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You are here: Home / Archives for Politics / An Unexamined Scandal / Getting The Band Back Together

Getting The Band Back Together

Dark Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Trump Rallies His (Extremely) Base

by Anne Laurie|  June 19, 20194:55 am| 36 Comments

This post is in: Election 2020, Getting The Band Back Together, Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, All Too Normal, Bring on the Brawndo!

new Quinnipiac Florida poll as President Trump announces his 2020 re-election campaign at Orlando rally:

Biden 50%, Trump 41%

also,

Sanders 48%, Trump 42%
Warren 47%, Trump 43%
Harris 45%, Trump 44%
O’Rourke 45%, Trump 44%
Buttigieg 44%, Trump 43%

— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) June 18, 2019

MSNBC is not carrying the Trump re-election event live.

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 19, 2019

I’ll put most of this below the fold, but my Irish sense of grievance convinces me that you shouldn’t take your eyes off these people, not for one bloody-minded minute.

It was Dan Dale’s first live-tweeting of a Trump rally for CNN — flatter than Dale’s usual, but that’s probably not his fault.

“Trump took extraordinary steps to make the 2018 House races all about his depiction of asylum seekers as a national security threat, and…Republicans suffered their biggest electoral wipeout in the House since Watergate.” – ?@ThePlumLineGS? https://t.co/AcMWA5jdOb

— Tim O'Brien (@TimOBrien) June 18, 2019

Per the Washington Post:

… [A]t around 1:30 p.m., clouds charged in, and with them a heavy breeze that left vendors trying to hold their tents to the ground. Just as the man at the gate announced that he could not let anyone else into the arena, thunder boomed. Shortly after, a voice on the loudspeaker declared that anyone not in line at that moment would not be making it into the building right away.

Moments later, a drenching rain fell.

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The abrupt closing of the gates left supporters in ponchos debating whether to run for cover or lose their place in line. Thunderstorms were in the forecast all evening, threatening to dampen the excitement of what the Trump campaign predicted would be a gathering of thousands outside the arena…

By the time Trump took the stage, less than 200 people were gathered outside, many of them choosing against entering the arena, which was still allowing entrants until just before the speech….

After about an hour, a stream of people began to head out of the arena. A few meandered back to the field, hunting for their folding chairs and coolers by the light of the big screen. President Trump had not finished yet.

Folks are rocking in the pre-rally area to “Sweet Home Alabama,” with the lyric, “Watergate does not bother me. Does your conscience bother you?”

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 18, 2019

This should be the lead story out of Orlando no matter what Trump says tonight. https://t.co/9YWkvgdaqx

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) June 18, 2019

Reminder: They are saying Pinochet because too many normal people know who Hitler is. https://t.co/X0YBI3Zcsm

— ?? (@leftkist) June 18, 2019

The Proud Boys white supremacist group has been stopped by bicycle police in Orlando. pic.twitter.com/ivjCsmaShx

— Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) June 18, 2019

Eric Trump just said there are 100,000 people here in Orlando for Trump’s rally. The 20,000 seat arena is currently not full.

— Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) June 18, 2019

Not cultish at all https://t.co/5LqhEcK8m7

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) June 19, 2019

The NYTimes is beginning to doubt the glamour:

President Trump delivered a fierce denunciation of the news media, the political establishment and what he called his radical opponents on Tuesday as he opened his re-election campaign in front of a huge crowd of raucous supporters by evoking the dark messaging and personal grievances that animated his 2016 victory…

He extolled his record as president — the growing economy, the tax cuts and deregulation — but did not offer any new policies or a cohesive agenda for a second term that might expand his political appeal. As he formally declared his intention to run again, he told the audience that his new slogan would be “Keep America Great,” pledging to wage a relentless battle on behalf of his supporters…

Mr. Trump had relentlessly hyped Tuesday’s event as a dramatic moment in his journey to a second term. But in the end, it was not so different from the dozens of rallies he has held during the past two years.

Standing in front of a sea of people wearing his signature red “Make America Great Again” hats, Mr. Trump unleashed a torrent of attacks, falsehoods, exaggerations and resentments that were the trademark of his first campaign and have been on almost daily display during his time in the White House. His warning for his voters: The establishment will stop at nothing to rob you of another four years…

For Mr. Trump, the rally was the beginning of what polls suggest will be a difficult 18 months as he seeks another four years in the White House. Already trailing Democrats in many voter surveys and having never cracked 50 percent in approval ratings since taking office, Mr. Trump has turned himself into one of the most polarizing presidents in American history…

To win re-election, Mr. Trump must convince those supporters that he has not forgotten them despite having failed to make good on some of his most important campaign promises: The wall he promised along the border with Mexico is still not built. Obamacare has not been fully repealed. The nation’s infrastructure is still aging and crumbling. The economy is booming, but many people still feel the sting of financial uncertainty…

Without a new message or a clear agenda for a second term, Mr. Trump’s advisers are banking on the belief that the same basic playbook — Mr. Trump’s preternatural ability to shock and entertain — will again animate his core voters and retain the swing voters who gambled on him in 2016…

Former Bernie supporter says she switched to Trump after opening her own business and realizing that raising the minimum wage would hurt her ability to hire. https://t.co/kXS1K2XaoP

— Annie Karni (@anniekarni) June 18, 2019

Rather than reinterviewing more white working-class Trump voters, I would love for the Times and other newspapers to check in with people like James Baker, who also constitute Trump’s base. We let elites and the GOP establishment off the hook when we focus only on that group. https://t.co/F98NU2BAgB

— Lawrence Glickman (@LarryGlickman) June 19, 2019

These Trump supporters have been to more than FOUR DOZEN rallies: A guy who fears Buttigieg, a woman who makes solo cross-country drives to see Trump, and a man who named his Alaskan malamute after the president only to have the pup shot dead by a neighborhttps://t.co/AYZ8KrBdGu

— Michael C. Bender (@MichaelCBender) June 18, 2019

Most of the protesters cleared out after the last speaker. Baby Trump balloon still stands. #TrumpRally #TrumpInOrlando pic.twitter.com/D02pjvTx6C

— Karina Elwood (@karina_elwood) June 19, 2019

High Priest in the Church of the Savvy Jack Schafer, in Politico:

… This evening’s announcement is designed to make the public and the news media forget, if only for a few days, the two dozen Democrats running against him who have been robbing him of mindshare, or as he calls it, his “ratings.” Next week’s Democratic debates sufficiently threaten his status as the top newsmaker that he has made tentative plans to live-tweet the event, reports the Wall Street Journal, to make sure the debates end up being about Trump.

The president’s advisers have warned Trump that he should lay off Twitter lest his running commentaries on the Democrats turn some also-ran contestants into real contenders. But he cares not so long as he grabs a major share of the headlines that editors had reserved for Joe Biden and friends. Like the gulls in Finding Nemo chanting, “Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!” when they see a scrap of edible garbage floating in the sea, Trump’s ego shouts “Me! Me! Me! Me! Me! Me!” whenever he spies some other politician flapping his wings for the press…

From the debates to the caucuses to the primaries to the Democratic National Convention, Trump will be there, posturing as the unofficial 25th Democratic candidate. He will not go away. He will not be silent. He will not stop tweeting. Unless you pay him attention he does not exist.

Dark Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Trump Rallies His (Extremely) BasePost + Comments (36)

Late Night Eye-Roll Open Thread: Bernie Goes to Brooklyn

by Anne Laurie|  March 3, 20193:24 am| 128 Comments

This post is in: Election 2020, Getting The Band Back Together, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Sanders Campaign, Open Threads, Post-racial America

Location may be Brooklyn, but the crowd looks Vermont https://t.co/F48IfZu0TE

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) March 3, 2019

New York is always a high-stress venue, and the early 1970s was one of the rougher eras. Lots of natives fled for quieter climes — I was one of them! (And not ashamed I did, although I should not have persuaded my sweet freshman roommate from Iron Mountain that NYC had a secret lottery system requiring a certain percentage of city-born high school graduates to leave, in order to make room for all the Midwesterners who wanted to move into the Big Apple.)

Just a few years earlier, Bernie Sanders was another escapee, who went on to make a good life for himself in a whiter quieter place. But, one way and another, things have changed back in the nabe — and Bernie Is Back, Beyotches!…

Klobuchar opens up in Minnesota in a snow storm and Bernie goes “Well I can announce even whiter than that, Jane, get that white reggae band and Talculm X on the phone!”

— Regina’s sending cops after ??s (@ReginaA1981) March 2, 2019

The supporters positioned behind Bernie Sanders in Brooklyn today looked a lot more diverse than the group of supporters standing in front of him. #BernieInBrooklyn pic.twitter.com/Vg7TyATYXO

— Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) March 2, 2019

Here is another crowd shot from another angle. Still overwhelmingly male, largely white. pic.twitter.com/r9yWbYKqWO

— Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) March 3, 2019

Wait, I missed this – Sanders had a Stein voter introduce him? ?? https://t.co/2JB0O1V0KX

— Tom Watson (@tomwatson) March 2, 2019

Jane Sanders at Bernie’s campaign launch: “I know it may not be politically correct to identify myself as a wife, but it’s one of the great honors of my life.”

We’re not at CPAC anymore.

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) March 2, 2019


But you just might be at Mirror-World CPAC, on the other leg of the political horseshoe. Different True Believers, same fevered enthusiasm for The Narrative!

show full post on front page

One way Bernie Sanders movement is very much like Trump?

Be awful with POC/Women's issues but use tokenising measures like bundling POC behind your podium or BLACKFACE cosplaying troll accounts to "pretend you don't prioritise whiteness#BernieInBrooklyn pic.twitter.com/IUuCeVzSm5

— T. Fisher King (@T_FisherKing) March 2, 2019

Population of Oakland – 425k
Kamala Harris rally – 20k attendees

Population of NYC – 8.6M
Population of Brooklyn – 2.65M
Bernie Sanders rally – 13k pic.twitter.com/XNxU82z9Yq

— robert mueller is a cop (@notcapnamerica) March 2, 2019

But the Media Village Idiots — led, of course, by the FTFNYTimes — really *want* the 2020 election to be a contest between Trump and Bizzaro-Trump…

For context @jmartNYT is also the Times reporter who focused on mocking HOW women candidates ATE, when they declared

White man declares and Jon brands him a civil rights ICON. Pats campaign on back

The NY times is glorified toilet paper… smh https://t.co/Gn3lccYsJs

— T. Fisher King (@T_FisherKing) March 2, 2019

One sign of the increased professionalism of the Bernie Sanders campaign: Virtually every story off his launch rally today, both before and after, is heavily about his increased focus on personal narrative.

They're driving a storyline.

— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) March 2, 2019

A fun game to play would be imagining you describing this campaign strategy if it was executed by a woman.

— Robert S. Hamer (@robsolonhamer) March 2, 2019

Late Night Eye-Roll Open Thread: Bernie Goes to BrooklynPost + Comments (128)

Friday Morning Open Thread: Still More Reasons to GOTV

by Anne Laurie|  October 26, 20184:52 am| 177 Comments

This post is in: Don't Agonize - Organize, Election 2018, Getting The Band Back Together, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Venality, All Too Normal

We now know these two facts:

The FBI found Hillary Clinton’s email server was *not* hacked by foreign governments.

Donald Trump’s personal iPhone *is* being hacked by foreign governments, and he keeps using it in violation of security protocol.https://t.co/jD8Lbz9US4

— Ari Melber (@AriMelber) October 26, 2018

Another reason to vote Dem is that maybe “oversight” could become, you know, a thing again https://t.co/HTkWudPsUs

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) October 25, 2018

***********
Newt Gingrich is a two-bit hustler, but then, so is the Oval Office Squatter, so…

If Dems take control of the House and subpoena Trump's tax returns, Gingrich told @ktumulty that the legal fight would go to the Supreme Court "AND WE WILL SEE WHETHER OR NOT THE KAVANAUGH FIGHT WAS WORTH IT." Audible gasps in audience as he spoke: https://t.co/LkE6CbkUA1

— Mary Jordan (@marycjordan) October 25, 2018

Under-discussed implication of potential Dem full control in Michigan, Nevada, and any other likely battleground state w a Dem trifecta: Dem legislatures could send Dem govs bills to sign requiring a candidate to release their taxes as a condition of getting ballot access.

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) October 25, 2018

I don’t think it will matter, because I don’t think Trump will be their nominee in 2020. But if he’s still in a position to be renominated, would the GOP still renominate him if he has almost no conceivable path to victory?

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) October 25, 2018

***********
Also, too: At the first threat of actual oversight, the people actually carrying out Trump’s worst ideas will scurry for the exits…

The good news is, with any luck, she'll be resigning in fear of democratic subpoena power long before any starving kids get within her rifle scope. https://t.co/gI3rqGjKMu

— Zedward D Wood Junior (@Zeddary) October 26, 2018

Seriously, remember how Rumsfeld skipped town immediately after Dems took Congress in 2006? I bet Nielsen, Zinke, and more do the same bugout act if the House flips. In case you need added incentive.

— Zedward D Wood Junior (@Zeddary) October 26, 2018

Friday Morning Open Thread: Still More Reasons to GOTVPost + Comments (177)

Late Night Horrorshow Open Thread: Aren’t They All Just Proud Boyz, Though?

by Anne Laurie|  October 26, 201812:27 am| 42 Comments

This post is in: Getting The Band Back Together, Open Threads, All Too Normal, Are these Nazis Walter?, Decline and Fall, Fucked-up-edness, MONSTERS, Seriously

Proud Boys member gets makeover for court appearance https://t.co/qSy0aBc9CN pic.twitter.com/5riGKuESns

— New York Post Metro (@nypmetro) October 25, 2018

Well *of course* when you put it that way it sounds bad https://t.co/wf09kDbYok

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) October 25, 2018

Per the original story, in the Washington Post:

… In an interview with a website associated with the party, King (R-Iowa) declared that “Western civilization is on the decline,” spoke of the replacement of white Europeans by immigrants and criticized Hungarian American financier George Soros, who has backed liberal groups around the world.

King spoke to the Unzensuriert site Aug. 24 in Vienna, a day after concluding a five-day journey to Jewish and Holocaust historical sites in Poland, including the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. The trip, including airfare to and from Europe, was financed by From the Depths, an international nonprofit group that seeks to educate lawmakers about the Holocaust.

Unzensuriert, which translates as “Uncensored,” is a publication associated with Austria’s Freedom Party, which was founded by a former Nazi SS officer and is now led by Heinz-Christian Strache, who was active in neo-Nazi circles as a youth. While the party has distanced itself from those connections, it recently embraced a hard-line anti-immigration stance while seeking ties with other far-right parties and leaders abroad.

“What does this diversity bring that we don’t already have?” King said in the interview. “Mexican food, Chinese food, those things — well, that’s fine. But what does it bring that we don’t have that is worth the price? We have a lot of diversity within the U.S. already.”…

In an interview Thursday, King… accused his “political opposition” of “ginning this up” ahead of the Nov. 6 election…

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In the earlier interview, King identified Soros as a force behind the “Great Replacement” — a notion promoted by far-right groups — and accused him of surreptitiously influencing U.S. elections and policymaking. “His money floats in in such a way you can’t see the flow,” King said, “but if you trace it back, you can connect it to his foundation.”

The “Great Replacement” theory is a view on the right that white Europeans are being replaced by minorities.

Criticism of Soros, who is Jewish, has frequently carried anti-Semitic overtones, and he is one of several figures linked to the Democratic Party who have been targeted with mail bombs intercepted in the United States this week.

On Thursday, King denounced the bombing attempts but declined to retract his criticism of Soros or acknowledge a possible link to anti-Semitism…

A different interview:

Wow.

"King additionally said that white nationalist 'is a derogatory term today. I wouldn’t have thought so maybe a year, or two, or three ago. But today they use it in a derogatory term and they imply, it implies that you’re a racist.'”https://t.co/D8iD9jCuOM

— Mark Pitcavage (@egavactip) October 25, 2018

Tucker: "Structural racism" is against white people pic.twitter.com/1Pb9ct2tQ0

— Mad Online Peltz (@peltzmadeline) October 25, 2018

Back in February I argued against the faux sophistication that calls on us to ignore Trump’s inflammatory, demonizing, and dehumanizing language. Speech matters in politics, and when you set out to invert norms, it has consequences.https://t.co/tumlO8BbbH

— Jacob T. Levy (@jtlevy) October 25, 2018

Late Night Horrorshow Open Thread: Aren’t They All Just Proud Boyz, Though?Post + Comments (42)

Open Thread: Watergate History Lesson

by Anne Laurie|  October 23, 20185:10 pm| 56 Comments

This post is in: Dolt 45, Getting The Band Back Together, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, Republicans in Disarray!, Decline and Fall, Let A Thousand Watergates Bloom

The Woodward book for the Trump era isn’t Fear; it’s “Final Days” from 1976. I just finished it and it has a ton of lessons for the present day, especially for WH reporters on the pitfalls of access journalism when covering a criminal conspiracy. THREAD 1/ https://t.co/SFp2FjAiaV https://t.co/nptOo0DSy8

— Max Bergmann (@maxbergmann) October 21, 2018

This is b/c WH staff at the end weren’t involved in the Watergate conspiracy so they didn’t actually know what happened. Nor were they interested in knowing. 3/

— Max Bergmann (@maxbergmann) October 21, 2018

In the WH staffers defense, they were their to serve the POTUS! Just so happened the POTUS was a crook! But they were all working really hard to protect the POTUS.

The impact of this delayed Nixon’s fall; it kept the GOP on-side, as well as much of the public. 5/

— Max Bergmann (@maxbergmann) October 21, 2018

In the case of Watergate, the WH insiders were either:

1. Totally ignorant of what happened.
2. Totally suspected Nixon did it, but didn’t actually “know” or want to know.

The only one in the WH that knew what happened was … Nixon. 7/

— Max Bergmann (@maxbergmann) October 21, 2018

In turn, they’re working hard to get this go away. Stonewalling the investigation, buying time, running political attacks vs. Mueller/Rosenstein in coord w/ members of the House. They’re just “serving” the POTUS. But really they’re complicit in defacto obstruction of justice. 13/

— Max Bergmann (@maxbergmann) October 21, 2018

Lesson here is that few thought Nixon was going down. So everyone stuck w/ him. When the equation changed, the GOP broke vs. him. If Republicans break vs. Trump, it will happen suddenly and abruptly. END

— Max Bergmann (@maxbergmann) October 21, 2018

Open Thread: Watergate History LessonPost + Comments (56)

Late Night Open Thread: FEAR of A Bob Woodward

by Anne Laurie|  September 5, 20182:39 am| 35 Comments

This post is in: Books, Dolt 45, Getting The Band Back Together, Open Threads, Republicans in Disarray!, I Smell a Pulitzer!

As I understand it, the conventional wisdom is exactly what @mattyglesias says if you replace the word “unreasonable” with “unlikely.” https://t.co/nULE3nWW0C

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) September 4, 2018

In the two weeks since being implicated in a criminal conspiracy, Trump has gone on record to bash both Woodward and Bernstein. In case you thought the Simulation would ever try being subtle.

— zeddy (@Zeddary) September 4, 2018

Bob Woodward is the Establishment’s Guy. Most of his big fat doorstops-with-indexes are launched to certify that All Is Well In This Best of All Possible Worlds. Occasionally, as with the book that launched his & Bernstein’s journalistic careers, the message is This Individual’s Become A Problem That Will Be Dealt With As Harshly As Required.

His new book seems to fall squarely in the second category. The question: Does Trump understand the verdict that has just been passed upon his “presidency”? Or perhaps it should be phrased: Will any of Trump’s staff bother trying to explain the situation to the Oval Office Occupant?

There's a lot going on in Trump's pleading to Woodward. Especially excellent how he lies a few more times in complaining about this book that describes him as a liar. https://t.co/Yop0urmaSN

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 4, 2018

Two of Trump’s advisers have referred to him as Chauncey Gardner over last two years. This book goes another step toward that point. https://t.co/raQd1vBUfC

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 4, 2018

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Initially, the White House pushback on Woodward’s new book — exactly four hours after the WaPo first reported excerpts — felt pro forma, more Pavlovian muscle memory than rigorous rebuttals. My latest w @jdawsey1. https://t.co/btfcF6wPqa

— Ashley Parker (@AshleyRParker) September 5, 2018

Framing Rob Porter as Woodward Source #1 seems like a fair assessment, from current reports…

How it reads: Bannon : Fire and Fury :: Porter : Fear

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) September 4, 2018

I’ll believe that Trump is growing into the presidency when his staff stops talking about him like a toddler. https://t.co/Dz6pkZtJLF pic.twitter.com/67bvqE876d

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) September 4, 2018

I’ll believe that Trump is growing into the presidency when his staff stops talking about him like a toddler. https://t.co/IyEyng8Nrk pic.twitter.com/KAwhoAfJeh

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) September 4, 2018

WH press shop asking former officials to renounce Woodward book, one former WH staffer turned them down telling me: “Kelly has always made it clear behind the President’s back that he’s Trump’s babysitter.. He should just have the guts to own it” w/ @Santucci @JordynPhelps

— Tara Palmeri (@tarapalmeri) September 5, 2018

24 years ago, Woodward quoted me in his Clinton book saying all kinds of profane and rude things. Why? Maybe because he’s a Republican. Or maybe because:. I. Said. Them.

— Paul Begala (@PaulBegala) September 4, 2018

Yep. Woodward has tapes. Lots of them. And lots of people talked. https://t.co/Wp1L33IKVF

— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) September 4, 2018

Late Night Open Thread: FEAR of A Bob WoodwardPost + Comments (35)

Late Night Speculation Open Thread: The Permanent GOP Washes Its Hands of Donald Trump

by Anne Laurie|  April 13, 20182:57 am| 33 Comments

This post is in: Getting The Band Back Together, Goddamned Traitors, Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Decline and Fall, Republican Crime Syndicate - aka the Bush Admin.

President Trump is poised to pardon Scooter Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, POTUS has signed off on the pardon, which is something he has been considering for several months, sources told @ABC News – via @jonkarl @KFaulders & me https://t.co/PHb0Y8Rlc1

— John Santucci (@JTSantucci) April 13, 2018

Or so — in conjunction with Paul Ryan’s run for the exits — I have to assume. They no longer have any interest in defending the current Oval Office occupants, just in pushing through whatever convenient pardons and legal shortcuts can be managed before the collapse. There will be pushback on a Libby pardon, media attention to the high crimes & misdemeanors of the Bush Regency crime cartel for which Libby took his fall, and (apart from pwning the libs) no immediate upside for Donald J. Trump, Oval Office Occupant. Since Donny Dollhand has never been one to do a favor without promise of immediate reciprocation, presumably the GOP has promised him something of value in return. Ceremonial burning of the much-discussed pee tape? Cancellation of all his many debts? Pallets of gold bullion and a safe escape flight to a Sevastopol hideaway, or the rumored Bush family compound in Paraguay?…

Per the NYTimes, because they’re the experts on the delicate handling of sensitive topics for plutocrats and other Republicans:

Mr. Libby’s case has long been a cause for conservatives who maintained that he was a victim of a special prosecutor run amok, an argument that may have resonated with the president. Mr. Trump has repeatedly complained that the special counsel investigation into possible cooperation between his campaign and Russia in 2016 has gone too far and amounts to an unfair “witch hunt.”

Mr. Libby, who goes by Scooter, was convicted of four felonies in 2007 for perjury before a grand jury, lying to F.B.I. investigators and obstruction of justice during an investigation into the disclosure of the work of Valerie Plame Wilson, a C.I.A. officer. President George W. Bush commuted Mr. Libby’s 30-month prison sentence but refused to grant him a full pardon despite the strenuous requests of Mr. Cheney, a decision that soured the relationship between the two men.

A pardon of Mr. Libby would paradoxically put Mr. Trump in the position of absolving one of the chief architects of the Iraq war, which Mr. Trump has denounced as a catastrophic miscalculation. It would also mean he was forgiving a former official who was convicted in a case involving leaks despite Mr. Trump’s repeated inveighing against those who disclose information to reporters.

Critics of Mr. Trump quickly interpreted the prospective pardon as a signal by the president that he would protect those who refuse to turn on their bosses, as Mr. Libby was presumed not to have betrayed Mr. Cheney. Mr. Trump has not ruled out pardons in the Russia investigation.

Mr. Trump has shown no particular interest in Mr. Libby’s case before. In 2015, during his campaign for the White House, Mr. Trump was asked if he would pardon Mr. Libby and declined to say, calling it an irrelevant issue. It was unclear when Mr. Trump would issue the pardon, which was first reported by ABC News…

The case tested the limits of journalistic independence. Judith Miller, then a reporter for The Times, went to prison for 85 days rather than disclose that Mr. Libby had discussed Ms. Wilson with her. She was freed after Mr. Libby released her from any promise of confidentiality…

The case has its connections to Mr. Trump because Mr. Fitzgerald was friends with James B. Comey, who was then the deputy attorney general who assigned him the investigation after the attorney general recused himself. Mr. Cheney long suspected that Mr. Comey was taking revenge for a dispute between them over the legality of a surveillance program…

(I blame it all on the Republicans who advised Gerry Ford to pardon Nixon back in 1974. Without a public examination of all the CREEPster crimes, its perpetrators were free to reemerge repeatedly over the last forty years, trailing foul clouds of treason and financial impropriety every time.)

The president has already signed off on the pardon, which is something he has been considering for several months, sources told ABC News. https://t.co/b5WsELT755

— Courtney Norris (@courtneyknorris) April 13, 2018

As @maddow just noted, crimes for which Scooter Libby was convicted include lying to the FBI, and obstruction of justice. Perhaps this is Trump setting us up to be prepared for pardons for Flynn, Manafort, and all the others. https://t.co/AOUQltOsbF

— ???? ?????? (@xeni) April 13, 2018

Bolton is assembling a war cabinet of former neo-cons.

— jon (@EmsBkPilot) April 13, 2018

Late Night Speculation Open Thread: The Permanent GOP Washes Its Hands of Donald TrumpPost + Comments (33)

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