The Never Ending Week

Takes One to Know One:  The Trump contingent may be off to Saudi Arabia, but the leaks keep coming. Friday afternoon, a source read sections of the transcript of Trump’s Oval Office meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and Ambassador Kislyak to the New York Times.  In it Trump boasted to his Russian buddies that  “I just fired the head of the FBI, he was crazy, a real nut job” before adding “I faced great pressure because of Russia.  That’s taken off.” It’s not clear if Trump made those remarks before or after he gave away top secret, highly valuable Israeli intelligence.  From Air Force One somewhere over the Atlantic, Sean Spicer responded that FBI Director Comey had to be fired because he was impacting the administration’s ability to engage, negotiate, and collude with Russia.  He did not dispute that Trump had called Comey a nut job but he did manage to throw in a condemnation of the leakers.  Somewhere in Moscow, Lavrov and Kislyak are celebrating the fruits of their election interference.    

A Person of Interest:  Not to be outdone by the NY Times, the Washington Post reported that a current White House official, someone close to Trump, has been identified as a significant person of interest as a result of the investigation into possible coordination between the Russians and the Trump campaign. On his evening Hardball show Chris Matthews tried to pry the name out of one of the Washington Post reporters pointing out that Secretary of State Tillerson, AG Sessions and son-in-law Jared Kushner are the only people that he can think of who fall into that category.  Matthews couldn’t get the reporter to budge but his money is on Kushner, Renaissance man.  If that’s true there will be a lot of job openings at the White House soon.  In another statement from Air Force One, Spicer shouted that “as the President has stated before”… “there was no collusion.”  No response from Kushner but, then again, we never hear Kushner talk.   

Comey Will Talk:  The recent appointment of Special Counsel Mueller had raised some doubt as to whether or not former FBI Director Comey would be able to testify before one or more of the Congressional committees that want to hear what he has to say about the events leading up to his dismissal and his conversations with Trump. Friday evening the Senate Intelligence Committee announced that they have won the Comey lottery.  Comey has agreed to testify in an open hearing shortly after Memorial Day.  Assuming that Trump isn’t able to stop him we will soon know more about what it’s like to work for the real nut job.    

More From Rosenstein:   According to The McClatchy Report, when Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein testified before the House on Friday, he revealed that the investigators into the Russia meddling are now also authorized to probe whether White House officials have engaged in a cover-up.  It may be too late, but if there’s still time on that flight to Saudi Arabia, Trump might want to watch All the President’s Men.     

Other Mean Stuff:  Before leaving for his Three Religion Tour, Trump told aides that he wants to end Obamacare subsidiaries in order to hasten its demise.  It’s not clear that Congress, increasingly nervous about the midterm elections, will let him get away with that.  Education Secretary Betsy Devos plans to eliminate a debt forgiveness plan for students who go into low paying service careers like teaching and social work.  Devos is in the process of divesting herself from a loan collection company that specializes in student loans but still puts the industry’s preferences first.   

Brooklyn Half Marathon today!  See you at the boardwalk.