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Jay Shackford
Hey Nori – As John McEnroe might say, “You’ve gotta be kidding.” Joan, Jack and Joanie are right again – there is no comparison between the Obama and Trump administrations. It’s as different as night and day, white and black, truth and falsehood.
You cited several relatively unknown Obama Administration officials who pleaded the 5thwhile testifying before Congress – Lois Learner of the IRS, Jeff Neeley of the GSA, Patrick Cunningham, and IRS Deputy Director Greg (his last name is right on the tip of my tongue). Anybody hear of these guys/gals before? Also, the last time I checked, pleading the 5threfers to the 5thAmendment of the Constitution, which protects our rights to remain silent. In other words, pleading the 5this no proof or evidence that you have done anything wrong or illegal.
Now let’s look at the other side or what I might call the dark side of American history.
Six of Trump’s key advisors and/or friends (like this guy has any real friends) have been indicted. Five have pleaded guilty and/or have been convicted. The sixth guy – Roger Stone—is a serial lying wacko with serious mental disorders and a tattoo of Richard Nixon on his back. He claims he was a top-level political advisor to Nixon. In fact, he was a low-level gofer who was a 19-year-old student at George Washington University and was last seen passing out pro-Nixon literature (calling the Watergate probe a witch hunt) at the corner of 19thStreet and Pennsylvania Avenue at the time of Nixon’s resignation. He’s even been disowned by the Nixon Foundation and Library.
Let’s look at the other five guys.
- Paul Manafort – Trump’s campaign manager has already been convicted in Federal Court and sentenced to upwards of 10 years imprisonment. He still faces sentencing on other federal charges (the guy just keeps on lying) that could mean he will be spending the rest of his life in prison.
- Michael Flynn – Trump’s National Security Adviser (the guy who counsels the President every day on issues of war and peace) has pleaded guilty to felony charges, has been cooperating with the Mueller investigation for more than a year, and has yet to be sentenced. Does he have more to say?
- Rick Gates – Trump’s assistance campaign manager and a favorite of Ivanka and Jared. He’s pleaded guilty to felony charges, is cooperating with the Mueller probe and has yet to be sentenced. Wonder why it’s taking so long?
- Michael Cohen – Diaper Don’s fixer and personal attorney for more than a decade (the guy who did all of Trump’s dirty deeds such as paying-off Stormy) has pleaded guilty to felonies and has been sentenced to three years in prison. If allowed, Cohen’s public testimony before Congress will be dynamite. If I were Cohen, I would get the best security detail available for himself and his family.
- George Papadopoulas – A so-called foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign who has pleaded guilty to felony charges and is already serving time in prison. Admittedly, this guy was a low-level wimp who, according to my proud Greek wife, is giving all Greeks a bad name. “If you’re going to be a crook, be a big-time crook – rob a bank or something,” Nina says, “not some cowardly, pathetic suck-up who lies for the President and then hides in his wife’s shadow.” That’s not the Greek way. The Greeks, apparently, have their own code of honor.
But it doesn’t stop there. Consider his cabinet appointments and other top White House posts. During the first 14 months of Diaper Don’s presidency, nine of those top positions have turned over at least once, compared with three at the same point of the Clinton administration, two under Barack Obama and one under President George W. Bush, according to an updated article published online by the NYT on Jan. 14, 2019. Let’s dig a little deeper into those departures.
- Scott Pruitt resigned in disgrace as EPA Administrator in July 2018. While a hero for big oil, coal and other energy companies for his deregulation efforts, Pruitt was saddled with numerous ethics questions regarding his spending abuses, first-class travel and cozy relationships with energy lobbyists. Didn’t he try to buy a mattress from the new Trump Hotel in Washington?
- Another darling of big energy, Ryan Zinke, resigned under pressure in December 2018 while he was being investigated for numerous ethics violations dealing with his business dealings, travel and policy decisions. This is the tough guy from Montana who rode his horse to front door of the Interior Department for his first day on the job.
- Attorney General Jeff Sessions was fired the day after the mid-term elections. Everyone thinks he got canned for recusing himself from the Mueller probe when, in fact, he pissed off Diaper Don for delivering the wrong-sized “Depends” to the White House. Well, I guess we can thank Sessions for one thing – he was the guy that thought up the great idea of separating children from their parents and throwing them into cooler cages at the southern border to discourage people from immigrating to this country. We all know how that turned out.
- Tom Price resigned in disgrace as Secretary of Health and Human Services in September 2017 after racking up thousands of dollars in travel expenses for chartered flights.
- Rex Tillerson was fired by tweet by Old Bone Spurs and replaced by then CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who is now looking to run for a Senate seat in his home state of Kansas. It should be noted that Diaper Don has never fired one of his cabinet members or White House officials in person.
- FBI Director Jim Comey, the first to be fired for not stopping the Mueller probe, found out about his firing while speaking to a group of FBI recruits in Los Angeles in early 2017. He watched it come over the news on television. Old Bone Spurs is such a classy guy.
- Dave Shulkin was fired by Trump in March 2018 as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. At first, Trump planned to replace him with his own White House physician, Dr. Ronny Jackson, until Jackson’s unqualified background and shady past was uncovered by the media, including the fact that Dr. Jackson passed out amphetamines to White House staff during trips on Air Force One.
- H.R. McMaster resigned under pressure as National Security Adviser in March 2018. He was replaced by hard-liner John Bolton, a neo-conservative who was one of the chief proponents and architects of invading Iraq in 2003 during the George W. Bush Administration. Now Bolton was his sights set on Venezuela and Iran.
- Gary Cohen resigned in protest in March 2018 as the President’s top economic adviser after the President proposed large tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and was thinking about imposing other bat-shit crazy tariffs.
- Andrew McCabe was fired from the FBI in March 2018 – two days before he would have qualified for his government pension. Hey, you can’t say Trump has no heart.
- Regrettably, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis was the fourth member of Trump’s cabinet to resign or be forced out in the last two months of 2018. Like Cohen, McMaster and a few other cabinet and White House officials, Jim Mattis was one of the few who had the character and guts to stand up to the President and say “no” or just ignore his crazy orders.
There are scores of additional firings, resignations and disappearances that scar this chillingly chaotic and out-of-control White House. But I've run out of energy. So let me just make one more observation.
I worry the most about Mattis’ resignation because I wouldn’t put it past this President to attack Iran or invade Venezuela as the noose of the Mueller investigation tightens and gets too close to home. The "yes men" have taken over, and Trump will do anything to distract attention from the Mueller probe – even if that means rallying the country behind him on a military crisis of his own making. I’m convinced he will do anything to protect himself. And “anything” could include the unthinkable.
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