May 6th, 2018: Your Sunday Morning Wrap, “It’s time for Rudy Guiliani to be put out to pasture”

Don’t worry everybody, I haven’t retired. You can think of me as a political Batman – when the signal goes up, I’ll answer it. I know, I know, it’s not like nothing has happened over the last couple of months, but this Trump Administration has gotten especially fun lately. Now let’s get to it. That quote in the headliner is real. It happened this morning on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos.  But before I dig into that, let me set the stage for today’s talking head fest.

So, um, there’s this porn actress known as Stormy Daniels. She apparently took $130,000 to NOT talk about a sexual relationship she had with one Donald Trump. Well, she’s talking now and it’s causing problems. I don’t mean just for the White House. I mean for reality as we know it. Take Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. This is how he opened his show:

CHRIS WALLACE: I’m Chris Wallace. New legal troubles for President Trump after Rudy Giuliani reveals Mr. Trump reimbursed his personal lawyer for hush money paid to a porn actress.

Can we just pause right here for a moment? The President of the United States had hush money paid to a porn actress. Really. Bad movies aren’t this absurd.

But here we are. A lot of what I saw today on this topic (and this totally dominated  – North Korea and the Iran deal were barely even footnotes) settled into two camps.

On the one hand, we had Trump’s defenders saying that this payment didn’t break any (campaign) laws. (again, we’re somehow not talking about a relationship between a PORN STAR and THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!) So the argument goes that this money was ONLY paid out as a personal matter. And the fact that this money went out exactly one month before the election for something that had happened 6 years earlier is beside the point (I know this logic sounds ridiculous, but serious people were trying to make it seriously).

On CBS’s Face the Nation, Kellyanne Conway, who ran Trump’s campaign in 2016  said this about the money transfer…

CONWAY: He was trying to save the embarrassment for the family. It had nothing to do with the campaign.

And then there’s another defensive position – that the amount Daniels says she got is suspiciously low…

CONWAY: …people of wealth — we know people on other networks have paid a lot of money, millions of dollars for different matters. This was $130,000.

See everybody? There’s nothing much going on here because this is just pocket change to a guy like Trump.

Trump’s latest and “greatest” defender, Rudy Guiliani also made this point, but it was swallowed up by a bunch, and I mean a bunch of head-scratching arguments with his appearance on This Week. 

Right off the bat, things got weird. Rudy denied being part of Operations Porn Star Defense to George Stephanopoulos, “You know, I’m not really involved in the — in the Daniels thing.”

Then why did you say all of this?   

And then why did you continue right after that with…

GIULIANI: What matters to me are two things… Number one, it was not a campaign contribution…. And number two, even if it was considered a campaign contribution, it was entirely reimbursed out of personal funds. Case closed — case closed for Donald Trump.

Well, you totally sold me Rudy. Guess, we can wrap this up. But I think we have a few more questions. George lobbed over an obvious one: why did the president deny any knowledge of the payments when in fact, he had made the payments?

Oh I don’t know, because Trump really has trouble separating fact from fiction. Rudy couldn’t say that. So he came up with this gem.

GIULIANI: I don’t know when the president learned about it, he could have learned about it after or not connected the whole thing at — at that time. The reality is those are not facts that worry me as a lawyer.

There is so much wrong with this answer, it’s hard to know where to begin. I’ll ignore that last sentence for a moment, even though I’d be extremely worried if I were representing Donald Trump. Let’s break down the first sentence. Rudy claims not to know when the President learned about this payment.  Okay – then the next thought really shouldn’t come out of his mouth “he could have learned about it after or not connected the whole thing at that time.”

Sigh.

So…either Trump is paying his lawyers without knowing what they are doing for him…OR, he’s got his lawyers handling payments to fix “problems” so frequently that he doesn’t check in on them. Or Trump is lying. There’s no good way through this thing. But it only got worse.

STEPHANOPOULOS: It’s OK to lie to the press?

GIULIANI: Gee, I don’t know, you — you know a few presidents who did that. I don’t think that this president has done that

Right. This President doesn’t lie (cough cough). 

And so Rudy sums it up this way, “[The payment] was to settle a personal issue that would be embarrassing to him and his wife. Number two, did he repay it over a period of time and then find out ultimately what it was about? Yes.

Okay. The President didn’t lie. He found out later what it was all about. So I guess that means Trump pays his lawyers and then only finds out after the fact what they are doing. That’s…unsettling.

Leave it up to the follow-up guest, Michael Avenatti – Stormy Daniels lawyer – to say what I was thinking:

AVENATTI: I can’t believe that that actually just happened. I mean what we witnessed by Rudy Giuliani may be one of the worst T.V. appearances by any attorney on behalf of a client in modern times. He now expects the American people to believe that he doesn’t really know the facts, that as to every key question you asked, he hasn’t communicated with the president about it.

Avenatti went on to eviscerate Rudy Guiliani and Donald Trump pointing out how implausible it is that Trump didn’t know about the payment or what it was for. He really relished going after the whole gang and then spiked the football with this:

AVENATTI: when the facts and the evidence come out this is going to be a disaster for Michael Cohen, the president and now Rudy Giuliani. It is time for Rudy Giuliani to be put out to pasture.

That’s a pretty harsh way to say it, Michael. You are probably right, and Rudy will probably be gone in a few days – but can we keep him just a bit longer? He’s been entertaining. And he makes writing these things so much more fun.

Rudy cartoon courtesy: https://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/41568100131/

 

Feb 4th, 2018: Your Super Bowl Sunday wrap, #releasethepartisanship

 

I mean…come on. This is what we’re talking about now? It’s Sunday, February 4th, 2018. Less than five days ago, the President of the United States gave his first State of the Union address. And of the four major networks today, two of them didn’t even mention the address. And do you know why? First off, I think everyone’s figured out that Telepromptr Trump is irrelevant. The man can sure look professional when he’s reading what somebody else has written for him. But it’s Twitter Trump that reveals what the man is actually thinking. So, exactly, ignore the speech.

However, in its place, we’re talking about “the memo” – which is supposedly this smoking gun released by Republicans in the House this week revealing the depths of corruption within the “Deep State” — the government apparatus, specifically inside the CIA and FBI. the government agents that have it out for Trump.

Nevermind that the “Deep State” did a pretty awful job of getting Hillary Clinton elected.

So this memo was supposed to show that the FBI was relying on Hilary Clinton campaign opposition dirt on Donald Trump to “spy” on some of Trump’s campaign staff. Now, I really don’t want to get into the weeds on this and talk about Carter Page, the Steele Dossier and FISA courts. If you want to catch up on that…read this.

Instead, I’m going to tell you about the conflicting sides on this stupid memo. And just to be clear, I’m not calling this memo “stupid” because I have a particular political ax to grind. I’m calling it stupid because of the colossal waste of time it’s become.

First, there are the Democrats led by Adam Schiff (pictured at the top), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. He joined George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week to complain that the “memo” was just a political hack piece and not really an expose on how our government works:

SCHIFF: If this was oversight, the committee members would want to read the underlying documents. I made a motion to allow them to read the documents. They voted it down. I made a motion to bring the FBI in and ask the FBI these questions. You know, why was this included, why was that not included. That’s what oversight looks like.

What Schiff is trying to say is that this stupid Memo was written without all the usual investigative stuff that Congress would normally do if it was trying to get to the bottom of something.

On the other side of things are the Republicans who believe this memo is revealing how the FBI is not interested in finding the truth, but rather motivated only in attacking Trump.

Over on CBS’s Face the Nation, Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina heard this opening salvo from host Margaret Brennan, “Saturday, President Trump tweeted that the memo ‘totally vindicated Trump’ in the Russia probe…

REP. GOWDY: I actually don’t think it has any impact on the Russia probe for this reason –

MARGARET BRENNAN: The memo has no impact on the Russia probe?

REP. GOWDY: No– not to me, it doesn’t — and I was pretty integrally involved in the drafting of it. There is a Russia investigation without a dossier.

Wait a minute…what? I thought that Republicans were releasing this memo to prove that the FBI had it out for Trump and that this whole Russia “thing” was “fake news…” So what gives?

Gowdy wasn’t alone/ There was Congressman Will Hurd from Texas, also on This Week saying that “I don’t believe this is an attack on the men and women in the FBI.” And he also said later he didn’t think this vindicated Trump.

But it was John Brennan – former head of the CIA – who really put this whole thing in context for me.

BRENNAN: I do think it was up to the F.B.I. to see whether or not they could verify any of it…Just because it was unverified didn’t mean it wasn’t true.

Exactly. The FBI is supposed to investigate these things. Even if it turns out not to be anything, IT’S THEIR JOB!!

And then Brennan got medievel on Nunes – the mastermind behind the “memo”

BRENNAN: He was being exceptionally partisan in this…I never, ever saw the Democrats do something like this that was so partisan, so reckless and really just laid waste to the protocols that governed committees. And Devin Nunes…I think has been engaged in these tactics purely to defend, make excuses and try to protect Mr. Trump.

So to the Republicans (like Nunes) who are saying that this memo means we should call off investigating the Russians – you are being partisan hacks. And to the Republicans who are saying it was still a good idea to release this memo even if it doesn’t vindicate Trump…well…at least one ex-Deep Stater is calling bullsh*t.

 

September 17th, 2017: Your Sunday Morning Wrap “The Chuck and Nancy Show”

 

When did it get this bad? Has it always been this bad? Is the media finding drama where there isn’t any? In the Trump era, I can’t be sure of anything anymore, but apparently, when Democrats and Republicans dare – gasp – to work together, we have a news story!

To be fair, when Donald Trump says he’s making a deal, we’ve learned that the last thing we should do is believe him. And that’s pretty much happening again, except that things are a teensy bit more complicated right now. What I mean is, Trump isn’t quite behaving like the head of the Republican Party…more like the head of his own party. Trump might very well have made a deal with the Democrats Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, and we’ll see if shakes out that way.

But before we dig into the “Chuck and Nancy” show, there were a few other fun tidbits we should chew over first.

H.R. McMaster, the National Security Advisor visited with Chris Wallace on Fox and George Stephanopolous on ABC. My favorite thing about watching him speak is how he takes a Trumpian oddity (which we probably should think of as a “normality” now)  and makes it feel totally normal.

Take a question George had about the latest bombing in a London subway from earlier this week…

GEORGE: You heard the prime minister there, she was a little surprised at the President saying that Scotland Yard had these perpetrators in their sights. Where did the President get that information?

GEN. H.R. MCMASTER: Well, what the president was communicating is not surprising at all, that law enforcement professionals and intelligence professionals have these terrorist organizations under scrutiny.

STEPHANOPOULOS: …The president did not know from any intelligence he had that Scotland Yard had these perpetrators in their sights, did he?

MCMASTER: Well, we have — as I’ve said, what he’s meaning to communicate is that we look at these organizations every day. We try to map these organizations every day.

Did you notice the “what he’s meaning to communicate” line? Yeah, that’s McMaster trying to convince us…again… that the President actually said (tweeted) one thing but then he actually means something else. You know what? This is getting old. I think we should start ignoring Trump’s tweets. Who’s with me?!?!

Over on CBS’s Face the Nation, we got a similar dose of that from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Host John Dickerson asked Rex what Trump was going to say at his United Nations address this week? (oh I can’t wait to watch that!!)

The Secretary gave a very stock, regular, typical, diplomatic answer: “The message he’s going to deliver in that speech is first he’s going to promote and advocate for the strength of democratic values.”

Okay that’s good. I think all of our Presidents do that…do go on…

“He’s going to reinforce that it is those shared values that bind our alliances together….so he is going to be very clear in terms of his view that that is what brings us together. That’s what binds these nations together, makes us most powerful, and also creates a stable world…”

Uh oh. It’s the “very clear” part that worries me. This President is anything but clear. And, well, forgive me, but if he’s so interested in democratic values, why is he supportive (or at least so tolerant) of the regimes in the Phillipines, Turkey, and Russia? To be continued….check this space on Tuesday!

What’s become the talk of this town though is “The Chuck and Nancy Show.” This is the cute name the President and the Press have now given to the Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi-led “deal” to protect DACA recipients.

If you know nothing about this, basically what happened is that Donald Trump has agreed to support Democrat position about “legalizing” undocumented immigrants who came here as children – in exchange for some extra border security…BUT somehow not an actual WALL (as he promised over and over during the campaign). And Republicans don’t really know how to react.

Over on Meet the Press, Arkansas Tom Cotton says there’s no such thing as a deal:

SEN. TOM COTTON: No, I think the president has said publically that there’s not a deal; that he wants to see a deal. In fact, he called me a couple nights ago to say there’s no deal.

Right – except the President also said publically that there is a deal. 

And somebody should tell Cotton about this great inside info that apparently Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday has.ALLACE: And very briefly, in this understanding do you believe that the president committed to those pillars over Chinese food on Wednesday night?

WALLACE: And very briefly, in this understanding do you believe that the president committed to [an outline of a deal on DACA] over Chinese food on Wednesday night?

DURBIN: Yes.

Chinese food! Doesn’t that seal the deal! Chinese food!!!

Meanwhile – on the same show, Missouri Senator Roy Blunt had already come to terms with Trump’s “Chuck and Nancy” deal.

BLUNT: It appears it would — it would not preclude the wall, but it doesn’t have to include the wall at this point I don’t think.

I really can’t make this stuff up. There’s a deal. It doesn’t include a wall. But we haven’t given up on the wall because it’s coming later. 

Ahem. (Cough). Ok, sir, whatever you say sir.

And then over on Face the Nation, Arizona Senator John McCain seemed flummoxed.

JOHN DICKERSON: The President is working on a bipartisan approach, what do you make of that?

SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: This President is always full of surprises. …So, yes, he surprised the Republicans with the deal that he made with Chuck and Nancy.

Don’t worry, Senator McCain. Don’t try to make sense of it. Trump likely surprises himself several times every hour.

 

courtesy of DonkeyHotey

SCHUMER: http://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/17166789822/in/photolist-s9YhwS-sa7AxD-rSxsXf-adKjcG-ae9riK

PELOSI: http://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/8183530570/in/photolist-7GuHxQ-dt9JwE-dt9xen-dAS9aC