I love listening to Raporter Roundtable on the POTUS channel for XM.
The host, Julie Mason, gets political and White House journalists together to talk about current White House events with an eye on the politics. There's no surrogates, just journalists have no agenda. It's refreshing and candid.
The last one they did, on Friday, talked about what is mounting for 2018. If there's one thing that scares Republicans more than losing their seat to a Democrat, it's losing the primary. Similar to what kept the Tea Party in tact for so long, it's the need to play to the excited base. For the Republicans, that means Trumpers. Things are likely to get uglier, not better unless Trump's numbers can tank enough that Trumpers aren't enough to beat a moderate GOP candidate. At 38%, a GOP Congressional candidate will need Trumpers to win their primary. At 25%, Trump will hurt them. What this means is, to the general population, the Republican side of the ballot will be even trumpier in 2018 unless the approval numbers drop quite a bit more.
On the flip side, you have butt hurt Bernie supporters, angry Hillary supporters and the "Resistance". Democrats are out for blood. They will accept nothing less than every second word being impeach. This means everything anti Trump to the nth degree. It also means a candidate less appealing to the center, where most general election voters are.
Once again we have a split electorate with terrible choices on either side. All of the presupposes that no major disaster or successful pivot occur. Impeachment simply isn't in the cards with the GOP controlling the world. And if the Democrats get the house and Senate in 2018 and impeach, they'll face a republican sweep in 2020.
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Just imagine how much damage they could do if they weren't so monumentally moronic. It'd actually be pretty scary, but thankfully doorknobs appear to be smarter.
Quote:
Soon after former FBI director James B. Comey testified that President Trump told him that he “hoped” the FBI would drop its investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, the president's personal lawyer flatly denied that accusation and said Trump “never, in form or substance, directed or suggested that Mr. Comey stop investigating anyone.”
But Donald Trump Jr. — the president's eldest son — seemed to confirm Comey's version of events in a Saturday interview on Fox News as he tried to emphasize the fact that his father did not directly order Comey to stop investigating Flynn.
“When he tells you to do something, guess what? There's no ambiguity in it, there's no, 'Hey, I'm hoping,'" Trump said. “You and I are friends: 'Hey, I hope this happens, but you've got to do your job.' That's what he told Comey. And for this guy as a politician to then go back and write a memo: 'Oh, I felt threatened.' He felt so threatened — but he didn't do anything.”
Trump also said that Comey's testimony “vindicated” the president and that everything in it was “basically ridiculous.”
“I think he's proven himself to be a liar in all of this. I think he's proven himself to be a dishonest man of bad character,” Trump said.
Hey Junior he did do something...he wrote memos documenting what he thought were inappropriate meetings. He talked to his bosses and other senior managers. He did what he did to help get a special prosecutor assigned. He did quite a bit.
And nothing he did was illegal. Non-classified personal notes are not leaks.
Donald Trump has told Theresa May in a phone call he does not want to go ahead with a state visit to Britain until the British public supports him coming.
The US president said he did not want to come if there were large-scale protests and his remarks in effect put the visit on hold for some time.
The call was made in recent weeks, according to a Downing Street adviser who was in the room. The statement surprised May, according to those present.
The conversation in part explains why there has been little public discussion about a visit.
...
Trump has named Woody Johnson, a Republican donor and owner of the New York Jets, as the new ambassador to the UK but has yet to nominate him formally. A large number of US ambassadorial positions remain unfilled worldwide largely due to the Trump team failing to make any formal nominations.
The acting US ambassador to the UK, Lewis Lukens, a career diplomat, clashed with Trump last week by praising Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, for his strong leadership over the London Bridge and Borough Market terror attack.
Donald Trump has told Theresa May in a phone call he does not want to go ahead with a state visit to Britain until the British public supports him coming.
The US president said he did not want to come if there were large-scale protests and his remarks in effect put the visit on hold for some time.
The call was made in recent weeks, according to a Downing Street adviser who was in the room. The statement surprised May, according to those present.
The conversation in part explains why there has been little public discussion about a visit.
...
Trump has named Woody Johnson, a Republican donor and owner of the New York Jets, as the new ambassador to the UK but has yet to nominate him formally. A large number of US ambassadorial positions remain unfilled worldwide largely due to the Trump team failing to make any formal nominations.
The acting US ambassador to the UK, Lewis Lukens, a career diplomat, clashed with Trump last week by praising Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, for his strong leadership over the London Bridge and Borough Market terror attack.
He gets large scale protests everywhere he goes, include the US. Perhaps he should live in Saudi Arabia where he wasn't protested at all? Also, what a #####.
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Why would impeaching Trump hurt the Democrats more than the Republicans?
He's saying that the sorts of highly partisan, ultra-ideological Democrats who are likely to be nominated in 2018, should they gain control of Congress and impeach Trump, are the sorts of people who will so utterly alienate the center of the country that by the time 2020 rolls around they'll get crushed.
That seems right to me... hell, they almost nominated Ellison as DNC chair, who could best be described as "the guy Republicans must have been confusing Obama with for all those years". The establishment's grip over that party is just as tenuous as the GOP's was when they lost their hold over it.
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Trump has named Woody Johnson, a Republican donor and owner of the New York Jets, as the new ambassador to the UK but has yet to nominate him formally. A large number of US ambassadorial positions remain unfilled worldwide largely due to the Trump team failing to make any formal nominations.
The acting US ambassador to the UK, Lewis Lukens, a career diplomat, clashed with Trump last week by praising Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, for his strong leadership over the London Bridge and Borough Market terror attack.
You have to remember we're still technically in the "honeymoon phase" of a Presidency. Most Presidents at this point are still close to or above 50% approval. The declines in approval start happening bigly in year two. So as bad as Trump's approvals are now, he has even lower to go. And if you're the Dems, why give the GOP a lifelife by impeaching him? He could be in the teens approval wise by 2020, which would mean the GOP could be reduced to rubble in a general under that scenario, certainly they lose both chambers at that point. And since there's little to nothing he can do to actually improve his approvals since he's, well, a mentally ill egomaniac, the GOP has to figure out how to avoid disaster with him in office, which is a mighty difficult task. From a political point of view the Dems should be content to keep him in office as long as possible.
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No, it was leaking the memo to the press that was leaking. There's a point to be made about that. It's not illegal to give unclassified information to the press. There are ethical questions here though I think are worthy of being explored.
Like 1) why didn't he simply give this information to a democratic Senator on the intelligence it judiciary committee? And 2) why not give it to the press himself?
I think the reason he didn't go to the Senate with it is exactly what he stated in the hearing: to ensure the appointment of a special counsel. If he simply gives the memo to a democratic Senator, the Republicans may never get Comey to testify and simply rebut the accusations through the press and that's it. If he gives out to a republican Senator, it doesn't see the light of day.
The reason he didn't go to the press himself is that it had to look as though he was taking the firing gracefully and he was not simply acting in spite. He couldn't make it look to the public as though he was bitter and give the Republicans ammo to use against him. This was all choreographed to ensure maximum pressure on judiciary to appoint special counsel.
Comey is nothing of not thoroughly strategic in his public disclosure. When he first testified about the Ashcroft affair when he defied president Bush in what was a bombshell hearing, he secretly planted the question with Chuck Schumer and practiced his answer over and over to reach maximum effect. You can bet there were planted questions and rehearsed answers on this hearing too.
In the end, I think what he did was quite sneaky, but with the seriousness of the charge, warranted. You can see similar thinking and parallel in the Clinton email handling where he didn't know if he could trust the judiciary.
An aside question: With all we now know if Comey's adept strategic actions and Chess like moves, Mueller's relationship with Comey, and Rosenstein's reputation, do we believe the appointment of Meuller was simply a last minute decision by Rosenstein?
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