#TreasonSummit

WTF:  In the run up to yesterday’s Trump-Putin meeting fears were that Trump would do something rash like recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea or offer up a Baltic State or two as a make nice gift.  We don’t know for sure what was discussed during their two hour tete-a-tete but at least for now it appears that none of those things happened.  Going into the meeting it had also been assumed that Trump would question Putin about Russian election interference.  To be sure, no one thought that Trump would really chastise Putin for his bad behavior, but expectations were that Trump would say something, if only to be able to then tell the rest of us that he had.  So much for reasonable expectations.  Instead of even trying to appear rational, Trump went off the deep end yesterday, bigly, by formally joining team Putin.  In the joint press conference that followed his meeting with Putin, Trump responded to questions about election interference and the rumor that Putin had some dirt on him by denying that there had been any election interference and by throwing the US intelligence services under the bus, or in this case under a cavalcade of Soviet era tanks. He said that “My people came to me, Dan Coates came to me and some others, they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin; he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.” He went on to say that he doubts the US intelligence agencies conclusions because Hillary Clinton’s 30,000 emails are still “missing” and because the DNC failed to turn over their server to the FBI, an ill-informed understanding of technology forensics propagated by right wing conspiracy wingnuts. He also criticized all prior US presidents, especially Democratic ones for their failure to improve relations with Russia and asserted that Obama was to blame for Russia’s annexation of Crimea, because he made Putin do it. Trump finished his remarks by asserting that due to his efforts, relations with Russia were now better than ever.  As Trump spoke, his good friend Putin stood by smirking, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov unsuccessfully stifled a gleeful outburst while Trump’s aides stood by in shock, except perhaps for Steve Miller of anti-immigration fame who ate it all up.  As to that dirt, and by dirt, think the infamous “pee tape” Putin insists that he never, ever obtained any incriminating information on Trump, going on to assert that he would never do such a thing and besides he didn’t even know that Trump was in his country when the “pee” incident was alleged to have happened. For the record, he did know that Trump was in the country at that time.  The two of them were supposed to meet, or at least that’s what Trump thought and what he had been told by his oligarch buddies, and in any case, it was and remains standard operating practice for Putin to gather dirt on all prominent business men who travel to Russia.  To prove what a good guy he is Putin offered to send some of his intelligence agents to Langley to help with the investigation into that whole election interference thing. Reactions to Trump’s statements were immediate and harsh.  Fox Business News Anchor Neil Caputo was among the first to speak, he called Trump's performance "disgusting,” adding “a US president on foreign soil talking to our biggest enemy, or adversary, or competitor is essentially letting the guy get away with this. That sets us back a lot." Virtually every US news service followed suit, CNN’s Andersen Cooper called Trump’s performance “disgraceful.” Aby Huntsman, a Fox News pundit and the daughter of US Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman tweeted “No negotiation is worth throwing your own people and country under the bus.” Within minutes of the press conference #TreasonSummit was trending on twitter. George Conway, communication guru Kellyanne Conway’s husband, retweeted out every critical comment he could find, and there were many. Trump’s usual Republican critics including Senators Ben Sasse and Jeff Flake joined in, with John McCain providing the harshest commentary.  He released a statemen calling the news conference the most “disgraceful performances by an American president in memory," a “low point, ” and a tragic mistake.”  As the day wore on others finally started speaking up including Republican leaders Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan and Senate Intelligence Committee head Senator Richard Burr.  Rand Paul weighed in too, but unlike the others, he thought that Trump’s comments were spot on and justified.  It’s no wonder that his neighbor tried to take him out with a garden tool.  Virtually every Democrat got a few harsh words in on Trump’s performance as well with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer excoriating Trump for kowtowing to Putin and calling for Republicans to wake up and so something, anything to stop Trump from further destroying the country. Trump’s handpicked Director of National Intelligence Dan Coates responded to Trump’s statements by standing by his earlier conclusion that the Russian’s meddled and were still meddling. CNN reports that there are now plans afoot to interview the US interpreter who attended the Trump-Putin private meeting to find out what was said. At this point the criticism from the Republican peanut gallery is just that criticism, none of Trump’s aides or cabinet members have resigned in disgust, so far, and given their fealty to Trump its not clear that any will.  That said, Coates and Ambassador Huntsman remain at the top of the most likely to throw in the towel list.  For the record Chief of Staff Kelly might hasten his departure too but he doesn’t count since he’s had one foot out the door for a while.

Another Day, Another Spy:  Back at home the Russia investigation continues.  Yesterday, the Justice Department unsealed a criminal complaint against Maria Butina, a Russian graduate student living in the US. Butina was immediately detained over concerns that she was a flight risk.  It’s believed that Butina was working under the direction of a high-level official in the Russian government and Russian central bank to funnel Russian money through the NRA through to the Trump campaign. Though he wasn’t specifically named, that person is Alexander Torshin, the active member of the NRA who, among other things, hobnobbed with Don Jr during one or more NRA conventions.  Notably the action against Butina wasn’t taken by anyone from Mueller’s team but by the Federal Attorney for the DC area, which may represent an effort by Mueller to spread his activities out so that his work will continue even if he gets fired. Gene Rossi, a former federal prosecutor commented that the Maria Butina criminal charge strongly suggests that the Justice Department is far from done with the Russian Rubik’s Cube. In fact, one could argue that the investigation has actually expanded from election fake-news posts to a spy in devious cahoots with the NRA.” As to Butina, on election eve as it became apparent that things were going Trump’s way she wrote her handler Torshin to say, “I’m going to sleep. It’s 3 a.m. here. I am ready for further orders.” Makes you wonder if Trump wrote a similar note to his handler, Putin.  

The Kids:  Yesterday Dana Sabraw, the judge trying to force the reunification of all of the separated children, ordered a temporary halt to any deportations of reunited families who were separated by the Trump administration after crossing the southwest border. The judge’s order was issued in response to a request by ACLU lawyers who say that the parents need at least a week from the time of reunification to decide whether to pursue asylum. The judge is giving the Federal Government one week to respond to the ACLU’s request.  All in, Judge Sabraw who previously characterized the government’s separation program and failed reunification as a “parade of horribles”  has now scheduled four hearings over the next two weeks in an attempt to unwind Trump’s mess, or at least this mess.