Trump Family Corruption-- Unprecedented

 

Who didn't know that the presidential election would devolve into a question about whose family is more corrupt and disgusting/ Democrats don't want to consider that Biden's family is hideous and Republicans don't want to consider that Trump's family is far more hideous-- and I'm certainly not talking about Ivanka being a closeted lesbian, which is so awesome and the least hideous thing I've ever heard about her. [Although I do want more information about why Donald, Jr. hates Barron. That seems beyond the pale, doesn't it?] No, what I'm talking about is the familial corruption. The video above is useful and so is this Dan Alexander piece in Forbes, Forbes Estimates China Paid Trump At Least $5.4 Million Since He Took Office, Via Mysterious Trump Tower Lease. There are so many bits and pieces, deciphering them all and weaving them into an overall narrative will be a journalist-- and, more importantly, a judicial-- cottage industry for years to come.

And who didn't know that Jared was a beard?

It should have been a warning to every viewer of the Thursday debate when Trump asserted that "I don’t make money from China," that hand his spawn were no doubt on the take. And I have no doubt that it goes way beyond Alexander's revelation that he "collected millions of dollars from government-owned entities in China since he took office. Forbes estimates that at least $5.4 million has flowed into the president’s business from a lease agreement involving a state-owned bank in Trump Tower.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China signed a lease for space in 2008, years before the president took office, paying about $1.9 million in annual rent. Trump is well-aware of the deal. “I’ll show you the Industrial Bank of China,” he told three Forbes journalists touring Trump Tower in 2015. “I have the best tenants in the world in this building.”

Trump moved from the skyscraper to the White House in 2017, but he held onto ownership of the retail and office space in the building, through his 100% interest in an entity called Trump Tower Commercial LLC. That put him in an unusual position, given that government-owned entities in China hold at least 70% of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. Suddenly, a routine real estate deal became a conduit for a foreign superpower to pay the president of the United States.

The arrangement posed legal concerns, since the U.S. Constitution prohibits federal officials from accepting “any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state” without Congressional approval. Ethics experts, who have often focused on the president’s hotel in Washington, D.C., argued that the president would be in violation of the Constitution’s emoluments clause from the moment he took office.

On January 11, 2017, Trump and his team held a press conference inside Trump Tower, not far from the office of the Chinese bank. Trump’s lawyer, Sheri Dillon, claimed that routine business transactions are not violations of the so-called Emoluments Clause. But she also said the president planned to donate all foreign government profits at his hotel to the U.S. Treasury. The next month, first son Eric Trump, who had just taken over day-to-day operations of his father’s business, told Forbes the donations would come from “all the properties.”

Perhaps Eric Trump meant all hotel properties, because it sure doesn’t seem like the Trump Organization handed over all their profits from the deal with the Chinese. The Trump Organization reportedly donated a total of $343,000 to the U.S. Treasury in 2017 and 2018, Trump’s first two years as president. Yet, a document connected to Trump Tower suggests that over those same two years, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was set to pay about $3.9 million in rent. Operating profit margins inside the building are an estimated 42%, which would suggest that the deal yielded $1.6 million of earnings over those two years. Even if you only count roughly 70% of that money as coming from the Chinese government, it still adds up to $1.2 million-- or more than three times what the Trump Organization reportedly gave to the Treasury.

The lease was set to expire on October 31, 2019, according to a debt prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In 2018, the state-owned bank agreed to a new lease in a different office building nearby, suggesting it might leave Trump Tower. But then, the bank decided to stay in the president’s building anyway. “They are keeping a couple of floors,” Eric Trump confirmed onstage at a business conference in October 2019.

The new arrangement is somewhat murky. Contacted Friday morning, a spokesperson for the Trump Organization initially said that the bank had “consolidated with their other offices in New York.” When told that Forbes might publish that statement, the spokesperson then seemed to confirm that the Chinese bank was in fact maintaining space in the building: “They’ve exited the vast majority of their space in Trump Tower.” The website for the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China still lists an address inside Trump Tower.

Trump has other financial connections to China. The New York Times revealed Tuesday that the U.S. president has a bank account in China. His daughter, Ivanka Trump, received 41 Chinese trademarks from the time she was appointed a White House adviser in March 2017 to April 2019, according to an analysis of documents. The review also showed that the trademarks Ivanka applied for after her father’s inauguration got approved about 40% faster than those she sought out beforehand.

You want to see the swamp drained for real?

Remember when Trump campaigned on draining the swamp? That was a joke then because Trump is and has always been the swamp. Yesterday Josh Dawsey, Rosalind Helderman and David Farenthold reminded Washington Post readers that we're living through the most corrupt presidency ever. They noted that "during his four years in office, Trump has taken few steps to clean up Washington. He has instead presided over a norm-shattering expansion of private interests in government. The government has had to spend money at Trump’s private hotels as his family has traveled around the globe. Trump sidestepped rules that had been designed to prevent nepotism, allowing his son-in-law to serve in a top government role. He has touted companies run by supporters and allies who received government contracts. His administration has allowed former lobbyists to serve in jobs in which they have oversight of policies that affect their former employers... [T]he president has worsened Washington’s profiteering culture in nearly every way."

“The whole administration has taken Trump’s tone-- self-dealing, self-enriching, enriching your friends and families-- that’s smart, if you listen to Trump,” he said.

...Rich contributors have long had access to elected officials in Washington, but as president, Trump has dropped any pretense that they should not be afforded special treatment.

Donors and others seeking access appear routinely at his private clubs in Florida and New Jersey, where they have buttonholed the president on the patio or golf course.

The ability of outside favor-seekers to influence Trump has at times worried administration officials. A group of Mar-a-Lago members sought to shape the direction of the Department of Veterans Affairs, as the former VA secretary detailed in a book. Donors attending fundraisers at his Bedminister club weighed in on the GOP tax bill, according to people familiar with internal discussions.

Meanwhile, lobbying firms that can claim access to Trump’s inner circle have thrived.

Barry Bennett, a 2016 Trump campaign adviser and lobbyist for foreign interests, said business for him was booming before the coronavirus pandemic.

The president’s attacks on the swamp have been effective in one way, he said: “To the extent that Washington is less popular, and people are more angry at their government, that’s been the effect of the Trump presidency.”

When Trump launched his presidential bid, he distinguished himself from rivals for the Republican nomination by saying he would fund his own campaign, eschewing the support of donors who he said corrupted the political system by seeking favors in exchange for their contributions. The argument proved powerful with voters.

“I will say this--  [the] people [who] control special interests, lobbyists, donors, they make large contributions to politicians and they have total control over those politicians,” he said at a Republican primary debate in March 2016. “And frankly, I know the system better than anybody else and I’m the only one up here that’s going to be able to fix that system, because that system is wrong.”

He likewise termed super PACs, which can accept unlimited amounts of money, a “disaster.” “They’re a scam,” he said at a debate in October 2015. “They cause dishonesty.”

Trump unveiled the phrase “drain the swamp” in a speech in Green Bay, Wis., in October 2016, wielding it as a weapon against Democrat Hillary Clinton, who was benefiting from a network of wealthy donors that she and former president Bill Clinton had cultivated over four decades.

“There were a lot of Democrats that Trump may not have beaten with that message,” said Charles R. Black Jr., who has worked as a Republican lobbyist and consultant for nearly five decades. “The message worked-- but it worked especially because of who she was.”

It was quickly a hit with Trump’s most enthusiastic supporters, entering the lexicon of call-and-response cries at his signature rallies. It remains one of the most popular chants and resonant messages, campaign aides say.

“We’re going to go to Washington. We’re going to drain the swamp,” Trump said at a North Carolina rally in 2016. As the crowd picked up the chant-- “Drain the swamp! Drain the swamp!”-- Trump explained that when he first heard the phrase, he hated it. He thought it was “hokey.” But then he said he noticed how crowds responded.

“The place went crazy,” he said, adding: “Now I love the expression. I think it was genius.”

By then, Trump’s original promises to use his own wealth to power his campaign had crumbled.

He ultimately reported spending $66 million of his own money on his winning campaign, only a small portion of the more than $564 million he raised by the end of 2016. By July 2016, he began appearing at fundraisers for a super PAC supporting his election.

Trump made no pretense of self-funding his 2020 campaign. Instead, he spent four years attending closed-door events for his wealthiest supporters, raising millions of dollars for his campaign and the America First super PAC.

Some of the country’s most powerful individuals have lent their properties for Trump’s gilded fundraising events, from the California hillside mega-mansion of Oracle founder Larry Ellison to the Hamptons beachfront palace of hedge fund manager John Paulson. The entry fee for some: as high as $580,600 a person, with much of the money flowing to the Republican National Committee, which as a party committee can accept large contributions. Many of the events are at Trump’s private clubs or hotels, where donors both contribute to his campaign and stay or dine at his properties.

Donors have gotten access not just to Trump at these events, but also to a range of senior Cabinet officials such as Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and Trump advisers such as Peter Navarro, Kellyanne Conway, Bill Stepien and Corey Lewandowski, invitations show.

While his predecessors typically kept their remarks at donor events short and scripted, Trump speaks loosely and profanely-- even discussing sensitive military operations and vulgarly describing political foes.

...The ability of high-dollar donors to shape Trump’s views was put into sharp relief earlier this year, when onetime Trump supporter Lev Parnas released recordings of events.

In the recordings, one donor could be heard proposing the president hold a summit meeting with Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, at a South Korean golf course he owned. Another donor, who owns a Canadian steel company, pushed Trump to limit steel imports to the United States.

Parnas and his business partner Igor Fruman, who were working with Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, urged the president to recall the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, whom they viewed as unfriendly to interests of a new natural gas company they had formed.

“Get rid of her! Get her out tomorrow. I don’t care. Get her out tomorrow,” Trump could be heard immediately instructing an aide after the two made the request.

Parnas, now a sharp critic of Trump, has been charged with campaign finance violations and defrauding investors in his company. He has denied wrongdoing. Parnas said it was widely understood by donors that they were paying for face time with Trump.

“Everyone knew that about Trump-- all it took was that one minute, if he liked it,” he said. “It was okay to spend a million dollars on a dinner. Because that dinner could make your whole life.”

...Overall, Trump has largely failed to fulfill the pledges he made in his Green Bay “drain the swamp” speech. He had promised he would push Congress to pass a five-year lobbying ban into law so it could not be lifted by a future president. But he never proposed such legislation. Nor did he ask Congress to impose a similar five-year lobbying ban on its members, as he had promised he would in 2016.

In addition, he never tried to seek to “close all the loopholes” used by former government officials who get around registering as lobbyists by calling themselves “consultants” and “advisers.” And he never acted on his pledge to stop foreign lobbyists from campaign fundraising-- and in fact, has benefited from their financial support.

As his promises to curtail lobbying have faded, Trump allies who can offer insight to private interests have flourished.

“People who know how Washington and the administration works, those people are always going to be valuable,” Bennett said.

...[A] report compiled by Public Citizen in March 2018-- only 14 months into the administration-- found that 133 former lobbyists had been appointed to the Trump administration. They included 60 who had lobbied within two years of joining government and 35 of those former lobbyists were appointed to oversee the specific topics about which they had previously lobbied.

Last year, ProPublica found that at least 33 former Trump administration officials had found ways to essentially lobby after leaving government, despite the supposed five-year ban on such activities. Some styled themselves consultants and advisers-- the kind of end run around the rules that Trump once railed against.

“It’s a meaningless piece of paper that was just put out to live up to the ‘drain the swamp’ promise,” Holman said of the executive order. “No one takes it seriously.”

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Mutiny isn't just a metaphor, it's a calling. Saving The United States Of America can't wait until election day. We need mass mutinies across every sector of American life. Who's to know that this country and what's left of its democracy can even survive five more excruciating long months until some alleged election day? Everybody is being way to nice. Trump is an absolute madman but people think nothing really bad will happen. When it does, the same idiots will say "Who knew? Who could have known?" Fucking idiots.

I love the idea of making the Trump Crime Family of grifters and thieves walk the plank. I love the idea of the Trump family being dumped at sea. Gilligan's Island but no island. I love the idea of them being circled by sharks. It's especially fitting since the president has a well-known serious fear of sharks. He's probably always pissed in the pool anyway. But, hey, just the people pictured in tonight's meme? No, that's nowhere near enough. First of all, where are Jared, Lara, and Baron, and don't give me any crap about Baron being just a child. He's a Trump and he's already a fucking mess, people are saying. Just ask his former classmates and teachers here in New York. Tiffany? Like father like daughter with her, too? I admit I don't know enough about her but the circumstantial evidence isn't good. This is not a gene pool to be taken lightly at all. Guilt by association, baby! In ya go! And that goes for the entire White House staff of accomplices and all of the thieving cabinet, Pence, too, even if only just for refusing to invoke the 25th Amendment. They have protected the Trumps way too long. Say hello to my little finned friends, assholes!

What we've seen so far in protests is simply not big enough; not even close. Masses of people protesting outside the White House isn't enough. The enemy is playing for time. They think time and flowery words will save their asses. Where's the march of millions to the Capitol building while both houses of Congress are in session, living off of us, sponging off of us and delivering NOTHING! They need to be trapped in there, like rats, like the rats in suits that they are. Make them feel the need to construct a perimeter wall 20 feet high to protect themselves from our vengefulness just like Trump. It'll make it easier for us to keep them penned in. Siege! Better yet, it would be ironic, just, and proper if we turned the tables on them and loaded them on ships, slave ships, chains, super cramped quarters, no money, no medical care, not enough food, no education for their spoiled dumbass kids. You get the picture. Hell make them row the damn boat! Halfway across the ocean and, you guessed it; walk the plank! Time to grow the anger, exponentially! Oh, we're angry alright, but why hold back? No more Mr. & Ms. Nice Guy. Fuck these assholes! Give them a choice. Everything in their lives ends or Trump goes. NOW!

Do you like Trump's rubber ducky? Notice how just like when Melania doesn't get any umbrella coverage from her hubby, she only gets a child-sized water wings. Oh, don't you worry about her, her boobs'll keep her afloat for a long time, long enough for a Russian submarine to come along and take her home.

Trump Released An Unreconstructed Criminal, As Though Chicago Doesn't Have Enough Crime Already!

Earlier today we glanced, briefly at DINOs Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY) and Ben McAdams (Blue Dog-UT) and you may have wondered which of the two is most likely to be the next Jeff Van Drew, formerly a DCCC-Blue Dog and now a Trump-Republican. But there already is a next Jeff Van Drew. Who remembers Rod Blagojevich?

Blagojevich was a state Rep and then a 3-term conservaDem, pro-war Congressman from Chicago. In 2002 he was elected governor of Illinois where his life-long corruption really blossomed. He was arrested at his home by FBI agents in 2008 and charged with trying to sell Barack Obama's Senate seat when Obama was elected president. He was impeached the following month (114-1 with 3 abstentions). In 2011 he was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Last week Trump, who knew him as a guest on The Apprentice and as a corrupt governor he had contributed to, commuted the rest of his sentence and he was immediately released from prison.

Chicago Tribune has already noted that he's now a full-on Trumpist. Stacy St. Clair and Annie Sweeney wrote last week that Blagojevich stood in front of TV camera and declared himself a political prisoner finally home from eight years of exile. His former Lt Governor, Pat Quinn, who went on to be governor when Blagojevich was impeached, told the reporters he was upset with "the pronounced self-pity, the lack of contrition and, perhaps more than anything, the audacity to discuss criminal justice reform. Quinn inherited a backlog of nearly 3,000 clemency petitions when he took over from Blagojevich, who largely shirked his responsibility to review requests for commutations and pardons. The situation became so dire at one point, Cabrini Green Legal Aid sued Blagojevich to get him to act on their requests. 'It is ironic that someone who didn’t care about those people waiting for an answer, or the families waiting for them at home, was the beneficiary of a commutation,' Quinn said. 'There was no remorse. There was no contrition. What we saw was disgraceful.' In his winding 'homecoming' speech and various media interviews since having his sentence commuted Tuesday by President Donald Trump, Blagojevich has woven a web of half-truths and, to critics, hypocrisies around his newly found freedom. He has promoted unfounded conspiracy theories, attacked his former prosecutors and downplayed his own criminal behavior. And as he has been since the moment of his arrest, Blagojevich remains unrepentant. If anything, a lengthy incarceration has only strengthened his belief that he is the victim of political corruption and not the perpetrator."

He also seems emboldened by Trump’s bombastic style, which drastically changed the political and cultural landscape while Blagojevich was behind bars. That new reality allows for hurling allegations regardless of their veracity, excoriating perceived opponents in the media and often shouting down the truth.

Some are more qualified than others to see through the former governor’s effort to rewrite the history books.

“It’s strange, because if anyone knows about his guilt, it’s Rod Blagojevich," said James Matsumoto, the jury foreman at his first criminal trial. "He heard the evidence at two trials. He has to know what he did was criminal.”

...“I’m returning home today from a long exile a freed political prisoner,” he told the media Wednesday from the stoop of his Chicago house. “I want to say again to the people of Illinois who twice elected me governor: I didn’t let you down. I would have let you down if I gave in to this. But resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.”

Looking older and significantly grayer since his incarceration, Blagojevich spent his first days of freedom trying to restore a tarnished legacy. He showed no interest in a thoughtful debate about the appropriate punishment for his misdeeds, but rather he appeared determined to re-litigate his case.

Blagojevich’s argument begins with the incorrect assertion that the same people who took him down have also tried to unseat Trump. It’s an easily disproved accusation that Trump also pushed when announcing Blagojevich’s commutation Tuesday morning, and on Twitter the following day.

“He served 8 years in prison, with many remaining. He paid a big price. Another Comey and gang deal!” the president tweeted Wednesday.

Former FBI Director James Comey was U.S. deputy attorney general when the investigation into Blagojevich’s administration began, but he moved to the private sector in 2005 and played no role in Blagojevich’s arrest in 2008. Blagojevich had been in prison for more than a year when Comey assumed the FBI’s top post.

Blagojevich’s prosecution was overseen by Patrick Fitzgerald, then U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Fitzgerald did not have any role in the Mueller investigation, though he has been representing Comey, a longtime friend, since Trump fired him in May 2017.

It is true that Robert Mueller was the FBI director at the time of Blagojevich’s arrest by agents in the FBI’s Chicago office. But then-U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, a George W. Bush appointee and frequent Trump defender, made the decision to tap the governor’s phones.

The facts, however, haven’t stopped Blagojevich from pushing the idea that he and Trump were targeted by mutual enemies.

“This is the larger fight that is before all of us as Americans,” Blagojevich said on FOX News Wednesday. “Some of these same people again have tried to do at the Major League-level to a Republican president what they were able successfully to do to a Democratic governor. And they are threatening to take away from all of us our rights to choose our own leaders through free and fair elections.”

The assertion defies both time and logic, said former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Cramer, who worked under Fitzgerald.

“Everyone is trying to morph those facts,” Cramer said. “These prosecutors who investigated and convicted Blagojevich have been out of the (U.S. Department of Justice) for about 10 years. And the president is making some sort of twisted connect-the-dots between Jim Comey and Rod Blagojevich? When you have to go through these legal gymnastics, maybe the best answer is the most simple one, which is Rod Blagojevich is the poster child for public corruption in Illinois. And that is a pretty high bar.”

Randall Samborn, a lawyer and former longtime spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, including during the Blagojevich convictions, dismissed any suggestion that Fitzgerald or his prosecutors played any role in the Trump investigations.

And while Mueller was leading the FBI during the time of the Blagojevich investigation and prosecution, the practice at the time was to allow local teams of federal agents and prosecutors much more control-- unlike what is transpiring today in Washington, Samborn added.

“Local FBI agents and prosecutors had some degree of independent autonomy in conducting investigations and prosecutions, unlike the more recent reaching across the transom by (Department of Justice) officials that we’ve seen in recent weeks,” Samborn said.

The former governor complains that the “uncontrolled” prosecution team improperly applied federal law to railroad him, another claim that does not withstand scrutiny. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals called the evidence against Blagojevich “overwhelming” and upheld the conviction, while the U.S. Supreme Court twice refused to hear his arguments.

The Illinois Senate voted unanimously to remove him from office for abusing his power. The Illinois House also had widespread bipartisan support for his impeachment, with only Blagojevich’s sister-in-law, then-Rep. Deb Mell, D-Chicago, voting against it.

“For Rod Blagojevich to say somehow he is innocent is absurd," Cramer said. "And several courts and a jury thought it was absurd.”

As Blagojevich continues to disparage federal prosecutors, some worry about the damage his claims could cause. With several aldermen and state lawmakers currently under investigation or indictment for allegedly abusing their positions, the U.S. attorney’s office is once again proving itself to be one of the most reliable weapons in the fight against public corruption, former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti said.

...Both Blagojevich and Trump shrugged off his actions as normal political talk, glossing over the fact he was convicted of trying to shake down the former Children’s Memorial Hospital for a $25,000 campaign donation in exchange for more state funding for pediatric specialists. The former governor did not mention that specific allegation during his public remarks Wednesday, though he did tout his efforts to provide more affordable health care for children in Illinois.

On wiretaps played during his criminal trial, Blagojevich mentioned a Medicaid reimbursement rate increase worth up to $10 million and his desire to hit up hospital CEO Patrick Magoon for contributions in almost the same breath. The rate hike would have gone to pay doctors who were backlogged in treating children for asthma, diabetes, epilepsy and rheumatoid arthritis.

Children’s Memorial, which has since changed its name to Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, said in 2008 that no one at the hospital participated in the scheme. They also issued a statement expressing disappointment that money to care for “Illinois’ neediest children has been tied to an alleged pay-for-play scheme.”

When asked about the scheme on FOX News, Blagojevich quickly retorted: “I actually sent that hospital $8 million."

The hospital received the state funding after Blagojevich was arrested.

The former governor appeared to be parroting arguments he raised in his post-trial appeals-- none of which succeeded to persuade any court that he didn’t try to extort Magoon.

“The hospital was pretty clear they were being shaken down,” Cramer said. “You have to laugh at the nerve. In the annals of public corruption, who shakes down a children’s hospital?”

Blagojevich had been scheduled to be released in March 2024. Instead, he finds himself back in Chicago and required to do community service until he finds a job. He has not said where he intends to seek employment, but he has expressed an interest in helping those who are wrongly incarcerated or serving unfair sentences.

“(Injustices) that not only destroyed their lives and steal from them their futures, but hurt their children and families,” Blagojevich lamented.

If this sounds vaguely familiar, keep in mind that Trump and his entire criminal family have been barred from ever operating a charity in New York State again, after a court found that Trump used his own charity to profit personally while ripping off a children's hospital. He was fined $2 million while his 3 crooked children, Don, Jr., Ivanka and Eric, were all forced to go to rehabilitation courses for crooks who steal from charities. New York Attorney General Leticia James:

The Trump Foundation has shut down, funds that were illegally misused are being restored, the president will be subject to ongoing supervision by my office, and the Trump children had to undergo compulsory training to ensure this type of illegal activity never takes place again. The court’s decision, together with the settlements we negotiated, are a major victory in our efforts to protect charitable assets and hold accountable those who would abuse charities for personal gain. My office will continue to fight for accountability because no one is above the law-- not a businessman, not a candidate for office, and not even the President of the United States.

Does that help you understand why Trump decided to free Blogojevich from prison? Still not? How about this post Sunday from Rev. John Pavlovitz, Why Do You Stand Behind Cruelty?, addressed to evangelical Trump supporters?

You are a mystery to me.

I watch you standing there with-wide-eyed, breathless adoration, and I simply can’t fathom how you ended up there in that spot, what it is you’re feeling in that moment, how this has become a voice you feel affinity with.

Why are you here?

I’d never stand behind someone who makes fun of stutterers.
I’d never stand behind someone who uses a person’s physical appearance as a slur.
I’d never stand behind someone who speaks about women as though they are things.
I’d never stand behind someone who mocks people with disabilities.
I’d never stand behind someone who exploits racial and ethnic stereotypes.

I’d never choose such a person as a friend, let alone choose them to make decisions regarding hundreds of millions of people or to represent me in the world or to shape the place my children call home-- and the reason has nothing at all to do with politics.

It’s a human decency thing.

I’d never do these things, because as a Christian I was raised to treat people with a dignity that I was taught they deserve as solely unique human beings fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of a God who was love.

I was raised to believe that I was fortunate to be born where I was born and with the advantages I have and surrounded by the love I was surrounded by and inside the healthy body I inhabited; and that I should remember that many people were not-- and that this makes life more difficult for them.

I was raised to look for the uncomfortable people on the periphery and to welcome them in: to make them feel seen and heard, to reduce the loneliness they experience, to help them feel less isolated than they usually do.

I was taught to defend bullied people, to befriend the vulnerable, and to extend kindness in way that makes someone else’s load lighter-- because life is heavy and it’s difficult on its best day. I was taught that compassion is the better path (or in plain language, not to be a jerk.)

What were you taught that was different than that?

I also grew up knowing that you can’t believe one thing while saying another; that your actions ultimately declare what you value despite what you claim to value with words; that if your personal faith is never tangibly embodied in your daily life-- it is simply a showy, dressed up corpse.

As an adult, I’ve interpreted this to mean that your politics reveal who you are: that you vote for people you agree with, who reflect your heart, who share your values, who speak for you-- people who in some significant way embody you. What is about him that you feel a kindred spirit with when you hear him speak?

Our politics aren’t some detached entities that exist separated from our moral convictions and our personal values-- they are direct extensions of them. We choose human beings to represent us in the world, who do and say what we would do and say if we had the power and position they have.

I really wonder why you’ve chosen this man to speak for you.
I wonder what about the slurs and the taunts and the nicknames and the expletives and the viciousness feels congruent with the way you see the world.
I wonder what vicarious impulse you express through him when he provokes people he has power over, especially when they are at their most vulnerable.
I wonder how the continual stream of vengeful attacks on already marginalized communities gives voice to something you harbor in the deepest recesses of your heart.
I wonder why this hatred is something you feel solidarity with.

For some reason, you stand proudly behind cruelty.
You cheer it on when it generates pain for people.
You laugh when it makes jokes at the expense of other’s misery.
You amen its ever-lowering bottom.
You applaud when it strains wildly to outdo itself in falsehoods.

Only you know why you do that.

What does it say about your understanding of Jesus?
What does it echo about the way you see people?

What does it say about the fear that you fight every day to push back?
What does it reveal about your value of those who don’t look or speak or love or believe the way you do?

Try as I might, I simply can’t understand it from where I’m standing.

Tell me why you stand behind cruelty.

OK, all clear now?

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Congratulations Roger Stone! You are now the 6th member of the Trump Crime Family to receive a jail sentence for what amounts to a crime against America. May you have the same kind of guards Jeffrey Epstein had. May your sheet be tied tightly, very, very tightly.

Extremely light sentence for witness intimidation and obstructing the Russia investigation aside (40 years or a firing squad would better fit his crimes against the United States on behalf of Putin's Treason Puppet), if Roger Stone ever actually does serve time in prison, he will need some protective friends. I'm hoping they're all named Bubba and they like gazing at the Nixon tattoo on Roger's back. That's a karma thing in more ways than one.

Meanwhile, as soon as Stone was sentenced, he whimpered and publicly asked his buddy Trump for his pardon. Trump, who earlier shared a clip of FOX's Tiki Torch Tucker pleading for him to pardon Stone, took a bash at the jury forewoman, whined about the very existence of the trial, spouted conspiracies, and disingenuously claimed to the press that he would watch the process carefully. In other words, yes, I will pardon anyone who has the goods on me as long as they keep quiet but I will chose the time because I am the all powerful orange menace to society.

In any event, the folks in Las Vegas who lay odds on such things wasted no time accepting bets on when the pardon from Trump would be forthcoming. These are the times we live in. this is our own sentence. How long will the unstable Trump think Stone can remain silent? What happens if Trump thinks he won't? Stone knows a lot of the really bad stuff about his boss. Technically, acceptance of a pardon is an admission of guilt and once you accept the pardon, you can be compelled to talk. Obviously, Stone will ignore subpoenas like most Trump Crime Family members do, but what if Godfather Trump gets too nervous that Stone will talk, pardon or not?

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

John Gotti had Bruce Cutler. Forget Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump has William Barr; with apologies to Bruce Cutler for the comparison, of course. Barr is Trump's personal Attorney General, political operative, and real defense lawyer. In essence, the United States has no Attorney General looking out for it. Barr sees it at his job to look out only for his boss of bosses. Therefore, the United States is operating without a defense attorney.

The 1980s trials of John Gotti were known for witness intimidation and bribery. Sound familiar? Of course it does. The more we hear, every day, about Trump, plus Barr's efforts to protect him from justice, the more familiar sounding it gets. Cutler got 3 acquittals of his client. In one case, the bribery of a juror was proven, beyond the shadow of a doubt, as they say. Cutler and Gotti were quite a team. In the case of Trump's farcical impeachment trial, Trump went one step further than John Gotti (Let that sink in). Trump just went and had the jurors over to his house, in full view of the public. He told them how they would decide and why, and then asked the jurors if there was anything they had need of, and he then provided it. It seems apparent that Mitt Romney, though in no way a saint, was the only one of the 53 jurors that would stand up to intimidation and bribery. The others arrived at the White House with both hands out and a bag.

None of this bothers William Barr though, not one bit. Trump is his guy all the way. Last week Barr even decreed that any politically sensitive investigations, in other words investigations of Trump and the rest of his crime family associates, must be approved by him. Imagine if the investigations of John Gotti and his associates had required Gotti's approval before getting the go ahead. Last week, Barr even complained to his boss of bosses that his compulsive tweets were making his job "impossible." In other words, "How can I be your fixer when you keep making your crimes more obvious and impossible to cover up?" Barr did this in the most public and brazen way possible, other than buying live TV time and doing it that way.

Cutler tried to get his client acquitted a fourth time in 1990. That was for the Big Paul Castellano murder trial. However, Cutler was disqualified as Gotti's defense attorney by judge I. Leo Glasser who cited evidence that Cutler and his staff probably knew about details of Gotti's criminal activities, thus making Cutler and his staff part of the evidence against their client. The parallels are uncanny. All that's missing is for Trump to kill somebody (on Fifth Avenue?) or have somebody killed if he hasn't already done that at some point in his sordid past. Certainly, he has tried to incite murder. Just look at the Florida pipe bomber or, even more recently, his threatening tweets, especially the one about Rep. Adam Schiff ("He has not paid the price, yet").

It's clear that, thanks to his acquittal by the $enate, Trump is acting in the belief that the laws and the legal system do not apply to him. It's also clear that republicans agree with him. Trump isn't the first person or even president to think that but no one that has subscribed to that belief has ranked higher in our society and stretched the limits of contempt for the judicial system further or been more outwardly brazen about it.

John Gotti ended up in a federal penitentiary. When he wanted a shower, he was wheeled to the showers in a cage and stayed in that cage while he washed. Sadly, we're too hypocritical as a society to do that to our dirtbag politicians. If we did do such correct things, we might have better politicians. As it is, we get what we deserve because we do not act when the times call for it. They call for it now, more than ever.

America's Royal Family From Hell

I think of Rick Wilson as one of the MSNBC resident #NeverTrumpers who wants to push the Democratic Party far right enough-- it's almost there-- to be the pre-Trump Republican Party. He and Jim Messina could start a transpartisan status quo firm. Messia, who worked for anti-healthcare fanatic Max Baucus and other conservative Democrats, was the "brains" behind Brexit, was Theresa May's and David Cameron's political consultant. Wilson, a protege of Lee Atwater, has worked for Dick Cheney, George HW Bush, Connie Mack, Rudy Giuliani, Saxby Chambliss, John McCain and half the Republicans who ever wished didn't exist.

Unlike Messina, Wilson also has a career in standup comedy. He has a get-- or idiotic-- bit he does on a Trump dynasty featuring Don, Jr. that's in his new book, Running Against the Devil. Short version: you'll be yearning for Don, Sr. if Jr ever gets into the White House. Impossible? Was Trump possible?

Eight years of Trump sucks, right? It’s terrible, isn’t it? I mean, it can’t get worse, right?

Right?

Oh, you cockeyed optimists.

As in all things Trump, it can get much, much worse. If he wins in 2020, we’re never getting rid of these dolts. Even if shit goes really, really off the rails, Immortan Don and the rest of his Mad Max crew will still be racing around the desert far into the future.

A second term guarantees the rise of the Imperial Trumps, a family cult built on the remains of the moldering corpse of the GOP, featuring all the warmth of North Korea’s Kim dynasty and a kind of Hapsburg-jawed je ne sais dumbfuck rien.

The fantasy self-image of Donald Trump has always been that of royalty, and as I wrote in Everything Trump Touches Dies, it’s just that pesky Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the Constitution that forbids titles of nobility. Since he’s not, you know, famously dedicated to the Constitution in most areas, why this one?

Get ready for Donald Trump Jr., a man who speaks the fluent asshole dialogue of the own-the-libs Trump Party, to rise to the top of the 2024 GOP primary ranks. The dynastic talk that was once treated as a joke (even by me) is already growing around both Don Jr. and Ivanka. Poor Eric is left out, but then again, he always has been.

The Trump family-- including the creepy automaton Jared Kushner-- will continue to view the American government not as a sacred trust but as an ATM for their crapulous enterprises and nation-state-level grifting. While Kushner’s ambitions don’t appear to be especially political, his exploitation of his high office as Grand Vizier to Emir Donald has been spectacularly profitable for his companies. As for Trump personally, his hotels, golf courses, and clubs were miraculously both popular and profitable for unknown reasons. (Pardon me while I recover from that epic eye-roll.)

By the fall of 2019, it was clear that Trump had even managed to suborn the military into spending money that benefited his resorts and golf clubs when stories broke of Air Force cargo flights to the Middle East making unusual stops at his golf resort in Scotland for hotel accommodations and fuel.

The ambition that drives the Trump spawn these days is powerful, and the corruption and collapse of the GOP as a party will enable their dynastic fantasies to play out with real consequences for the country. The Orange Kardashians will have the brand power of Trump, as well as the shameless hucksterism of Fox and the degraded conservative media, behind them. Mark my words, even the “respectable” elements of the conservative media will soon be producing think pieces on why Don Jr. is the bridge from raw Trumpism to a smoother, smarter populist nationalism.

As for Mike Pence, who briefly held out a secret hope that he would be the heir to the Trump movement by combining his adoring gaze, talent for bootlicking, and slavish Donald über Alles suck-uppery, well, Trump treated Pence like any other wife or business partner and has already signaled he’s going to fuck him, and not in his usual two-pump-chump way. When asked if Pence would follow him as president, it would have cost Trump nothing politically to shout out his VP, but he punted. Loyalty is an alien concept to Trump, except to his own progeny.

Ivanka, though never accepted in Washington, still hopes to shape an image of the smart, Aspen- and TED-Talk-friendly modern technocrat who just happens to be the daughter of the warlord. I once had a “serious journalist” with robust access to the Trumps tell me, “She stops so many bad things. She’s a net positive.” Bro. Just because Ivanka calls you and says, “I’m stopping bad things” doesn’t make it so, but like her father, she knows how easily duped the media can be.

Installing Ivanka and her android husband, Jared, in the White House was already the greatest display of nepotism in presidential history, but by the summer of 2019, Jared and Ivanka had become the awkward party guests at events like the Tokyo G20 meeting. Trump’s work to frame Ivanka as the First Princess led him to include her in event after event with world leaders, to incredibly awkward effect. It wasn’t the first time he’d thrust his groomed but talentless daughter into the spotlight, but it was one of the most embarrassing.

Her presence was deeply unwelcome at a number of events where she tried to run with the big dogs of world affairs, sparking an #UnwantedIvanka hashtag that ran wild on social media. She drew grumbles and cold shoulders from other world leaders offended that the adult child of a reality-star president was treating them as props in the drama of her personal ambitions.

Trump made sure that his then national security advisor, John Bolton, was exiled to Mongolia during Kim Jong Don’s surprise visit to see his bestie Kim Jong-un. Apparently, though, it was Take Your Daughter to See a Nuke-Curious Genocidal Madman Who Starves His People and Tricks the President of the United States Over and Over Again Day. Trump brought Ivanka to Korea with him because of course he did.

Don Jr. might as well have a Pepe back tattoo, given how beloved he is by the alt-right and how frequently he boosts the social-media posts of the assorted race-war flotsam that follows his father. He’s already teased about running for governor of New York or mayor of New York City, but a better bet will be a quickie relocation to Montana or some other state, at least nominally, before he launches his political career. Junior has spent a lot of time on the campaign trail and has learned the ropes. Expect to see him at the center of the Trump efforts in 2020 and as a constant presence on social media.

Lucky us.

Even Eric the Wide-Gummed and Tiffany have been dragged along for some of the high-profile state visits and glam events. Trump wants to maximize the reach of the brand, even for the children he loves the least. This is how real dynastic politics come to America, not with a bang but a reality show. For the Trumps, it’ll be easy-- with the rigid control of the GOP this president exercises, there will be none of those pesky primary elections the Bushes and even the Kennedys had to endure.

Yes, the Imperial Trumps are here to stay. Get ready for four years of the right-wing press writing strained profiles of the Strange New Respect that Ivanka is generating among conservatives, and how the first woman Republican president might not be Nikki Haley but rather the deceptively smart and successful fashion icon supermom Ivanka Trump, who is surprisingly down-to-earth. They’ll “discover” she has an easy, self-deprecating sense of humor.

She’ll even appear on Colbert or (again) SNL, poking fun at her image, and even-- just a bit-- at her famous father. Even skeptical conservative media will find themselves drawn to how the Princess Royal now represents the Trump nationalism without the rough edges and ugly tweets.

One other factor about the soon-to-be endless presence of Trumps in our lives: They’re breeding like rabbits, so if we don’t play our cards right now, they’ll have enough offspring to get a majority in the U.S. Senate before long.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Every damn day, Trump and the rest of his Crime Family of political "associates" and media "dumbfellas" talk about how the whole Ukraine thing is about trying to find "the real colluders and conspirators" kind reminds me of O.J. Simpson claiming that he was going to "find the real killers."

Click on the cartoon for easier reading. In a better world, you could just click on the cartoon to make the assholes go away, real permanent like. Sleep with the fishes Donnie.

Trump Going To The Mattresses? Are They All Stained And Disgusting?

Yesterday, two of the Washington Post's star political reporters, Robert Costa and Philip Rucker, wrote that Republican anxiety is spiking as Trump faces growing legal and political perils and asserted that "a growing number of Republicans fear that a battery of new revelations in the far-reaching Russia investigation has dramatically heightened the legal and political danger to Donald Trump’s presidency-- and threatens to consume the rest of the party as well."

"Consume the rest of the party as well?!?!" So what exactly consumed Barbara Comstock (R-VA), Mimi Walters (R-CA), Bruce Polquin (R-ME), John Culberson (R-TX), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Kevin Yoder (R-KS), Jeff Denham (R-CA), Jason Lewis (R-MN), Pete Sessions (R-TX), Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), Dave Valadao (R-CA), Mike Bishop (R-MI), Mia Love (R-UT), John Faso (R-NY), David Young (R-IA), Dave Brat (R-VA), Erik Paulsen (R-MN), Karen Handel (R-GA), Steve Knight (R-CA), Mike Coffman (R-CO), Tom MacArthur (R-NJ), Pete Roskam (R-IL), Keith Rothfus (R-PA), Claudia Tenney (R-NY)... to name a few off the top of my head. There were good candidates like Katie Porter in California, Andy Kim in New Jersey and Jared Golden in Maine and there were abysmal candidates like Abigail Spanberger (Blue Dog-VA), Jason Crow (New Dem-CO) and Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY). There were deep red districts and blue districts. They all had only one thing in common; all the defeated Republicans were Trump enablers, Trump rubber-stamps, some more than others, but all of them. And, believe me, incumbents like Fred Upton in Michigan who won with a scant 50.2%, Michael McCaul in Texas who took just 50.9%, Rob Woodall in Georgia with just 50.1%, Rodney Davis in Illinois with a mere 50.5%, Steve King in Iowa (50.4%), Will Hurd in Texas (49.2%) and dozens more who won by the skin of their teeth, will be shaking in their boots as 2020 approaches.

Trump's dysfunctional and destructive regime always seems to be spinning out of control. There's never been such a rate of staff turnover in a White House before... nor so many indictments. Meanwhile, the Idiot-in-Chief "remains headstrong in his belief that he can outsmart adversaries and weather any threats, according to advisers. In the Russia probe, he continues to roar denials, dubiously proclaiming that the latest allegations of wrongdoing by his former associates 'totally clear' him." They don't-- quite the contrary-- and Republicans whose jobs are on the line, realize it-- and are frustrated that there's nothing they can do about it-- not a thing. If they play along with Trump they die in November. If they break with him, they die earlier, in the primaries. As Costa and Rucker put it, "anxiety is spiking among Republican allies, who complain that Trump and the White House have no real plan for dealing with the Russia crisis while confronting a host of other troubles at home and abroad." They deserve what's headed their way-- and more.

Facing the dawn of his third year in office and his bid for re-election, Trump is stepping into a political hailstorm. Democrats are preparing to seize control of the House in January with subpoena power to investigate corruption. Global markets are reeling from his trade war. The United States is isolated from its traditional partners. The investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference is intensifying. And court filings Friday in a separate federal case implicated Trump in a felony.

The White House is adopting what one official termed a “shrugged shoulders” strategy for the Mueller findings, calculating that most GOP base voters will believe whatever the president tells them to believe.

But some allies fret that the president’s coalition could crack apart under the growing pressure. Stephen Bannon, the former Trump strategist who helped him navigate the most arduous phase of his 2016 campaign, predicted 2019 would be a year of “siege warfare” and cast the president’s inner circle as naively optimistic and unsophisticated.



“The Democrats are going to weaponize the Mueller report and the president needs a team that can go to the mattresses,” Bannon said. “The president can’t trust the GOP to be there when it counts... They don’t feel any sense of duty or responsibility to stand with Trump.”

This portrait of the Trump White House at a precarious juncture is based on interviews with 14 administration officials, presidential confidants and allies, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss private exchanges.

Rather than building a war room to manage the intersecting crises as past administration’s have done, the Trump White House is understaffed, stuck in a bunker mentality and largely resigned to a plan to wing it. Political and communications operatives are mostly taking their cues from the president and letting him drive the message with his spontaneous broadsides.



“A war room? You serious?” one former White House official said when asked about internal preparations. “They’ve never had one, will never have one. They don’t know how to do one.”

Trump’s decision to change his chief of staff, however, appears to be a recognition that he needs a strong political team in place for the remainder of his first term. The leading candidate for the job is Nick Ayers, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff and an experienced campaign operative known for his political acumen and deep network in the party.

Throughout the 18-month special counsel investigation, Trump has single-handedly spun his own deceptive reality, seeking to sully the reputations of Mueller’s operation and federal law enforcement in an attempt to preemptively discredit their eventual conclusions.

The president has been telling friends that he believes the special counsel is flailing and has found nothing meaningful. “It’s all games and trying to connect dots that don’t really make sense,” one friend said in describing Trump’s view of Mueller’s progress. “Trump is angry, but he’s not really worried.”

But Mueller’s latest court filings offer new evidence of Russian efforts to forge a political alliance with Trump before he became president and detail the extent to which his former aides are cooperating with prosecutors.

Some GOP senators were particularly shaken by last week’s revelation that former national security adviser Michael Flynn had met with Mueller’s team 19 separate times-- a distressing signal to them that the probe may be more serious than they had been led to assume, according to senior Republican officials.

Even in the friendliest quarters, there are fresh hints of trouble. Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson, a reliable prime-time booster of the president, faulted Trump in an interview last week for failing to keep his main campaign promises, understand the legislative process and learn how to govern effectively.

For now, Republicans on Capitol Hill are still inclined to stand by Trump and give the president the benefit of the doubt. But one pro-Trump senator said privately that a breaking point would be if Mueller documents conspiracy with Russians.

“Then they’ve lost me,” said the senator, noting that several Republican lawmakers have been willing to publicly break with Trump when they believe it is in their interests-- as many did over Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s role in the brutal murder and dismemberment of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), an outspoken Trump critic and a frequent subject of his ire, said, “The president’s situation is fraught with mounting peril, and that’s apparent to everyone who’s paying any attention, which is all of my Republican colleagues.”

This tweet went over particularly badly, even for Trumpanzee, a notorious draft-dodger  who avoided the Vietnam War and any kind of military service, claiming his war was the constant battle he had with gonorrhea and genital warts in the '60s and '70s

Another possible breaking point could come if Trump pardons his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who has elicited the president’s sympathy as he sits in solitary confinement in a Virginia prison following the collapse of his plea agreement with Mueller’s team, White House aides and Republican lawmakers said. Trump advisers said they understand that a pardon of Manafort could be difficult to defend and could prompt rebukes from Republican allies.

The special counsel on Friday accused Manafort of telling “multiple discernible lies” during interviews with prosecutors. Manafort was convicted of tax and bank fraud crimes and has pleaded guilty to additional charges as well, including conspiring to defraud the United States by hiding years of income and failing to disclose lobbying work for a pro-Russian political party and politician in Ukraine.

Trump’s legal team, meanwhile, is bracing not only for new Mueller developments, but also for an onslaught of congressional requests. New White House counsel Pat Cipollone and his associate, Emmet Flood, are the leaders inside, although both have taken pains to stay out of the spotlight.

Cipollone has been scouring the resumes of congressional Republican staffers with experience handling investigations and trying to recruit them to the White House, officials said. Meanwhile, Flood, who advised former president Bill Clinton during his impeachment, has been prepping for months to forcefully exert executive privilege once House Democrats assume the majority.

Yet hiring remains difficult as potential staffers worry about whether they will need to hire a personal lawyer if they join and express uncertainty about the constant turmoil within the White House hierarchy, as illustrated by Kelly’s announced departure Saturday.

Bannon said he and others were urging contacts in the White House to enlist David Bossie, Trump’s former deputy campaign manager and a former congressional investigator who was known for his hard-edge tactics.

Trump’s lead outside attorney, Rudy Giuliani, said he and his team are busy writing a defiant “counter report” to Mueller, which the president boasted this week was 87 pages long. Giuliani described the effort as a collaboration in which he, Jay Sekulow, Jane Raskin and other lawyers draft different sections and then trade them among the group, debating how to frame various passages on the president’s conduct and Russian interference.

“We’re writing out a lot and will pick and choose what to include. We’re trying to think through every possibility,” Giuliani said. “I’m sure we’ll take the lead in defending [Trump] publicly, if he needs defense, like we always do.”

The Butcher's Assistant by Nancy Ohanian

Some of Trump’s allies have been encouraging him to bolster his legal team. One confidant recalled telling the president, “You need to get you an army of lawyers who know what the hell they’re doing.”

So far, Trump’s public relations strategy mostly has been to attack Mueller as opposed to countering the facts of his investigation. But Lanny Davis, a former Clinton lawyer, said that approach has limits.

“No matter what your client says, if you’re not ready with factual messages to rebut charges, you’ll fail,” said Davis, who now advises former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who faces possible prison time for crimes including lying to Congress about his Russia contacts. “Even if you think the Trump strategy of attacking the messenger can continue to work, it will not work once the Mueller report is done.”

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich said Clinton’s experience in 1998, when the embattled president questioned the special prosecutor and warned of GOP overreach, is instructive for Trump and Republicans, showing them how to be both combative and confident amid chaos.

“You can’t have that many smart lawyers, with the full power of the government, and not have something bad come out,” Gingrich said of the special counsel’s team. “Mueller has to find something, like Trump jaywalked 11 times. The media will go crazy for three days, screaming, ‘Oh, my God! Oh, my God!'”

But, Gingrich said, “This isn’t a crisis moment for Trump or the party. Remember, we thought we had Clinton on the ropes, but Clinton kept smiling and his popularity went up.”

The White House is looking to its hard-right supporters on Capitol Hill to serve as its political flank, in particular House Republicans such as Mark Meadows of North Carolina, Jim Jordan of Ohio, and Devin Nunes of California, who are frequent guests on Fox News Channel. In January, Jordan and Nunes will be the top-ranking Republicans on the House Oversight Committee and the House Select Committee on Intelligence respectively, positioning them as public faces of the Trump defense and antagonists of the Justice Department’s leadership.

Republicans close to incoming House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said there is an implicit understanding that Jordan and Meadows and others in their orbit will be most vocal, but many rank-and-file Republicans, looking to hold onto their seats, will attempt to avoid becoming swept up in the standoff over the probe, as they have for over a year.

“Among most House Republicans, the feeling is, ‘We’re ready for this to be over with. We’re not nervous, but we’re having Mueller fatigue,’” Meadows said.

But Democrats say they are determined not to let the investigation end prematurely. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who sits on the intelligence committee as well as the House Judiciary Committee, said, “Our job is to protect the investigation from the president-- whether it’s firing Mueller, intimidating witnesses or obstructing the investigation.”

Trump critics, like retiring Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ)-- who has sponsored legislation that would protect Mueller but has been largely ignored by his colleagues-- warned that the drumbeat of Trump loyalists in Congress, along with the president’s relentless clashes with Mueller, have lulled Republicans into a dangerous place.

“It’s like the party is a frog slowly boiling in water, being conditioned to not be worried, to not think too hard about what’s happening around them,” Flake said. “They feel at a loss about what to do because it’s the president’s party, without any doubt. So, there’s a lot of whistling by the graveyard these days.”

Giuliani dismissed Flake’s criticism in much the same way he and the president have taken on Mueller-- with a barbed character attack rather than a measured rebuttal.

“He’s a bitter, bitter man,” Giuliani said of Flake. “It’s sick. Nobody likes him and they would like him gone.”

Something tells me that far, far more people would like Trump gone.

John Kelly by Nancy Ohanian