Baseball, Pie and Guns

Baseball and Guns:  Yesterday morning James Hodgkinson, a crazed homeless shooter who hated Trump and had volunteered for the Bernie Sanders campaign, assaulted members of the Republican Congressional baseball team using a legal semi-automatic rifle.  The Republicans were at an early morning practice for a charity game against the Democrats which is still scheduled to take place tonight.  Five people were wounded, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise who underwent two surgeries and remains in critical condition.  As a member of the Republican leadership Scalise travels with a Capitol Police protection team.  His team’s three officers proved their bravery in the face of extreme danger by engaging in a wild shoot out with the assailant before taking him down.  Two of the police officers were wounded and one is still in the hospital. Not the best birthday present for Trump who turned seventy-one yesterday.  So far he has acted with uncharacteristic grace, making only a somber statement calling for unity and following-up with a night time visit to Congressman Scalise and the hospitalized officer. His statement did not mention anything about the insanity of the widespread availability of automatic weapons. For the moment Congress is putting up a united front which might last through tonight’s game.  Donald Trump Jr., Newt Gingrich, and Right Wing Representative Steve King didn’t get the message that kindness is the order of the day, they have already blamed Kathy Griffin, New York elites and “the left” for the shooting.  They were silent last month when a knife wielding man stabbed and killed two men who were trying to defend two Muslim women on a Portland transit train.             

Mueller vs Trump: Trump’s birthday went from bad to worse. Late yesterday, the Washington Post revealed that Trump is now being investigated by Special Counsel Mueller for obstruction of justice.  Mueller is focusing on the events that led to the firing of former FBI Director Comey to determine if Trump fired Comey for refusing to halt his investigation of former national security adviser Mike Flynn.  Mueller intends to interview Director of National Security Coats, NSA Head Rogers and former NSA Deputy Director Ledgett.  It’s been reported that while questioning the intelligence community’s judgement that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election Trump tried to get Rogers and Coats to influence Comey to drop the Flynn investigation and that Rogers had Ledgett, who was then his deputy, write one of those contemporaneous notes memorializing his Trump conversation.  If Trump tried to influence Rogers and Coats, than the case is no longer a “he said, he said” case, but a “he said, three said” case, a much bigger problem for Trump.  This investigation may have been initiated by Rod Rosenstein shortly after Comey was fired, even before Mueller was appointed.  Trump could try to assert executive privilege to prevent Rogers and Coats from speaking with Mueller but the courts didn’t buy that strategy when Nixon tried it and probably won’t buy it for Trump. Trump’s counsel reacted last night by lashing out at the FBI, Trump’s current whipping boy, for its “outrageous, inexcusable and illegal” leaks as if leaks were Trump’s only problem but did not deny that Trump was being investigated. The Washington Post article cited five sources and it’s likely that the FBI wasn’t one of them and the NY Times and Wall Street Journal are running similar stories. Trump never should have told Russian Ambassador Kislyak and Foreign Minister Lavrov that he fired that nut job Comey and he probably also regrets telling NBC’s Lester Holt that this Russia thing is a made-up story.  Trump may find his first instinct to fire Mueller hard to resist.  Storm clouds are forming.

Trump Pie:  The Senate Judiciary Committee also wants a piece of the Trump obstruction pie.  The committee which is chaired by Iowa Senator Grassley and co-chaired by California Senator Diane Feinstein is launching a wide-ranging probe into the circumstances behind Comey’s firing.  In addition to focusing on the Russia investigation they will be looking into what went on with Comey during the Obama administration.  The Judiciary Committee has oversight responsibility for the Justice Department and Grassley and Feinstein were feeling left out when Attorney General Sessions snubbed them to testify in front of the Intelligence Committee.  

More Russian Sanctions:  In an uncharacteristically bipartisan 97 to 2 vote the Senate overwhelming passed a package of new Russia sanctions intended to limit Trump’s ability to ease or end penalties against Moscow.  If the Senate gets its way, Trump will not be returning those two luxury compounds back to Putin any time soon.  For now this move is just symbolic since the legislation faces an uncertain vote in the House of Representatives because despite Russia election interference and accusations of Trump team collusion, the White House is putting pressure on House leadership to reject or water down the proposed sanctions in an effort to retain the ability to improve relations with Trump’s sometime BFF Putin.   

Travel Bank Tinkering:  The 90 day ban on issuance of visas to citizens of the six majority-Muslim countries targeted by Trump’s travel ban ran out on Wednesday and the 120 day-halt on the admission of refugees was set to run out next month.  The expiration of these provisions would make the travel ban moot.  Instead of letting the ban die, Trump, who continues to claim that the ban is essential, quietly issued a memorandum that modified the time limits so that they don’t kick in until 72 hours after any injunctions are lifted to the extent they are ever lifted. The Supreme Court is expected to act next week on Trump’s request to lift injunctions while it hears arguments on the legality of the travel ban policy.

Qatar Plane Deal:  Last week Trump accused Qatar of being a “high level” sponsor of terrorism throwing his support behind Saudi Arabia, Egypt and three other Arab nations efforts to isolate Qatar and making Secretary of State Tillerson’s efforts to defuse the tense regional stand-off more difficult. That was last week. Yesterday, the US signed off on a $12 billion deal allowing Boeing to sell F-15 fighter jets to Qatar while two US Navy vessels arrived in Doha to take part in a joint military exercise with the Qatari navy.