And Trump sent a message to his minions, too: “Thanks for breaking laws for me, but you’re on your own. And tax cuts, and Hillary!”
DJT might pardon Manafort eventually, but not yet. Right now Trump is reminding everyone that he has no friends and only respects his Russian owners.
And Mueller must love Trump’s “long before the campaign” language. Trump is pushing Paul away as Paul is hoping for a pardon. This particular set of charges trolls Trump perfectly.
The number of examples Mueller can give showing how Trump fucks over everyone he works with should be a powerful incentive as well.
I really liked that part of Trump’s response, as well as the off the record statements that Manafort is a bad man
This is an excellent job of reporting; it cuts through a lot of the smoke to focus on exactly why and how Mueller is such a potent threat to Trump. IMO we’re fortunate that Trump’s allies and legal Dream Team either are too incompetent or preoccupied elsewhere to apprehend the threat, or can’t control Trump’s response, or both.
Mueller’s message to the people is he approaching now, according to Cotter: “You can have the big nasty stick or this yummy carrot. But you don’t have a third choice.”
The third choice was to do nothing and wait for their Arpaio moment. Mueller needs to cut that off by praising them for their extremely helpful testimony, whether they cooperated or not. Rump won’t pardon anyone if he thinks they were disloyal.
Mueller has shown that he knows there was collusion with Russians and he has evidence of it - at the least repeated and prolonged attempts, but probably actual quid pro quo deals made. Bad for Trump. Mueller has also shown that he and his team can pick apart shady and illegal business schemes and deals, money laundering, tax fraud, etc. Very bad for Trump and it will make him crazy…correction, crazier. He hit the two big points on indictment day one. Looking forward to days 2, 3, …
Will Trump issue a call to all to come forward with everything they know about Russian collusion? Seems like a presidential thing to do.
Trump wants everyone to be loyal to him, even worship him (as Pence does). But Trump isn’t loyal to anyone. Not even God.
Trump is a paTsy. LooK at thE reaL cLLuder, the hiltary aDministratioN!
Great reporting, Tierney. It cuts right to the heart of the significance of Monday’s bombshells and is easily understood.
Yes.
What I particularly like is that it’s straightforward reporting, clear that all the sources are appropriate, that they know what they’re talking about and we know where they stand, and they tell the story; there’s no side-entrance editorial slant.
That’s how it should be done.
Brilliant move. Trump is a front for the hillary administration. Boggles the mind. Incredible.
Hannity will get Clinton impeached over the Lewinsky scandal --just wait!
He can’t do that. See Model Rules of Professional Conduct (adopted in most states now) 3.6 and 3.8.
Agreed. If only they could afford a good proofreader.
Trump is definitely going to pardon people who are involved in this. That’s inevitable. It will happen.
What I’m really looking forward to seeing is Mueller’s counter punch to that. Perhaps it won’t be a counter punch so much as it will box Trump and the Republicans into a corner. Irrespective, it will be craft, for sure.
I view Mueller as the closest person we have had to the mule skinner in a long, long time.
It’s pretty clear even to me that an Arpaio moment is what Manafort’s fishing for. Hell, his lawyer sounds more like Donnie Two-scoops’ lawyer than Manafort’s. I was thinking this before Josh’s column yesterday, but that just sealed it for me.
I have a feeling we’re going to learn a lot about the limitations (if any) on the power of the President to pardon Federal crimes and on the depths of moral depravity in the House and Senate GOP caucuses.
Sigh. I didn’t sign up to live in these kinds of times.
I have often wondered how the expression " a carrot on a stick"----used to keep a donkey moving along—got transmogrified into the ludicrous “carrot and stick” in which one or the other was used as reward or punishment.
I can only assume that it’s similar to people making the false assumption that 'begging the question" is about a question.
Or that Trump being called a “short-fingered vulgarian” somehow got turned into “Trump has tiny hands.”
People are very adept at misunderstanding terms of art and colloquialisms.