“Look, it’s not like I killed Bin Laden, right? I don’t want to overstate what my role was, but it certainly is something that was dangerous.”
— Pete Buttigieg, quoted by CNN, describing his military experience in Afghanistan.
Trump Blows Up Foreign Policymaking
Susan Glasser: “We may still be guessing about Trump, but one thing this week’s Iran-war scare has shown is the extent to which the Trump Presidency has blown up the old way of American foreign policymaking, which makes the risk of a miscalculation higher than ever.”
“Consider the damage done to the alliance between the United States and its traditional partners in Europe, who remain outraged about Trump’s decision to pull out of the Iran deal they negotiated with the United States and are deeply skeptical of his latest moves. Not only is Europe not inclined to offer a helping hand, but even the old habits and inclinations to consult with each other before major foreign-policy moves have been all but abandoned—and with them, of course, another constraint on the Trump Presidency.”
“The removal of constraints on Trump, domestically and internationally, is what is so striking at this moment when we are all trying to figure out what’s actually happening with American policy in the Middle East. Trump has already shown himself to be unbound by old fears of abandoning political norms… He doesn’t worry about cozying up to dictators or flip-flopping on core principles. He doesn’t care about creating international coalitions or whether his actions are consistent. And with all the turnover on his staff, a normal decision-making process on national-security matters seems to have been abandoned, too.”
“Instead, amazingly enough, we are now at a moment in the Trump Presidency when the capricious President himself is being touted as the possible constraint on his hawkish advisers like Bolton.”
Facebook Has Trouble Recruiting After Election Scandal
“Facebook is still reeling from the fallout from its Cambridge Analytica scandal more than a year ago, as multiple former recruiters say candidates are turning down job offers from what was once considered the best place to work in the United States,” CNBC reports.
“Among top schools, such as Stanford, Carnegie Mellon and Ivy League universities, Facebook’s acceptance rate for full-time positions offered to new graduates has fallen from an average of 85% for the 2017-2018 school year to between 35% and 55% as of December, according to former Facebook recruiters.”
Roy Moore Weighs Another Senate Run
“Conservative lightning rod Roy Moore of Alabama, narrow loser of a turbulent special election for Senate in 2017, is considering a fresh run next year,” the AP reports.
“National Republican leaders are signaling they’ll again try preventing their party from nominating the twice-removed state jurist whose campaign was battered by allegations of long-ago sexual harassment of teenagers.”
Barr Explains His Probe of Russia Investigation
Attorney General William Barr told Fox News that he is trying to get to the bottom of whether or not “government officials abused their power and put their thumb on the scale” during the early stages of the Russia probe.
Said Barr: “I’ve been trying to get answers to the questions and I’ve found that a lot of the answers have been inadequate and some of the explanations I’ve gotten don’t hang together, in a sense I have more questions today than when I first started.”
He added: “People have to find out what the government was doing during that period. If we’re worried about foreign influence, for the very same reason we should be worried about whether government officials abuse their power and put their thumb on the scale.”
Barr was even stronger in a Wall Street Journal interview: “Government power was used to spy on American citizens. I can’t imagine any world where we wouldn’t take a look and make sure that was done properly.”
Carson Broke Law with Furniture Order
“Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson broke the law when he failed to report an order for a $31,561 dining room table set for his office as well as the installation of an $8,000 dishwasher in the office kitchen, the Government Accountability Office found in a report published Thursday,” Politico reports.
Mueller Testimony Stalled by Executive Privilege Claim
Wall Street Journal: “The House Judiciary Committee and Mr. Mueller’s team have been in negotiations for days about the contours of the special counsel’s eagerly-awaited testimony about his 448-page report on Russian interference in the 2016 election and episodes in which President Trump allegedly sought to influence the investigation.”
“Legal questions on how Mr. Trump’s assertion of executive privilege would affect Mr. Mueller’s testimony are central to the continuing negotiations, said the people familiar with the matter. The privilege claim could prevent him from discussing details involving Mr. Trump and his advisers beyond what is in the redacted report, the people added. The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel is weighing the questions and is expected to provide guidance, officials said.”
Trump’s Trip to Ireland In Doubt
Irish Times: “The Trump administration had been considering a visit to Ireland between the president’s trips to Britain and France in June. But disagreement has emerged over protocol issues.”
“While the Taoiseach’s preference is to meet Mr. Trump in Co Clare, Irish officials are reluctant to meet the U.S. president in his golf course in Doonbeg. Instead, the Government has pressed for a meeting in another location, preferably Dromoland Castle, located 50km away.”
“One White House source told The Irish Times on Thursday that the president was now favouring a visit to Scotland rather than Ireland during his European trip. But sources in Dublin on Thursday said they believed the Irish visit would still go ahead. … The unique nature of a potential visit – a U.S. president visiting his own private property in Ireland – has thrown up complex issues around protocol, and whether it constitutes a private or official visit.”
Is John Bolton In Trouble?
New York Times: “Mr. Bolton, several of the officials said, has quietly voiced frustration with the president, viewing him as unwilling to push for changes in a region that he has long seen as a quagmire. … Mr. Bolton’s independence has rankled the acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, and has even prompted rumors that his job might be in jeopardy — something the White House denies.”
“But Mr. Trump has poked fun at Mr. Bolton’s reputation for hawkishness, joking in meetings with him. ‘If it was up to John, we’d be in four wars now,’ one of the senior officials recalled Mr. Trump as saying.”
Frustrated Democrats Pin Their Hopes on Mueller
New York Times: “They had a plan: dramatize the special counsel’s damning but dense report on national television in their committees, animating his prose with vivid testimony from witnesses who would discuss Mr. Mueller’s findings on Russia’s election interference and Mr. Trump’s possible obstruction of justice. But so far Mr. Trump and his allies have successfully parried every one of their moves.”
Judge Orders Release of Flynn Transcripts
“A federal judge on Thursday ordered that prosecutors make public a transcript of a phone call that former national security adviser Michael Flynn tried hard to hide with a lie: his conversation with a Russian ambassador in late 2016,” the Washington Post reports.
“U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington ordered the government also to provide a public transcript of a November 2017 voice mail involving Flynn. In that sensitive call, President Trump’s attorney left a message for Flynn’s attorney reminding him of the president’s fondness for Flynn at a time when Flynn was considering cooperating with federal investigators.”
Trump’s Tariffs Are Like a Massive Tax Hike
“President Trump, having championed one of the larger tax cuts in recent years, has now enacted tariffs equivalent to one of the largest tax increases in decades,” CNBC reports.
“A CNBC analysis of data from the Treasury Department ranks the combined $72 billion in revenue from all the president’s tariffs as one of the biggest tax increases since 1993. In fact, the tariff revenue ranks as the largest increase as a percent of GDP since 1993 when compared with the first year of all the revenue measures enacted since then, according to the data.”
Florida Braces for Planeloads of Immigrants
“The Trump administration is preparing to move hundreds of immigrants from overcrowded camps along the U.S. border to Broward and Palm Beach counties,” the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports.
“Broward Mayor Mark Bogen and Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said they were told to expect two planeloads of immigrants each week, starting in about two weeks. The 270 weekly passengers — about 1,000 each month — would be split, with half going to Palm Beach County and half to Broward.”
Someone ‘Connected to Congress’ Tried to Influence Flynn
A filing unsealed in federal court says an unnamed person “connected to Congress” allegedly attempted to influence former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s willingness to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, Politico reports.
Meanwhile, CNN reports there’s a voicemail recording of a member of the Trump administration reaching out to Flynn and his lawyers while he was cooperating with Mueller.
Trump Wants Border Wall to Have Black Spikes
“The barrier that President Trump wants to build along the Mexico border will be a steel bollard fence, not a concrete wall as he long promised, and the president is fine with that. He has a few other things he would like to change, though,” the Washington Post reports.
“The bollards or ‘slats,’ as he prefers to call them, should be painted ‘flat black,’ a dark hue that would absorb heat in the summer, making the metal too hot for climbers to scale.”
“And the tips of the bollards should be pointed, not round, the president insists, describing in graphic terms the potential injuries that border-crossers might receive.”
Biden Way Ahead Among Democrats Nationally
A new Fox News poll finds Joe Biden leading the Democratic presidential race nationally with 35%, followed by Bernie Sanders at 17%, Elizabeth Warren at 9%, Pete Buttigieg at 6% and Kamala Harris at 5%.
They are followed by Beto O’Rouke at 4%, Cory Booker at 3%, Amy Klobuchar at 2% and Julian Castro at 2%. Everyone else is at 1% or less.
Pelosi Raises Impeachment to Break Trump’s Stonewall
“Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested that House Democrats could always open an impeachment inquiry to pry free documents and testimony from stonewalling Trump administration officials — a sharp response to the White House’s blanket claim that House requests served no ‘legitimate’ legislative purpose,” the New York Times reports.
Said Pelosi: “The courts would respect it if you said we need this information to carry out our oversight responsibilities — and among them is impeachment It doesn’t mean you’re going on an impeachment path, but it means if you had the information you might. It’s about impeachment as a purpose.”
“Her threat was the first time Ms. Pelosi suggested using impeachment as an information-gathering tool, although she had made the suggestion in private before.”
Trump’s Immigration Proposal Is Already Dead
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that President Trump’s new immigration plan is “dead on arrival” and “not a remotely serious proposal,” The Hill reports.
