today or tomorrow, but on or before September 7 we should see a major development. Time and timing demands it.
Gin & Tonic
@Jeffro: Like many people in positions of power that I’ve come across in my life, he confuses fear and respect.
tobie
@Jeffro: As usual, Charles Blow hits the nail on the head. I’ve been wondering how my neighbors in rural-exurban Maryland can work themselves up into a frenzy about MS-13 which, as far as I can tell, has no presence in the state and was never even in the news here until Trump came into office. Basically, Trump tells his followers day-in day-out, “Everywhere there is MENACE, You are the VICTIM of these vicious forces,” and “I will do everything to protect YOU, God-fearing, true-blooded Americans, against THEM (blacks, Latinos, Asians, globalists, Muslims, arrogant elites, etc.).”
cmorenc
@Mai Naem mobile: I think Mueller must be coming down with some big indictments tomorrow because Orange Nutjob is going crazy on the Twitter machine. Please let it be Kushner.
cmorenc
Well darn, need that edit function back – forgot to close off a quote, and the text comes out that I’m quoting myself instead of the other poster’s words I’m following up on.
The Dangerman
@Cheryl Rofer:
Maybe McCain should have invited Trump because I fear The Orange One might do something to knock McCain off the TV. Invade Toronto or something.
Ruckus
@artem1s:
I know they are two entries in the big book of mental faults, the DSM, but isn’t narcissism an anti social disease?
Immanentize
@cmorenc: And Lincoln -> Johnson wasn’t exactly an election transfer….
Platonailedit
Immanentize
@JPL: They really can’t have Trump visible and golfing all weekend during the McCain-o-gasm.
Shana
@BC in Illinois: I thought that was from the SNL skit about the interview.
FlipYrWhig
@tobie:
Except then he doesn’t do sweet fuck-all about it. I feel like this is eventually going to be his comeuppance with just enough of his voters. SCARY SCARY SCARY kinda invites, “OK, and what have you done exactly to address that, I mean, you’re in charge, right?” And what’s the answer? “We locked up babies and totally built a wall but you can’t see it yet”? Seems to me that at a certain point he’ll need to have his equivalent of ordering the raid to kill Bin Laden.
burnspbesq
@Betty Cracker:
If the Maryland thing wasn’t the last straw, and if you still don’t see handegg for what it is, you’re not paying attention.
Gelfling 545
I don’t even think he’s lying anymore. It’s outright delusional. How can ANYONE nor see thst this man is unwell?
chopper
@BC in Illinois:
it is certainly within the realm of possibility, likely even, that trump thinks the SNL take-off of the holt interview is the real thing.
A Ghost To Most
@burnspbesq: Soccer is still boring, second only to cricket.
FlipYrWhig
@chopper: Oh, wow, I wonder if you’re right. “NBC made a fake tape with actors!”
schrodingers_cat
@A Ghost To Most: Cricket is not boring. Even the name football doesn’t make sense because 90% of the time the ball is in someone’s hands.
trollhattan
@A Ghost To Most:
Odds of him suddenly ejected from the 25th floor of some hotel just went up bigly.
Gelfling 545
@Cheryl Rofer: I know a way he could get just as much attention! And a really classy parade!
Jeffro
@Gin & Tonic: If Trumpov had resolved his daddy issues – and that most certainly is where he learned that “fear” = “respect” – we wouldn’t be living through this nightmare. Thanks a lot Fred Trump, ya jackass.
Gelfling 545
@Baud: Barak Obama Boulevard in LA has got to hsve him chewing the drapes already.
A Ghost To Most
@schrodingers_cat: I was forced to watched a whole day of cricket with an OZzie once. Will not be suckered again. It’s like watching batting practice.
But I’m a hockey fan, and a fan of the NHL Champion Washington Capitals, so I’m biased to a sport that actually has activity in it.
tobie
@FlipYrWhig: You’re absolutely right. He’s done nothing for the people who voted for him except exacerbate their (delusional) sense of victimhood and mindset of us vs. them. If Blow’s right–and I think he is–that fear motivates his supporters, they’ll turn on him when they feel like he’s a threat to their survival. Nothing else–no appeal to higher principles like justice, democracy, kindness, community, decency–will work and that’s actually rather sad.
schrodingers_cat
@A Ghost To Most: Were you watching test cricket or a one day match and was it between national teams or local teams? Yes some games can be boring, but it can be great fun too.
The Thin Black Duke
@Gelfling 545: It’s Pride. Admitting that Trump, their chosen one, is monstrously incompetent proves that they made a stupid mistake and their pride won’t allow that. There’s a reason why Pride is the first deadly sin.
A Ghost To Most
@schrodingers_cat: Looked like the crowd was more interested in funny hats and drinking than what was going on on the field. If I watched it now, I’d half expect Katniss Everdeen to shoot the apple out of a pig’s mouth.
Luckily, I was in Sydney, so I had Victoria Bitter to drown my boredom.
Lapassionara
@Eric S.: Let’s hope it is easily treatable and your trip goes as planned.
Ohio Mom
@Ruckus: I believe narcissism and anti-social personality disorders are on the same (what the DSM calls) axis.
In simpler terms, not the same bolt of cloth but bolts next to each other in the fabric store of life. Categorized as more alike than different.
MomSense
@MattF:
They have a lot in common.
scav
@schrodingers_cat: Well, not that it’s germane to the interest of cricket, but 100% of cricket games are not played by musical insects.
The mere fact that other sports may cram their baffling action / tedium into smaller units of time seems a minor accomplishment at best. The food seems better, but that may only be the games I wandered near. And if Lord Peter enjoyed it, I’m all for it.
smintheus
I think Trump’s tweet may be related to a recent news report. Murray Waas has just published another report on the issue of what Trump knew about the investigation of Flynn before Trump fired Comey. His latest says that Mueller has documentary evidence that McGahn reviewed the transcripts of the Flynn intercepts, and then shared that info directly with Trump in a White House meeting. Waas says that he has seen the McGahn memo that Mueller possesses.
Trump of course then did nothing with the info about Flynn for nearly 2 weeks, until the WH learned that a news report was going to make public the info about Flynn’s Russian talks. It was only then that Flynn resigned, and the next day Trump pressured Comey to drop the investigation.
So basically it has become apparent to the WH that Trump’s lie – that he didn’t know Flynn was under investigation when he twisted Comey’s arm – has been disproven with documentary evidence. That would explain why Trump is trying to take back his admission to Holt about why he fired Comey.
Brachiator
@FlipYrWhig:
You’re not paying attention. He has been blocked or hindered in some efforts, but his deportations and orders that various groups who previously sought refuge in this country has affected hundreds of thousands of people. Trump has used the tax system and tax reform to hurt undocumented people, including Hispanics to an unprecedented degree. It’s estimated that the new law will strip tax credits from a million undocumented people. Other aspects of the new tax law will actually make it easier for bad employers to exploit undocumented workers. And of course IRS enforcement of regulations meant to help workers, including the undocumented, has slowed down under this administration.
And of course, there is his vile immigration policies, and the family separations.
I guess there is some cold comfort to be had in the fact that Trump is incompetent in so many areas. Otherwise his persecution of nonwhite people would be much more systematic. But this does not mean that it is not happening won’t keep happening, especially if Trump retains a majority in Congress.
@tobie:
I can’t see Trump’s supporters turning on him. They think the same way that he thinks. And they are willing to explain away his failures as betrayals by Democrats and others.
And even if Trump somehow stumbled badly, his people would look for someone worse.
Also, the crazy thing is that Trump IS a threat to their survival. But they don’t see it. Absolutely refuse to look at the facts. And they are glad to eat up his lies, because it helps them to maintain their delusions. Some of these people will go to their doom and never blame Trump for what happens to them.
schrodingers_cat
@scav: There is a 5 day version, a three day version, a one day version and a half day version too. When national teams play that can be fun because they are evenly matched more or less.
wkwv
@tobie: Sadly there is some gang presence in Langley Park (Near DC). They have been convicted of murder in Anne Arundel county(Annapolis of all places). From what I can tell, one could fit all the members in Maryland into one movie theater.
They usualy victimize their own community and killing recruits and girlfriends believered to be snitches. MS 13 came into being as a direct response to US gang and prison culture, so we are responsible, not the average citizen of El Salvador.
lollipopguild
@Gelfling 545: Trump will order ICE to take down the street signs.
joel hanes
@Jeffro:
and starting to make donations, and making plans NOW to volunteer across Sept, Oct, and early Nov.
I note that the Juanita Jean PAC is accepting donations to pay block walkers for Beto and the entire [Texas] Democratic ticket
They’ve already sent ballot-by-mail applications to all the seniors in their precinct.
Flipping Texas would be a very deal.
Cermet
@tobie: Most live in Harford County and the Eastern Shore and they are older white males that 1) most never served in the military 2) are children of the affluent parents that benefited from WW II via that economy 3) believe they are surrounded by criminals everywhere except their little neck of the woods in white suburbia. I know a few and they are right-wing, stupid and racist thru the core
satby
@Eric S.: if it’s pink eye and you get antibiotics you should still be able to go on your trip. Good luck!
Just One More Canuck
@cmorenc: Didn’t Giuliani demand that Mueller’s investigation should be wrapped up by September 1? If any/all of Kushner/Lucretia/Dumb/Dumber were to indicted, that would be epic
Это курам на смех
Narcissist. Antisocial. Dessert topping. Floor wax. All I know is that he is one sick motherfucker.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Just One More Canuck: especially if it were indictment by state agencies with info Mueller passed along to them
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
I’m not sure that Trump has a social disorder or disease. It’s twisted and unpleasant, but Trump has largely made his narcissism work for him.
J R in WV
@Eric S.:
You know, in France, wearing a color-coordinated eye patch would be considered quite sexy, you could say it was a minor wound from a confrontation with a Trumpster. Or from a duel with a Trump employee, or from that war you can’t talk about. That pink eye problem, that shouldn’t be mentioned at all.
trnc
I think we stopped assuming that Bucktooth Nosferatu and “Where’s my grift” Waldo Sekulow are competent at lawyering a long time ago.
wkwv
@wkwv: Sorry for the typos. I will be so glad when the edit function is available again. In the meantime I should trim my fingernails.
MrSnrub
@Eric S.: Enjoy! That sounds like so much fun.
Corner Stone
This Andrea Mitchell interview with HR McMaster is garbage. From the way he’s soft-shoeing all her softball questions I can see why he fit in to the Trump WH and am surprised he’s not still there.
JPL
@Immanentize: Since Trump can’t play golf this weekend, maybe that is why he is throwing a temper tantrum on twitter. He has a fundraiser tonight, and that should be fun for him.
tobie
@wkwv: I didn’t know about the convictions in the DC area, which is itself a sign that gang violence has not spread outside specific areas. The people I know who are most upset about this don’t even live close to DC but in places like the Eastern Shore and Harford County.
@Cermet: You’re spot on in your description of Trump-humpers in Harford County.
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: Wasn’t he lionized quite a bit in the media and even here, IIRC. Its funny how all T appointees turn out to be awful people.
Corner Stone
I never thought I’d say this, but I can. not. wait. for Monday to get here. No, wait. That won’t be far enough. Maybe Wednesday?
Corner Stone
@schrodingers_cat: He may be a hell of a military man but he’s a garbage human being, IMO.
Kay
@Corner Stone:
She’s partly responsible for Trump. Her insane (and phony) concern about “national security” and Clinton’s emails was as bad or worse then the rest of them.
I love, love, love how all of the concerns about our precious national secrets falling into the wrong hands disappeared completely the moment Trump won. Now it’s anything goes- they can use any device they want, email servers, chats with Russian spies, whatever. Did Jared ever get a clearance? He’s the acting Secretary of State and no one knows the first thing about him.
The whole thing was pure bullshit. They could give a rat’s ass about “national security”. It was pulled out to attack Clinton and put away the moment it was no longer useful to attack Clinton.
JPL
I was just reading Trump’s tweets from this morning. Why does Trump think that being an expert on Russia is a problem?
Ruviana
@J R in WV: He should say he got in the Bowling Green Massacre!
Ladyraxterinok
@Brachiator: See interviews ov T supporters hurt by his tariffs ‘I trust him. He’s doing a grest job’. Etc, etc, etc
MisterForkbeard
@JPL: By this reasoning, Clarence Thomas should have been kicked off the court a long time ago. His wife is involved in all sorts of shady shit – as opposed to Nellie Ohr, who’s apparently respected, well educated and trained, and works at a research firm.
MCA1
@Brachiator: Agreed. Also throw in letting ICE become unchecked and unapologetic jackbooted thugs, the travel ban, and now denying passport renewals to naturally born citizens.
Mind you, none of that stuff will do a damned thing to help out the deplorables. They don’t make this a safer country or raise wages or any of the crap that Dotard promised his cult. All they do is gratuitously increase the amount of misery and terror in the world. But that doesn’t matter, ultimately. It strokes the racial resentment boner of the base, and they’re all too disconnected from how the world of policy actually works to see that (a) their concept of what needs to be “fixed” in America is completely misplaced and mythical, and (b) Drumpf’s prescriptions for those ills are placebos.
Those executive actions of the Trump Maladministration are seen by the deplorables as what MAGA is all about, and they’re convinced it’s working. It’s all the misdirection of the magician, while he simultaneously picks their pockets with the tax scam and deregulation of every industry and the other legislative atrocities being committed by the GOP.
TenguPhule
Trump is planning violence.
TenguPhule
That’s not how it works anymore.
Lies live on forever now. We have an internet and people crazy enough to use it.
TenguPhule
@Betty Cracker:
Even if they did, somebody would still be filming him secretly.
Either for a book deal or a plea deal.
Jay
@JPL:
Orr’s the DOJ’s Russian Mob/Money Laundering expert who nailed The Insane Clown POSus’s BFF Oleg’s balls to the wall.
Frankensteinbeck
@MCA1:
No, it’s not. The record is crystal clear. Trump hates minorities. The man is a hardcore white supremacist, and I’d go 50/50 he considers himself a Nazi. He’s terrible at distractions, because while there’s an unending parade of them, they’re all things that make him look horrible and clearly piss him off that anyone is paying attention to. Those are just how nonstop awful he is, not any strategy.
You’re right about everything else, and more. The way he abandoned Puerto Rico to die, for example. Republican voters love this stuff, and as long as he’s a whiny asshole who hurts minorities, they think their vote was well made. A small fraction are embarrassed by how obviously stupid he is, or how he’s in the pocket of Russia. Not many.
rikyrah
@The Thin Black Duke:
Yep. Have to admit that they were suckers? They will find any reason not to do that.
Brachiator
@TenguPhule:
This is fucking insane. And why Trump is a weird mischievous imp.
His speculation is all bullshit, of course. But as president, he has the power to prevent any violence. But he makes it sound as if, “oh, well, nothing I could do.”
Trump is also a coward, as are, I think, right now, most of his supporters, even those who walk around with guns and other weapons.
And yet, with all this, Trump strangely loves to talk about violence, especially in response to any perceived threat to his rule. He’s inviting someone to start something. And there are a few fruitcakes who might jump at the bait. Not many, and not enough to really cause major problems.
Today.
But Trump keeps coming back to this. He keeps stoking the fires. Again, I don’t think he is planning anything (yet). But for an American president, he sure seems to hate his country. Or at least a big chunk of the people who live here.
terry chay
@tobie: because they are stupid losers. The blue state-red state divide has always been an urban-rural one. These are people who have seen their peers and their children leave them for better opportunities while they weren’t given them because they are stupid losers. Now they take it out of us electorally because try as they might corporations have no electoral power without influencing this demographic.
Even if they win, they lose because the only thing shrinking faster than their demographic is their economic and social power. Nobody cares about them. Heck, if they didn’t vote the press wouldn’t bother to interview them. Their entire economy depends on the legends of government: their social security checks, farm subsidies, and looking the other way as the heavy lifting is done by undocumented immigrants.