Rudy's Stew

Giuliani Gumbo:  In odd interviews with CNN and FOX, Rudy Giuliani denied that Trump had attended the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya and her band of Russian spies and rambled something about “another meeting that has been leaked but hasn’t been in public yet. Going on to say “That was a meeting ― an alleged meeting ― three days before, according to Cohen ... he says there was a meeting with Donald Jr., with Jared Kushner, with Paul Manafort, with Gates and possibly two others, in which they ― out of the presence of the president ― discussed the meeting with the Russians. ... That meeting never, ever took place. It didn’t happen. It’s a figment of his imagination.”  Though what he was saying wasn’t entirely clear, it appears that Rudy was trying to get out ahead of an as yet unreleased assertion that various Trumpkins had attended a pre-meeting, one where they prepared for the meeting with the Russian spies.  Later Monday night he tried to walk back his curious statements by telling a Daily Beast Reporter that he was only discussing the second meeting because reporters from The New York Times reached out asking about it. That reporter was Maggie Haberman who at least for now says that she has nothing to say about that story or her sources.  As to Rudy’s denial that Trump had been at the Veselnitskaya meeting a very confused FOX commentator Melissa Francis, asked him “Why are you saying that the president wasn’t at the meeting?” “Who asked if he was there? No one asked if he was there.”  Adding,  “It’s different to say that meeting didn’t happen ... but to say he wasn’t there implies that it happened.” While it’s easy to dismiss Giuliani’s comments as the ramblings of a past his prime, crazy man, Rudy may just be crazy like a fox.  There’s some thought that Rick Gates, the Manafort associate who is now cooperating with Special Counsel Mueller, may have mentioned the second meeting to Mueller and his team and that Giuliani and Trump are aware of what Gates knows and what he may have told Mueller and think that leaking it out to the public in rambling bits and pieces will blunt the force of a more complete disclosure when and if it that disclosure happens.  As to collusion, though Trump has told us countless times that there was no collusion, Giuliani and former NJ Governor Chris Christie seem to be acknowledging that maybe, just maybe there was some collusion. The two are now saying that even if there was collusion it wouldn’t matter because collusion is not a crime, a theory that was earlier advanced by Jay Sekulow, the lawyer who used to act as Trump’s TV spokesman before Giuliani came on board. Giuliani also said that hacking is the crime and that Trump “didn’t hack,” something that no one disputes because in all likelihood Trump doesn’t even know how to log on to a computer.   For the record, Giuliani isn’t wrong when he says that collusion is not in the federal code, but most experts agree that any Trump cooperation with the Russians could be tied to multiple criminal violations of election law, computer hacking, false statements and wire fraud so collusion or not, Trump and Trump team canoodling with the Russians would be criminal conspiracy, a bigly problem for all concerned.       

Policy Pasta: During a press conference with Italy’s fawning Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, whose far right coalition shares Trump’s hard line immigration views, Trump once again said that he would close down the government if he doesn’t get funding for his much coveted border wall.  He doubled down by slamming the broken immigration system, particularly highlighting the horror of chain migration, odd and possibly an indication of some problems with his in-laws given that current wife Melania’s family are amongst its beneficiaries.  To put it mildly, Senate Leader McConnell and House Speaker Ryan are less than pleased with his threats, they thought they he had signed off on their funding strategy last week when they walked through their plan to fund the government through a series of minibus spending bills, each one focused on a specific area of government.  At that time they had agreed to defer immigration and border security funding until after the midterms.  They, unlike Trump, recognize that bringing up immigration while so many of the separated children remain separated serves to keep his administration’s callous treatment of families in the spotlight, a problem that is likely to push some of those more moderate suburban voters over to the Democrats, offsetting any of the gains to be gotten by energizing Trump’s anti-immigrant base.  As to the 650 children which the government labeled as ineligible for reunification, an elegant way of saying that government officials screwed up and don’t know where their parents are, Judge Sabraw, the Republican appointed judge overseeing the separation mess, has mandated that the Department of Homeland Security turn over a list of the parents by Wednesday and is insisting that they continue to work on locating the so called missing, mostly deported, parents.  During the same news conference Trump responded to a question about Iran by saying that he would happily meet with Iran’s President Rouhani anytime with no conditions, another one of those foreign policy decisions that he forgot to discuss first with his advisors. Secretary of State Pompeo almost immediately contradicted him, or as he would say clarified Trump’s comments, by saying that Trump would be prepared to “sit down and have a conversation” with Rouhani only if the Iranians “demonstrate a commitment to make fundamental changes in how they treat their own people, reduce their malign behavior, and can agree that it’s worthwhile to enter in a nuclear agreement that actually prevents proliferation.”  In other words Pompeo set conditions for Trump’s unconditional meeting.  For their part the Iranians released a statement saying that Rouhani would be open for talks only if the U.S. “returns to the nuclear deal” and respects “the Iranian nation’s rights.” Also on the nuclear front, it appears that Trump’s good friend North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is beefing up his missile capabilities.  US intelligence officials told various news outlets that satellite photos taken in recent weeks, indicate that work is underway on at least one and possibly two liquid-fueled ICBMs on the outskirts of Pyongyang.  Nevertheless Trump, siting the release of the what may or may not be the remains of 50 US Korean War era US soldiers,  says that all is going well with his newest bud Kim Jong Un.

Fishy Tidbits: To no one’s surprise, Senator Rand Paul who earlier asserted that he had problems with Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh now plans to vote for him.  The only surprising thing about Paul’s decision is that he made it so soon, usually the attention grabbing Paul likes to hold out for a while longer.  West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, one of the at risk red state Democrats up for reelection in November, met with Kavanaugh yesterday, making him the first Democrat to sit down with the Judge.  Manchin reports that he still hasn’t made his mind up about Kavanaugh and says that the two spoke in great detail about health care, an issue near and dear to Manchin who, if he decides to vote against Kavanaugh, is likely to justify his decision, not over Roe v Wade and reproductive rights, but over concerns that Kavanaugh would rule against the mandate to provide coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.  The conservative billionaire Koch Brothers aren’t all that pleased with Trump’s trade and immigration policies and his “excessive government spending” so though their donor network is still contributing millions to Republicans they have decided to withhold funding from Representative Kevin Cramer the Republican candidate running against North Dakota Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp.  They say that Cramer doesn’t do  enough to further Koch policy views to warrant their help.  They prefer Heitkamp in large part because she voted to roll back parts of the Dodd-Frank Act and deregulating banks is one of their priorities.  Trump isn’t all that happy, yesterday he tweeted "The globalist Koch Brothers, who have become a total joke in real Republican circles, are against Strong Borders and Powerful Trade, I never sought their support because I don’t need their money or bad ideas.”  The Kochs, who are among the biggest funders of climate science deniers, are far from heroes but if their failure to support a Republican in red state North Dakota helps keep North Dakota’s Senate seat blue, that’s a good thing.