Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Repub Enablers Open Thread: The ‘Boot Lamprey Pundit Class’ Is Very Nervous

Repub Enablers Open Thread: The ‘Boot Lamprey Pundit Class’ Is Very Nervous

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… as they begin to suspect that TFG is no longer their Grift Gift That Keeps on Giving. They’re having a really hard time giving up on their favorite political subject, squirming to find some excuse (however thin) for the latest torrent of criminal exposures.

Nobody wants to be first — or last — off the TFG gravy train! It’s genuinely traumatic for them. But Maggie Haberman is the Queen Lamprey, and if she’s beginning to waver…

Plenty still willing to go down with the SS Trumptanic, though. Including Maggie’s colleague, BoBo Brooks:
Open Thread: The Boot Lamprey Pundit Class Is All Very Nervous

Why is Donald Trump so powerful? How did he come to dominate one of the two major parties and get himself elected president? Is it his hair? His waistline? No, it’s his narratives. Trump tells powerful stories that ring true to tens of millions of Americans.

The main one is that America is being ruined by corrupt coastal elites. According to this narrative, there is an interlocking network of highly educated Americans who make up what the Trumpians have come to call the Regime: Washington power players, liberal media, big foundations, elite universities, woke corporations. These people are corrupt, condescending and immoral and are looking out only for themselves. They are out to get Trump because Trump is the person who stands up to them. They are not only out to get Trump; they are out to get you.

This narrative has a core of truth to it…

What happens if a prosecutor charges Trump and he is convicted just as he is cruising to the G.O.P. nomination or maybe even the presidency? What happens if the legal system, using its criteria, decides Trump should go to prison at the very moment that the electoral system, using its criteria, decides he should go to the White House?

I presume in those circumstances Trump would be arrested and imprisoned. I also presume we would see widespread political violence from incensed Trump voters who would conclude that the Regime has stolen the country. In my view, this is the most likely path to a complete democratic breakdown…

My impression is that the F.B.I. had legitimate reasons to do what it did. My guess is it will find some damning documents that will do nothing to weaken Trump’s support. I’m also convinced that, at least for now, it has unintentionally improved Trump’s re-election chances. It has unintentionally made life harder for Trump’s potential primary challengers and motivated his base…

It’s not that I *want* Trump back in the White House, but if we just indulge him on this, maybe his rabid followers won’t destroy the country. Worth a try!

Another masterpiece of the genre, from long-time Trump apologist Marc Caputo & friends:
Repub Enablers Open Thread: The Boot Lamprey Pundit Class Is All Very Nervous

… West Wing aides and government movers frantically tossed documents and other items into banker boxes that were shipped to a storage room at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida along with other, previously packed records set aside by Trump, sometimes erratically so, according to two sources with knowledge of Trump’s move and records issues…

The criminal investigation into how sensitive records moved from the White House to Trump’s beachfront club writes a new chapter of his political biography. It’s a story of his impulsive instincts and disregard for established rules or norms that repeatedly created trouble for him in office and now may jeopardize the 2024 election bid that he could launch at any time…

“It was a chaotic exit,” this source said. “Everyone piled everything — staff, the White House movers — into the moving trucks. When they got to Mar-a-Lago, they piled everything there in this storage room, except for things like the first lady’s clothes. Everything in a box went there.”

“He didn’t care. He didn’t care about the boxes. He was in a dark place at the time, if you remember. He didn’t even unpack things,” the source continued. “Over time, the staff moved them back in. If you had brought him into that storeroom, and asked, ‘Which are your presidential papers?’ he couldn’t tell you.”…

According to advisers, confidants and former aides, Trump is a “pack rat” who tends to leave the actual packing to underlings. At the end of the day, they clear his desk of paperwork — notes, scribbles, newspaper clippings, printed-out-emails, the new tree alignment for a golf course, a new grill for Mar-a-Lago — and the contents are placed in a box on the floor.

When filled, the box is removed by an aide and stored elsewhere. When he travels, an aide sometimes brings boxes along…

Trump also saved sentimental items, advisers said. He would ask to keep items that were fun to show off: classified surveillance photos or letters from foreign leaders, like France’s Emmanuel Macron, Canada’s Justin Trudeau and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, they said…

Still, even critics like Bolton say they’re not sure Trump was that careless.

“We don’t know what Trump has at Mar-a-Lago and people shouldn’t hyperventilate over it until we know more. Just because a piece of paper has the word ‘nuclear’ on it somewhere doesn’t mean it’s apocalyptic if it gets out.”

Cold, hard truth:
Repub Enablers Open Thread: The Boot Lamprey Pundit Class Is All Very Nervous 1
Repub Enablers Open Thread: The Boot Lamprey Pundit Class Is All Very Nervous 2

Reader Interactions

119Comments

  1. 1.

    JMG

    “If we yell loud enough, the problem will go away” has been the Republican default mode for decades now. This problem is going to push to the outside of the envelope of that response.

  2. 2.

    Ken

    Dreher: What is a good reason that Trump would keep classified documents in his private home and refuse multiple requests to return them?

    He’s an amoral sociopath who was planning to sell the documents to foreign countries.

    (I’m using “good” as “explains all the facts”. If Dreher meant “excuses Trump’s actions”, he’s out of luck.)

  3. 3.

    dmsilev

    Trump also saved sentimental items, advisers said. He would ask to keep items that were fun to show off: classified surveillance photos or letters from foreign leaders, like France’s Emmanuel Macron, Canada’s Justin Trudeau and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, they said…

    I read somewhere that one of the ‘sentimental items’ he tried to keep was the infamous Sharpie-annotated hurricane map. I’m not sure why he’d want to keep as a memento something that made him into a national laughing stock for a week or two, but thankfully I don’t understand what goes on inside that mind.

  5. 5.

    kalakal

    Brooks really is pathetic. His entire life is devoted to proclaiming that not only does shit does not stink, it has an bouquet that, if bottled, would outsell Chanel

  6. 6.

    Brachiator

    Statement from Trump Office: As we can all relate to, everyone ends up having to bring home their work from time to time… He had a standing order that documents removed from the Oval Office taken to the residence were deemed to be declassified..

    Trump is no longer president. Even if he and his staff believed this bullshit, the immediate question is why this material was not returned at least by inauguration day.

    His base may accept whatever rationale he offers, but it is tougher for GOP political leaders to try to clean this pig.

    Trump made clear to several people last year he saw the NARA-requested documents as his personal property. When speaking about his correspondence with the Kim Jong-un, Mr. Trump said, “They’re mine,” according to a person familiar with the exchange.

    This is more like it. I don’t know if he planned on selling national secrets to Putin or other friends, but it was always clear that he saw the presidency as his personal property. And he never bothered to learn any rules, protocols, tradition or norms. And his base loved him for this.

  8. 8.

    Splitting Image

    I’m seeing speculation that Ivanka is distancing herself from the family and won’t be publicly defending Daddy anymore.

    I’m also seeing speculation that Jared and Melania have been put forward as possible moles.

    It occurs to me that a paranoid individual who demands absolute loyalty might find one or both of these stories worrisome.

  9. 9.

    Ken

    @kalakal: proclaiming that not only does shit does not stink

    Somewhat ironic, considering what Dante said happens to flatterers (including political courtiers) in the Inferno.

  10. 10.

    different-church-lady

    JFC, could Brooks be telling on himself any fucking harder? “He tells stories that people believe” is his whole damn career.

  11. 11.

    Jackie

    @dmsilev: My guess is, his sharpie hurricane map ended up humiliating him, so he swiped it – hoping no one would recall it – if it was out of sight – out of mind.

    I got unremembered and had to re-enter nym and email. Hmmmpf

  12. 12.

    Percysowner

    Feds obtained surveillance footage showing boxes being moved

    “The Justice Department also subpoenaed surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago recorded over a 60-day period, including views from outside the storage room. According to a person briefed on the matter, the footage showed that, after one instance in which Justice Department officials were in contact with Mr. Trump’s team, boxes were moved in and out of the room,” The Times reported. “That activity prompted concern among investigators about the handling of the material. It is not clear when precisely the footage was from during the lengthy back-and-forth between Justice Department officials and Mr. Trump’s advisers, or whether the subpoena to Mr. Trump seeking additional documents had already been issued.

    Of Course it’s on surveillance tape! They’re Republicans, They always manage to get it on tape! You would think all Republicans would be forced to swear an oath that they double, triple quadruple check that they AREN’T being taped when they do something illegal, but NO! They just keep on taping. Thank God, it makes it so much easier to prosecute them.

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    @Percysowner:

    Of Course it’s on surveillance tape! They’re Republicans, They always manage to get it on tape! You would think all Republicans would be forced to swear an oath that they double, triple quadruple check that they AREN’T being taped when they do something illegal, but NO! They just keep on taping.

    To paraphrase slightly, ‘is you making security footage of a criminal fucking conspiracy?’

  16. 16.

    Raoul Paste

    I had heard  David Brooks column characterised as his worst ever, but  my God.  What a cynical, calculated effort to make Trump’s lies sound reasonable

    To say that this was infuriating to read  is an understatement.  Brooks knows exactly what he is doing, and why.

  20. 20.

    Splitting Image

    @dmsilev:

    Hmmm, do we go with Godfather Fredo references or would King Lear be more appropriate? Decisions, decisions….

    Can’t be King Lear. He loved all his kids and one of them actually loved him back.

    Gotta go with Fredo.

  23. 23.

    Jackie

    @Brachiator:

    “Even if he and his staff believed this bullshit, the immediate question is why this material was not returned at least by inauguration day.”

    I believe these items were moved to MAL on Inauguration Day – not before. Moving supposedly 15 boxes to FL would have been a bit noticeable.

    And, AGAIN, I’m having to re-enter nym and email address to post. Anyone else having this issue? iPhone, Safari.

  25. 25.

    Percysowner

    @Splitting Image: ​
     I guess Ivanka doesn’t want to go to the pokey.

    Jared may be trying to keep himself out of jail by turning state’s evidence, although a recent not well explained influx of $2 Billion from the Saudis to Jared means he may have to come up with a LOT of evidence. Melania may just want out of being married to Donald. She probably went in with the idea that she’d put up with him for a couple of years, get a decent divorce settlement and move on to a life of luxury. Then she got stuck being First Lady and Donald wouldn’t let go. So send HIM to jail and she walks free.

    So many vipers in that nest, who will turn on who and who will walk away with the least damage?

  26. 26.

    dmsilev

    @Jackie:

    And, AGAIN, I’m having to re-enter nym and email address to post. Anyone else having this issue? iPhone, Safari.

    Nym/email seem to be staying put for me so far. Also Safari, on an iPad.

  27. 27.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Percysowner: Jarvanka, I can believe.  Melanoma?  She’s as awful as he is.  I doubt  she’s the leaker.  And besides, I’d bet she isn’t privy to much.

  28. 28.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    Raw Story via PercysOwner:

    Of Course it’s on surveillance tape! They’re Republicans, They always manage to get it on tape!

    Doesn’t Trump still have a Secret Service security detail?

    If so, I would imagine the Secret Service has surveillance cameras all over Mar-A-Lago and other Trump properties. And being a government agency, one would assume they’d keep and catalog the tapes.

  29. 29.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    David Brooks via Anne Laurie @ Top:

    Why is Donald Trump so powerful? … Is it his hair? His waistline? No, it’s his narratives. Trump tells powerful stories that ring true to tens of millions of Americans.

    That doesn’t mean Trump’s narrative are powerful, Bobo – it means tens of millions of Americans are fucking stupid.

  30. 30.

    Villago Delenda Est

    I have often opined that it would be a wonderful day when Brooks’ broken and exsanguinated body is found in some NY back alley.

  31. 31.

    Geminid

    @geg6: McConnell doesn’t give a shit about trump. He’s gotten his use out of the guy. McConnell would probably be piling on except that he wants to get through the midterms with minimum defections by the trump zealots. But McConnell knows that his party needs to put trump in the rear view mirror.

  34. 34.

    BC in Illinois

    From David Reiss, M.D.  @DMRDynamics

    Schrödinger’s Treason:

    When you didn’t take, accidentally took, innocently used, declassified and then took, took and then declassified, the documents that you never took and were illicitly planted in your house by the FBI – all simultaneously.

     

  35. 35.

    Spanky

    My bet would be that Melania doesn’t know anything. Donald wouldn’t trust her, and she was careful not to be too curious.

    Is she even in the country now? People.com had a fluff piece back in May 

    After Memorial Day, Melania will come and go from Mar-a-Lago until Barron’s school resumes later in the year. A source says she will spend some of the summer at her husband’s Bedminster, New Jersey golf club where the former president will golf, schmooze, raise money, and campaign for his favorite midterm candidates.

    But I’m thinking recent news might have gotten her to re-thinking things.

  36. 36.

    Villago Delenda Est

    This narrative has a core of truth to it…

    Only if you’re a deranged idiot who doesn’t realize that TFG has always been eager to ingratiate himself into that very group.  He’s been trying to elbow his way into NYC high society all his life, his problem is he’s so openly and aggressively arriviste that he gives himself away.  Brooks is such a fuckhaid.

  37. 37.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Splitting Image:

    Ivanka is distancing herself from the family and won’t be publicly defending Daddy anymore.

    Fine. Doesn’t mean I like her any more, though.

    ETA: Although I suppose Daddy could cut her and her kids out of the Will if he were so inclined. That might be amusing.

  39. 39.

    Jackie

    @Lacuna Synecdoche:

    “”The Justice Department also subpoenaed surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago recorded over a 60-day period, including views from outside the storage room. According to a person briefed on the matter, the footage showed that, after one instance in which Justice Department officials were in contact with Mr. Trump’s team, boxes were moved in and out of the room,” The Times reported. “That activity prompted concern among investigators about the handling of the material. It is not clear when precisely the footage was from during the lengthy back-and-forth between Justice Department officials and Mr. Trump’s advisers, or whether the subpoena to Mr. Trump seeking additional documents had already been issued.”

    https://www.rawstory.com/surveillance-trump-mar-a-lago/

  44. 44.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Okay, I give up. WHAT DOES ‘BOOTS LAMPREY’ MEAN? I’ve googled, I’ve checked Urban Dictionary, and there’s nothing useful cThis is the first I’ve come across the term. Please help.

    P.S. I know what BOOTS are, and I know what LAMPREYS are. I just can’t make sense of the phrase, in of out of context!

  46. 46.

    Jerzy Russian

    @SiubhanDuinne:   Don’t lampreys latch themselves to other fish?  Thus a boot lamprey is a person whose lips are constantly in contact with the boots of various VIPs.    Sort of like a bootlicker I suppose.

  47. 47.

    Another Scott

    figgy makes a good point.

    Fortunately for the rest of us, the United States Code doesn’t have exceptions for certain people. Everyone has to obey the law, no matter how inconvenient for their narcissism, neuroses, and psychoses, or risk prosecution.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  49. 49.

    Jackie

    WHOA!

    ”Government officials had worried as Trump left office that he presented what experts considered the perfect profile of a security risk: He was a disgruntled former employee, with access to sensitive government secrets, dead set on tearing down what he believed was a deep state out to get him.“

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/13/trump-mar-a-lago-search/

    ETA Whatever was my issue having to reenter nym and email seems to have dissipated.

  52. 52.

    Chetan Murthy

    @SiubhanDuinne: Shitbirds like MAGA Habs are attached pretty firmly though — “licker” doesn’t do that level of suction justice.

    ETA: then again, “boot” doesn’t do it justice either.  Maybe “ass lamprey” ?

  53. 53.

    Scout211

    @Jackie: ha ha. If stupid Trump would just keep his mouth shut, these little nuggets wouldn’t keep getting leaked. But he can’t shut up so they keep leaking more.

    I think it’s a good strategy.  It might also cause Trump to have a stroke so it’s A- okay with me.

  54. 54.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jackie:

    ”Government officials had worried as Trump left office that he presented what experts considered the perfect profile of a security risk: He was a disgruntled former employee, with access to sensitive government secrets, dead set on tearing down what he believed was a deep state out to get him.“

    I suppose we should all be thankful that he didn’t do the classic “disgruntled former government employee” thing and actually go postal.

    Come to think of it, could he fire a weapon? I know he talks big about the 2nd Amendment and the NRA and shooting people on Fifth Avenue, but in reality I’m not sure he could handle the recoil.

  58. 58.

    Ken

    @Jackie: I’ve heard it claimed that the Constitution doesn’t allow any laws restricting who can become President — say, that they have to be able to pass a background check and security clearance.

    But maybe we could split off the “ultimate authority on classification” role from the office? Then normally it would still be the President, but in (ahem) special cases it would be given to someone who’s not a security nightmare.

  59. 59.

    Mike in NC

    Somebody really needs to do a deep dive into the Fat Orange Clown’s obsession with his absurd campaign to suck up to the dictator of North Korea. He wanted a Nobel Peace Prize because the hated Obama had one and his fragile ego demanded that he get one too. I really want to know how many millions of dollars were pissed away on this ridiculous fucking pursuit.

  60. 60.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Speaking of MAGA Habs, she has a new(ish) byline up on a piece saying that one of TFG’s lawyers told the FBI months ago that everything had been returned. Even signed a document to that effect. The Haberman-Glenn Thrush article contains the following:

    The existence of the signed declaration, which has not previously been reported, is a possible indication that Mr. Trump or his team were not fully forthcoming with federal investigators about the material.

    Were I her editor, I might change it to read:

    The existence of the signed declaration, which has not previously been reported, shows clearly that Mr. Trump or his team lied like proverbial rugs to federal investigators about the material.

    But that’s just me.

  61. 61.

    Captain C

    @Splitting Image: If it’s Jared, he might be trying to get out in front of him possibly selling secrets to the Saudis for control of a $2 billion slush hedge fund.  I hope he goes down and gets hard time.

  62. 62.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    So basically, President McDumbass Bitchbaby just happened to have these documents in the oval office the day he had to fuck off back his Florida scam resort, was in to much of hissy fit to let his staff to return so it go thrown in a box and now even doesn’t know were this shit and this is all because he’s to embarrassed to admit it. God damn.

  63. 63.

    Geoduck

    @Geminid: I think Moscow Mitch “gives a shit” in the sense he actively hates the Shiatgibbon and would backstab him in an instant if he thought he could get away with it in terms of vote-totals from The Base.

  69. 69.

    Mallard Filmore

    @SiubhanDuinne: 

    ETA: Although I suppose Daddy could cut her and her kids out of the Will if he were so inclined. That might be amusing.

    “You only get $1000 of my debts!”

  70. 70.

    Jackie

    Disbelief as Foreign Press Covers Trump’s Classified Documents Scandal:

    ”Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States together form “The Five Eyes” — which the UK Defense Journal describes as the “intelligence alliance of the Anglosphere.”

    “The Five Eyes was formally founded in the aftermath of the Second World War, through the multilateral agreement for co-operation in signals intelligence (SIGINT), known as the UKUSA Agreement, on 5 March 1946,” UK Defense Journal explained. “Initially, compromising only the UK and the United States, it expanded to also include Canada in 1948 and Australia and New Zealand in 1956, all of these last three English-speaking countries, members of the Commonwealth of Nations and with similar political systems when compared to Britain. Thereby, the ‘Five Eyes’ term was created from the lengthy ‘AUS/CAN/NZ/UK/ Eyes Only’ classification level that included the ‘eyes’ that could have access to high profile papers and information.”

    https://www.rawstory.com/trump-signals-intel-five-eyes/

  71. 71.

    Kent

    So the current story from Trumpworld is that Trump waved his magic wand and declassified all of this material on 1/20 when he was packing up the White House and leaving for Mar a Lago.  And did so without any paperwork or documentation or even telling anyone?  It is just a magical power of the presidency?

    But oops, when Biden took office on 1/21 I heard that he waved his magic wand and reclassified all that material as is his presidential right.  He just now remembered doing it but hey, what can you say, he is kind of old.  And apparently it doesn’t matter if there is zero documentation or anything.  That is just something that presidents can do.

    So check mate MAGATs!!!    There is only one president at a time.

  73. 73.

    ...now I try to be amused

    What happens if a prosecutor charges Trump and he is convicted just as he is cruising to the G.O.P. nomination or maybe even the presidency? What happens if the legal system, using its criteria, decides Trump should go to prison at the very moment that the electoral system, using its criteria, decides he should go to the White House?

    What happens is that tens of millions of Americans will have had no problem with voting for a convicted criminal. Tell us something we don’t already know, Bobo.

  74. 74.

    The Pale Scot

    Fuckin’ Haberman and co. Back in the day if my foreman and crew drove off in my truck with my tools to do a job they got payed for I’d have liens on their cars and fraud charges by the the end of the week.

    How does an editor or publisher not go barren earth over a reporter keeping the really important stuff while receiving a paycheck and credentials from a huge media outfit? Lou Grant would have thrown them out a fucking window.

     

    I suspect they are all FSB assets

  75. 75.

    lgerard

    I’m pretty sure it was the Secret Service that tipped off the FBI, but it would be hilarious if it turned out to be someone like a busboy at his club.

    Hello FBI, uh I work at Mar a Lago and , uh mr trump was yelling for a diet coke, and when I brought it, I saw he was, uh, showing some photos labeled, uh, top secret to one of the guests, I think his name is Igor something.

  77. 77.

    Origuy

    @SiubhanDuinne:

     Although I suppose Daddy could cut her and her kids out of the Will if he were so inclined. That might be amusing.

      There’s going to be a huge fight over the estate when TFG kicks the bucket, no matter who comes out ahead. I bet either he has 20 different wills or none at all.

  78. 78.

    lgerard

    @…now I try to be amused:

    What happens if a prosecutor charges Trump and he is convicted just as he is cruising to the G.O.P. nomination or maybe even the presidency? What happens if the legal system, using its criteria, decides Trump should go to prison at the very moment that the electoral system, using its criteria, decides he should go to the White House?

    Hannity already addressed this

    Sean Hannity says that Trump could run for president from jail, if he wanted to

  82. 82.

    Soprano2

    My husband said TFG could have scanned all of those documents and put them on a flash drive, and who would know he did it? If course, he would have to have someone do it so at least one other person would know, but would the government know it happened? If I wanted to keep them that’s what I would have done. I think he kept them because he likes to show them off. It makes him feel important.

  83. 83.

    Poe Larity

    The question isn’t who knew, it’s who didn’t know.

    The stuff is already all out there and the community is in CYA mode because:

    The Miami area is home to over 100 foreign consulates, foreign trade offices and bi-national chambers of commerce, which promote and facilitate international business.

    And every person with access at Mar-a-lago is hawking documents to every one of them.

  85. 85.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @lgerard: Sean Hannity says that Trump could run for president from jail, if he wanted to

    For once (stopped clock, twice daily) InsHannity isn’t wrong: Eugene Debs ran for President from Federal prison in 1920 and got 1 million votes.

  86. 86.

    patrick II

    Trump tried to have the government sell nuclear technology to Saudi during his presidency. He was overruled by congress. Now he may have documents containing nuclear tech at Mar a Lago and Kushner gets 2.3 billion from the Saudis. Those two things couldn’t be relayed, could they?

  87. 87.

    prostratedragon

    @Captain C:  My best guess, perhaps with Ivanka, and for that reason: they might have him on some aspect of the Saudi transaction. Tom Barrack is another who might be way up a creek and have such knowledge.

  88. 88.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Mike in NC:

    Somebody really needs to do a deep dive into the Fat Orange Clown’s obsession with his absurd campaign to suck up to the dictator of North Korea.

    Why?  It seems straightforward.  Trump fetishizes dictators and wants to be one.  Kim Jong is absolute, absolute ruler of his country and worshipped as semi-divine.  He gets military parades and constant praise from his media.  Trump talked about how much he wants this for himself all the time, and he sucked up to all the cool kids – that is, brutal autocrats.

    It’s one of the reasons I think we’ll eventually find out he’s a literal “Heil Hitler” Nazi.  We already know he used Hitler as his reference for how loyal he wanted generals to be, and he’s racist as Hell.  Jews are just his model minority because he believes all the anti-Semitic tropes but thinks greed is a virtue.

  89. 89.

    mrmoshpotato

    “It was a chaotic exit,” this source said. “Everyone piled everything — staff, the White House movers — into the moving trucks. When they got to Mar-a-Lago, they piled everything there in this storage room, except for things like the first lady’s clothes. Everything in a box went there.”

    “He didn’t care. He didn’t care about the boxes. He was in a dark place at the time, if you remember. He didn’t even unpack things,” the source continued. “Over time, the staff moved them back in. If you had brought him into that storeroom, and asked, ‘Which are your presidential papers?’ he couldn’t tell you.”…

    Time once again to thank all of the stupid fucks who elected a mobster toddler.

  91. 91.

    Ruckus

    @dmsilev:

    “but thankfully I don’t understand what goes on inside that mind.”

    I doubt that anyone does or even could if it was explained a bazillion times. Or that you could understand anyone who could explain it even once, other than to say that mind is broken, in ways that no one ever wants to understand. Some things we are better off just knowing that they are just abnormal and there isn’t enough time or drugs in the world to make it understandable. LSD makes far more sense as a headache remedy than anything that could be explained about that brain than just that it’s broken in so many ways that there aren’t enough days in an eon to explain it.

  92. 92.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @lgerard: Like the Daily Show was saying the mostly likely snitch was Trump himself.  Trump supposedly has a habit of calling up billionaires who hate him like Jeff Bezos at random and boasting  to them about Trump’s latest scam.

  93. 93.

    sab

    @different-church-lady: In contrast to Clinton, who had historian Taylor Branch drop buy every few days and take notes of Clinton’s conversation about what he remembered had happened the last few days, because Clinton didn’t feel he should taping anything.

  95. 95.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @MisterForkbeard:  The thing that kills me as much as I want it to be Trump got caught committing treason, with that daughter fucker the most likely explanation to anything he does is; he’s a profoundly lazy and incurious asshole who always tries to cover his fuck ups with bullshit about his screw up was some super genius power move.

  96. 96.

    Amir Khalid

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Kim Jong-Un is not quite like other dictators. He is a unique and weird thing: third king of the only “communist” royal dynasty on Earth. Kim also gets to play by his own rules and keep the world guessing what he’ll do next. It seems to me that these are the two things TFG most envies in Kim, and wants more than anything to emulate.

  98. 98.

    Martin

    @mrmoshpotato: And how did TS/SCI information end up in a place for any rando to put it in a box? The document was already mishandled before it ever got put in a box.

  100. 100.

    ColoradoGuy

    Still baffles me what he could do with the docs other than sell them. They’re filled with military acronyms and are unreadable unless you know what the lingo means. What sets them apart are the red markings and TS/SCI designators, which are obvious and unmistakable, and unlike other Federal documents.

    Most of all, they were outside the mandatory SCIF storage location(s), and had been for more than a year. And MAL is chock full of spies, more than anywhere else in the country.

  101. 101.

    Matt McIrvin

    Trump had a standing order that anything he did would be deemed to have a standing order making it legal. Well, there may not have literally been such an order but you could apply it to imply its own existence.

  102. 102.

    J R in WV

    @HumboldtBlue:

    This is hysterical — I had to sound out the  names, then nearly woke Wife up!! Dunno who created it,  sheer genius though  !!!

    . .  .   .    ;~)

  103. 103.

    germy shoemangler

    Trump had an intermediary send a message to a Justice Department official to send to Garland, including that he'd heard people around the country are upset with the search. “The country is on fire,” was the message. “What can I do to reduce the heat?” https://t.co/JKTTvk2a5H

    — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 13, 2022

    what did AG Garland say when you handed it to him?

    — Steve 6- Here's to the Night (on Spotify) (@SteveThreeP0) August 13, 2022

    Alpha Lamprey

  104. 104.

    Princess

    I mean, even people in this thread, who should know better, are buying the line that Trump just wanted souvenirs. Trump is not stupid, no matter how much we’d like to believe that, and even as his cognitive powers decline. He kept stuff he thought would be useful some day. To sell, and for blackmail both of his own people, to keep them quiet, and others. And there’s a reason Ivanka is buried on the golf course and it’s not taxes. The left consistently underestimates him. The man managed to get elected President. He’s not an idiot or a buffoon. He is dangerous.

  108. 108.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    I suspect something even simpler at the core of TFG’s actions: a refusal to accept that there might be a time when he was no longer President. The Presidency wasn’t a job to him, it was a prize, and all the privileges that went along with it were part of the prize, and he’d be damned if he’d let anyone ever take that prize away from him.

  109. 109.

    lowtechcyclist

    Analysis: Event venues (like Trump’s Mar-a-Lago) are not good places to store nuclear secrets, duh

    Fixed that for ya, WaPo.

  111. 111.

    satby

    I hope the Feds go with a warrant and ground radar to check out Ivana’s grave. Because cremains don’t fill a huge casket.

  113. 113.

    Soprano2

    @Princess: i think it’s both. He loves to show off how powerful he was, that’s why he uses the presidential seal illegally. I have no doubt he or someone around him would sell that information if he had a buyer. Won’t surprise me at all if he did that.

    I think it was a SS agent who told the FBI. That, or someone who was shown some of that stuff and was appalled.

  119. 119.

    Anonymous At Work

    I wouldn’t rush to consider Chris Hayes or Adam Davidson or others wrong that Trump didn’t connect desiring to run in 2024 with the contents of the stolen documents.  Trump has NO, ZERO, ability to defer gratification and precious little long-term planning ability.  He took some documents to brag to guests at his club is incredibly popular, and took other documents whose immediate effect was to make him look bad, and took another set that he dictated (the North Korean Love Letters, for example) that he regarded as his personal property.  All of that would be outside his thought process of “I cannot ever lose, so I’ll run in 2024 to prove I’m not a loser.”

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