Harvey Made Me Do It

Pardon Me:  In an interview that was supposed to be focused on tax reform, Trump’s Economic Advisor Gary Cohn told the Financial Times that he seriously considered resigning over Trump’s comments blaming the events in Charlottesville on “both sides.”  He said that “citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK.”  Adding that the administration “must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups.”  Cohn said that he had expressed his views to Trump at a private meeting in Bedminster but ultimately decided to stay because of a sense of duty.  The official comment from the White House is that Trump knows how Cohn feels, the reality is that he is furious that Cohn so publicly rebuked him and will get even soon.  Late Friday, as Hurricane Harvey beat down on Texas, Trump provided further evidence of his affinity for racists by pardoning former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who had been awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of criminal contempt for disregarding a court order in a racial profiling case.  Trump said that he pardoned Arpaio because he “kept Arizona safe.” To be clear, when Arpaio was in office he directed his law enforcement to stop people for the crime of walking while being Latino, he abused prisoners, called his jails concentration camps and sent a deputy to Hawaii in search of Obama’s birth certificate. Trump, who told Suffolk County police that it would be okay if they intentionally banged heads during arrests, just sent the message to law enforcement officials throughout the country that illegal profiling is too. Phoenix’s mayor said that the pardon was a “slap in the face to the people of Maricopa County,” both of Arizona’s Senators, Flake and McCain agreed. No response yet from Gary Cohn, but if he really thinks it’s time to stand up for equality and freedom he’s hanging out with the wrong crowd.  That resignation letter he says he wrote last week, now’s the time to submit it.

Subpoena Time:  Special Counsel Mueller’s Russia investigation is accelerating.  The Wall Street Journal reports that Mueller is looking into whether former National Security Advisor Flynn and his son sought out Russian help in order to obtain Hillary Clinton’s “missing” emails.  Mueller has also started subpoenaing people to testify in front of a grand jury.  According to NBC News he subpoenaed public relations executives who worked with former campaign manager Paul Manafort to learn more about a pro-Russian Ukrainian project that Manafort worked on at a time when he had not registered as a foreign agent. It’s quite possible that the timing of Trump’s Joe Arpaio pardon is intended to send a not so subtle message to Mueller.  If he can so easily pardon a guy like Arpaio, what’s to stop him from pardoning Flynn, Manafort, his whole family and anyone else impacted by the Russia investigation?   

Transgender Ban:  Late Friday Trump signed a directive formalizing his transgender tweets. As expected, the directive calls for transgender individuals to be banned from joining the military but gives the Secretary of Defense wide discretion in determining whether those in the armed forces can continue to serve.  The new rules, which also apply to Homeland Security and the National Guard, ban government financed sex reassignment surgery and any other related treatment.  In anticipation of the directive’s release,  Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth who lost both her legs in Iraq commented that “when I was bleeding to death in my Black Hawk helicopter after I was shot down I didn’t care if the American troops risking their lives to help save me were, gay straight, transgender, black, white or brown and Jennifer Detlefsen, a Navy veteran and daughter of Interior Secretary Zinke commented on Trump’s ban saying “This man is a disgrace.  I’ve tried to keep politics out of my social media feed as much as possible, but this is inexcusable.” Members of the conservative Family Research Council feel much safer knowing that transgender people will no longer be allowed to fight for their democratic principles, they’ve praised Trump’s decision.      

Gorka No More:  Depending on who you ask Deputy Assistant Sebastian Gorka either resigned on Friday or was fired.  In either case,  Trump’s favorite Nazi sympathizer, who had no official role, never was able to get a high security clearance but appealed to Trump’s baser instincts and helped spread the Trump gospel to various and sundry news outlets, is out.  Gorka says that he stepped down voluntarily because “Trump’s populist agenda has now been hijacked by establishment figures,” adding he can better serve Trump and the make America great again agenda from outside the White House.  Don’t believe it, he was pushed out by Chief of Staff Kelly who has been methodically rooting the crazies out of the White House.  Sadly, Kelly’s authority only goes so far, he can’t boot the most dangerous crazy guy, yet. In all likelihood, Gorka will resurface in a day or two at Breitbart News alongside his mentor, Steve Bannon.         

Pyongyang:  Earlier in the week, Trump said that his strategy of tweet berating North Korea’s Kim Jong Un was working and told the crowd at his Phoenix rally that “I respect the fact that I believe Kim Jong Un is starting to respect us.”  Secretary of State Tillerson said “I am pleased to see that the regime in Pyongyang has certainly demonstrated some level of restraint that we’ve not seen in the past.  Last night Pyongyang showed some of that respectful restraint by launching three short range missiles.      

Venezuela:  At Friday’s daily news conference, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and national security advisor McMaster announced a new directive intended to restrict the Venezuelan government’s access to the US financial system.  The order bars banks from being involved in new bonds and stocks issued by the government and the state oil company and is intended to further isolate Venezuela President Maduro and to insure that US financial institutions cannot be used to further his efforts to expand undemocratic rule.  At the end of their presentation Treasury Secretary Mnuchin was asked about Gary Cohn’s comments about Trump’s response to the events in Charlottesville, Mnuchin responded by standing by his earlier weaselly comment that everything Trump said had sounded just fine to him, distancing himself from Cohn, his “good” friend and former Goldman Sachs colleague.  Mnuchin and his charming wife, Louise Linton, just earned themselves another government paid flight and stay at Mar a Lago for dinner with the Trumps.  #Deplorable.  

The storm rages on.