President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

He wasn't first!

 

Perfectly normal.

Trump Allies Looking for Dirt on Journalists Reporting Don Jr. Story

Their plan, as one member of the team described it, is to research the reporters’ previous work, in some cases going back years, and to exploit any mistakes or perceived biases. They intend to demand corrections, trumpet errors on social media and feed them to conservative outlets, such as Fox News.

 

Just to clarify, there's nothing stopping him from actually looking into "what Hillary Clinton may have gotten away with," right?

 

So let's see if we've got this straight:
On June 3, 2016, the President's son received an email from Rob Goldstone explicitly stating: "The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump."

The President then said this during a speech he delivered Tuesday, June 7, 2016:

Two days after the speech, the President's son, son-in-law and trusted advisor met with a Russian lawyer in New York, expecting to receive incriminating information. The President's son abruptly ended the meeting when "It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information."

When it came time for the President to speak Monday, June 13, 2016, the President opened his remarks by saying: "Thank you for joining me today. This was going to be a speech on Hillary Clinton and how bad a President, especially in these times of Radical Islamic Terrorism, she would be. Even her former Secret Service Agent, who has seen her under pressure and in times of stress, has stated that she lacks the temperament and integrity to be president. There will be plenty of opportunity to discuss these important issues at a later time, and I will deliver that speech soon."

And, yet, the President's son expects us to believe that he never told his father about the meeting and what he expected to get out of it? It certainly seems as though the question of "What did the President know and when did he know it?" has been answered.

 

Why doesn't he order the Justice Department to Lock Her Up?

 

Trump will run him off all by himself, or Kasowitz will get tired of offering tactical advice and being ignored and blindsided. My money is on his being fired, because Trump/Russia isn't going away so he must be incompetent. It is unpossible that any of this could be the fault of Trump, so he'll get sacked.

Josh Marshall at TPM:
The Vipers and the Derp


"This brings us to the third passage where we learn that President Trump is losing faith with his longtime lawyer Marc Kasowitz and that Kasowitz, frustrated with the President, may resign. (As the President finds himself unable to escape his own actions there’s always a new person who is at fault.)

Advisers said the president was annoyed not so much by his son as by the headlines. But three people close to the legal team said he had also trained his ire on Marc E. Kasowitz, his longtime lawyer, who is leading the team of private lawyers representing him. Mr. Trump, who often vents about advisers in times of trouble, has grown disillusioned by Mr. Kasowitz’s strategy, the people said.

The strain, though, exists on both sides. Mr. Kasowitz and his colleagues have been deeply frustrated by the president. And they have complained that Mr. Kushner has been whispering in the president’s ear about the Russia investigations and stories while keeping the lawyers out of the loop, according to another person familiar with the legal team.

The president’s lawyers view Mr. Kushner as an obstacle and a freelancer more concerned about protecting himself than his father-in-law, the person said. While no ultimatum has been delivered, the lawyers have told colleagues that they cannot keep operating that way, raising the prospect that Mr. Kasowitz may resign.

Let me add some additional detail which sheds some light on this. You can see here that Kasowitz and the President’s legal team believe Kushner is trying to protect himself at the President’s expense. Yet, despite this, Kushner is preventing them from adequately defending the President by using familial proximity to influence him.

What I can add is that when Kasowitz was brought on board as the President’s personal attorney in the Russia matter (he’d been a go to lawyer in other matters for years), he had in mind easing Kushner out of the White House.

Part of this would be simply to get Kushner away from the President. After all, before the last few days focus on Don Jr., Kushner was the guy. He had had meetings with various Russia probe players, reportedly tried to get Russian secure communications devices to have secure communications with people in Russia, perhaps hit up a Russia state banker for a multi-hundred-million dollar loan to save his family business. Kushner is by any reasonable measure radioactive. Having him in the White House, with a security clearance and his hand in every decision endangers everyone. Any lawyer or capable political advisor would try to separate the President from that danger.

But there’s another part of it as well. Kasowitz and at least some other Kushner foes seem to have believed that if Kushner could be pushed out the President could finally be freed from the Russia albatross. Imagine it this way. They put the life boat into the water, make Jared get inside, hand him the Russia scandal and then push him off into the open sea.

This never struck me as a terribly realistic proposition. Until a few days ago I was just barely ready to believe there might never be a true smoking gun in the Russia story. But if there was, if there was a story, there’s no way it would only involve Jared Kushner. So the idea that Kushner could simply be made to take the fall for the whole thing just never added up. It makes as much sense as Kushner thinking he can help himself by destroying his brother-in-law."

 

Linc?

 

You say "we" like you identify as an American.

 

Rep. Lieu's letter to the Alabama Bar regarding Jeff Sessions.

REP. LIEU SENDS LETTER REGARDING CONDUCT OF ATTORNEY GENERAL SESSIONS TO ALABAMA STATE BAR

 

Lindsey Graham getting himself uninvited from the beer bashes down the street with his performance at this Wray hearing.

 

In the last 12 hours, he's claimed a Witch Hunt, blamed Hillary and blamed The Media. All he needs now is to blame Obama, and, with the Free Space, he wins Personal Responsibility Bingo.