Lots of news today. Bill Cosby was found guilty, finally. You’ve heard that Ronny Jackson withdrew as nominee to head the VA; no surprise there. Mike Pompeo has been confirmed as SecState. Judge Kimba Wood has appointed a special master, former federal prosecutor Barbara Jones, to review which of Michael Cohen’s seized documents can be used by current federal prosecutors. There’s supposed to be a hearing on the Michael Cohen matter going on right now, in which Trump’s attorneys are asking that their boss be allowed to review materials also. No resolution on that yet. Cohen, meanwhile, has said he will take the Fifth.
This morning the Creature called in to Fox and Friends. I want to thank Aaron Blake at WaPo for providing an annotated transcript of the whole thing. He let us know that he got Melania a freaking card for her birthday. He’s very busy, you know. This is followed by several paragraphs of free-association ranting that make little sense. And it grew more unhinged as it got closer to what’s really bothering him — James Comey and the Mueller investigation.
He went on and on about Comey leaking classified information; to this day, nobody’s demonstrated that anything Comey leaked was classified at all. Trump now says he never claimed he didn’t stay overnight in Moscow in 2013; this is a couple of days after headlines said the claim was bogus.
On the same day his attorneys went to federal court to argue that Cohen’s documents shouldn’t be released to prosecutors until Trump has reviewed them, Trump said Cohen’s businesses had nothing to do with him. (Update: Now I see that federal prosecutors have already used Trump’s words from this morning against him.)
But the complete meltdown came at the end.
KILMEADE: But does it make you want to talk to Mueller and put an end to it? Does it make you want to talk to him because that’s what Rudy Giuliani —
TRUMP: Well, if I can. The problem is that it’s such a — it’s such — if you take a look they’re so conflicted. The people that are doing the investigation — you have 13 people that are Democrats. You have Hillary Clinton people. You have people that worked on Hillary Clinton’s foundation. They’re all — I don’t mean Democrats, I mean like the real deal. And then you look at the phony Lisa Page and Strzok and the memos back and forth, and the FBI. And by the way, you take a poll at the FBI. I love the FBI, the FBI loves me.  But the top people in the FBI, headed by Comey, were crooked. You look at McCabe where he takes $700,000 from somebody supporting Hillary Clinton. He takes $700,000 for his wife’s campaign. And by the way, didn’t even spend that money. They kept some of it because under that law you’re — he took seven. He took $700,000 from a group headed by Terry McAuliffe who was under investigation by McCabe and the FBI and that investigation disappeared. He took $700,000. And you look at the corruption at the top of the FBI. It’s a disgrace. And our Justice Department, which I try and stay away from, but at some point I won’t.
KILMEADE: Okay.
TRUMP: Our Justice Department should be looking at that kind of stuff, not the nonsense of collusion with Russia. There is no collusion with me —
EARHARDT: All right.
KILMEADE: All right.
TRUMP: — and Russia, and everyone knows it.
KILMEADE: Everyone. We could talk to you all day but it looks like —
TRUMP: Sure.
KILMEADE: — you have a million things to do.
TRUMP: Well, you could have —
KILMEADE: But I hope you can join us again, Mr. President.
Earlier in the interview, he had said this:
“Because of the fact that they have this witch hunt going on with people in the Justice Department that shouldn’t be there, they have a witch hunt against the president of the United States going on, I’ve taken the position – and I don’t have to take this position, and maybe I’ll change – that I will not be involved with the Justice Department.”
The Fox & Friends crew got him off that subject, but he came back to it. But, in fact, he is supposed to take the position that he has to stay out of the Justice Department, because that’s how the Justice Department is set up, to operate independently of the president’s influence. Basically, he’s on national television threatening to co-opt the Justice Department for his own political purposes — to punish his enemies and protect himself. On national television.
Trump's statements bear no relation to the truth, except by accident. They do always bear witness to the fiction of the reality show he lives in. Statements do have meaning as they describe what he wants the audience to believe – statements change as he rewrites the show in his head.
Trump's "fixer" is suddenly an acquaintance who occasionally handled a few legal things but mostly had his own business affairs that Trump knows nothing about. (Mike, look up. That big looming thing is the bus Trump threw you under.) Cohen will go down – Trump isn't going to do a pardon and whatever it is, Trump will "disavow any knowledge of his actions." Cue "Mission Impossible" theme.
When Cohen is looking at jail time, he will return the favor and throw Trump under the bus – the one that says DOJ. Depending on how that develops, Trump is reserving the right to grab the wheel from the Attorney General. That's implicit in the interview. Trump also may plan on claiming any statements from Cohen (or Flynn or Manifort) were coerced and therefore invalid. (How Trump will account for physical evidence I'm not sure – probably neither is he.)
Takeaways – 1) Trump thinks Cohen is guilty of something and DOJ has him cold. 2) Trump will not issue a pardon. 3) Trump knows and accepts that people who are looking at jail time will sell him out (or have). 4) Trump reserves the right to grab control of the DOJ and deep-six any investigation. 5) If Trump can't execute #4 – he will gaslight and put up the "deep state" defense.
Mueller probably is not planning to indict Trump because he is a sitting president. Mueller may expect that the investigation will lead to the House bringing articles of impeachment (maybe in 2019). Trump expects and hopes that "the dems" will impeach because the Senate will acquit and look how it caused Bill's popularity to surge after the impeachment failed.
Barring assassination, the reality show is good for at least two more seasons.
Oh – If my guesses are right, Trump may be indicted after he leaves office for federal and state crimes exposed by the Mueller investigation.
In nearly every state (including Colorado) the attorney general is not appointed by the governor. In Colorado, this is an elected office and the AG and the governor can be from different political parties. In other states, there are different arrangements that remove the AG from the executive power.
There is a design flaw in the Constitution that gives the president the power to appoint the AG. It would take a new amendment to fix this flaw. But we need to fix it.
You think Trump is starting to feel the heat? Either he's having a melt down or he's hopped up on some vitamin R that he scored on the QT from the admiral.
I think it's time we start a melt down pool…Put me down for the first week in July. That's when I think he's going to detonate.
The funniest thing to me when I saw the clip, was watching three of the dumbest MFers in the media trying their best to end "Lord Small Hands & Feet's" rant before he put his shiny loafers in his mouth one more time, and blurted out something even more damaging than the gas-soaked logs he already put in Mueller's fireplace!
JAYZOOS!
If FOX's "Three Morning Stooges" can figure out what tRUMP was admitting, how fucking dumb is our Presiden…
Never mind.
Silly me for wasting space and time on the intertubes…
This is remarkable. An unforced error:
https://politicalwire.com/2018/04/27/red-state-fires-writers-not-supportive-of-trump/
The rats are swimming towards the Titanic (an apt metaphor). Get the popcorn. Was it Caligula who said he wished Rome had one neck, so it’s head could be chopped off conveniently? When the FBI arrests Trump, it will be a national day of celebration.
I don't want to cast aspersions here..but in New York speak saying something like that might bring into question issues of orientation. Not to mention on the alpha male scale it would put you as being a sniveling suck up. Tu eres la dueña de mi corazon?
Here's the thing that gets me … WHEN in the modern era has the American people seen and/or witnessed a POTUS with obvious mental problems go off the rails multiple times in a public venue?
Answer … NEVER!
AND … how is it that there is no outcry for an immediate intervention!
Members of his own Party are fleeing public office as if they stole something! (THEY in deed have … the tax cuts come to mind!)
The corruption scandals, the mismanagement and dismantling of the federal government at all levels are all blatant evidence that THIS POTUS is unfit for the job!
Does support of less than 40% of the America peoples justify keeping this reprobate in office?
If so … how????
Gerald , when have you seen an American president discuss his fixer flipping on him? When has a president's lawyers run into a court proceeding trying to intervene with his crooked lawyer's case because it might reveal his own sack of garbage?
When have you seen a House chaplain fired because he wasn't a "family man" ie evangelical protestant, pence's new state religion?
When have you seen a president's personal lawyer drop a lawsuit challenging Buzzfeed for publishing dossier:Mr. Cohen 's likely trip to Prague to meet with Russian intelligence( and who was getting $ to the hackers discretely?)? because a lawsuit might open Pandora's box?
When did you see AMI national Enquirer 'settle' lawsuit with K McDougal because they don't want their payments $150,000 to catch and kill a story be investigated for a campaign contribution ? another Pandora's box situation.
The ranting tirade was just that. Usually evidenced in early morning tweets, this time shouting through the phone.
aj…Is that the reason why the chaplain got the boot? Wow, I guess it won't be long before they bring in some snake handler doing the holy ghost jig to offer the invocation before each session of Congress? Who knows, maybe they might appoint Todd Bentley as the House Chaplain.