Comatose or Useless

Testy Times:  Through Trump’s ups and downs, inexplicable Russia love and many misstatements, UN Ambassador Niki Haley and VP Mike Pence have managed to lay low, avoid controversy and stay in his good graces, until now.  Haley was very publicly thrown under the bus over the weekend when Trump let everyone think that she erred by announcing what had been the planned impending sanctions against Russia.  When the Syrian attack plans were made, Trump’s military advisers decided to avoid hitting any Russian targets but wanted to make sure that the Russians got the message that they were being held accountable for the chemical attacks, the sanctions were intended to be part of the message.  However, Trump reneged on that part of the strategy, forgot to inform Haley and then grew enraged when he heard her announce them on last Sunday’s talk shows.  His anger was partly fueled by concerns that Haley, whose performance as UN Ambassador has impressed many, even those who don’t agree with all of her positions, is getting too much good press.  Trump is now worried that Haley could become one of his rivals in 2020. Similarly, last week he had a relatively public split with the generally obsequious and amiable, at least to him, VP Pence.  After Pence tried to add a new security advisor to his team Trump protested his preferred candidate, not because of his qualifications but  because the person in question, someone currently working for Haley, had been a never Trumper during the 2016 election.  Apparently Trump is also concerned that Pence has presidential ambitions and may, like Haley, have his eyes focused on 2020.  

Russia, Russia, Russia:  Yesterday during a press conference with Japan’s Prime Minister Abe, Trump was asked whether he had plans to fire Special Counsel Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein.  He launched into one of his meandering tirades, again asserting that everyone knows that there’s been no collusion, citing the highly dysfunctional House Intelligence Committee’s report that he had never, ever done anything wrong as proof.  He went on with his usual counterattack, saying that the Democrats and crooked Hillary were the real colluders and that the Russian stuff they accused him of was just part of their efforts to invalidate his presidency even though they had the edge in the electoral column.  If that sounds rambling, its because it was.  He never denied that he might fire Mueller and/or Rosenstein but did mention with a certain amount of disgust that as of now they still had their jobs despite all of the rumors that he had plans to fire either one of them, hardly much of a reassurance.  As to securing Mueller’s position, Senate Majority Leader McConnell still asserts that no protective legislation is necessary and that he has no plans to introduce any, however his hand may be forced soon.  Senator Grassley, the Republican head of the Judiciary Committee, plans to move ahead with bipartisan legislation intended to protect Mueller and the Russia investigation and it’s expected that the bill will make it out of his committee where a few Republicans including Senators Graham and Tillis are expected to vote with Democrats.  It’s not clear what will happen when and if the bill makes it to the floor, if McConnell will stand by his decision to refuse to take it up and whether or not it would have enough votes to pass the Senate if it is brought up for a vote.  As to the House, the wackadoodle faction, a group of Trump stalwarts, have decided that the real problem isn’t what might have happened between Trump and Russia so eleven of them have signed a joint letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions calling for the criminal prosecution of Hillary and a variety of other Obama administration appointees and career FBI officials. They area also calling for the prosecution of “all DOJ and FBI personnel responsible for signing the Carter Page warrant application,” including former FBI Director Comey, former Acting Director Andrew McCabe, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, and former US attorney (and current FBI general counsel) Dana Boente for allegedly violating Page’s civil liberties.  Their letter probably won’t result in any action but it does provide an indication of just how dysfunctional and polarized the House has become.  As to Prime Minister Abe, his hastily planned summit with Trump was supposed to provide him with some reassurance that Trump won’t sell his country out during the planned upcoming meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.  Facing his own problems at home, he had also hoped to obtain some sanctions relief and was trying to convince Trump to come back into the Trans Pacific Trade Agreement.  Its not clear that he will be going home happy on either of those fronts.  Trump reported that they had a great round of golf, provided a few nice words about Japan’s strategic importance but remained resistant on trade and has taken back the comments he made last week about reconsidering the TPP agreement.

The Cohen Conundrum:  Trump is pretty rattled about the raid on his lawyer/fixer Cohen’s homes and office, so much so that he’s been calling around seeking advice where ever he can find it.  The Wall Street Journal reports that he has spoken with Jay Goldberg, one of his former long-time lawyers and a sometime informal advisor.  Goldberg warned Trump not to trust Cohen, he believes that on a scale of 1 to 100 the chances of Cohen of remaining loyal to Trump is zero.   He is so sure that Cohen will turn on Trump to save his own skin that he warned Trump not to talk with Cohen because of his belief that Cohen could already being wearing a wire.  It’s worth remembering that last week Trump called Cohen directly and although Cohen probably wasn’t wearing a wire at that time, the call was probably being tapped by the FBI.  Goldberg also warned Trump that he should avoid talking with Mueller because “they can jam you up even if you are telling the truth.”  Goldberg also told him to get himself some better lawyers for the Russia probe, gave him a few names to call, but so far those he recommended have refused to sign on.  On the “women problem” front, Trump has broken his silence about adult film star Stormy Daniels.  Responding to the composite drawing of the man that Stormy says threatened her and her daughter back in 2011, Trump tweeted “A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!  That sketch may be kind of sketchy and may not do much to catch the threatening thug to the extent there ever was such a thug, but it did achieve one of Daniels’ and her wily attorney Michael Avenatti’s objectives, it provoked Trump into tweeting, and that may have been the real reason for it’s release.  Although Stormy’s lawsuit against Trump remains intact, former playmate Karen McDougal’s has been settled.  She reached a settlement on Wednesday, freeing her from her 2016 legal agreement with AMI, the owners of The National Enquirer.  McDougal is now free to talk about her much longer term relationship with Trump as much as she wants.  She gets to keep the $150,000 that she was initially paid as part of the AMI catch and kill arrangement but has to share up to $75,000 of any money she earns for her story with The National Enquirer.  AMI is spared from having to go through a discovery process that would have opened up their correspondence files to McDougal’s lawyers.  However, since much if not all of that information is probably already available or accessible to the FBI agents investigating Cohen’s alleged criminal activities, neither Trump nor Cohen should breathe a sigh of relief, the information will not remain secret for long.  And many of those other women who signed similar hush agreements are probably about to emerge from hiding.

Quote of the Day:  Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, who has decided not to seek reelection in November, said that "Any Republican senator who hasn't been conflicted over this presidency is either comatose or is pretty useless in their blindness." He also went on to compliment the Democratic candidate running for his seat, former Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen.  Corker went on to say that he considers Bredesen a friend with a lot of crossover appeal.  He added that he has no plans to campaign against him.  Bredesen is currently leading the likely Republican candidate Marsha Blackburn in the polls by about six points. Liddle Bob Corker’s seat may be on the verge of turning blue.