Pizza and Beer

Easter Egg Lies:  Trump returned from Mar a Lago yesterday to oversee the annual Easter Egg Roll.  He used the opportunity to tell the crowd of children that the military, economy and unemployment rate were all great again because of him and then reassured one kid that, yes, he really was building that wall.  In response to press questions he said that he wasn’t worried about impeachment, because he’d been fully exonerated and you can’t be impeached when you “haven’t committed any high crimes and misdemeanors” and besides he’s doing a great job, just ask the wall obsessed egg rolling kid.  During the day he slammed the Mueller investigation, the one that he insists exonerated him, by insisting that no one ever disobeys his orders and falsely tweeting “Isn’t it amazing that the people who were closest to me, by far, and knew the Campaign better than anyone, were never even called to testify before Mueller. The reason is that the 18 Angry Democrats  knew they would all say ‘NO COLLUSION’ and only very good things!   Of course, many people close to him including Hope Hicks, Corey Lewandowski, Rob Porter, John Kelly, Reince Priebus, Jared Kushner, Richard Gates, Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and Don McGahn, to name a few were interviewed.  One of the names not on that list was Don Jr, who apparently wasn’t because he “declined” an invitation to be interviewed by Mueller, that said Mueller’s report did include many quotes from Junior, sourced from his texts, twitter feed, Senate testimony and Sean Hannity (!?!) interviews.  Despite Trump’s insistence that he can’t be impeached, he could be, that decision and the definition of what constitutes high crimes and misdemeanors rests with House leadership.  Yesterday, Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to House Democrats telling them that there are other ways to hold Trump accountable for his "highly unethical and unscrupulous behavior" besides initiating impeachment proceedings, that "We can investigate Trump without drafting articles (of impeachment).  We aren't going to go faster, we are going to go as fast as the facts take us..”   To that end, they’ve “invited” Attorney General Barr and Special Counsel Mueller to testify and late yesterday went one step further by subpoenaing former White House Counsel Don McGahn.  Democrats are particularly eager to get McGahn, whose 30 hours with Mueller’s team provided the framework for the obstruction section of the Mueller report, in front of the House camera for the public to hear and see, part of their strategy of further damaging Trump and his already diminished credibility in slow motion with the goal of convincing more and more of the public, that Trump is unfit for office.  Whether that strategy will work is anyone’s guess, but for what’s it’s worth, polls indicate that the fallout from the Mueller report has already impacted Trump’s ratings, his approval number has sunk by five points to 39%, the lowest since he took office.  As to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, he just wants to put the Mueller report behind him so that he can move on to better things, like dismantling the social safety net, defunding Planned Parenthood, stacking the courts and making sure none of the Democrat’s “socialist” plans, especially that Green New Deal thing, ever get passed.  He told a crowd in his home state of Kentucky that if he’s still the majority leader of the Senate after next year, none of those socialist things are going to pass the Senate. “They won't even be voted on. So think of me as the grim reaper. None of that stuff is going to pass. None of it." 

The Democrats:  Joe Biden hasn’t announced yet, but the Democrats did get another addition to their thundering herd of candidates.  Yesterday Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton, a former Marine with three degrees from Harvard, threw his hat into the ring.  Though I am not totally sure, I think his entrance into the race brings the number of Democrats seeking the presidency to nineteen.  Moulton is best known for having opposed Nancy Pelosi’s return to the Speakership.  He now admits that she’s doing a great job but stands by his decision to oppose her leadership. Senator Elizabeth Warren made some news yesterday by announcing a $1.25 trillion plan to reshape higher education by canceling most student loan debt and eliminating tuition at every public college.  She plans to pay for her plan with money from her proposed wealth tax, an idea that appeals to most people without $50 million in assets, but one that will probably never come to pass. When asked about the Warren student debt plan during one of the many townhalls that CNN hosted last night, Bernie Sanders said that he wasn’t up on the details because details aren’t his thing but that he was all in on free education. Senator Amy Klobuchar’s plan was much more realistic but far less sexy, probably another one of the reasons that she is having trouble gaining traction in the polls. She said that she wants to reduce student debt burdens but that her plan would involve expanded Pell Grant programs, free community college, and provisions permitting graduates to refinance their student loans. "Everything that I have proposed to you, I have found ways to pay for it that I think makes sense, that we can actually get done."  It’s not clear that practical works right now.

Human Resources:  Pizza executive Herman Cain has pulled himself out of the running for a Federal Reserve Board slot because he just realized that the position doesn’t pay enough and he really wants to make more money, that and the fact that Trump told him to pull out because he doesn’t have the votes to be confirmed.  Trump’s other potential nominee Stephen Moore who isn’t all that qualified for the job either might or at the very least should be facing confirmation difficulties too.  Some old interviews where he called it a “travesty” that women feel free to play sports with men and that women should be banned from refereeing, announcing or beer vending at men's college basketball games, asking if there was any area in life "where men can take vacation from women" surfaced yesterday.  Although he made these remarks in at least four separate settings, taking a page from the Trump Access Hollywood “grab them by the whatever” playbook he insists that he’d only been kidding.  Just more some more of that locker room talk, right?