Deal of the Century?

Witnesses? Trump’s lawyers wound up their case yesterday using only a fraction of the hours allotted to them, not surprising since Trump wants the trial wrapped up ASAP, the Super Bowl and the State of the Union address beckon. The legal team didn’t spend much, if any, time claiming that Trump hadn’t committed the bad deeds that got him impeached in the first place, only that those deeds don’t justify impeachment.  Yesterday Trump’s lawyers did address former national security advisor John Bolton’s book manuscript and the possibility of calling him as a witness, with Jay Sekulow dismissing Bolton’s value by saying that his book would be inadmissible and that anyway  “You can’t impeach the president on an unsourced allegation.”  That last statement making no sense whatsoever because Bolton is alive and has plenty of contemporaneous notes which would make for great sources.  Apparently, Trump’s former Chief of Staff John Kelly is alive too.  He’s weighed in on Bolton’s revelations, telling a Sarasota audience that if John Bolton said that Trump was holding up aid to Ukraine for his own benefit, he believes it implying he’d believe Bolton over Trump any day.  He added that he thinks that calling witnesses should be allowed.  If only John Kelly knew a former Chief of Staff/Homeland Security Secretary who was available to reveal more about what went on during his time on the Trump team?!?  As to witnesses, the “will they or won’t they be called” question dominated the news more than the substance of yesterday’s trial presentation.   At one point in the afternoon it looked like Senate Leader McConnell had threatened and/or cajoled enough of his caucus to squash witness calling but then last night, after an all hands meeting of his Republican Senators, the Wall Street Journal was the first to report that the issue remains unresolved meaning that as of last night McConnell didn’t have the 51 votes he needs to block witnesses. That said, with many of the Republicans still falling into the “maybe” category and only Mitt Romney and Susan Collins and possibly Lisa Murkowski in the pro-witness group, its still possible that McConnell will prevail because he usually does.  

As to witnesses, individual Republican senators floated a lot of not so realistic ideas yesterday, with some saying that one solution would be to make Bolton’s manuscript available for Senators to read in their SCIF.  It’s hardly likely that the more than 70% of the public who believe that witnesses should be called would be all that satisfied with a solution that involves letting Senators read a book that is already up for presale on Amazon in a super secure reading room.  Other suggestions involve calling in the Bidens and possibly even their pets, who probably have as much to contribute about what they know about Trump’s Ukraine quid pro quo fiasco as their humans, in exchange for permitting Bolton’s testimony.  Then there are Senators Gardner, Tillis and McSally. You’d think that the very vulnerable threesome would want to placate their constituents by calling Bolton to testify, but no, according to the WSJ, they just want the hearing to end quickly because they can’t bare the pressure and all the negative attack ads that have been launched against them.  On the Democratic front, while Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reports that all of the members of his caucus will vote for witnesses, it’s not clear that all will ultimately vote to convict Trump.  Three, including Alabama’s Doug Jones who is the most vulnerable Senator up for reelection, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema, appear to be on the fence.  At one point yesterday it looked like California’s Diane Feinstein was also wavering, but it turns out that her rambling answer to a question was just misconstrued.  Today, while the witness issue remains unresolved, the trial will move into  what is expected to be a two day contentious question and answer period.      

International Front:  If you had plans to travel to China, pick a new destination. Most flights to China are now suspended, part of an effort to halt the spread of the coronavirus.  Arriving evacuated passengers are being temporarily quarantined.  On the Middle East front, the two state solution to the long simmering Israel – Palestine situation has been resuscitated, somewhat.  Jared Kushner’s long awaited Middle East plan was announced yesterday to muted fanfare.  With Bibi Netanyahu by his side Trump provided the details of the “deal of the century” which calls for a demilitarized Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza; for Jerusalem, including the Old City, to be either the undivided capital of Israel or both countries’ capitals, it wasn’t clear, and for Israel to annex all of its existing West Bank settlements.  The discontiguous Palestinian state will eventually be connected by a tunnel of some sort and Trump promised $50 billion in aid over a ten year period assuming that the Palestinians meet some of his “performance” targets.  Although Trump claimed that this plan was the first one to ever include such extensive details, that’s not really correct.  There have been other detailed plans and there have plans that were more favorable to the Palestinians, however none of them have ever come to pass and there’s little reason to think that this one, which is more one side than previously rejected plans, will either as the Palestinians who were not involved in its development aren’t on board.  The plan may however, provide a boost to Netanyahu who faces still another runoff election in early March.  Did I mention that he was indicted for corruption yesterday?  Of course, Trump hopes it will help him too, mostly with the evangelical community who is likely to be more wowed by his “solution” than most American Jews.

Et Cetera:  Trump held another rally last night, this one in Wildwood, New Jersey; though the 7400 capacity facility was filled, contrary to his assertion there weren’t tens of thousands of people outside clamoring to get in.  He did his usual shtick, insulting the usual Democratic suspects calling them deranged and disgusting hoax perpetrators. He congratulated Jeff Van Drew, the Democrat turned Republican for seeing the light.  Earlier in the day, during his peace plan announcement he was equally “impressive” when he praised Secretary of State Pompeo for his nasty confrontation with an NPR journalist and his decision to ban NPR from his upcoming trip, saying Pompeo "did a good job on her," a statement sure to help him win back suburban women voters.  On the Democratic front, moderate Democrats and Republicans turned Independents appear really nervous about Bernie Sanders rising poll numbers and Bernie’s supporters are responding to their alarm in their usual fashion because that’s the best way to project Democratic unity.  And then there is the deficit, the Congressional Budget Office announced it will top $1 trillion this year.