6/14/19: A second segment of Trump’s interview with George Stephanopoulos airs – on the president’s birthday. The orange prevaricator claims former White House Chief Counsel Don McGahn was untruthful when he gave testimony under oath to Robert Mueller’s investigators.
(Keep in mind: Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said his client would
testify under oath over his dead body.)
Don McGahn, White House Chief Counsel.
____________________
McGahn testifies under oath; Trump won’t, but
says McGahn is lying.
____________________
McGahn told Mueller that Trump ordered him to fire Mueller and end the Russia investigation. He says Trump asked more than once. When the “Fake News” folks got wind of this story, McGahn testified further, the president’s personal lawyer at the time, and two aides separately, asked him to sign a false document, saying Trump had never asked him to take such steps.
The Mueller Report is clear. “Each time he was approached, McGahn responded that he would not refute the press accounts because they were accurate in reporting on the President’s efforts to have the Special Counsel removed.”
Later, Trump met with McGahn, with Chief of Staff John Kelly present, and asked him to deny reports he wanted Mueller fired.
“McGahn refused and insisted his memory of the President’s direction to remove the Special Counsel was accurate.”
“Why would McGahn lie under oath?”
So, what does Trump say now? “The story on that very simply, No. 1, I was never going to fire Mueller,” he tells George Stephanopoulos. “I never suggested firing Mueller. I don’t care what he [McGahn] says, it doesn’t matter. That was to show everyone what a good counsel he was.”
“Why would McGahn lie under oath?” Stephanopoulos inquired.
“Because he wanted to make himself look like a good lawyer,” Trump replied. “Or he believed it was because I would constantly tell anybody that would listen — including you, including the media — that Robert Mueller was conflicted. Robert Mueller had a total conflict of interest.”
“And has to go?” Stephanopoulos responded.
“I didn’t say that,” Trump glared.
Here, by way of the Washington Post, is what the Mueller Report says in this regard. McGahn stated under oath, that Trump had twice called him from Camp David and directed him to remove Mueller.
The report says phone records
show a 23-minute call between the two men on the afternoon of June 17, but not
a second call. McGahn is certain he got two calls from Trump on this issue, so
the first one may have been on June 14.
“On the first call, McGahn
recalled that the President said something like, ‘You gotta do this. You gotta
call Rod [Rosenstein; then in charge at the
Department of Justice],’” the report said, citing testimony under oath.
“McGahn said he told the President that he would see what he could do. McGahn
was perturbed by the call and did not intend to act on the request.”
The report added: “McGahn considered
the President’s request to be an inflection point [emphasis added] and he
wanted to hit the brakes.”
On the second
call, Trump was more direct, “saying something like, ‘Call Rod, tell Rod that
Mueller has conflicts and can’t be the Special Counsel.’ McGahn recalled the
President telling him ‘Mueller has to go’ and ‘Call me back when you do it.’”
The report said that “McGahn understood the President to be saying that the
Special Counsel had to be removed by Rosenstein.”
In other words, we must decide, once again. Is Trump lying?
Or McGahn?
(The White House is vehemently opposed to a subpoena for
McGahn and his top aide, Annie Donaldson, to testify before Congress.)
*
SCIENTISTS report that Greenland lost two gigatons of ice in a single day. That’s two billion tons of ice.
How much ice are we talking about melting in one 24-hour period? That’s enough to cover the National Mall in Washington D.C. to a height eight times greater than the Washington Monument.
In a day. (See also: 6/29/19)
POSTSCRIPT: We know the president doesn’t believe in climate change; and we know the people he has appointed to head up agencies that exist to protect the environment don’t really bother.
Newly released emails reveal that Team Trump decided last year that it would be great if the EPA could send four top officials to speak to a meeting of the Cooler Heads Coalition, a group formed to push climate change denial and funded by the American Petroleum Institute, among others.
This visit was not disclosed before – no surprise, really –
because it would have been embarrassing in the extreme. Trump’s first EPA head,
Scott Pruitt, was a bigtime climate change denier. After he got booted amid
numerous investigations into shady practices, he was replaced by Andrew Wheeler, whose previous
environmental-protection efforts involved working as a lobbyist for Big Coal,
which would be the same as placing the head of a drug cartel in charge of the
DEA.
So far, Wheeler has “protected” the environment by rolling back regulations meant to curb mercury emissions from coal-fired plants and pushing to increase the use of ethanol in gasoline during summer months. The gasoline-ethanol mix increases smog in warmer months.
We’ll let government scientists explain the dangers of mercury poisoning:
It affects the immune system, alters
genetic and enzyme systems, and damages the nervous system, including
coordination and the senses of touch, taste, and sight. Methylmercury is
particularly damaging to developing embryos, which are five to ten times more
sensitive than adults.
So, if you like to fish, in the future you might want to think twice about eating what you catch. Mercury buildup in the tissue of fish has long been a problem. Over the years at least forty states have had to issue advisories for select bodies of water, warning anglers not to consume certain types of fish. Thirteen states had statewide advisories “for some or all sportfish from rivers or lakes.” Wide swaths of the coast were under mercury warnings, as well.
But, hey, it’s only your central nervous system at
risk. So, as they like to say on Team Trump, “Let’s pollute!”
