11/16/18: It’s a good day for the president and a bad day rolled into one. First, no one at the top of his administration gets indicted.
Second, a Trump-appointed judge (see: Obama-appointed judge: 11/20/18) rules that he can’t take away the press credentials of Jim Acosta of CNN just because he’s having a snit.
There’s more bad news for Trump. A court filing reveals (by mistake) that Julian Assange may be indicted. If the Assange indictment has to do with the Russia investigation it can’t be good for Trump and his misfit band.
Don Jr. might want to start checking Booking.com for one-way flights to Moscow.
____________________
“The greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime.”
Admiral William McRaven, referring to Trump
____________________
The president puts on a good face and assures reporters he’s been finishing up his written answers to questions from the Mueller team. He’s not worried even a teensy bit about being indicted.
“I’ve answered them very easily. I’m working on them,” he says. “My lawyers aren’t working on that, I’m working on that.”
My lawyers don’t write answers,
I write answers. I was asked a series of questions. I answered them very
easily…very easily. I’m sure they’re tricked up because they like to catch
people with the, gee, “was the weather sunny or was it rainy.” Oh, he said it
may have been a good day. It was rainy, therefore he told a lie. He perjured
himself.
Trump is being extra careful about questions related to raindrops.
“You always have to be careful answering questions from people who probably have bad intentions,” Trump continues. “I haven’t submitted them yet. I just finished them.”
The process has been such a snap he and his lawyers have only
been puzzling over the matter since April. (See:
11/18/18; see also: 7/24/19, wherein we learn directly from Special
Counsel Mueller that Trump did not answer all the questions submitted and gave
answers that “contradicted other evidence.”)
.jpg) |
Trump thinking hard: Can I get away with another lie? |
*
“We’ve wasted enough time on this witch hunt.”
In an interview with Chris Wallace, Trump has also made it plain. He’s not about to sit down for an interview with investigators, barring a subpoena. Wallace wonders why? Why not sit down, tell the truth, and get the investigation over with? Trump, a man who has spent more than 160 days as president hunkered down at various golf resorts he owns, replies, “We’ve wasted enough time on this witch hunt and the answer is, probably, we’re finished.”
Trump also made it clear during that interview that even when his answers were complete and he turned them in he wasn’t going to answer questions related to obstruction of justice.
Why not?
“There was no obstruction of justice,” he said.
Just how ludicrous did he sound? Trump further
claimed he had no idea that Matt Whitaker, his surprise choice to take over as
Acting Attorney General, had ever expressed opinions on the Mueller
investigation.
It just so happens, that Whittaker, entirely unknown to the president, or so Twitter Thumbs claimed, had already said the investigation was a hoax and a witch hunt and Robert Mueller was probably a transvestite.
The New York Times picks up the story:
Mr. Wallace pointed out to Mr. Trump that in his public commentary over the last two years, Whitaker had made it clear. He had predetermined that there was no collusion. Trump replied, “He’s right. What do you do when a person’s right? There is no collusion. He happened to be right. I mean, he said it. So if he said there is collusion, I’m supposed to be taking somebody that says there is?”
Not necessarily. But you should select someone
who actually believes in the rule of law.
*
IN OTHER NEWS, the president decides to criticize the man who oversaw the capture of Saddam Hussein and the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Before he can take care of that matter, however, he feels the need to attack Rep. Adam Schiff in an infantile tweet (Schiff will chair the House Select Intelligence Committee starting in January, once Democrats take control.)
Remember, this is coming from the President of the United
States: “So funny to see little Adam
Schitt (D-CA) talking about the fact that Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker
was not approved by the Senate, but not mentioning the fact that Bob Mueller
(who is highly conflicted) was not approved by the Senate!”
 |
Rep. Adam Schiff. |
Trump is doubtless upset because under GOP Chairman Devin Nunes, the GOP majority on the same committee offered hard-hitting questioning of Don Jr. and others that went like this:
Rep. Nunes: Did you ever collude with Russians?
Don Jr.: Nope.
Rep. Nunes: Thank you for your totally believable testimony.
You are excused by this committee.
*
TWITTER THUMBS decides it’s time to insult a retired admiral next. The following exchange takes place during his interview with Wallace, one of a handful of real journalists at Fox News.
At one point, Wallace asks what Trump thinks of retired Admiral William McRaven. McRaven blasted Trump last summer, after he threatened to revoke the security clearances of several top intelligence officers who had been critical of the president’s friendship with Putin. “Through your actions,” McRaven wrote at the time, “you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation.”
During a speech at the University of Texas, McRaven described Trump’s repeated attacks on the free press as “the greatest threat to democracy” in his lifetime. Wallace wanted to get the president’s reaction.
WALLACE: Bill McRaven, retired
admiral, Navy SEAL, 37 years, former head of US Special Operations…
TRUMP: Hillary Clinton fan.
WALLACE: Special Operations…
TRUMP: Excuse me, Hillary
Clinton fan.
WALLACE: Who led the operations,
commanded the operations that took down Saddam Hussein and that killed Osama
bin Laden, says that your sentiment is the greatest threat to democracy in his
lifetime.
TRUMP: Okay, he’s a Hilary
Clinton, uh, backer and an Obama backer and frankly…
WALLACE: He was a Navy SEAL 37
years…
TRUMP: Wouldn’t it have been
nice if we got Osama bin Laden a lot sooner than that, wouldn’t it have been
nice?
Wallace is incredulous. “You’re not even going to give them credit for taking down bin Laden?”
No. Trump is not.
“This kind of jackassery.”
McRaven isn’t the only former top U.S. commander who feels a need to break with tradition and question the current occupant of the Oval Office. The military has been reluctant for 229 years to get involved in politics. Trump is different and extremely dangerous.
In response to Trump’s attacks on McRaven, retired Major General Mark Hertling offers this pointed commentary:
“We can never become immune to
this kind of narrative, to this kind of ‘jackassery,’” he tells CNN on Sunday.
“I don’t need to defend Bill
McCraven. He’s a good friend of mine, he’s a true patriot, a hero. We both have
served during the same period of time and under multiple presidents from both
parties.
“We serve in the military the Constitution of the United States. We don’t serve an individual, that’s what makes our military different from all the other militaries in the world. So this comment by the president was disrespectful, it was demoralizing, it was shallow, and it was unprofessional.”
FUN FACT – COMPARING TRUMP AND MCRAVEN: On his last day as chancellor of the University of Texas, where he served four years, the former admiral summed up the path forward for the school:
The future rests with whether we
have taught our young men and women the importance of being noble, the power of
the noble deed. If we have taught them well, they will understand the
importance of honesty and integrity, two qualities that will define their
legacy in life.
Trump: You can grab them by the pussy, and get away with it,
etc.
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