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The Screaming Moderate

aides guilty. We can't fuhgeddaboudit

8/22/2018

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Watching the Trump saga unfold is a lot like watching a crime family implode.
  • His friend, former lawyer, fixer and a guy who once said, “I’d take a bullet for Mr. Trump” yesterday implicated him, under oath, as a felon. Then again all he did was say the same thing Trump’s incompetent lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said in a court filing some weeks ago – that Trump directed Michael Cohen to pay off a woman accusing Trump of having an affair with her as a way shut her up to influence the election.
  • His former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was found guilty of eight counts of tax evasion and other crimes, and the jury couldn’t come to agreement on 10 other charges, which could be retried. He faces what would amount to the rest of his life in prison. He hasn’t spilled his guts to the special counsel yet but he has that option, which could reduce his sentence.
  • The first two congressmen to endorse Trump are under indictment for their own, unrelated sins (by the way, the third congressmen to endorse Trump was his attorney general and former senator, Jeff Sessions.)
  • At least five have pleaded guilty in the special counsel’s probe -- most prominently, his former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates, who are both cooperating with Mueller. Alex van der Zwaan, a Dutch lawyer who pleaded guilty to lying to the special counsel. A bunch of Russians have been indicted and it is clear to all, except Donald Trump, that Russia meddled in our election.
You also have to wonder, of course, about the President claiming he's not concerned about people "flipping" on him because he's done nothing wrong. Cohen proved that was another lie yesterday. Plus, Trump's tweets this morning clearly show how upset he is with Cohen, thus there are things for folks to flip about, it would appear.

Did Trump and/or his people collude with the Russians? No real proof yet is public unless you count that Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer and others with Trump’s son and  son-in-law and Manafort, where dirt on Hillary Clinton was promised but not delivered.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the Eliot Ness of the story, is methodically doing his job. He just keeps plodding along buoyed by the fact he is fighting to correct injustices (by the way, just because his investigation is focused on Russia messing in our election doesn’t mean he can ignore other crimes he comes across – like Manafort’s and Cohen’s). Trump tweets, Mueller stays silent. You cannot ruffle Mueller that way.

Trump has tweeted already this morning, among them:


  • Regarding Manafort: “A large number of counts, ten, could not even be decided in the Paul Manafort case. 'Witch Hunt!'' and “I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family. ‘Justice’ took a 12 year old tax case, among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him and, unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to “break” - make up stories in order to get a “deal.” Such respect for a brave man!” 
  • Regarding Cohen: “Michael Cohen plead guilty to two counts of campaign finance violations that are not a crime. President Obama had a big campaign finance violation and it was easily settled!” and “If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!”

Manafort and Cohen’s cases are about financial crimes having nothing to do with Russia meddling directly. A difference is the crime boss in this case also is the President of the United States and he has pardon power.

While eventually Trump could pardon Manafort, I don't think it's a rue thing.  Nor will he pardon Cohen (Cohen's already betrayed him). His morning tweets could be a message that a pardon could come, but likely not until after Manafort's next trial next month. Still, facing the rest of his life in jail, Manafort could decide to cooperate with Mueller. For Cohen, Giuliani, in his statement yesterday said, “It is clear that, as the prosecutor noted, Mr. Cohen’s actions reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant period of time.”

Even though Trump is known to contradict his Cabinet members, aides and even himself, you would think Giuliani’s statement and the President's tweets preclude Trump from then saying. “Michael is a good guy and even though he threw me under the bus, and is a chronic liar, I’m pardoning him.” 

Oy.

So, what happens next? Who knows? Department of Justice guidelines don’t allow a sitting President to be indicted, though he could be after his term(s) ends.

Impeachment is still an unknown because while many GOP members are not fans of Trump, they do seriously fear Trump’s base, which could vote them out of their jobs, which they are holding more important than their country right now.

On top of that, the impeachment process begins in the House which charges the President but the trial is held in the Senate. The charging does not toss the president out of office. The conviction, though, can. At the moment, the GOP has a two-vote majority in the Senate. One or two vote switches and...well, we'll wait to see if that's even a factor later.

This is just one reason the mid-terms are important. The Democrats need to control both Houses to even think about removing the president from office.

Trump's base is unlikely to fold after this development.  Most of these folks, however, have logical minds and this is one major blow to Trump’s credibility. He has lied repeatedly to the country about  many things but at minimum, the Stormy Daniels Affair (pardon the double meaning). We’ll see what the polls say but I’m not feeling a folding of his support yet. It should soften some though.

Then again, I double-checked and it’s only Wednesday, and I haven't watched the news yet so anything is possible!




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How best to treat Trump tweets?

8/9/2018

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Before Donald Trump was sworn in to the presidency, I wrote that the media needed to find a better way to report on his tweets. To treat each as a huge presidential statement of policy, I said, seems wrong, especially with Trump who, as we’ve learned, runs by gut instinct. Now that I’ve seen the coverage for 20-odd months, I feel the same.

Since he took office, Trump has lied, according to The Washington Post, more than 7,000 times, many in his tweets. Since he took office we heard his former press secretary Sean Spicer announce that his tweets were “presidential policy,” and his “attorney,” Rudy Giuliani, say the tweets are “his opinions,” not instructions to his staff or administration.

We have seen Trump threaten war in tweets; disparage various folks he feels, at that moment, are his enemies; declare trade wars; and harass his own Cabinet members. 

In short, his tweets are sometimes important, sometimes not. He often ignores his own tweet statements and his Cabinet has too.  He is a transactional president focusing on the problem at the moment, for the moment. He often contradicts his own tweets.

Giuliani seems closer to the truth than Spicer on this one.

Cable news networks must have one person assigned to stare at Trump’s Twitter feed 24/7 because within seconds of a tweet, Wolf Blitzer is reading it live on TV and tossing it to his “expert panel” to dissect it for the next 12 hours. And dissect they do because, well, that’s what they get paid to do.

Thus, Trump is dictating the news in many news cycles because of his tweets. Which means he can get the media off a truly important story by texting an inane tweet that forces them to cover the insanity.

Now sometimes his tweets do command such coverage. I’d say the President of the United States threatening war, whether he means it or not, deserves immediate coverage as the world tries to figure out what's going on.

But not every tweet is equal. Often, the ones I presume are written by his Twitter guy are not news  and already aren’t broadly covered. These typically tout the latest good economic news or give credit to Trump for a recent primary win for a Republican.
Others are beyond the truly mundane but still don’t reach the yardstick of “news.”

Since his lawyer tells us these are “just his opinions” and not intended as policy directives to his Administration, that’s another reason they aren’t so newsworthy.

The media is correct to fact check his tweets in real time, which they do. But that’s not enough. If the media did not make such big news of almost every crazy Tweet, the President would lose most of the method in which he spreads his madness. Much of it just false.

And, the media would be right to make the change since more than half the time he doesn’t mean what he says. It also might make the former daily White House news briefing (which has become a “whenever the White House feels it wants one” briefing) more relevant because his press secretary couldn’t as easily get away with saying “the President has spoken on this,” meaning he’s tweeted on it. But Sarah, what does he really mean? That is if you even know, which most times, I’m guessing, you don’t.

Trump almost never holds a true press conference. We see few presidential statements. He often will talk during photo opps if he has something he wants to say. The daily briefings have become next to useless. When Trump does want to make a splash, he tweets. The media pounces and gives it wall-to-wall coverage. There is no give and take with the president to try to “unpack” what he’s really thinking.

So, what do we do about it?

First, I would suggest the reporters ask Sarah the important Tweet question which is, “Sarah, which is it? Spicer said from that podium (which in the past has legitimately been taken as policy) that the President’s tweets are government policy. Rudy Giuliani  fluffed them off saying they are merely his opinion. Which is it?” If they are all policy, we have a different problem.

She surely will not answer the question but it needs to be asked for the record.

The print media could just print a daily report of his tweets in the same place every day and the public thus would see them (those that don’t see them in real time on his Twitter feed) and draw their own conclusions. The print and broadcast media could apply the same news judgement they apply to everything else and only focus on a tweet when it seems relevant – threatening war seems to qualify for that; taking on LeBron James does not.

Both topics, though, pushed the cable news stations to cover those tweets for hours, if not days. Which meant they got off whatever important topic was at that moment being covered.

I know this isn’t easy. But the current practice means that Trump controls the media attention he complains so much about. He is as masterful at using the media as anyone has been and the media should not lay back and be manipulated that way. Determining which tweets are newsworthy I know is difficult. But it seems the media need to try to figure it out. Otherwise they will continue focusing on such unimportant things (for a president) as football players kneeling during the anthem when real issues that matter float by.

I believe the mainstream media has done an outstanding job covering the Trump Administration. And they can get even better without compromising their values if they can figure out how to properly cover Trump’s tweets.


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Odds and ends. (Trump, of course)

8/1/2018

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Obstruction of what? This morning, President Trump tweeted:
“..This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!”

One might say, “Got him! That’s obstruction of justice!” But my non-lawyer guess is it is not because, the attorney general has recused himself from the investigation and thus has no authority to end it. If Trump had aimed that at Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, probably would be. At least it would be a great court battle. Talking of court battles…

You’re Up!: The trial of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort heads into Day Two, which also is probably feeding Trump’s Twitter frenzy of the last few days. The only one who really knows what Special Counsel Mueller has on Trump is Trump. Of course, there's also Trump's former "fixer/attorney" Michael Cohen who says he's willing to cooperate with the special counsel's investigation which I'm sure is feeding Trump's Twitter anxiety. We all thinketh he protesteth (sorry) too much already but now that the charges are very real with real witnesses swearing oaths…yikes!

Trump’s maladies: Donald Trump clearly suffers from various personality disorders and one I call: Premature Realization. As soon as Trump thinks he accomplishes something, he claims victory whatever the reality may be.

North Korea? In his mind, he achieved denuclearization in that one meeting with Kim Jong Un and Trump quickly claimed victory, saying Americans can sleep easy now. Meantime his intelligence agencies report North Korea is still doing nuclear preparations. Oh that Kim, such a kidder!

Tax reduction? Done, he says. But the benefits are slow to appear to those he promised cuts – the middle class. But the cuts were so effective for the wealthy) he’s going to find a way to bypass the Congress and cut taxes more for the wealthy on his own! I can’t imagine you can do that without the Congress and if you’re thinking that Trump must know something we don’t, you’re forgetting the first paragraph in this section.

4% economic growth? Accomplished. The economy grew at more than 4 percent in the second quarter and Trump claims we’ve achieved his goal, despite most economists reporting that was a one-time result largely because of the tariffs he’s put in place and threatening, so folks exported quickly so as not to be taxed next quarter. While the economy should continue to grow, 4% seems like a wish and a prayer.

“No Collusion”: Well, as we know, we don’t know yet.

Trump’s friends. He certainly has the motliest circle of friends and close supporters I’ve ever seen. I mean, have you seen that Sam Nunberg on TV, “defending” Trump while also saying Trump had to know about that 2016 Trump Tower meeting where  his son met with Russians, son-in-law and Manafort expecting dirt on Hillary?  He made me forget who he was a surrogate for.

Michael Cohen? Actually, I feel a bit sorry for Cohen. He did fix things repeatedly for Trump during their years-long association. He lied for him. He hid affairs and payments from the world, meaning Trump’s wife. He clearly was a yes man, clearly knew Trump was the golden goose, and pledged undying loyalty to Trump until Trump threw him under the bus. Now, as the bus does a U-turn, Trump may be the one under it.

Rudy Giuliani? What happened to “America’s Mayor?” He was idolized in the aftermath of 9/11 for the leadership he showed. He was positioned to run for president! Now, he makes it up as he goes along for Trump, as he has found his role in the Trump Organization, as a replacement for the shady Michael Cohen. Clearly a toady, clearly not Trump’s “lawyer” but his attack dog, appearing on as many shows a day as will have him.  Where have you gone, Rudy Giuliani?

Omarosa?: Miss Loyalty and Devotion's  “tell-all” book comes out soon to lift the veil on her mentor and the man who created her out of reality TV cloth. With friends like those…

Europe?: Trump held a press conference with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker just days after he threatened most every ally we had with tariffs, to announce a major breakthrough! I refer to it as the Seinfeld Agreement, an agreement about nothing. Basically, he announced he would have talks to negotiate an agreement. So, nothing was announced. Elaine and George would be proud.

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    B. Jay Cooper

    B. Jay is a former deputy White House press secretary to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also headed the communications offices at the Republican National Committee, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Yale University. He is a former reporter and is the retired deputy managing director of APCO Worldwide's Washington, D.C., office.
    He is the father of three daughters and grandfather of five boys and one girl. He lives in Marion, Mass.

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