CBS has hired former top Trump aide Mick Mulvaney as a contributor in a move that should be unbelievable, but somehow isn’t. Mulvaney is a piece of work, with a record of shamelessly defending some of Trump’s worst moments. But CBS is the real issue here for looking around and, out of every expert whose input they could have paid for, going with Mulvaney.
Mulvaney, a former member of Congress from South Carolina, served as the director of the Office of Management and Budget and acting chief of staff for Trump. Perhaps his most astonishing—and most relevant to the events of early 2022—moment came in the latter role as Trump’s extortion of Ukraine for personal political advantage was coming to light.
Trump had held up nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine while he pressured President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, then newly elected, to help Trump smear now-President Joe Biden. The Trump administration tried to cover up what Trump had done, but Mulvaney came out and said that of course Trump had done exactly that.
“Did [President Trump] also mention to me in passing the corruption related to the DNC server? Absolutely—no question about that. That’s it, and that’s why we held up the money,” Mulvaney told reporters. “What happened in 2016 certainly was part of the thing that he was worried about in corruption with that nation, and that is absolutely appropriate.” (“The corruption related to the DNC server” was a conspiracy theory about the 2016 elections.)
Pressed by reporters on whether he was describing a political quid pro quo that Trump had previously denied, Mulvaney said, “I have news for everybody: Get over it,” because, “There is going to be political influence in foreign policy.”
Mulvaney later denied that there was a quid pro quo of military aid for an investigation into the 2016 election, but … he said there was exactly that. This person will be a paid contributor on CBS News. The person who told reporters and the public to “get over” the fact that Trump withheld military aid appropriated by Congress in pursuit of a conspiracy theory of personal interest to himself, then denied having said that, will get a big new platform during a brutal invasion of the country Trump tried to extort.
What’s more, Mulvaney’s Ukraine comments came at a press conference called to announce that Trump had decided to hold the G-7 summit at his own golf resort, with Mulvaney insisting, falsely, that Trump “will not be profiting” from the event.
In a similar, though less consequential, vein to his Ukraine remarks, Mulvaney openly and without any shame admitted that a Trump staffer covered up the Navy ship named after John McCain during a Trump visit. His position was that, like extorting countries for personal political favors, it was absolutely normal behavior to want to cover up the name of someone Trump disliked personally.
Other Mulvaney greatest hits: While defending Trump’s racist attacks describing Rep. Elijah Cummings’ Baltimore congressional district as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” that was “far worse and more dangerous” than the southern U.S. border, Mulvaney set up a hypothetical in which Trump might attack Rep. Adam Schiff on similar terms—drawing protest from Fox News’ Chris Wallace that Trump would not, in fact, use the same language—and then, out of nowhere, said it would “have zero to do with the fact that Adam is Jewish.” He also downplayed COVID-19 by saying it’s “not ebola”—which is true, but not in the way he meant it.
Check out Aaron Rupar's Twitter thread for much, much more.
Immediately following the 2020 elections, Mulvaney wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed insisting that Trump would absolutely participate in a peaceful transition of power. Is this the level of accuracy, insight, and political judgment that CBS News is looking for by hiring him?
Mulvaney kicked off his official role at CBS by talking about tax policy, which is also an interesting choice. Mulvaney predictably, if hypocritically, reversed position on deficits when the time came for him to defend the Republican tax plan that went on to add so much to the deficit. And he is now, even more than when he was a Republican politician, to serve as a mouthpiece for wealth: Media Matters notes that “he now runs a hedge fund and a lobbying firm.” That’s what CBS was apparently looking for: Not just any hedge funder, and not just anyone who alternated between lying for Trump and defending the indefensible for him. No, CBS was looking for someone who got all of that into one toxic package. Congratulations, guys, you found him.
