Thirteen months into this administration, and there is no sense of what a normal period would be. We have followed crazy tweet storms and rambling speeches. The media has said don’t get distracted because you will miss the policies. The staff here has insisted that the chaos is the policy and it is going to get caught in the investigation net. While it has been a circus, As The Donald Turns presents, “The Tent Is Collapsing.”
As The Donald Turns; The Tent Is Collapsing
- Wednesday, Trump soothsayer Hope Hicks left her job as White House Communications Director. The fact she held on to that job for a whopping five months is what was truly surprising. It is a thankless job managing the circus clowns that are in charge of the media message for this presidency. The White House said she was leaving to pursue other interests. That of course was complete rubbish. Hicks is 29 years old, a trusted friend of the president, White House Communications Director, in a job she could have for as long as she wants, and a person of no real professional qualifications for the gig she has. What other opportunities would she possibly be looking to pursue?
She left, in part, because of the investigation into the ringmaster of this circus. She had to testify before the House Intel Committee on Tuesday and had to admit that sometimes, during her job, she has to tell white lies. That is not even close to astonishing. Everyone in her job in the course of history has had to do that. The problem here is that the revelation comes in the middle of an investigation into her boss.
- Her likely replacement will be Mercedes Schlapp. She is a White House communications insider and her husband, Matt, heads the organization that runs the CPAC convention.
That is where Donald spoke last week. It is also where the newly open far right wing of the party took cheap shots at former RNC chair Michael Steele. Matt Schlapp, and others, insinuated that Steele had only been tolerated as head of the party because he was a black republican. Mrs. Schlapp will now likely be the one in charge of the president’s media message, such as it is.
- Of course, part of what the media will want to discuss is the ongoing battle between Donald and his attorney general Jeff Sessions.
@realDonaldTrump Feb 28
“Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse. Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isn’t the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!”
Sessions responded:
“As long as I am the attorney general, I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor, and this department will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and Constitution.”
This is not an easy fight to watch. Sessions is reprehensible when it comes civil rights and social justice. Yet, he is a constant punching bag for a bully of a president who refers to him as “Mr. Magoo.”
Still, Sessions signed up for this. He was so eager to be relevant, he jumped on the Donald bandwagon early in 2015 with his lips inappropriately puckered on a rump. To the facts at stake, Donald, as usual, is incredibly wrong. The Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, I not “an Obama guy.” He was appointed by George W. Bush. He was re-appointed by Barack Obama. Both times he won near unanimous congressional approval. It is his job to head any investigation into whether or not rules were followed in the FISA process.
- There is a bigger point to the FISA question that Donald, and his pet tortoise, Devin Nunes overlook. They, and their voicebox at Fox, want to allege that the FBI abused the process by duping a FISA court judge. They presume that the Steele Dossier was used as the primary evidence to get the warrant on Carter Page, and that the judge was not told everything he needed to know about the dossier.
- The evidence of the warrant submissions would have to be a lie. It is clearly footnoted, per the Schiff Memo, on the warrant, that some evidence was the product of opposition research.
- The names of who paid for the research were left out, as is ALWAYS the case with people who are not pertinent to the actual investigation.
- You would have to assume to that a federal court FISA judge, appointed by Chief Justice John Roberts, was such a fool, that they got over on him without him asking any questions about the evidence prior to issuing the warrant.
- Donald should not be so mean to the few people who still like him. His inner circle is shrinking. Thursday Chief of Staff John Kelly was doing a chat session at his former stomping grounds at the Department of Homeland Security when he offered the following “joke:”
“The last thing I wanted to do was walk away from one of the great honors of my life — being the secretary of homeland security — but I did something wrong, and God punished me, I guess.”
- The US Ambassador to Mexico, Roberta Jacobson, is resigning. Can this surprise anyone? She is staying on until May in an effort to give Donald time to find her successor, but who would want this job? Donald insults the country, (Mexico, in this case…..we felt the need to be clear), at every turn and carries himself with air of superiority without cause. Jacobson has not announced which side of “The wall” she will wish to remain on.
- The days of Jared Kushner in the West Wing are also dwindling. Kushner has lost his security clearance, which means his days as a peace envoy to the Middle East are over. He lacks any expertise for a real job anyway and now there are political talking heads on CNN who have greater security clearance than he does. He has been using the gig to get his family out of debt and Robert Mueller has him in the cross hairs. It’s what happens when you hire temporary carnies to work your circus.
This part is not that difficult to figure out. Mueller indicted 13 Russians knowing he would never get extradition on any of them. But he specifically indicted them on “Conspiracy to Defraud the United States.” That means under federal statutes, anyone who had any previous conversation, insight, or cooperation regarding those activities and did not alert authorities is guilty of obstruction of justice. Time to take the clown makeup off Jared and Don Jr.
- How bothered is Donald by all of this? Thursday, he ditched the Republican party. He announced major protectionist tariffs against steels and aluminum imports that will cost American consumers. Apparently, he only wants American steels to prop up the circus tents.
