In Vino Veritas

Brain Dead? Trump has arrived in London for the NATO conference.  This morning in one of those free wielding press conferences that he loves so much Trump again conflated overall defense spending with actual payments to NATO, repeating his favorite mantra that the US pays too great a share of the NATO budget but this time he reserved his most scathing words for French leader Emmanuel Macron calling his recent comment that NATO was brain dead “nasty” and “very insulting,” because while it’s okay for Trump to say such things, it’s not okay for Macron?  Continuing on his French theme, Trump slammed France’s economy, and then referencing the tariffs of up to 100% that he is threatening to impose on French goods including wine he actually said “If anyone is going to take advantage of American companies, it’s going to be us.....I don’t want France to be taxing American companies. If anyone’s going to tax American companies, it’s us,” an admission that tariffs are just another form of taxes paid by US corporations and whenever possible passed on to US consumers.  Stock up on wine and champagne now, it’s about to get way more expensive. Also, keep an eye on your stock portfolio, it’s could dip again today since Trump, who keeps teasing an imminent Phase 1 trade deal with China, whatever that is, also said that he is in no hurry, he could see that slipping to next year, maybe even until after the election. Yesterday, while in Madrid at a climate conference where she and a delegation of Democratic representatives attempted to reassure attendees that the US was still supportive of fighting climate change despite Trump’s disdain for science and scheduled withdrawal from the Paris Accord, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to answer questions about the impeachment inquiry, saying that it was inappropriate to discuss domestic disputes or slam the president while on foreign soil.  Trump who could care less about that slammed Pelosi and the Democrats during this morning’s news conference, calling the impeachment inquiry a “hoax” and Pelosi’s crowd the “do nothing Democrats,” a catchy phrase that makes for good Fox fodder but one that is far from true.  Unlike the Republican led Senate also known as Mitch McConnell’s graveyard for anything other than the confirmation of right wing judges, the Democratic controlled House has passed hundreds of bills this year.

Alternative Reality: As to impeachment proceedings, the official report from the House committees investigating the Ukraine fiasco is due out today; to get ahead of it the Republicans released their “minority” report yesterday.  Their report, which was partially written even before the testimony was completed, not all that surprisingly concludes that "The evidence presented does not prove any of these Democrat allegations and none of the Democrats' witnesses testified to having evidence of bribery, extortion, or any high crime or misdemeanor." The report largely ignores or downplays testimony from all the career officials who raised serious questions and concerns about Trump’s conduct, says that his skepticism about Ukraine’s rampant corruption and thus his hold on aid was warranted, that investigating Burisma/the Bidens was and is totally fine, that Trump’s call with Ukraine President Zelensky was perfect, that working with Rudy Giuliani was a genius strategy  and that anyone who thinks otherwise is either a devious Democrat or a member of the dark state.  Okay, I’m exaggerating, but you get the theme. Yesterday, Time Magazine released an interview with Zelensky, one in which the clearly frustrated and under pressure Ukraine leader said that he no longer trusts anyone, and that though he “did not view his conversations with Trump about a potential White House visit and investigations into Trump’s political rivals from the lens of a quid pro quo” he blasted the US for treating Ukraine like a “political chess piece.”  In other words, there was a quid pro quo, he knew it then and knows it now but he can’t say it because his war torn country really needs continued US support.  As to more alternative realities, the Washington Post reports that Attorney General Barr doesn’t agree with a key conclusion of the soon to be released FBI Inspector General report because he, unlike IG Michael Horowitz, doesn’t buy that the  FBI had enough information in July 2016 to justify launching an investigation into members of the Trump campaign.  Though the report will be released next week, it is still in draft form, obviously changing that finding to satisfy Barr would be a bigly controversy given how much of the report has already been leaked so there is a good chance that it will be left as is but that Barr will do what he did with the Mueller Report, issue some kind of contradictory statement intended to make it sound as if Horowitz came to a more Trump approved conclusion.  For his part, during this morning’s London press conference Trump said that he hadn’t read the report, which is probably true since he doesn’t read, but he most certainly knows what’s in it so it’s not all that surprising that he quickly pivoted to that other as yet unwritten report, the John Durham report, commissioned by Barr, saying it would be much more thorough, code word for Barr, that really impressive fellow, will make sure that report says what I want it to say or else.   

More Complicity:  Add Senator Richard Burr to that long list of complicit Republicans.  Yesterday, we learned that the Senate Intelligence Committee that he leads actually investigated the possibility that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 elections.  They even interviewed Democratic consultant Alexandra Chalupa who is frequently cited by House Republicans as someone who participated in the fictitious international plot to help Hillary win in 2016.  The Senate Committee concluded that there was nothing there, in other words Senator Burr’s committee found no  evidence that Ukraine waged an interference campaign akin to the Kremlin’s efforts to help Trump win in 2016.  Despite all that, yesterday when he was asked about Ukraine interference, he stuck to the now official Republican party line saying he doesn't "think there’s any question that elected officials in Ukraine had a favorite in the election." Then when asked if he would consider having a preference the same as “meddling,” Senator Burr responded "I mean, you’ll have to define meddling, but that was something that was publicly out there, it was called meddling when it was just Russia had a preference on who would win. And I'm saying, you can't go any further than that until somebody investigates Ukraine, if you want to find out there was more that went on." That from the Senator whose committee has already investigated and debunked the Putin promulgated Ukraine conspiracy myth.  It’s worth noting that with only a few exceptions, most countries preferred Hillary Clinton’s predictability and experience to Trump’s strange world view so by Senator Burr’s new, Republican approved standard that means that the whole world was meddling.    

Crime Blotter:  It looks like prosecutors from the Southern District of New York will be adding to the charges against Giuliani cronies Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman.  They need a little more time because they are having a hard time unlocking all of the many phones that were confiscated from Lev and Igor when the two were arrested.  Parnas still insists that he wants to help Congressional investigators out but can’t until he gets his stuff back from the Feds, who won’t return any of it until he shares his passwords.  It’s not clear what is really happening here and who is responsible for the delay, Parnas is hardly an upstanding citizen but then again SDNY prosecutors ultimately report into AG Barr and we know where his loyalties lie.  As to loyalties, California Representative Duncan Hunter, the second Congressman to endorse Trump in 2016, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of the misuse of campaign funds.  He’s the guy who first denied using $250,000 of those funds to pay for things like trysts with his girlfriend and at least one flight for his pet bunny (rabbit not playboy) before blaming the criminal acts on his wife who responded by cooperating with prosecutors.  In case you are wondering the first Republican Congressman to endorse Trump was NY’s Chris Collins who subsequently stepped down after pleading guilty for insider trading.  Only the best.