Trump DNA

Security SNAFU: A few weeks ago Abby Huntsman, the former Fox and Friends panelist who is currently on ABC’s The View panel, interviewed Ivanka Trump. The first daughter granted the “exclusive” interview to brag about her newly announced international women’s initiative, selecting Huntsman with the expectation that she would conduct a “soft ball” interview, sticking to a script that would allow Ivanka to come off sounding like the wonderfully compassionate person that she pretends to be, a fair expectation given that Huntsman’s father is Trump’s Ambassador to Russia. For the most part, Huntsman played ball but she did stray off topic a few times asking questions about things that Ivanka didn’t really want to address like the separation of immigrant children at the border and the problems associated with her and her husband’s security clearances.  Ivanka did her best to remain vague about the child separation thing by sighing and saying some things are out of her control and then called the idea that her father had intervened to help with the Kushner family security clearances just more scurrilous rumor mongering.  She dismissed those stories as “anonymous leaks about there being issues but the president had no involvement pertaining to my clearance or my husband’s clearance  - zero.” Ivanka then went on to attribute the delays in the two getting their security clearances to a “back log.”  Like a good team player Huntsman didn’t press further, a failure that is now even more glaring because, if the NY Times is to be believed, and they probably should be, Ivanka was lying bigly, not all that surprising given that the propensity for deception resides deep within the Trump DNA.  Yesterday the Times reported that Trump directed then Chief of Staff Kelly to grant Jared a top secret security clearance over the objections of intelligence officials and White House Counsel Don McGahn, all of whom expressed concerns about his foreign contacts, complicated financials, and the possibility that he might be vulnerable to foreign influence.  It didn’t help Jared’s case that he had needed to update his security forms forty times or that he had failed to be all that forthcoming about how he had tried to establish a back channel to facilitate discussions with Russian officials.  Both McGahn and Kelly were so concerned about the Trump directive that they wrote contemporaneous memos to the files documenting Trump’s order. Ultimately Jared received the top security clearance because Trump gets what he wants  but the discovery of the Kelly and McGahn memos contradicts statements that Trump made to the Times during a January on the record, taped Oval Office interview during which Trump clearly lied when he said that he didn’t think he could override intelligence decisions on security clearance matters even if he wanted to and that he had “no role in his son-in-law receiving his clearance.”  When asked about this yesterday, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders resorted to one of her standby excuses saying “We don’t comment on security clearances.” Isn’t nepotism grand?

Casting Call:  Trump’s one time fixer/lawyer Michael Cohen spent most of his day behind closed doors with Chairman Adam Schiff’s House Intelligence Committee.  They were so enthralled with what he had to say that they’ve invited to return next week.  Apparently, whatever he’s saying goes well beyond all of the things that he told the Oversight Committee during Tuesday’s marathon session.  Schiff also reported that he’s arranged for Felix Sater, the Russian-born one time business associate of Trump and Cohen’s who worked on the Moscow Trump Tower project to appear before a public hearing on March 14, promising that the Committee “is going to try to do as much as we can in the open” with Sater.   As to the Oversight Committee their work has only just begun, Chairman Elijah Cummings has directed his staff to invite almost all of the people that Cohen mentioned during his testimony for future appearances to discuss all things about Trump company financial finagling and adult film star payoffs before the committee.  That list includes such notables as Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump and Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg, among others. To no one’s surprise the Republican members of the committee aren’t all that happy with any of this so two of them, Ranking Member Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows have sent a thirty page letter to Attorney General William Barr asking him to investigate Cohen for perjury and making false statements.  As to Mark Meadows, in an attempt to demonstrate that he’s not a racist even though he had a token Black woman stand behind him during Tuesday’s hearing, he very publicly approached his accuser Congresswoman Tlaib on the House floor yesterday and gave her a big hug.

Other News:  Andrew Wheeler, the former coal lobbyist was confirmed as the new EPA Administrator yesterday.  All of the Republican Senators except Susan Collins voted for his appointment.  All of the present Democrats including West Virginia’s Joe Manchin voted against him.  New Senator Kyrsten Sinema didn’t vote since she is on her way to New Zealand to compete in an ironman competition.  Before departing, the quirky and athletic Sinema said that she will publicly announce how she would have voted on anything she misses during her trip.  Presumably none of those votes would have been crucial decision makers. Republican Senator Lamar Alexander who is not running for reelection is pressing Trump to rescind his Emergency Declaration to avoid a Republican rebellion.  It’s not clear that a rebellion is really brewing but there are a number of other Republican senators who would rather not be forced to vote either way when the resolution against the declaration comes up for a vote in the Senate.  The House passed legislation requiring background checks for all gun purchasers, including those at gun shows and over the internet.  Unfortunately Senate Majority Leader McConnell is expected to shove that legislation into one of his already overstuffed drawers rather than bringing it up for a vote.  While most members of the House and Senate are relieved that Trump didn’t agree to any of  North Korea’s demands during his “failed” Hanoi summit, many are fuming over his announcement that he believes Kim Jong Un’s assertion that he’s not responsible for American student Otto Warmbier’s death.  Republicans and Democrats don’t agree on much these days, but most agree that Trump’s continued defense of tyrants is beyond peculiar.  Another  DNA malfunction?