Trump Wants To Be Seen As...

"No Political Appetite To Ban..." by Nancy Ohanian

Rebecca Ballhaus, Andrew Restuccia and Natalie Andrews reported for the Wall Street Journal yesterday that "Trump’s public push for gun-control measures is causing consternation among conservatives and some of his advisers, who have privately raised concerns about the political and policy fallout of the approach. At least so far, Mr. Trump doesn’t appear to have been swayed by the concerns, and the president has indicated privately to aides that he wants to be seen taking action in response to back-to-back mass shootings earlier this month. Aides said he remains interested in pushing for legislative action to expand background checks and prevent mentally unstable people from possessing guns." Yes, "wants to be seen." That he doesn't care about actually accomplishing any policy changes means two things:

1- he will run towards whichever side inflicts the most pain-- i.e., the NRA vs the public
2- lots and lots of room for p.r. stunts and gaslighting

Just to begin, we're talking about pretty weak background checks here-- and certainly not banning the sale of military weapons. The White House is dragging sincere gun control advocate Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) into this strictly for show, preferring to work with conservatives Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Joe Manchin (D-WV), the former desiring 'to be seen" doing a little something (for suburbanites) but not "too much" (for his rural base) and the latter looking to shore up his credentials with the NRA-types by preventing anything remotely effective going into a deal. And remember the 40 38 House Democrats who have still refused to sign onto David Cicilline's legislation to ban the sale of assault weapons.

A White House source told the NY Times that the conversation between Trump and Murphy "was positive, with Trump indicating that he was serious about persuading Republicans to act... [T]he two agreed to set up a staff-level dialogue this week between their offices and those of Toomey and Manchin, who are working feverishly to revive the background check legislation they wrote after the Sandy Hook massacre."

Elected officials don't really give a damn about this and just tend to bend to wherever the most pain is coming from. And that's not just Trump. Two mushy moderates, New Dems Cindy Axne (New Dem-IA) and Joaquin Castro (New Dem-TX) had previously refused to sign on as co-sponsors of Cicilline's legislation to ban the sales of assault weapons. Tuesday-- right in the middle of the summer recess-- they both reacted to pressure and asked that their names be added to the list of nearly 200 co-sponsors. The big problem is how much pressure it's going to take to persuade the biggest roadblock of all.

On Monday, Sean Colarossi reported for Ben Shapiro's right-wing propaganda website that "It appears that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s apparent openness to background check legislation is just a short-term strategy meant to quiet his critics in the aftermath of the dueling massacres in El Paso and Dayton. Washington Post reporter Robert Costa told Chris Matthews on Monday that McConnell is just running out the clock until the gun control debate fades away again. In other words, he doesn’t really intend to take meaningful action on the issue. “McConnell’s play, I’m told, is to just let it peter out,” Costa said. “Talk about being open to background checks and let it play out.” Costa:

The NRA has been weakened by the scandals with Wayne LaPierre. Listen to Rush Limbaugh’s show on Friday. He spent hours saying that if the president moves on background checks-- they know they’re dealing with a president who’s not ideological at the core and that he may be looking for a win, especially as the trade deal stalls with China. And if he starts looking for a background check win, you already have people beyond the NRA trying to boost that gun rights activism. They’re telling the White House behind the scenes, don’t move an inch, we’re not going to give anything, and McConnell’s play, I’m told, is to just let it peter out. Talk about background checks and let it play out.

"The media," continued Colarossi, "pounced on the news last week that McConnell appeared open to joining Democrats and supporting legislation to expand background checks for gun sales. But he never actually committed to supporting such a bill or even bringing it to the Senate floor for a vote... McConnell and other GOP lawmakers don’t deserve a single ounce of credit until they actually do something. The further we get away from the shooting massacres in El Paso and Dayton, the more it looks like Republicans-- led by Mitch McConnell-- are hoping to run out the clock until nobody is talking about this issue anymore. It’s up to the American people to make sure that doesn’t happen. Not this time."

Trump-- in full gaslighting mode-- said on Tuesday that "I am convinced that Mitch wants to do something. I’ve spoken to Mitch McConnell. He’s a good man. He wants to do something. He wants to do it, I think, very strongly. He wants to do background checks, and I do too, and I think a lot of Republicans do. I don’t know, frankly, that the Democrats will get us there." And off to his 228th day as "president" spent golfing.

And speaking of how Trump wants to "be seen," he also wants to be seen as a generous granter of pardons. Slyly thinking ahead when he will be pardoning half his cabinet, his cronies and his family, he is busy building a record as the "Pardoning President." What a humanitarian! Although, CNN reports that he's backed off his decision to commute Blogojevich's sentence. Easy to do since he doesn't really care and can find someone else to pardon instead.

Trump, who had given Blogojevich a $7,000 campaign contribution, fired him in 2010 for screwing up a question about Harry Potter on Celebrity Apprentice

CNN reported that "Trump was on the cusp of commuting former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's sentence late last week... but then Republican members of Illinois' congressional delegation began flooding the White House with calls. Now, Trump appears to have backed off his plans to commute Blagojevich's sentence. Several Republican lawmakers called acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House counsel Pat Cipollone, the sources told CNN, and the Republican members of Illinois congressional delegation issued a joint statement opposing the move. At least two of them, Reps. Darin LaHood and Mike Bost, made their case directly to the President on Thursday night, urging him not to go forward. They laid out the litany of crimes Blagojevich committed while in office and argued it would send the wrong message to voters about corruption by public officials. Trump's response: 'I wish I had the perspective before,' according to Bost, who served on the Illinois House's impeachment committee to remove Blagojevich from office in 2009. 'Those charges were so outrageously bad,' Bost said. That same evening, LaHood-- a former federal and state prosecutor-- called Trump as well and laid out in detail the brazen charges against Blagojevich, including allegations he threatened to cancel millions in state dollars for a children's hospital if its CEO did not write him a $25,000 campaign check. Among the charges was that Blagojevich attempted to sell former President Barack Obama's Senate seat that he resigned in order to become president. And Trump was informed on the call that Blagojevich-- whom Trump knew from his role on Celebrity Apprentice-- didn't offer any remorse for his crimes, sources said... A White House official downplayed the idea anything had changed, insisting there is 'no pumping the brakes' on Blagojevich and that Trump is still looking at a handful of possible pardons and commutations... Jared Kushner had been funneling messages of support for Blagojevich's commutation to the President, two sources said, and the disgraced governor's wife had also taken her appeals for a commutation directly to Trump through appearances on Fox News. Trump adviser and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani also made it clear to Trump that Blagojevich's sentence was too harsh... Multiple sources familiar with the calls said Trump and Mulvaney both did not seem aware of the details of Blagojevich's case, even though the President had decried the former governor as being treated 'unbelievably unfairly.'"