Labored Days Ahead

The Comey Firing:  It may be time for Stephen Miller, Trump’s advisor, speechwriter and favorite xenophobe, to hire a lawyer.  It turns out that before Trump asked Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to write a letter justifying the firing of former FBI Director Comey, he wrote his own letter with Miller’s assistance.  The Trump/Miller letter was basically a rambling screed, inspired by Trump’s fury that Comey wouldn’t publicly announce that he wasn’t the subject of the Russia investigation, the investigation that he is now the subject of because of the Comey firing.  The letter was so crazy in content and tone that White House Counsel Don McGahn wouldn’t let Trump send it to Comey.  Instead Trump had Attorney General Sessions and Rod Rosenstein cook up the letter he subsequently used, the one that blamed the firing on Comey’s handling of the Hillary email affair.  Rod Rosenstein, whose letter didn’t explicitly call for Comey’s firing, was then left holding the bag for the dismissal decision until Trump admitted to NBC’s Lester Holt that the decision to fire Comey was his and that he fired him to put an end to the Russia investigation. The complete contents of the Trump/Miller letter aren’t yet available for public consumption but Special Counsel Mueller has a copy.  When asked about the letter Ty Cobb, Trump’s in house lawyer for all things Russia, did not deny its existence.      

  

Dream Delayed:  No decision yet on the Deferred Action for Childhood Admissions program (DACA)  because deciding whether to kick 800,000 young people out of the country is complicated.  Yesterday Trump said that he “loves the dreamers,” whatever that means, and is close to making a decision but has deferred his announcement until Tuesday.  Trump who promised to end the DACA program as soon as he took office, is now facing some tough reality.  His shrinking core wants him to toss all illegal immigrants but sixty-five percent of Americans support the DACA program and a number of Republican legislators including House Majority Leader Paul Ryan, Senators John McCain, Jeff Flake, Orrin Hatch, Lindsay Graham, and an expanding list of congressman support a legislative solution to allow the DACA kids to stay in the country. Yesterday Florida’s Governor joined the “leave the DACA kids alone” contingent and the Attorney General of Tennessee, announced that he was dropping out of the ten state coalition that intends to initiate a lawsuit against the Federal Government next week if DACA isn’t rescinded immediately.  He cited concerns about the “human element” as his reason for dropping his opposition to DACA.  Hurricane Harvey further complicates Trump’s DACA plans, Trump is traveling to Houston this weekend to try to pull off a compassionate presidential moment and even he realizes that killing DACA while visiting the flood zone would be bigly bad. Obama implemented DACA by executive action because he couldn’t build a large enough coalition to pass dreamer legislation.  It would be very ironic if legislation now gets passed by the Republican controlled Congress because of a combination of Trump dithering and Hurricane Harvey.    

Tit For Tat:  First the Russians hacked our elections.  In response Obama kicked them out of a few of their US compounds.  Putin shrugged expecting Trump to give back the compounds as soon as he ascended to his Russia facilitated presidential throne.  After Congress tied Trump’s hands by passing sanctions legislation Putin realized that his appointed prince wouldn’t be able to give his compounds back anytime soon so he retaliated by kicking 700 or so US embassy workers out of Russia. Trump responded by thanking Putin for helping him implement staff cuts, before Press Secretary Huckabee Sanders asserted that he was just kidding.  It turns out he really was kidding, on Thursday, the State Department kicked the Russians out of three more of their US properties, including their San Francisco consulate.  Yesterday, the San Francisco fire department raced over to the consulate in response to reports that plumes of dark smoke were emanating from the building.  The Russians shooed them away, responding that they were just toasting s’mores over burning crucial secret documents.  Friday, the NY Times reported that the Russian incursion into state election systems was far worse than originally indicated. The cyber battle wages on.    

The September List:  Congress returns to an almost impossible to do list.  The debt limit has to be raised to avoid a default and a budget resolution, or more likely an interim budget resolution, has to be passed to avoid a government shutdown, all by month’s end.  FEMA is just about out of money and needs funds to continue Hurricane Harvey relief, last night the White House upped the amount of the first Harvey request to $7.8 billion an amount that hastens the need for quick debt ceiling action.  Something needs to be done about Obamacare’s subsidy payments and an increasing number of legislators want to introduce legislation to solve the DACA problem before any kids get kicked to the curb.  Then there is tax reform, which will not move forward in September,  despite assertions from Treasury Secretary Mnuchin that the tax plan is “very detailed,” economic advisor Gary Cohn revealed that it is still no more than a “skeleton.”  One positive note, Trump quietly let Republican leadership know that he no longer plans to cause a government shutdown if border wall funding is excluded from any interim budget resolution because shutting the government while Texas is reeling and you control all three arms of government isn’t a good plan, even for Trump.

More People Problems:  Though he tweeted out support to his Church Lady, Chief of Staff Kelly, on Friday Trump is frustrated by Kelly’s new rules and has been heard berating him.  Kelly has told friends that managing Trump is the hardest job he’s ever had, even harder than being a Marine grunt so concerns continue to swirl about how long he will be willing to serve as Trump’s babysitter.  Trump’s isolation is likely to get worse.  His long term aide, Keith Schiller, the guy who was tasked with delivering the infamous Comey dismissal letter, intends to leave at the end of the month ostensibly because he wants to return to a higher paying job, but possibly because he too finds the Kelly regime too constricting.  Then there is Senator McCain, he plans to return to Washington next week and with little to lose, he is speaking his mind.  Yesterday in a Washington Post Op Ed he again called for the return to regular order, compromise and problem solving adding that those things are more important than ever at a time “when Congress must govern with a president who has no experience of public office, is often poorly informed and can be impulsive in his speech and conduct.”  He finished by reminding his colleagues that they aren’t Trump’s subordinates, they work for the American people.  Sharp words from the maverick, if only he hadn’t greased the wheels for the Trump movement when he picked Sarah Palin as his running mate.  

Happy Labor Day!