Monday, August 07, 2017

Now that the Russia investigations are heating up, Trump lawyers decide to play nice with Special Counsel.

Trump's new lawyer Ty Cobb.
Courtesy of Vanity Fair:  

The reboot appears to be happening on several levels as Trump’s team work to prevent any additional attacks on Mueller, Comey, or other people central to the investigation, that might be perceived as attempts to obstruct the Russia probe. While Trump has accused Mueller of conducting a “witch hunt,” Cobb notably told Politico in a recent interview that he had “a very respectful and professional relationship with Bob Mueller [and] I think very highly of him.” He also promised that he would attempt the impossible and unite the scattershot efforts of Trump’s communications strategy. “I’ll certainly provide background willingly when appropriate, but will work primarily with the comms staff and try to make sure the message is accurate and not confusing and let them run with those kind of things,” he said.

Though the communications team has yet to become organized, and the president continues to put himself in jeopardy with his ever-shifting explanations, Trump’s legal team has become more disciplined. As Axios reported on Monday, the messaging seems to have shifted from furiously denying all wrongdoing to the “more sustainable position that the President did nothing wrong,” as well as dialing back attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sekulow, formerly one of the more vocal members of the legal team, told Axios that the shift isn’t a “message change,” per se, but rather an acknowledgement of the current situation: “It’s just as issues develop, we respond to them within the context of what you can discuss and what you can’t. As an issue comes up, you examine that in the context of an overall inquiry.” 

The retreat, such as it is, also reflects a daunting political reality for Trump’s team: Despite their best efforts, they’re dealing with a client who is almost pathologically incapable of telling the same story twice. When he fired Comey, Trump made his situation worse by offering a constantly evolving set of justifications for his dismissal. A similar problem arose when Sekulow went from claiming that Trump played no role in crafting Donald Trump Jr.’s misleading statement about his infamous meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower last year, to the White House claiming that Trump helped “as any father would.” Now, as Mueller’s probe expands, Trump’s advisers will be at pains to avoid putting the presidency in further legal jeopardy. It would probably help if the commander-in-chief would stop tweeting.

I can almost guarantee that the tangerine toddler is going to sabotage this effort.

His ego and his impulsiveness will simply not allow anybody to prevent him from acting out in response to attempts to control him.

As was reinforced just this morning.

I look forward to the tweets that will certainly follow this news, and also to a number of Trump lawyers getting fed up and calling it quits.

30 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:37 PM

    Imagine if Trump were black instead of orange.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Or a Democrat.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous6:14 PM

      4:37 & Miaiuppa

      They would be apoplectic with self-righteous indignation and rage.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous3:18 AM

      I saw a comic yesterday imitating President Obama saying things Drumf says...fascinating.
      Can you imagine also MO with nude pictures playing with herself??

      Delete
  2. Didn't 45 admit to collusion in his tizzy fit tweeting to Sen. Richard Blumenthal?

    https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/894528885701971970

    ReplyDelete
  3. Okay, as soon as you see a man with a painstakingly tended handlebar mustache like that, you may take it as a given you are not dealing with anyone with a fine-tuned sense of humility.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:38 PM

      Nor a fine-tuned sense of style.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous5:47 PM

    Cobb's office is in the White House.
    I'm assuming he's being paid privately -- by who knows which big money donors -- but why is he occupying government property? Why is Kellyanne Conway, a government employee, talking about "cooperating" with Robt. Mueller's investigation? She doesn't have an option! Who do these people work for? Not for us.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous6:10 PM

      "Who do these people work for? Not for us."

      Agree bigly. They have only their self-interest in mind.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous5:51 PM

    OT -

    Even some of his base is waking up (I know, hard to believe). I haven't been charitable toward them (In truth, I've been pissed at what they have saddled us with) but this is a little encouraging.

    http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/07/trump-support-base-republicans-241393

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I will never feel charitable towards them. They will get not sympathy for any ills they receive as a result from voting for Trump and getting stabbed in the back and screwed over.

      In fact, I will put on a red dress and go dancing.

      They got what they voted for and they fucked the rest of us over in the bargain.

      They have no right to complain about anything Trump does to them. Serves them right.

      And those dumbass fuckers will still vote Republican.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous5:58 PM

    For the LIFE of me, I do not understand why the media is silent. It's all FLUFF anymore network television news, and now we have the onset of Trump TV. There you go with conglomerates that buy up everything and the stupid believe every damned word they're told to say.

    Nearing my 60th BD, I've always held to the premise that good wins over evil in the end, but I'm really starting to doubt it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good doesn't win over evil when Good just sits around assuming that is true and waiting to win without doing anything about it. Meanwhile Evil runs amuck.

      Patience and niceness does not win. If you're not willing to get down in the mud and fight, evil always wins.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous3:19 AM

      Oh honey. I'm 54 and KNOW good doesn't win.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous3:59 AM

      Nearing my 60th too and I still believe good will win out eventually but the Nazis did a lot of damage before they were beat.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous6:22 PM

    Bill Maher has much to say about Sarah Palin's endorsement of Donald Trump. None of it flattering.
    http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2016/01/bill-maher-has-much-to-say-about-sarah.html

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous6:24 PM

    His supporters will not change. They will only stand down symbolically because the shoe is going to the other foot.
    He lied to them about the wall for example .Keep the Mexicans out".
    His supporters know he is a racist,liar,homophobic, greedy etc. The beef is that he isn't doing the bad things that they wanted, that he promised.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They don't have to threaten any uprising if he's impeached either if things even get that far. As the days go by, it'll get old listening to him bloviate about how great he is, and seeing ever-new photos of him playing golf, but sooner or later his supporters will note that Trump's alleged accomplishments haven't added any heft to their wallets.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous8:49 PM

      I highly doubt that he'll be impeached. There's too many people, corporate and Congress, making money off him as he stumbles around in his buffoonery.

      That's what you get when you elect a reality show "star." Reality, and we will ALL pay.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous7:14 PM

    Trump in a way is already in a prison. He cannot make a move, he cannot travel the world, he cannot go home to NY. He is being sued by everyone, cant generate loans and cant go fishing with his best buddy pooty.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:15 PM

      Only seven months in, seems like seven years and I honestly wonder if he even has a clue of what an idiot he is but Palin never got it either and still doesn't.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous4:58 AM

      Trump in a way is already in a prison.
      =======================
      Yet he is still managing to enrich himself at the taxpayer’s expense.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous7:58 PM

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DGrJ6zpUwAIFST9.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous8:12 PM

    Russian Bots Are Starting to Attack the Republican Party

    Russian-linked bots and trolls have caused a surge in use of the hashtag #ResignPaulRyan on Twitter over the last 48 hours, just as the Republican speaker of the House was returning to his home state of Wisconsin for a month-long respite from Washington, D.C.

    The unusual boost in Russian bots targeting a Republican lawmaker was first observed by the German Marshall Fund’s Alliance for Securing Democracy, created after the 2016 presidential election to “defend against, deter, and raise the costs on Russian and other state actors’ efforts to undermine democracy and democratic institutions.”

    A monitoring dashboard established by the Alliance noted the uptick Monday morning. It coincided with surges in the use of other hashtags by Russian bots, including #TrumpTV, #Magnitsky, #Fake and #ConfessYourUnpopularOpinion.

    http://www.newsweek.com/russian-bots-attacking-republican-party-paul-ryan-mcmaster-breitbart-647528

    http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/trump-last-ditch-paul-ryan-down/4222/

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous8:17 PM

    So now that Donald Trump has finally gotten the Secret Service command post out of Trump Tower and off his property altogether, he’s suddenly willing to set foot in Trump Tower for the first time in more than six months. It suggests that Trump, in his increasingly paranoid state, has thought all along that the Secret Service was spying on him. It also raises the question of what he’s trying to hide.

    http://www.palmerreport.com/category/politics/

    Report: indictment forthcoming against member of Donald Trump’s inner circle

    He did it just before the bombshell surfaced that his son colluded with Russia. He did it just before the bombshell surfaced that the Special Counsel was sending out Trump-Russia grand jury subpoenas. Now he’s doing it again. Donald Trump has begun the day by attempting to create the most controversial series of distractions he can think of, which suggests that he knows yet another huge bombshell is about to land.

    Shortly before a newspaper publishes such a story, it typically asks all parties involved for advance comment. This is how Donald Trump and his team tend to know when these bombshells are about to to be posted. And while Trump begins many days by tweeting controversial things, the level and volume of toxic garbage he tweeted this morning was flagrantly off the charts, even for him.

    http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/trump-tips-off-russia-bombshell-coming/4215/

    Some have asked if Trump has been avoiding Trump Tower because, as he claimed in a tweet shortly taking office, he honestly believes the absurd notion that President Obama had the building wiretapped.

    http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/trump-new-york-city-incredibly-suspcious/4216/


    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous9:51 PM

    Trump’s deregulation teams are shrouded in secrecy

    ...The lack of transparency has concerned several top Democratic members of Congress who serve on committees that oversee regulatory matters. In a letter to the White House on Monday, they called on the administration to release the names of all regulatory team members as well as documents relating to their potential conflicts of interest.

    “It is unacceptable for federal agencies to operate in such a clandestine and unaccountable manner especially when the result could be the undoing of critical public health and safety protections,” Representatives Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, Gerald E. Connolly of Virginia and David Cicilline of Rhode Island wrote in the letter.

    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/08/trumps-deregulation-teams-are-shrouded-in-secrecy/

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous10:31 PM

    I'm still waiting for hot first babe Melania to start her anti-bullying campaign. Wasn't that going to be her agenda? No one is clamoring for interviews with her, as those preceding.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous10:58 PM

    I hope this thing gets over soon. It's taking up the countries time. We have lives to live.
    I never thought we'd all have to go on watch over our country. I thought we were safe. Now we have Putin on our ass. The Korean dictator threatening us. And we are having to suffer thru this idiot of a president and his family.
    Geez, when you think of it, 7 months ago we felt that these United States were ours. Now, it theirs.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Bwa ha ha.

    Federal scientists release climate change report before Trump can bury it.

    (Payback for being denied attendance at nuclear conference maybe?)

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/climate-change-report-draft-nyt_us_598907ece4b0a66b8bae1fc6?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

    "Government scientists agree that, contrary to President Donald Trump and his team’s repeated claims, climate change is already having a dramatic effect in the U.S., according to a new report.

    The New York Times published an unreleased draft of the report Monday. The 543-page report was written by scientists from 13 federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It concludes that temperatures in the U.S. have risen sharply, by 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit, over the last 150 years and that it is “extremely likely that most of the global mean temperature increase since 1951 was caused by human influence on climate.”

    “Evidence for a changing climate abounds, from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans,” the report states. “Thousands of studies conducted by tens of thousands of scientists around the world have documented changes in surface, atmospheric, and oceanic temperatures; melting glaciers; disappearing snow cover; shrinking sea ice; rising sea level; and an increase in atmospheric water vapor. Many lines of evidence demonstrate that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse (heat-trapping) gases, are primarily responsible for recent observed climate changes.”

    The report, completed this year and part of the National Climate Assessment, has already been approved by the National Academy of Sciences, according to the Times. Its release hinges on the Trump administration’s approval, and one scientist who worked on the report told the Times that he and others feared the president would withhold it. "

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous4:05 AM

    I think the Trump does his self more harm than good when it is obvious his team and he make contradictory statements.
    I have no doubt that his supporters that listen to only him under his spell he alone speaks truth ignore to stopped listening to the rest of the world. Trump excels at discrediting to portraying most people in negatives to groups as guilty of criminal behavior.

    It is still astonishing to me that racism, biggotry and need to blame others prevailed electing him. Trump's only merits were a tv show and proclaimed wealth in business. The dominating character defect of pathological lying and zeal to destroy people and lie manipulating hatred for crimes not committed, false accusations or proclamations who made "disasters" and belong in jail met sick needs or justified animosity.
    I am disappointed in mankind in our country.
    These personalities get off on pulling the wool over people's eyes.

    ReplyDelete

Don't feed the trolls!
It just goes directly to their thighs.