As we watch Trump’s presidency unravel in slow motion, let’s not forget how we got here.
David Leonhard/NY Times:
The Tragedy of James Comey
Comey, however, decided that he knew better than everyone else. He was the righteous Jim Comey, after all. He was going to speak truth to power. He was also, not incidentally, going to protect his own fearless image. He developed a series of rationales, suggesting that he really had no choice. They remain unpersuasive. When doing the right thing meant staying quiet and taking some lumps, Comey chose not to.
His tragic mistake matters because of the giant consequences for the country. He helped elect the most dangerous, unfit American president of our lifetimes. No matter how brave Comey has since been, no matter how honorable his full career, he can never undo that damage.
As he takes over the spotlight again, I’ll be thinking about the human lessons as well the political ones. Comey has greater strengths than most people. But for all of us, there is a fine line between strength and hubris.
Who is Michael Cohen? Adam Davidson tells us here:
Michael Cohen is the most important non-Trump in the Trump business world.
He oversaw nearly all the foreign deals as the Trump Org shifted its focus to sketchy third-tier overseas oligarchs.
Cohen’s involvement is way more than just paying off Stormy Daniels. Read the thread. And appreciate that you’re watching a historical FUBAR play out.
WaPo:
Federal probe into Trump’s lawyer seeks records about two women who alleged affairs with the president
Federal prosecutors investigating President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael D. Cohen, are seeking records related to two women who received payments in 2016 after alleging affairs with Trump years ago — adult-film star Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The interest in both Daniels and McDougal indicates that federal investigators are trying to determine whether there was a broader pattern or strategy among Trump associates to buy the silence of women whose accounts could harm the president’s electoral chances and whether any crimes were committed in doing so, one of those people said.
Investigators are also seeking all communications about Daniels and McDougal between Cohen, David Pecker — a personal friend of Trump and the chief executive of American Media Inc., which publishes the National Enquirer — and Dylan Howard, the chief content officer of American Media and a reporter there.
McSweeney’s:
I AM TRUMP’S LAWYER’S LAWYER’S LAWYER’S LAWYER AND WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK I AM SUPPOSED TO BE DOING?
Good day. I am Trump’s lawyer’s lawyer’s lawyer’s lawyer. I think. I might be his lawyer’s lawyer’s lawyer. I have an email into his lawyer’s lawyer seeking some clarification on precisely who the fuck I am. I am somewhat certain that I am his lawyer’s lawyer’s lawyer’s lawyer because that is what Kellyanne said I was when she was talking once. But who knows.
And in an abundance of caution I should be more precise. I am actually Trump’s personal lawyer’s personal lawyer’s personal lawyer’s personal lawyer. Just to be clear.
Jonathan Chait/NY Magazine:
Today’s 5 Best Quotes From Freaked-Out Trump Sources, Ranked
In case you don’t have time to read all the tirade coverage, here are the best quotes from freaked-out sources, ranked in ascending order:
Paul Waldman/WaPo:
President Trump has never been in more trouble than right now
I checked in with Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney, to get context on the Cohen raid. She emphasized how rare it is for prosecutors to get a warrant for privileged material: Breaching attorney-client privilege in this way only happens when the attorney himself is directly implicated in possible crimes. She also stressed that, because it is such a radical step for prosecutors to take, a complex system of safeguards has been established to make sure it can’t be abused.
David Brooks/NY Times argues with himself about why he, Brooks, is irrelevent::
The Failures of Anti-Trumpism
Over the past year, those of us in the anti-Trump camp have churned out billions of words critiquing the president. The point of this work is to expose the harm President Trump is doing, weaken his support and prevent him from doing worse. And by that standard, the anti-Trump movement is a failure.
We have persuaded no one. Trump’s approval rating is around 40 percent, which is basically unchanged from where it’s been all along.
We have not hindered him. Trump has more power than he did a year ago, not less. With more mainstream figures like H. R. McMaster, Rex Tillerson and Gary Cohn gone, the administration is growing more nationalist, not less.
We have not dislodged him. For all the hype, the Mueller investigation looks less and less likely to fundamentally alter the course of the administration.
Brooks’ failure to understand the Resistance, and the newly empowered voters, is obvious from this piece. Conservative anti-Trumpers haven’t persuaded the bulk of the Trump supporters, but that was never the point. Shave off 10% and throw your support to Democrats. As for the rest, vote them out. If that’s not your plan, no wonder you’re confused and depressed.
Will Bunch/philly.com:
What's a guy gotta do to get impeached in Trump's out-of-control America?
That was pretty outrageous, and yet another case of the president confusing what’s good for the country with what’s good for him — which so often are polar opposites. But I was just as concerned — maybe more so — by a fresh report that got buried, perhaps understandably, in the blizzard of news about the President and the Porn Star Payoff.
The Washington Post reported that lawyers for the company still owned by and still profiting the sitting president, the Trump Organization, sent a letter to the leader of Panama warning that his Central American nation might face “repercussions” if his government didn’t intervene on the side of the U.S. president’s business in a dispute involving a Trump hotel in Panama City. (You may have forgotten — the president of Panama almost certainly hasn’t — that U.S. troops overran the tiny nation back in 1989, so “repercussions” is a pretty loaded term.)
We often say that the Founding Fathers who gathered here in Philadelphia to draft the Constitution in 1787 never could have anticipated our modern world of AR-15s and Cambridge Analytica. But they actually were spot on when it came to anticipating the sleazeball tactics of the Trump Organization and its owner, who currently sits in the Oval Office.
Josh Kraushaar/National Journal:
Senate Republicans Growing Anxious About Their Majority
Mitch McConnell raised alarms about the grim political environment for Republicans last week. He had good reasons.
“You’ve got to accept that [a D Senate majority] is possible. Up until now, most Rs have said the House is going to be a challenge, but the Senate map looks pretty good... now there are a lot of combinations to lose the Senate"…
And then there’s the lesson of wave elections. When the environment looks as grim as McConnell suggests, close races all tend to fall in the same direction. If Democrats end up catching most of the breaks, as history suggests happen in wave elections, they’ll find the Senate majority is closer than it appears at first glance.
Here is a notable thread on Syria by Loren DeJonge Schulman, on presidential authority to wage war.
I found my notes from around this time last year on Trump's prior strike on Syria and the CAN HE DO THAT hand-wringing that usually goes with such an action…
And with the caveat that I am decidedly not a lawyer and am usually obsessed with matters of war-making and war-resourcing authority, I am struck by how little that "can he do that" question really matters - particularly to Trump, but certainly not only to Trump.
Yes, I care about their justification from the perspective of setting precedent for US and internationally, how it's received internationally + likely response, and for my own nosy interest in how the sausage is made. But.
From a "can he do that" perspective, I go back to
@jacklgoldsmith: "It is a remarkable fact about the U.S. Constitution that 228 years after its creation, we still don’t know what limits, if any, it imposes on unilateral presidential uses of military force. "
Ishaan Tharoor/WaPo:
There’s no victory for Trump in Syria, but he could court disaster
For Trump, who loves “winning,” there's no winning in Syria. But he still has the capacity to make things worse.
Trump can tweet furiously about what an “animal” Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is. He can point fingers, albeit hypocritically, at his predecessor for not doing enough to confront Assad's regime. He can even declare mission accomplished in the fight against the Islamic State. But he has neither a plan nor the appetite to stop Assad's brutal consolidation of power and the regime's steady destruction of the remaining pockets of rebellion.
Wow. Honest analysis. Maybe we have learned something since Iraq.