Bigly Screw-Up

What Was He Thinking:  While bragging about all the neat stuff his advisers tell him, Trump carelessly revealed highly confidential, classified material to Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and Ambassador Kislyak during their Oval Office tete-a-tete last week.  The intelligence concerning the location and nature of an Islamic State terrorist plot had been provided by a US partner under the assumption that it would be safeguarded. Even sharing it with other allies would have required their consent.  Trump’s disclosure puts “sources and methods” at risk and most certainly pissed off the unnamed partner who will think twice before sharing such sensitive information with US intelligence agencies again.  This was a bigly screw-up.  Aides present when Trump went off script were so concerned that they immediately reported what was said to the relevant US intelligence agencies.  One or more people at those agencies was so freaked out that they then leaked his screw-up to the Washington Post and New York Times who, given the sensitivity of the information, limited what they included in their respective papers.  Yesterday evening, after a panicked White House spinning session, carefully parsed non-denial, denials were released by Secretary State Tillerson and Security Advisers  McMaster and Powell.  Their statements were oddly off topic and are being greeted with a high degree of skepticism.  GOP Senator Corker reacted by saying that the “White House is in a downward spiral” and  even Paul Ryan, Trump’s lapdog, expressed concern. No comment from Trump on the irony that he spent months attacking “crooked Hillary” for being “extremely careless” with highly classified information.  Then again, Hillary’s failure to share sensitive intelligence with the Russians may be why Putin threw his support behind Trump.

Trump Words Matter:   Administration lawyers were in court again on Monday challenging a Hawaii judge’s decision to halt Trump’s travel ban.  Once again Trump’s words are coming back to haunt him.  The panel of 9^th Circuit US Court of Appeals judges asked questions about Trump’s campaign statements calling for the banning of all Muslim travel to the US, wanted to know if he had ever repudiated those statements, and questioned if the ban had anything to do with security or whether it was just a ban on Muslims. It doesn’t help the administration’s case that Trump’s call to ban all Muslims remained on his campaign website until last week.    

Voter Rights For All:  Last year, a Federal Appeals court overturned a North Carolina law that imposed stringent ID requirements on voters because it targeted African-Americans under the guise of eliminating the kind of non-existent voter fraud that Trump is always complaining about and Pence is tasked to investigate.  Yesterday, the Supreme Court decided not to hear an appeal of the lower court’s ruling effectively eliminating the restrictive regulations for now. Republican legislators haven’t given up and plan to enact new voting restrictions.  Their efforts will be stymied by the new Democratic Governor who was voted in after the last set of voting restrictions had been signed into law by his predecessor.

Not so Safe Pesticide:  A few years ago scientists at the EPA concluded that the pesticide Chlorpyrifos causes developmental problems in children and that it should be banned.  The Obama administration had been taking steps to ban it but Scott Pruitt, Trump’s EPA head, recently reversed Obama’s decision. On Friday dozens of farmworkers were poisoned by the chemical and told to seek out immediate medical care.  Dow Chemical, who manufactures Chlorpyrifos contributed $1 million to Trump’s inauguration and then asked the Trump administration to set aside the ban and ignore the research showing that the pesticide was harmful because that’s what $1 million buys.

The Hermit Kingdom Strikes Again:  Security experts believe that North Korean hackers were likely responsible for the ransomware hack that froze computers across Europe over the weekend. The attacks were based on vulnerabilities in Microsoft systems that were found by the NSA, stolen and then published by WikiLeaks in March. After the March leak, Microsoft sent out a security patch, but apparently not all users had bothered to update their systems.  Note to PC users, check that your computers have been updated!   

Next Up:  Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will be making a command performance in front of a closed door Senate session Thursday to discuss FBI Director Comey’s firing.  Democrats were already pressing for the appointment of a special prosecutor for the Russia investigation. In light of Trump’s intelligence screw-up Rosenstein should expect more pressure and a testy reception.  Though the White House still won’t confirm their existence, Democrats want to get hold of the Comey “dinner tapes.”  While they are at it, they should also request a copy of Trump’s conversation with Lavrov and Kislyak.  If Trump won’t provide it, they could try asking the Russians for their copy.