THE A PLOT -- TRUMP: The main story in politics continues to be the Russia investigation that has quickly morphed and expanded into the Trump Obstruction investigation. The Washington Post broke the (not surprising) news last night that Bob Mueller has expanded the scope of his investigation to include whether Trump obstructed justice (or attempted to) by making loyalty pledges from Comey, asking him to drop the Flynn investigation, asking him repeatedly to announce publicly that Trump was not under FBI investigation -- and then fired him, when Comey failed to do any of those things (and then lied about the reason for firing him, and then told NBC that he fired him to shut down the Russia investigation, and then told Russian officials in the Oval Office that he fired Comey to take the pressure off from the Russia investigation). Hard to think of a clearer case of obstruction. You have to love the delicious irony that Trump was, in fact, not himself under FBI investigation until he fired the FBI director for refusing to say publicly that he was not under FBI investigation -- and now he’s under FBI investigation. Talking Points Memo does a close-read of the WaPo report to pull out some nuggets: (1) the obstruction investigation seems to have started even before Mueller was appointed, presumably authorized by Rosenstein; (2) the investigation includes Trump’s requests to DNI Coats and NSA chief Rodgers regarding shutting down the FBI investigation; (3) Mueller is interviewing people inside and outside the government, presumably meaning the numerous Trump cronies who circle him and to whom he regularly vents about the pressures of governing (usually while on the golf course); and (4) Mueller is looking into potential “financial crimes” involving Trump and/or his associates. Josh Marshall comments, “even with my own limited reporting, it is quite clear to me that there are numerous people in Trump’s entourage (or ‘crew’, if you will) including Trump himself whose history and ways of doing business would not survive first contact with real legal scrutiny.”
Tonight, the Post reports that Mueller is also “investigating the finances and business dealings of Jared Kushner.” Besides the downfall of Chris Christie, I’m not sure anything in politics can bring such an easy smile to my face as watching Jared Kushner crash and burn. We also learned last night that “Mr. Mueller’s investigation was looking at money laundering by Trump associates. The suspicion is that any cooperation with Russian officials would most likely have been done in exchange for some kind of financial payoff, and that there would have been an effort to hide the payoffs, most likely by routing them through offshore banking centers.”
THE A PLOT -- SESSIONS: On Tuesday, racist Keebler Elf Jeff Sessions testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee, where he proceeded to not remember vast quantities of things, including how many times he had met with Russian ambassador Kislyak. (Important reminder: Not one of the other 25 members of the Armed Services committee, on which Sessions served while in the Senate and which he cited as his reasons for his 1:1 meetings with Kislyak last year, said they had met with Kisylak.) Sessions repeatedly refused to answer questions about conversations with Trump by asserting a sort of protectionist executive privilege: He admitted that only the president can invoke executive privilege, and that Trump had not invoked the privilege, but nevertheless refused to answer questions just in case Trump later changed his mind. This justification is legally shaky, though Democrats (including Eric Holder) have invoked something similar in the past. He told Senator Kamala Harris that his refusal was based on “longstanding DOJ policy,” but refused to say where he had seen the policy, whether it was a written policy, and whether he had consulted it before testifying. (And when she grew impatient with his stonewalling and dissembling, he told her she was making him nervous and gallant John McCain had to ride to his rescue.)
Sessions also repeatedly insisted that Comey was fired because of his handling of the Clinton investigation – pretending that Trump’s public statement to NBC and private statement to the Russians saying otherwise simply didn’t happen. Slate speculates on why he was so committed to this lie: First, he was trying to protect the president from charges of obstructing justice (ie, firing Comey to shut down the investigation). Second, he was trying to protect himself: He has promised to recuse himself from all matters touching on the Russian investigation, so if Comey was fired because of that investigation, Seshy would be in trouble. Of course, this explanation only helps him to the extent he continues to lie about (and senators continue to not be precise about) the nature of his recusal, something that no senator really corrected him on. Sessions promised to recuse himself from any matter dealing in any way with either of the two presidential campaigns (ie, Trump and Clinton); his recusal was NOT simply about the Russia investigation. So even if Comey were fired because of his handling of the Clinton emails (which, again, he emphatically was not), Sessions should have been nowhere near that decision.
Perhaps the most substantive revelation from the testimony was that he -- the top law enforcement officer in the country, charged with overseeing the entire federal law enforcement apparatus -- has never once requested or received any briefing or intelligence about the Russian government’s attempts to influence our election (and their continued attempts to influence future elections). And when McCain asked about the various areas that Sessions may have rightfully discussed with Kislyak -- reports about Russian interference in our election; Russian support for Bashar al Assad, or other security issues -- Sessions could not recall discussing any of those topics. This testimony came on the same day that Bloomberg news reported that Russia’s interference or attempted interference in our voting systems was far greater than previously reported. “In Illinois, investigators found evidence that cyber intruders tried to delete or alter voter data. The hackers accessed software designed to be used by poll workers on Election Day, and in at least one state accessed a campaign finance database. . . . In all, the Russian hackers hit systems in a total of 39 states.”
I THINK TRUMP MAY ACTUALLY FIRE MUELLER: Predictably, Trump is losing his mind about all of this, going on unhinged twitter tirades all day today. Even before the new reporting confirming that Mueller was investigating Trump himself, Chait laid out a convincing case that Trump is somewhat likely to actually fire Mueller. “First, Trump has a very strong motive to fire Mueller: He is probably guilty. . . . Second, Trump has no intrinsic respect for political norms. . . . Third, Trump has endlessly violated a series of norms that appeared to be inviolable. . . . Finally, Trump’s erratic personality makes the firing of Mueller a mathematical probability.” If Trump decides on this absolutely insane course of action, how could he actually do it? Jack Goldsmith lays out the possible scenarios at Lawfare. By the regulations governing Mueller’s appointment, it looks like Trump would have to order Rosenstein to fire Mueller (rather than fire him directly). If Rosenstein refused and resigned (he told Congress on Tuesday that he wouldn’t fire Mueller without good cause), Trump would order the next in line to carry out the firing. Eventually, he’ll find someone willing to carry out his order, whether to curry his favor or in service to what Goldsmith calls “the Bork principle . . .: stability in the Justice Department and in law enforcement more generally.”
THE SECRECY OF AND SILENCE ABOUT THE HEALTH CARE BILL IS A GIANT, MASSIVE SCANDAL: So it would be good to treat it as such. The bill is apparently completely drafted, but no one outside of the handful of men (yep, all men) McConnell tapped to write it and the CBO have seen it, including other GOP senators, who are starting to express at least some mild frustration with the secrecy. Wisconsin Senator Johnson: “Seems like around here, the last step is getting information, which doesn’t seem to be necessarily the most effective process.” “Asked his level of comfort with the process, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, cut off a reporter before he could finish his sentence. ‘None,’ he said.” When asked if she could support the bill, Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski said, “I just truly do not know, because I don’t know where it’s going.” HHS Secretary Tom Price testified this week that he “hasn’t seen any legislative language.” Sarah Kliff put it simply: “Republicans do not want the country to know what is in their health care bill.”
The substance of the bill is, of course, its own massive scandal. The Center for Budget Policy and Priorities published a lengthy, detailed examination of the devastating effects of the plans to decimate Medicaid funding. It reports that the bill “would not only effectively end the Medicaid expansion, but radically restructure federal financing for virtually the entire Medicaid program, threatening coverage for tens of millions of Americans. These changes to Medicaid would make it especially hard for children with special health care needs, including those with disabilities, to get the care they need to stay healthy, remain in their communities, and succeed in life.” Besides the sweeping cuts to Medicaid that will immiserate literally millions of Americans (including millions of children), the GOP bill would likely usher back in one of the most odious of the pre-Obamacare health regime: the imposition of lifetime caps on insurance benefits, including for employer-based plans (which cover about 60% of Americans). We’ve talked about this before, but now the Center for American Progress ran the numbers, and “estimate[s] that the Senate bill would erode or eliminate financial protections for about 27 million workers and their dependents.”
Yet despite the corrupt, unAmerican drafting and passage process and the truly cruel substance (that fulfills exactly none of the GOP or Trump’s promises, other than repealing Obamacare), the bill is likely to pass. That’s in large part owing to the deafening silence on the part of the nation’s health insurance companies, doctors, hospitals, and other medical-related interests groups. I’m quoting at length from the Times’ David Leonhart, who nails it:
Doctors, hospital executives and treatment advocates take pride in doing good work that improves people’s lives. Sometimes, good work doesn’t require hard choices. Other times, it does. This is one of those times when it does. A halfhearted effort to stop the bill won’t protect millions of Americans from losing their insurance and, ultimately, from being denied medical care.
Senate leaders are rushing to pass a bill before their July 4 recess, and they seem to be making headway. That leaves opponents only three weeks to live up to their convictions. They can create advertisements that make clear the human damage the bill would do. Or put their well-respected leaders on popular talk shows. Or hold a mock hearing, featuring every group that has been denied the ability to testify.
Above all, they can take a risk for a cause.
OTHER THINGS I RAN OUT OF TIME FOR:
Kansas Taxes: Kansas’s years-long experiment in GOP supply-side tax policy--the very policy the party wants to impose nationally--has been such a failure that the GOP-dominated legislature overrode Governor Sam Brownback’s veto to finally raise taxes in the face of massive, massive deficits. Read Chait’s explanation of what happened. (Best part: In 2015, Grover Norquist declared that “Kansas is the model” for conservative tax policy, where we would all be able to see the massive growth and benefits that came from slashing taxes for the wealthy and corporations. Just two years later, Norquist has the cojones to say (this is a literal, actual quote), “If you’re a Republican looking for a model, Kansas is not the model.”)
Emoluments Lawsuits: As of this week, Trump is facing three separate lawsuits over his refusal to divest himself from his companies. Slate breaks down those lawsuits and their implications here.
Extremist Judges: Dahlia Lithwick reports on the absolute nutters that Trump has nominated to fill the 130 judicial vacancies laid out before him. One of his appellate court nominees is a prolific blogger who wrote that he would have objected to an anti-racism school curriculum in Arksans in the 1950s because forcibly teaching things to children is bad. (This was to show his consistency in objecting to a current anti-gay-bullying curriculum propounded in California, which, he sputtered, seemed to suggest that “bullying of homosexuals is wrong.”) Another nominee, also a blogger, cited in blog posts claims that Obama was not born in the United States. “Perhaps the same Trump administration that continues to insist that a racist, misogynist purveyor of hate speech was magically transformed into FDR the day he took the oath of office truly believes that lawyers who spew invective and conspiracy theories are suddenly coated with impartial fairy magic on the day they don the black robes.” (This is why I love Dahlia.)
Endorsements:
- Ohio local candidates: Steve Dettlebach for AG and Kathleen Clyde for Secretary of State. Ohio readers should learn about these impressive candidates running for two incredibly crucial positions. We know what important roles AGs can play nationally, let alone in their state, and the SEcretary of State oversees the administration of elections. Clyde is a longtime voting rights advocate who wants to take Ohio out of the stone age when it comes to voting procedures. Help them (and give them some money)!
- This dance, from my new favorite procrastination show, “World of Dance.”
- This audio, of the Australian prime minister openly mocking Trump to the raucus delight of a crowd.
- Jon Ossoff, the Democrat running to flip the seat in the special election in the Atlanta suburbs, faces the final election NEXT TUESDAY. The polls are very close, and Ossoff needs all the help he can get to flip this seat and score a first crucial win for Democrats in the Trump era. All over the country, people are hosting house parties this weekend and next week to call Georgia voters to encourage them to go vote on Tuesday. Find a house party near you and go make a few calls! Making calls is very, very easy, and you can make a real contribution with just an hour of your time. We have less than a week until this crucial election. Let’s make it a big, earth-shattering win for our side!
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