The Week That Was

Horrible, Terrible Week:  As if the conviction of one time campaign manager Paul Manafort, the plea agreement reached by lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen, the investigations by both NY State and the Manhattan District Attorney, and the cooperation of National Enquirer owner David Pecker weren’t bad enough, Trump’s truly awful week got worse on Friday after it was revealed that Trump Organization CFO Alan Weisselberg had been granted immunity by Southern District of New York prosecutors, compelling him to answer questions about what he knew about the hush payments made to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.  As we’ve learned from Cohen, those payments, violations of campaign finance laws, were made to keep the news about Trump’s bad behavior out of the press during the run up to the election.  At least with regard to Daniels, Cohen was reimbursed for fronting the money through a series of payments that were then characterized as legal expenses even though they represented payment to Cohen for the money he paid to Stormy, a gross up to cover taxes and a bonus.  Weisselberg, who was referred to in the Cohen plea agreement as one of the two people at the Trump Organization who signed off on the Stormy payment, at first pleaded the Fifth, but then was granted immunity and compelled to testify.  Presumably his testimony verified Cohen’s assertions. The bigger question, and one of the things that is no doubt keeping Trump and his children up at night is whether or not Weisselberg’s immunity arrangement goes beyond issues related to the Stormy payment, a bigly problem since Weisselberg knows all there is to know about Trump and the Trump organization’s finances.  Additionally, the Cohen plea agreement specified that a second Trump official signed off on the Stormy arrangement and the payments to Cohen, in all likelihood that second person was Donald Trump Jr. It’s fair to assume that Alan Weisselberg, confirmed that as well.  Despite all this, the word from all those anonymous sources at the White House is that Trump is likely to pardon Paul Manafort sooner rather than later, even though his advisors have told him that pardoning Manafort, especially before the midterm elections would be a really, really bad idea.  For his part Manafort, who Trump continues to call a really nice guy, continues to remain silent and shows no signs of cooperating with Special Counsel Mueller even though his Washington DC trial begins soon. He is most certainly expecting that pardon.  Disturbingly, despite all of last week’s bad news, polls indicate that Trump’s base remains loyal.  While the percentage of people who believe Trump is doing a bad job has increased the number who think he’s great has largely remained the same.  That said around 60% believe that pardoning Manafort would be a bad thing to do.  Trump has also been ramping up his criticism of Attorney General Sessions.  Over the weekend he suggested that Sessions was unaware of “real corruption” at the Justice Department and by real corruption he means the failure by Justice to go after and convict Hillary Clinton for anything from her emails to jaywalking.  He also quoted Senator Lindsey Graham’s who said that he could replace Sessions after the midterm if he wanted to and then tweeted  "Jeff Sessions said he wouldn't allow politics to influence him only because he doesn't understand what is happening underneath his command position. Highly conflicted Bob Mueller and his gang of 17 Angry Dems are having a field day as real corruption goes untouched. No Collusion!"  As to that number 17, its part of the Q Anon conspiracy numerology so, though alarming, it should come as no surprise that during the midst of all of last week’s calamities, Trump posed for a picture with Michael Lebron, a right wing conspiracy theorist and vocal Q Anon believer, who also appears regularly as an analyst on Russia Today, in the Oval Office.  Also depressing, if not downright alarming, Republican members of the House have not reacted to any of last week’s news but the Republican leaders of the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees have ramped up their investigation into the Hillary Clinton emails because as far as they are concerned that’s the real problem.

Goodbye Maverick:  Just days after the McCain family announced that Senator John McCain had discontinued his brain cancer treatment, the Senator passed away.  McCain truly was a maverick, a conservative with an independent streak, the fierce patriot who endured five horrific years at the Hanoi Hilton and then went on to serve as a thorn in the side of several presidents, regardless of their party affiliation. On the one hand he called out suggestions that Obama was an “Arab” who couldn’t be trusted, on the other he appointed the dog whistling Sarah Palin as his running mate.  He extended the life of Obamacare, voting no for its repeal with that now famous thumbs down gesture but then went on to support the tax reform legislation that killed Obamacare’s individual mandate. Trump has never forgiven him for his thumbs down move and also holds him partially responsible for his part in forwarding the Steele Dossier to the FBI so he nixed some kind remarks about McCain that had been prepared for him by his communications staff and instead sent out a bare bones condolence tweet to the McCain family for their loss, a tweet that failed to mention the Senator, his heroism or his accomplishments.  Trump’s failure to acknowledge McCain’s legacy stood in sharp contrast to the countless other tributes that flooded in over the weekend.  Former presidents Obama, Bush, and both Clintons all responded with heartfelt statements as did leaders and politicians from many countries including Canada’s Trudeau, the UK’s May, Israel’s Netanyahu and Germany’s Merkel who went out of her way to comment on McCain’s longstanding support for Europe and maintaining the world order. Tributes also came in from leaders from many other far flung countries including Australia, Pakistan and Iraq.  Notably Russia’s Putin had nothing to say, he wasn’t all that fond of McCain who was a consistent critic who among other things had helped advance the dreaded Magnitsky Act.  Former Vice President Biden who lost his son to brain cancer is scheduled to speak at the McCain service in Arizona.  Former Presidents Obama and Bush are scheduled to speak in the memorial service that will take place in Washington.  VP Pence will represent the White House as, pursuant to McCain’s last request, Trump who has many times said that McCain was no hero because heroes don’t get captured,  has not been invited to attend any of the planned ceremonies.  Kelly Ward, a frequent and scathing critic of McCain’s, who is running for the Republican nomination for the Arizona senator seat being vacated by Senator Jeff Flake, accused the McCain family of timing the announcement of the discontinuation of the Senator’s cancer treatment to hurt her campaign.  She then doubled down, continuing to attack McCain even after he died, saying that the last thing that Arizona needed was another McCain like politician.  The oh so charming, pardoned Sheriff Arpaio and Arizona Congresswoman Martha McSally are also contending for the Flake Senate seat.  McSally, who also aligns herself with Trump is expected to win the nomination, however, as of now she trails the Democratic nominee, Kyrsten Sinema, in most of the polls.  As to the McCain seat, it won’t stay empty for long, Arizona’s Republican Governor Ducey is expected to announce a successor after McCain’s funeral.  A number of names have been mentioned including Cindy McCain, the departed Senator’s wife.  It’s not yet clear who Ducey will choose, although he has been clear about one thing, he will not be choosing any of the people who campaigned for the slot during McCain’s long illness and he most definitely will not be picking either Ward or Arpaio.  The appointment of a new Republican Senator is not good news for those who oppose Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination.

Nobel Not:  Last week Secretary of State Pompeo beefed up his team, appointing Steve Biegun to serve as the administration’s envoy for North Korea.  He made that appointment just days before he planned to travel  to North Korea to engage in crucial diplomatic discussions.  Biegun, a Ford Motor Company executive, is still the envoy, but the trip is now off.  Without first notifying Pompeo, Trump canceled the meeting citing “insufficient progress on denuclearization.” He then went on to say that “Secretary Pompeo looks forward to going to North Korea in the near future, most likely after our Trading relationship with China is resolved.” Over the weekend China lashed out at Trump for accusing Beijing of not being supportive in efforts to denuclearize North Korea, while South Korea called the US decision to call off a trip to the North by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo "unfortunate." North Korea’s official newspaper took it to another level, accusing Trump of engaging in top secret war exercises geared towards an invasion. Trump should forget about traveling to Oslo anytime soon.