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You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / The Mid-Afternoon of the Average Sized Sporks Has Begun

The Mid-Afternoon of the Average Sized Sporks Has Begun

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Who could have predicted?

From CNN:

President Donald Trump, showing his outrage over Bob Woodward’s explosive new book, is ordering a real witch hunt in the West Wing and throughout his administration, asking loyal aides to help determine who cooperated with the book.

“The book is fiction,” Trump said Wednesday in the Oval Office alongside the Emir of Kuwait.

But even as the President publicly fumes, he’s privately on a mission to determine who did — and didn’t — talk to Woodward, CNN has learned. Two officials who have spoken directly to the President say he is pleased with the denials offered by chief of staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary James Mattis.

Trump himself highlighted the denials of Mattis and Kelly, saying that both men were “insulted” by the comments Woodward attributed to them.

In Trump’s eyes, what makes or breaks aides who are reported to have made disparaging comments about him is how strongly they push back on the accusations.

Unlike Kelly and Mattis, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson never denied calling Trump a “moron” and a former senior White House official said Trump “never forgave him for it.”

But he is also taking note of the silence from several other former administration officials.

“He wants to know who talked to Woodward,” one of the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity amid the highly tense atmosphere in the West Wing in the wake of the book.

The search for leakers inside the administration contrasts with the White House’s defense that the book was fueled by “disgruntled employees,” offered by press secretary Sarah Sanders and others.

One source close to the White House said people inside the administration are “frustrated because they know it’s true.”

The President is directing the response strategy personally, officials say, in consultation with top communications official Bill Shine and other aides. At this point, it seems unlikely that anyone is immediately fired because of the book, one official says, because that would “lend credence to a book he is trying to discredit.”

More broadly, the White House’s emerging strategy to push back against Woodward’s reporting seems to be going after those former officials suspected of sharing documents and stories, according to several people familiar with the game plan.

“You don’t discredit Bob Woodward. You discredit the motives of the people” who provided the information, one person said.

Everyone execute your exfil plans!

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

108Comments

  2. 2.

    TenguPhule

    In Trump’s eyes, what makes or breaks aides who are reported to have made disparaging comments about him is how strongly they push back on the accusations.

    Ball licking as a job qualification.

  3. 3.

    JMG

    Is Trump working with Bill Shine or with Woodward’s publisher? This is a book marketing blitz par excellence.

  5. 5.

    Mary G

    As heartbroken and furious as I am that this nitwit was elected and is trying to destroy everything I love about my country, I am enjoying the flailing, and seeing who does and doesn’t deny talking to Woodward to going to be vastly entertaining.

    What do you think about Mattis’ denial? Is he telling the truth or just trying to stay in place to keep things from going to hell, like nuking NK or assassinating Assad or invading Venezuela? Kelly I am sure is lying; we know from the Frederica Wilson episode that he is willing to lie his ass off even when it doesn’t mean that much.

  6. 6.

    p.a.

    Only fitting if this witch hunt turns out to be the only thing the WH staff is competent at: the talkers are fellow-traveler rats who helped bring this about. Let them suffer the trumpists’ attacks. The book is out, the damage done. Now let ’em suffer.

  8. 8.

    Corner Stone

    The President is directing the response strategy personally

    What’s that old saying? Oh, yes, here it is. “And hilarity ensued.”

  9. 9.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary G: Mattis’s denial is a non denial denial. It is, like Kelly’s, very carefully worded. He knows Woodward. He knows Woodward has receipts. He’s not going to get crosswise with that, so he did what he did today, the most minimal, careful move he could to preserve his position.

  11. 11.

    dmsilev

    So, who leaked the story about an attempted crackdown on leakers?

    And, inevitably, when will the witch hunt begin to find the people who leaked about cracking down on leakers? And how long until that leaks?

    It’s leakception! Or leakers all the way down. Or something. Maybe Trump needs a plumber. Is Joe The available?

  12. 12.

    TenguPhule

    A Richmond Circuit Court judge on Wednesday ordered independent candidate Shaun Brown removed from the ballot in the 2nd District congressional race, finding that her qualifying petition was riddled with “forgery” and “out and out fraud.”

    That would leave incumbent U.S. Rep. Scott Taylor (R) to face a sole Democratic challenger, retired Navy officer Elaine Luria, for this fall’s election. Brown vowed to appeal the ruling.

    Hey hey hey, goodbye!

  13. 13.

    The Moar You Know

    “The book is fiction,” Trump said Wednesday in the Oval Office alongside the Emir of Kuwait.

    Woodward has tapes. He might start playing them. I would find that extremely amusing.

  16. 16.

    Brachiator

    The search for leakers inside the administration contrasts with the White House’s defense that the book was fueled by “disgruntled employees,” offered by press secretary Sarah Sanders and others.

    How big is the White House Staff, and how many are gruntled as opposed to “disgruntled?”

  17. 17.

    debit

    @Brachiator: How can they be disgruntled? Trump was only going to hire the best people. Because only the best will work for the best, and that’s him, baby. THE. BEST.

  18. 18.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Methinks the Secret Service would have its hands full. Or would the murder investigations fall under some other agency, like the FBI?

    I would hope the SS would stop Trump from murdering someone if he really did try to shoot someone on 5th Avenue. You think they’d use deadly force?

  21. 21.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TenguPhule: Nope. I’ve been using that for years. As in almost any sentence or paragraph can be improved by adding “and then the murders began” to the end of either the sentence or the paragraph. For instance:

    Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. And then the murders began.//

    See what I mean?

  22. 22.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Brachiator: From the pictures and videos, quite a lot of them are disheveled. That Gidney kid needs a hair cut and basic instruction in how to use a comb.

  24. 24.

    TenguPhule

    The Democratic Party of Virginia brought a civil suit to get Brown off the ballot, amid fears that Brown — a former Democratic candidate — would split the vote in a close race and ensure Taylor’s reelection.

    The party subpoenaed Taylor and several of his current and former staffers to testify in Wednesday’s hearing, but Judge Gregory L. Rupe granted a motion to quash Taylor’s subpoena under state law that shields sitting members of Congress from being compelled to attend civil court proceedings .

    Five of Taylor’s current and former staffers filed affidavits saying that they would invoke the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination if asked to testify about whether they knew they had submitted forged signatures and about whether the congressman directed the effort to get Brown onto the ballot.

    Moar popcorn!

  25. 25.

    scav

    @Mary G: There’s also a twisted glee to be taken in watching the piss-poor judgement (and moral universe) of <ahem> certain people being repeatedly slapped into their faces everyday in the headlines. And they don’t even get it, but consider it an honor and of singular personal merit to have the dead fish repeatedly applied to the epidermis.

    Not a glee I would have chosen from the myriads theoretically available, but one works with what’s actually on offer.

  26. 26.

    dmsilev

    @debit:

    He’s going to use geometric logic.

    Pah. As if Trump would care about someone eating strawberries. Taking a second scoop of ice cream that was rightfully his, that would be a different story.

  28. 28.

    Mnemosyne

    @Downpuppy:

    I’m pretty sure sure that Jarvanka both know exactly how to convince the narcissist-in-chief that they’re totally innocent and it was all Eric’s fault. It’s part of growing up in that kind of toxic family.

  30. 30.

    Mandalay

    Has anyone been identified yet as a definite leaker? From what I have read it seems hard to believe that Dowd wasn’t a source, but there seems to be wiggle room with everyone else.

  31. 31.

    smintheus

    This is Trump’s particular skill. It’s not just creating a bonfire of vanities. Trump’s specialty is wading right in to turn it into a barn fire.

  33. 33.

    hueyplong

    Root for grievous injuries within the White House, and hope Woodward waits for the denials to become lengthy, after which he starts playing tapes, one a day, up through election day. Each time someone comes up with some pretzel explanation for why a comment is “out of context,” Woodward releases a fuller version that blows up the “explanation.”

    Sort of an Omarosa from the Deep State.

  35. 35.

    donnah

    Bob Woodward is scheduled to be on Colbert’s show tonight. I’ll be watching!

    Woodward has a solid set of credentials and he won’t hesitate to back up everything he said. I read somewhere, maybe here, that when he wrote about Bush and Rumsfeld, Rumsfeld accused Woodward of writing lies about him, and Woodward said he’d gladly play the tapes. Rumsfeld shut up.

    And I expect all of the squealers will also have to swallow their whines for the same reason.

  36. 36.

    YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)

    Woodward has tapes. He might start playing them

    Reports say he always has tapes and also say they were promised deep background. Has Woodward ever done this before? Burned a source publically? Especially if the source isn’t the one doing the denial? I have my doubts that he’ll go all Omarosa on these people.

  37. 37.

    catclub

    @Adam L Silverman:

    As in almost any sentence or paragraph can be improved by adding “and then the murders began” to the end of either the sentence or the paragraph

    also “in my pants”

  38. 38.

    HeleninEire

    @Downpuppy: “NO” she screamed. “I’m the first daughter…..”

    I call her the C word but Barbara here at Balloon Juice called me a communist or a failed feminist or what the FUCK ever.

    Ivanka? Cunt.

  39. 39.

    catclub

    @TenguPhule: so is the judgement – quickly kicking the fraudulent candidate off the ballot – to avoid having those aides show up in court and plead the fifth on forgery questions?

  40. 40.

    germy

    And no man putteth new whine into old bottles: else the new whine doth burst the bottles, and the whine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new whine must be put into new bottles.

  41. 41.

    Eric S.

    Hey Chicago Peeps! Any insight on why Rahm has chosen not to seek reelection? I skimmed an article but nothing jumped out to me. I ask because I’m on vacation. I’m curious for an answer but not enough to dig through news sites. Merçi.

  42. 42.

    Mnemosyne

    @Brachiator:

    Trump definitely strikes me as the kind of guy who totally ignores “the help” (ie waiters, cooks, housemaids, etc) so I would not be at all surprised if at least some of the leaks happen because someone on the permanent staff overhears something. ?

  44. 44.

    debit

    @HeleninEire: I personally don’t have a problem with using that word, and have, on many fine occasions. However, Ms Cracker has requested we don’t here.

  45. 45.

    Calouste

    @Mandalay: I think domestic abuser and former Shite House employee Rob Porter is most likely one. He’s probably very pissed that he got canned for doing something pretty much everyone did around there.

  56. 56.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Adam L Silverman: For some reason I am reminded of a legendary production of Titus Andronicus staged in quasi-fascist costumes nearly 50 years ago at Baltimore’s Center Stage. (I base this on the recounting by a college classmate who was a spear-, uh, rifle-carrier in the play.) Supposedly the last act was played with thirty-something “dead bodies” on stage, as one of the actors delivered a soliloquy to a plaster statue. (On one particular night a flight of arrows had been launched past the statue in an earlier act & one of them hit it & lodged in the groin in an upright position – & it took all of the scattered corpses’ self-control to keep from breaking out in laughter.).

    I could see “The Final Days” of the Trumped-Up Residency playing out like that…

  58. 58.

    Old Man Shadow

    Sigh… I like how all of the media has seemed to move on from the President’s long-time personal lawyer confessing to felonies that he committed at the behest of or with the knowledge of the President.

    Honestly, that should fucking hang over these SCOTUS hearings like a Sword of Damocles.

  59. 59.

    daverave

    @debit:

    The word does seem to get more usage in the Commonwealth countries (ex-Canada) apparently because it is not judged as harshly as here.

  60. 60.

    HeleninEire

    @debit: Thank you for that. So from now on I will not use it. Because I will defer to Ms. Cracker. Cuz she is the BEST.

  61. 61.

    Betty Cracker

    Whoa Nelly — the NYT just published an op-ed from an anonymous official entitled “I am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Admin.” LOL!

  63. 63.

    MattF

    Once Trump started complaining about a witch hunt, it was only a matter of time before he conducted one of his very own.

  64. 64.

    TenguPhule

    @catclub: No, judge said after 3 hours of presentation “I’m buying most of what you’re selling” to the Democrats who brought the suit. The 5th pleas were just icing on the cake.

  65. 65.

    Mnemosyne

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    Sort of on that topic but kind of not, I realize that people were all indignant on Serena Williams’ behalf about the whole “catsuit at the French Open” kerfuffle, but they seem to have forgotten that she is Serena frickin’ Williams. She’s not worried about a catsuit ban, because she already has her next fashion-forward outfit planned that they can’t even predict yet. She’s good.

  68. 68.

    Gin & Tonic

    Totally OT, but delivery of car that was supposed to be “some time Wed afternoon” is now “first thing Thur morning.”

  70. 70.

    David Anderson

    @Betty Cracker: That blew my mind —

    Is the right precedent, assuming the op-ed writer is telling something approaching the truth — that we’re effectively acting as if the 25th Amendment had been activated even though it has not OR Wilson after his stroke world.

  71. 71.

    Mnemosyne

    @MattF:

    Exactly! And then she kicked her opponent’s ass while wearing a tutu.

    This ain’t her first time at the rodeo. She knows what she’s doing. I’m not worried that she’s going to let them get to her. ?

  72. 72.

    Barbara

    @TenguPhule: I don’t see how answering questions about whether Taylor directed them to do something incriminates them personally. Him, maybe, but not themselves.

  73. 73.

    sm*t cl*de

    @Adam L Silverman:

    As in almost any sentence or paragraph can be improved by adding “and then the murders began” to the end of either the sentence or the paragraph.

    “ACCORDING TO THE PROPHECY” works for me.

  78. 78.

    dmsilev

    @Betty Cracker: Wow.

    The erratic behavior would be more concerning if it weren’t for unsung heroes in and around the White House. Some of his aides have been cast as villains by the media. But in private, they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, though they are clearly not always successful.

    It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.

    And that’s coming from a self-described conservative who likes things such as massive tax giveaways for rich people.

    Let the witch hunt continue!

  79. 79.

    bemused

    Man, Republicans are just a slippin’ and a slidin’ in the muck and more fall in every day. Just read that Duncan Hunter spent campaign money on about five women. Of course, he did. They don’t actually have to practice family values, just say they do and call it a day.

  80. 80.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @daverave: Interestingly, in Commonwealth countries the word “fanny” is often used as a slightly less offensive term for the female genitalia.

    Some years back I was passing thru screening at one of the UK airports when the older male attendant pointed at my waist & said We’ll need to scan that. “Oh, of course, the fanny pack,” I said, & he visibly flinched. “That’s right,” I continued, “over here you call this a ‘bum bag’.” He nodded, grinning tentatively, Whilst depositing said item on the belt I leaned toward him & growled, “Well, in the States we call it a FANNY PACK.” Just to see him flinch again. :D

  82. 82.

    Brachiator

    @David Anderson:

    Is the right precedent, assuming the op-ed writer is telling something approaching the truth — that we’re effectively acting as if the 25th Amendment had been activated even though it has not OR Wilson after his stroke world.

    Batman has his “Bat Signal.” Trump has his “Batshit Crazy Signal.”

  83. 83.

    Barbara

    @HeleninEire: What the fuck ever? Very precisely, hijacking the casual misogyny of men by using the c word as the ultimate put down by one woman of another is what I would call being stuck in the patriarchal universe without irony or understanding.

  86. 86.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Eric S.:

    A lot of that had to do with Emanuel himself, of course. He had been languishing in the polls—and not just because of his famously quick temper, which he had the habit of letting loose around reporters. In his two terms, he oversaw dramatic tax hikes, shuttering of mental health clinics, union strikes, public school closings, population loss, a spike in violent crime, and reports of egregious police misconduct.

    “I don’t believe any single issue is the biggest driver of this decision. It took all these things coming together in a perfect storm,” said Bowen, who now runs a political consulting firm.

    The shooting death of unarmed Laquan McDonald was surely a turning point, though. When a court ordered the release of the video footage of the 16 shots officer Jason Van Dyke fired into the 17-year-old, floodgates of anger in the city flung wide open. Investigations revealed how Emanuel’s administration had screwed up. Thousands of documents on police misconduct were released. Emanuel’s ratings tanked. And while he never heeded calls to resign, his opponents persisted, and grew louder. Today’s announcement, in the eyes of many Chicagoans, is a win for local criminal justice activists.

    From CityLab

  88. 88.

    James E Powell

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    Oh my stars, the full Nike ad is out with Kaperneck narrating and it is all sorts of awesome.

    It’s going to run during tonight’s game. For those who don’t follow the NFL, the first game of the season. Expect ~ 20 million viewers. Bound to be some reaction.

  89. 89.

    Miss Bianca

    @YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S): What I wonder is, if all these people are running around with their hair on fire because Woodward quoted them – and, as with Trump, presumably, freaking *told* them he was recording them! – why the hell they didn’t simply exercise their option to say, “NO COMMENT”, and hang up on him? What did they think was going to happen when they talk to Bob Woodward, for God’s sake?

  90. 90.

    catclub

    @James E Powell: yeah this is the depressing part about the US voters – my fellow citizens – not enough of them were really up to the task of realizing that The Apprentice was not a documentary.

    It is not that he got 46% of the vote that surprised me, what horrified me was that he got more than 10% of it.

  92. 92.

    El Caganer

    Trump sez the book is fiction. It probably is – just like the accomplishments of his presidency.

  93. 93.

    TenguPhule

    @Miss Bianca:

    What did they think was going to happen when they talk to Bob Woodward, for God’s sake?

    A cushy job at the Fed, a boring tv game show and a lifetime reputation as a fiscal conservative.

  94. 94.

    Eric S.

    @MagdaInBlack: thank you. Makes sense. I’m no fan of Rahm. I won’t shed a tear to see him go. All the things in that article are true. To be fair though he was dealt a terrible hand by Junior, the outgoing major.

  98. 98.

    Amir Khalid

    @Mandalay:
    It may turn out that there was no one leaker, that pretty much everyone gave away something that seemed unimportant but, when Bob RedfordWoodward pieced it all together, contributed to the whole story or confirmed key elements. You know, something like that other dude, who was just allowed to hang around the White House andgo wherever he wanted and sit in on any meeting he chose.

  101. 101.

    Adam L Silverman

    @JPL: Keane would be okay. Despite his political preferences – he’s very conservative and very Republican – he was also on very good terms with Secretary Clinton.

  102. 102.

    Bill Arnold

    @Mike in NC:

    Just to be on the safe side, he needs to fire everybody including the landscapers!

    Including himself.
    He has a history of leaking (e.g. under a pseudonym, albeit intentionally, if that really matters.), not to mention being absurdly transparently (and one presumes unintentionally) leaky in his behavioral tells and his tweets.
    I would not trust him with information about a surprise birthday party, let alone something of nation-scale importance.

  104. 104.

    rsginsf

    Listen to the 11-minute tape of Woodward & Trump’s conversation. When Conway gets on the line, she asks Woodward for names, saying ‘I’m glad to hear you tried through seven or eight different people. That’s good. You should tell him all the names.’ When I heard that, I thought, ‘No, no. They’re going to want to know EVERY NAME.’
    Unbelievable times.

  105. 105.

    J R in WV

    @ ruemara:

    This post title is the best thing all year.

    Really funny, esp. given the current hysterical and dangerous situation.

    Thanks, Adam, great wit!

  106. 106.

    rsginsf

    @rsginsf: Also, you can tell she’s setting up Kelly for this: ‘I have to follow protocol.’ Clearly Trump knew nothing about Woodward’s request to interview him…of course he would have insisted on doing it. Which would have been the last thing anybody in the WH wanted. It must have been dawning on Trump right about then that there was a concerted effort afoot to prevent him from doing the interview that *he knew nothing about.*

  108. 108.

    Ken

    @Amir Khalid:

    You know, something like that other dude, who was just allowed to hang around the White House andgo wherever he wanted and sit in on any meeting he chose.

    Donald Trump?

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