Buzzkill

Mueller Talks:  After a day of euphoria and calls from many, including some Democratic legislators, for the immediate initiation of impeachment proceedings against Trump over Thursday night’s Buzzfeed bombshell that Special Counsel Mueller’s team had some form of written evidence proving that Trump had suborned perjury by directing the lies that one time lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen told Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow project, the Special Counsel’s generally tightlipped spokesman threw buckets of cold water on the story, sending the #TrumpImpeachment  crowd back into depression land. The Mueller ice bath came in the form of a statement saying that “BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the Special Counsel’s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony are not accurate.” Because the Mueller missive doesn’t appear to debunk all of the components of the Buzzfeed scoop, some pundits surmise that Buzzfeed is on to something but is off on the evidentiary details.  Others, including a rather haughty Ronan Farrow who went out of his way to say that he had heard from the same sources but had opted against printing the story for months because he had other sources that contradicted the core of their assertions, seemed almost gleeful that they hadn’t been scooped.  Curiously, no one at the White House fully denied the story until after Mueller’s spokesman released his statement, a possible indication that no one there has a clue what Trump has or hasn’t done and/or an indication that Trump was so enraged by the story that his people pressured Mueller to speak out or face the consequences.  Even Trump maintained twitter silence until after the Mueller “exoneration” at which point he actually thanked Mueller for defending his honor, funny when you consider how many times he’s slammed Mueller’s credibility by calling the investigation a witch hunt and Mueller the leader of a thirteen member Democratic cabal.  Despite the weekend of criticism from their press colleagues, White House spokespeople and Trump, Buzzfeed stands by the story, insisting that eventually they will be vindicated.  Further muddying the waters or in this case the cesspool, Trump’s current spokesperson/lawyer Rudy Giuliani released a potential bombshell of his own on Sunday.  Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press, he appears to have extended the time period that the Trump team, including Trump, were actively negotiating the Trump Moscow Tower project up until election eve November 2016.  Further, on CNN’s State of the Union Giuliani added that Trump may have spoken with Cohen about his mendacious Congressional testimony saying that the two spoke all the time and that could have been something they spoke about.  He rambled "I don't know if it happened or didn't happen. It may be attorney-client privilege if it happened, where I can't acknowledge it. But I have no knowledge that he spoke to him, but I'm telling you I wasn't there then. So what if he talked to him about it?" He ended by saying that he wasn’t aware of any conversations where Trump told or counseled Cohen to lie.  Though it’s easy to dismiss Giuliani’s admissions and his hedging about Cohen’s testimony as dementia induced outbursts, frequently his word scramble proves to be part of a shrewdly calculated strategy intended to prepare the Trump base for the release of something incriminating.  Giuliani might know that a damaging indictment or other some such Mueller reveal is imminent, so who knows, maybe the Buzzfeed story isn’t that far off base.

The Shutdown Saga:  On Friday, Trump dramatically announced that he would make a major statement on the Trump Shutdown on Saturday.  As promised, after participating at a naturalization ceremony, a too cute “moment” intended to soften his hardline image, Trump announced that his team, including son in law Kushner, VP Pence and Senate Leader McConnell had negotiated a solution to the shutdown. Notably, no members of Democratic leadership were involved in any of those so called “negotiations.”  The Trump “solution” involves  three years of deportation protection for some Dreamers and some other immigrants in exchange for $5.7 billion in wall, or what he is now calling barrier, funding.  Democrats rejected his proposal before he even uttered a word, pointing out that the only reason that the status of the DACA kids and the other immigrants, who had previously had Temporary Protected Status, is in jeopardy is because Trump had put them in danger of deportation in the first place. Moreover with the Supreme Court indicating late last week  that it doesn’t plan to take up any cases related to the DACA program during its next session the Dreamers have de facto protection for now anyway.  Standing firmly together, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer continue to assert that they won’t negotiate any deal until Trump first opens the government.  Notably at no time during his Saturday speech did Trump express sympathy for the 800,000 government workers going without paychecks or the countless other contractors and small business owners effected by the shutdown.  Nancy and Chuck aren’t the only two rejecting Trump’s plan, a number of the more right wing members of the Senate as well as the absurdly influential Ann Coulter reject any concession to the Dreamers.  To that end Trump made it clear that his three year extension is just that, it does not include any pathway to citizenship.  As the weekend progressed it became clear that Nancy and Chuck aren’t standing alone, most if not all of their coalition, are rejecting Trump’s proposal so Trump tweet threatened “Be Careful Nancy,” saying though he had no plans to start deporting any of the effected immigrants right now, her reluctance to play ball could result in him changing his mind.  Congress is closed today in commemoration of Martin Luther King Day but tomorrow Senate Leader McConnell is expected to introduce legislation that includes Trump’s proposal as well as some additional sweeteners intended to pry a few Democrats away from Schumer’s block.  At this point, no one expects that any Democrats will sign on, even Senators Manchin and Coons, who are both thought to be the Republicans first targets are unlikely to budge and unless he can keep all of his Republicans in line and add seven Democrats, McConnell’s legislation will fall flat.  That said, it may be an opening gambit, signaling that McConnell is ready to start some real negotiations, this time with actual Democrats.  To the extent he does, he really should invite Nancy and Chuck to the table.  Negotiating with Pence and Kushner alone just doesn’t cut it.  As to Martin Luther King, sent out on the Sunday news show circuit to push Trump’s plan, VP Pence likened Trump to MLK actually quoting a section of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech saying “now is the time to  make real the promises of democracy” to justify the building of his wall.  Suffice it to say, that didn’t go over as planned. Notably neither Trump or Pence are expected to show up at any MLK Day events.  However, Senator Kamala Harris is making the most of the day.  As expected, this morning she announced that she is running for president.  

Other News:  Though it might have gotten lost among all the “Buzz” late last week it was revealed that the Department of Homeland Security was separating children from their parents long before anyone realized what they were up to and it appears that few if any of the children who were separated early on have been reunited with their families.  Oregon Senator Merkley who has remained laser focused on this issue has asked FBI Director Wray to open an investigation into Homeland Security Nielsen for perjury, citing her statements before Congress that the administration did not have the child separation policy that it clearly had.  That investigation probably won’t happen but Nielsen should expect to get torn to pieces during her next visit to the House. Trump plans to meet with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un again in February reportedly in Viet Nam, possibly in response to the lovely letters that he’s received from the authoritarian leader. Maybe they will talk about the advances that North Korea has made in its nuclear program since their last meeting. Perhaps, Trump will offer up South Korea, anything to distract from events at home.