Month: October 2018

The “F” word, now or later?

by digby

Travis Gettys reports on an interview with Mika Brzezinski Doris Kearns Goodwin makes the point that the critique of Trump starts with his failed leadership and should only move to talk of fascism if he takes measures against Mueller.

“The problem like using words like fascism or dictatorship is I think the pattern of behavior that we’re seeing may be leading in that direction, and you just want to be able to persuade other people to look at this president,” Goodwin said.

Goodwin laid out Trump’s weaknesses as a leader, and she said Americans should worry more about those than his apparent appetite for authoritarianism.

“My argument would be to look at whether he is a leader or not,” she said. “What does a leader normally do? A leader normally takes blame when things are wrong, a leader normally shares credit when things are right, a leader normally does a team that’s built with people who are strong-minded and can argue with him, and you get a purpose in that team.”

“He controls his negative emotions,” Goodwin continued. “A leader normally communicates honestly and with truth. If we can just show that he’s not necessarily a leader, that’s bad enough, rather than putting a label on him.”

However, she warned darkly that Trump could gather dictatorial powers by placing himself above special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation — but she argued that Americans should just wait until then to push back.

“When the Mueller investigation comes out, we may well see the rule of law being denied, and then we have to go after him,” Goodwin said. “But right now we have to expand the people who look at him and see that this is not right what’s happening, rather than turning them away by using a term like that.”

Brzezinski wasn’t persuaded by her argument.

“So pull back on the term, but every question or every check that you put out there for this president is no,” Brezinski said. “So what’s the word that we can use if we can’t use certain words, apparently, because he uses any word he wants to use? I understand that you don’t want to overreach, but tell us where we are right now in the process of devolving the presidency if you think that is happening?”

Goodwin agreed Trump was intentionally dividing the country for his own personal gain and amusement, but she again insisted that he should not be stopped until he upended the Mueller investigation.

“There is a feeling about him that the only joy he ever gets is when he’s fighting somebody rather than exhilaration even of a victory, and that’s not an ordinary leader,” Goodwin said. “You should be taking problems and feeling great and something solved or when you’ve been victorious, but instead he comes to life when he’s arguing with other people and calling them names, and we have to focus on that.”

She said the president seemed to be leading the country to fascism, but she hesitated to call out his ambitions at this point.

“Leadership is what matters and then we can figure out what to label him as things go down the line,” she added. “We may be reaching that point. If he were to do something with the Mueller investigation and stop it, then clearly we have to talk about the rule of law and dictatorship.”

She may be right. But I also think it’s important for some people to be using the language before it happens in order to get it into the ether and get people used to hearing it.

The only thing that’s saving us from Trump’s authoritarianism is the fact that he’s dumb as a post and doesn’t know enough about how government works to use it efficiently. neither does he trust people who might. That doesn’t mean that he won’t accidentally or instinctively hit up the right way to effect his ends but since he can’t learn he can’t adopt a strategy beyond what he feels “worked” in his 2016 campaign which really comes down to cheap racist and misogynist demagoguery. That’s certainly a big factor in fascism but it’s not all of it.

His government is totally corrupt, the GOP has disappeared down the rabbit hole and he’s managing to hector federal law enforcement into second-guessing themselves and being extremely cautious about investigating him and his family. That doesn’t add up to fascism. But it’s a damned good start.

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The Trump administration is conspiring to cover up a stone cold murder

by digby

My Salon column this morning:

Read the first paragraph of this report from Shane Harris in the Washington Post and think about it for a moment:

The Trump administration and the Saudi royal family are searching for a mutually agreeable explanation for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi — one that will avoid implicating Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is among the president’s closest foreign allies, according to analysts and officials in multiple countries.

I assume that is based upon information from reliable sources. And what it says is truly shocking: the White House is conspiring with the Saudi Government to cover up a murder.

Here’s another passage from the New York Times in an article about how Saudi Arabia is considering pinning the blame on a top General presumably with the relieved permission of Trump and Jared Kusner who, according to the Intercept, regularly texts his good buddy Mohammed bin Salmon (MBS) on WhatsApp:

Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser, has been urging the president to stand by Prince Mohammed, according to a person close to the White House and a former official with knowledge of the discussions.

Mr. Kushner has argued that the outrage over Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance and possible killing will pass, just as it did after other Saudi errors like the kidnapping of the prime minister of Lebanon and the killing of a busload of children in Yemen by a Saudi airstrike.

The New York Times edited that paragraph later eliminating the damning detail. But the point still stands.

First Trump acted as though he didn’t know anything about it all, which was obviously daft. The word of Khashoggi’s disappearance into the Saudi consulate in Turkey was almost immediately reported and US intelligence certainly knew. Then after speaking with King Salman on the phone he mused publicly about “rogue elements” possibly committing some sort of crime but still refused to admit that the man had been killed, quite obviously running a potential alternate theory up the flagpole.  He’s said repeatedly that he doesn’t want to disturb his massive “arms deals” most of which it turns out were negotiated during the Obama administration and none of which add up to the massive dollar amounts he claims.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flew over to Riyadh and let himself be photographed yukking it up with MBS whom they insist is conducting a thorough “investigation” into a crime he is suspected of perpetrating. Upon his return to Washington, he assured the public that we would be provided with the results shortly — as if they would have any credibility at all.

All this is happening as the global media is reporting hourly on the details of this gruesome homicide ordered by a young thug who apparently believes he can literally get away with the murder of a journalist in a foreign country without paying a price. And in a way you cannot really blame him. He is said to be an admirer of Vladimir Putin who has allegedly ordered the assassination of Russians on foreign soil and is commonly known to kill journalists and political rivals in his own country. Nobody says much about that. President Trump defends it saying “there’s a lot of killing.” It hasn’t seemed to have hurt Putin’s prestige or power on the world stage. And it has sent a powerful message to his critics: “watch your backs, I can get to you anywhere.”

MBS has emulated Putin in a number of ways in the two years since he assumed power. He abducted the Lebanese leader, impulsively ordered a blockade of Qatar, escalated the war in Yemen to even more brutal levels, targeting civilians, especially children. He rounded up a group of cabinet ministers and wealthy rivals and held them hostage in the Riyadh Ritz Carlton, reportedly using torture and plenty of muscle to relieve them of their wealth and influence. (Kushner was rumored to have helped him with some US intelligence about some of them.) Not only did nothing happen to him, he was feted in foreign capitals, like he was Bruce Springsteen.

Similar to what Trump describes as his love affair with Kim Jong Un, Kushner, Trump’s top strategist in charge of Middle East peace (and emolument management), had already established a tight bro-on-bro relationship with MBS, flying over to Riyadh to hold all-nighters with the young prince “swapping stories and planning strategy.” They are tight and MBS has reportedly said to his close associates that he has Kushner “in his pocket” which seems to obviously be the case.

Trump believes that all foreign policy is based upon how nice leaders are to him personally. And the Saudis were very nice indeed when he went on his first big foreign trip. They gave him bling, they promised arms sales and they saw right away that he was in way over his head. He was happy to throw all the US eggs in that basket, assured by Kushner that this would lead to many excellent results with Iran marginalized and Israel secure and everyone living happily ever after. It’s an impossibly naive strategy.

Normally, one would assume that the far more worldly Saudis would play it smarter. But as it turns out, their own man of the future, MBS, is equally inept with a similar, if obviously less inhibited, authoritarian worldview. Torturing and killing a U.S. resident who wrote for the Washington Post was a very risky move with little upside.

But again, you can’t blame him for thinking he would easily get away with it. After all, the most powerful man in the world calls the press evil and commonly points them out to his supporters as “the enemy of the people.”  And after all, Khashoggi was explicitly banned from writing in newspapers, appearing on TV or going to conferences in his home country back in November of 2017 by MBS because he had criticized Donald Trump. He assumed Trump would be grateful to see one of his critics “taken care of.”

He’s probably right. Last night, in the middle of this horrific international incident, President Trump praised an American politician for beating up a reporter:

Here’s the video of Trump on Greg Gianforte body slamming Ben Jacobs: “Any guy that can do a body slam, he’s my kind of guy.” pic.twitter.com/8tWxLXE6Jx

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 19, 2018

Ben Jacobs’s newspaper responded:

Guardian US editor issues statement responding to Trump: “The President of the United States tonight applauded the assault on an American journalist who works for the Guardian.” pic.twitter.com/sSwUiBQo2J

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) October 19, 2018

He will not apologize. His followers loved it. They have now embarked on a campaign to smear Jamal Khashoggi so that Trump’s cover-up has coverof its own. How long will it be before Trump repeats these smears at a campaign rally?

MBS may not survive this. The loss of prestige and economic blowback on his country is intense, and he’s shown himself to be an unfit leader. But he likely has nothing to fear from the U.S., at least under the current administration. Donald Trump is with him all the way.

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Staring into the abyss
by Tom Sullivan

Still from Oculus (2014)

First and foremost, Donald Trump looks out for Donald Trump. His only friends are those who increase his wealth, flatter his ego, or cover his backside. World condemnation of the Saudis over the suspected death and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi? Our sitting president views that through the lens of Trump. How does it hurt the Trump Organization? What other Gulf States hotel deals dance in his head? Haven’t the very rich Saudis said nice things about him? Saudi Arabia has “been a great ally to me,” Trump told Fox Business Network.

Not that anyone should take Turkey’s claims of having audio recordings of the alleged atrocity at face value. President Recep Erdoğan is leveraging Khashoggi’s disappearance for his own ends. That Khashoggi vanished after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul is not in dispute. The authenticity of the rumored Turkish recording will be.

That Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stands accused of ordering the dismembering of a Virginia resident is an inconvenience to Donald Trump. “It’s not a citizen,” Trump said of the missing journalist.

A network of bots is busily spreading pro-Saudi disinformation about Khashoggi’s disappearance. “They’re posting the same stuff at the same time repeatedly,” Ben Nimmo, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Lab told NBC News, adding, “they’re all posting the same content in the same order.”

Twitter began pulling down the accounts on Thursday:

Some of the bot accounts tweeted using a hashtag in Arabic that became the top worldwide Twitter trend on Sunday. The hashtag roughly translated to “#We_all_trust_Mohammad_Bin_Salman,” the Crown Prince and putative leader of Saudi Arabia, who has come under international scrutiny following the disappearance of Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post.

Saudi Arabia has widely embraced social media. A study by Crowd Analyzer, an Arabic-focused social media analysis firm, found that there were 11 million active Twitter users in the country.

The bot accounts pushed messages over the weekend imploring users to express doubt about news stories reporting that Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate in Turkey on Oct. 2 at the order of the Saudi government, as Turkish officials have alleged. The Saudi government has denied any knowledge of what happened to Khashoggi, a Saudi commentator who was a former advisor to Saudi royals and later fell out with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

It was not immediately clear who created the network of bot accounts, NBC reports.

The U.S. president also has acolytes lining up to cover his royal backside with a whispering campaign against Khashoggi:

In recent days, a cadre of conservative House Republicans allied with Trump has been privately exchanging articles from right-wing outlets that fuel suspicion of Khashoggi, highlighting his association with the Muslim Brotherhood in his youth and raising conspiratorial questions about his work decades ago as an embedded reporter covering Osama bin Laden, according to four GOP officials involved in the discussions who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Those aspersions — which many lawmakers have been wary of stating publicly because of the political risks of doing so — have begun to flare into public view as conservative media outlets have amplified the claims, which are aimed in part at protecting Trump as he works to preserve the U.S.-Saudi relationship and avoid confronting the Saudis on human rights.

If “Fox and Friends” suggests suggesting Khashoggi killed himself with his own bone saw, it could be the product of the Republican National Committee’s “research shop of 15 and a 10-person war room.” The crew stands ready to churn out tweet-worthy, misleading information on the president’s foes on a moment’s notice:

… a team of about 60 GOP researchers, bookers and attack dogs [spends its] time churning out the ammunition that conservative media and Trump supporters use daily to pummel the president’s foes.

The relentless stream of carefully curated — and sometimes misleading — political hits has been throwing Democrats off message for months while steadily stoking the daily fires of conservative outrage that power Trump’s political movement.

We don’t call rage “blinding” for nothing.

The would-be tough guy, would-be American president blanches at the sight of blood but praises political allies who body-slam reporters and concocts implausible alibis for flattering autocrats who (allegedly) poison and dismember opponents.

One of his friends murdering a journalist and American resident is an inconvenience to Donald Trump. So are dignity, honor, and America principles. The longer Trump remains unchecked, the farther down the path to Trumpistan he and his followers in and out of government will take this country.

Gaze long into Trump, and Trump also gazes into you.

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For The Win 2018 is ready for download. Request a copy of my county-level election mechanics primer at tom.bluecentury at gmail.

How to please His Majesty King Donald


by digby

It appears that John Bolton has become quite the energetic Trump suck-up:

A heated argument in the West Wing between chief of staff John Kelly and national security adviser John Bolton over a recent surge in border crossings turned into a shouting match Thursday, two sources familiar with the argument told CNN.
The exchange lay bare a bitter disagreement that has existed between two of President Donald Trump’s top aides for weeks now. 

Trump, who was incensed about the rising levels of migrants and threatened to shut down the southern border on Twitter earlier that morning, took Bolton’s side during the argument. Bolton favors a harder line approach to the issue and criticized Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen during the argument, a source said. Nielsen used to serve as Kelly’s deputy when he ran DHS. Bolton reportedly said Nielsen needed to start doing her job, which incensed Kelly.

This is all about stroking Trump, who hates Neilsen, thinks she’s weak.

The President, who sources say was present for the beginning of the shouting match, later denied knowledge of it.

“I’ve not heard about it. No,” Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One to fly to Montana on Thursday afternoon. 

This isn’t the first time Nielsen’s handling of border security has been scrutinized by the Trump White House. 

Trump and Nielsen got into a heated argument during a Cabinet meeting in May over border security, a source with knowledge told CNN. 

Trump said he didn’t think she was doing enough to secure the border and two people told The New York Times, which first reported the argument, that Nielsen drafted a resignation letter over the matter. 

Bolton was characterized as the winner of the fight, which must have pleased Trump. It’s a perfect way to make him happy. He is yearning to make this “caravan” the big midterm issue:

The caravan issue has been the subject of several White House meetings in recent days, according to an administration official. The conversations have centered around not only how to stop the caravan, but also how to use the issue for the upcoming midterms, the official said. Stephen Miller has been heavily involved. 

According to unpublished Department of Homeland Security statistics reviewed by The Washington Post, the number of migrant families entering the US reached record levels in the three months since

Earlier this week Trump also took note of a migrant caravan formed in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula on Saturday and crossed into Guatemala on Monday. The caravan numbers in the thousands, organizers say. 

Members of the group told CNN en Español that they decided to join the caravan and head to the United States because of insecurity and a lack of jobs in Honduras. Many are traveling with children in tow. 

Trump posted several tweets about the caravan on Tuesday, calling for an end to foreign aid should they continue to travel. 

“We have today informed the countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador that if they allow their citizens, or others, to journey through their borders and up to the United States, with the intention of entering our country illegally, all payments made to them will STOP (END)!” Trump tweeted Tuesday night. 

Trump has repeatedly called for cuts to foreign aid in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico, which, in all, obtained some $260 million in foreign aid for fiscal year 2019.

I don’t think you need to be a foreign policy expert to see that what Trump is demanding is for those countries to arrest people who try to leave their country. Maybe they could build a wall?
In any case cutting off aid will almost definitely make things worse for the people living there. And it’s already so deadly that people are willing to travel a thousand miles on foot to come to America.

He doesn’t care.  But neither do Kelly, Bolton and Neilsen. This “fight” is just about sucking up to Trump and jockeying for favor with the Mad King. They all have nothing but contempt for these poor migrants.

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Trump: Rosenstein “mentioned certain things to me that are very positive about that event”

by digby

Fox News and the House wingnuts are very upset that Rosenstein isn’t coming before congress but the president is weirdly fine with it:

Steve Doocy: You know the rumor is the day after the midterms, you’re gonna fire him and you’re gonna fire the Attorney General.

Trump: Well I actually get along well with Rod

Doocy: (interrupts) Right but Mr. President, the people in your Administration, Rod Rosenstein, will not show up on Capitol Hill to, because Congress …

Trump: I was surprised at that. Actually I was surprised at that. I would think he would. He mentioned certain things to me that are very positive about that event and I would imagine that he’d want to put that down, and frankly whether you were under oath or not shouldn’t matter But he mentioned things to me that I would think would be fine for him to testify and so, you know when Congress calls. So I’m a little surprised that Rod wouldn’t do it.

This is what he’s talking about:

Rep. Jim Jordan said that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should be subpoenaed if he refuses to testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee for his role in the FBI’s Russia probe and for allegations that he wanted to invoke the 25th Amendment against President Trump.

“He’s got to come in and answer questions,” Jordan, R-Ohio, said during an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “If it takes a subpoena, then that’s exactly what needs to be done.”

Rosenstein had been tentatively scheduled to appear Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee, but that meeting has been delayed. A House Judiciary Committee aide told The Hill that the panel does not have a time confirmed for Rosenstein to appear on Capitol Hill.

Jordan’s comments come just days after Trump declared that he has no plans to fire his deputy attorney general.

“He mentioned certain things to me that are very positive … I’m a little surprised.”

Please. Something has happened with all this and we don’t have clue about what exactly it is. And by “we” I mean the New York Times who said this on MSNBC earlier today:

Michael Schmidt: We don’t know. What is it about the president’s relationship with the Trump that Rosenstein has been able to keep him at bay? If Rosenstein has told him something that the president thinks is favorable to him, why is it that he doesn’t want to testify about it on Capitol Hill? It seems Rosenstein told him that it was sarcastic, at the same time not willing to go up to Capitol Hill. Going back further to earlier in the year, what has Rosenstein has done to manage this, to protect Mueller? It’s just one of these things that we don’t know and it’s one of these sort of mysteries that we won’t know until after Rosenstein is gone?

Schmidt is one of the reporters who “broke” the big story about Rosenstein and the wire, apparently uninterested in the fact that the New York Times was being used by their sources and without any concern for reporting the context that might make that clear. Maybe they could work on finding out exactly what in the hell happened there because they are right in the middle of it.

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Laura Ingraham’s favorite xenophobe snowflake

by digby

An odd moment from @DaveBratVA7th's visit to an addiction support group at Chesterfield County Jail: After an inmate describes some of the difficulties she'd face upon release, Brat says his life isn't all roses either, pointing to attack ads from @SpanbergerVA07 pic.twitter.com/uVDW4jsAhs— Ben Paviour (@BPaves) October 18, 2018

David Brat has problems:

While meeting with an addiction support group of inmates at the Chesterfield County Jail, Rep. David Brat (R-VA) downplayed an inmate’s addiction worries in comparison to his own trials being the subject of attack ads.

According to a Thursday ThinkProgress report, his comments came as a response to a female inmate’s concern about issues she would face when she left prison.

“You think you’re having a hard time. I’ve got $5 million of negative ads against me. How do you think I’m feeling?” he said.

“Nothing’s easy for anyone. You think I’m a congressman. Oh, life’s easy, this guy’s off having steaks,” he continued. “I got a daughter, she’s gotta deal with this crap on TV every day. No one out there’s got some easy life. And you’ve got it hard, I’m not dismissing that. You’ve got some fears, real anxiety coming up with a job, and whatever. And what you’ve got to find is a support system.”

Brat is running in a tight race against Democrat Abigail Spanberger.

Poor, poor David Brat.

This is the perfect characterization of Trump’s Republican Party. Nobody ever has it worse than they do.

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Welcome to the new baby

by digby

Personally, I think they should fly one over Trump’s golf course here every single day.

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Trump says it’s impossible for him to lose

by digby

I’m sure everyone remembers this little bit of snotty, in-your-face, 6th-grade brazenness:

With similar narcissistic defiance, Trump now says that if the Republicans lose next month, it’s not his fault. But he takes full credit if he wins.

Trump said he would not bear any personal responsibility for a poor showing from Republicans in the 2018 midterms, he said in a rare interview with the Associated Press this week.

“The midterms are very tough for anybody the opposite of president, for whatever reason, nobody has been able to say,” Trump said.

[…]

Republicans are starting from a huge advantage. The congressional map this year favors Republicans — particularly in the Senate, where Democrats are defending 10 seats in states Trump won. But even in the House, Republicans’ landslide wins in the 2010 midterm let the party redraw the lines for congressional districts, giving them an advantage.

The generic ballot shows Democrats with an average 7 point lead, where voters are asked whether they prefer a Democrat or a Republican, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average. But Democrats will need to do at least that well to have any hope of retaking the house thanks to gerrymandering.

Despite all that, Trump is making things very difficult for Republicans, and there are many signs that this will be a wave election for Democrats. Trump doesn’t seem to recognize this reality. Instead, he is already praising himself for his electoral successes.

“I think I’m helping people,” Trump said. “Look, I’m 48 and one in the primaries, and actually it’s much higher than that because I endorsed a lot of people that were successful that people don’t even talk about. But many of those 48, as you know, were people that had no chance, in some cases.”

Trump talks about one big disadvantage: He’s not on the ballot, he said.

In a particularly telling musing from the president, he said some “people” have been telling him they could never vote in an election without Trump on the ballot.

“I’m not running,” Trump said. “I mean, there are many people that have said to me, ‘Sir, I will never ever … I will never ever go and vote in the midterms because you’re not running and I don’t think you like Congress.’”

You’d think that the Republican candidates would be a little bit miffed at this but they appear on stage with him regularly and lick his boots like he’s some kind of demi-god. The entire party is banking on Trump’s allegedly massive popularity to keep them in power.

Or, it’s just that he has that boot on their neck, promising to treat them like garbage the way he treats Flake, Corker, McCain and they are simply cowards who would rather bow down than take a chance on losing their seats?

This is not a new phenomenon. People love to talk about the spineless Dems and how useless they are, but they are nothing compared to the groveling sycophants of the GOP. I used to write about this all the time during the Bush years. I called them the Eunuch Caucus which is an insensitive, gendered term, which I regret. So I will now refer to them as Tiny’s Obedient Servants.

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Warranted by the evidence

by digby

I don’t know why this is coming out now but I’m sure it must mean something:

In an expansive interview with The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, Mr. Rosenstein offered a forceful defense of the inquiry, saying the public would have faith in its findings.

“People are entitled to be frustrated, I can accept that,” he said, in a nod to attacks on the probe from some conservatives and Republicans. “But at the end of the day, the public will have confidence that the cases we brought were warranted by the evidence, and that it was an appropriate use of resources.”

Mr. Rosenstein said the investigation has already revealed a widespread effort by Russians to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, an assertion that has been played down by Mr. Trump and repeatedly called into question by other members of the administration.

“I have a solemn responsibility to make sure that cases like that are pursued and prosecuted, and I’m pleased the president has been supportive of that,” Mr. Rosenstein said.

The rare interview, in his conference room on the fourth floor of the Justice Department, took place during a turbulent period for Mr. Rosenstein, whose appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller in May 2017 has made him the subject of scrutiny and attack by Mr. Trump and his allies in Congress.

Mr. Mueller’s team is examining Russian interference in the 2016 election and any links between those efforts and the Trump campaign. Mr. Trump has denied any collusion with Moscow.

The special counsel’s office has charged more than two dozen Russian nationals over their roles in the 2016 campaign, including a dozen Russian intelligence officers accused of hacking into Democratic Party servers and stealing information that they distributed publicly through fake online personas. Russia has denied it interfered in the election.

“I committed I would ensure the investigation was appropriate and independent and reached the right result, whatever it may be,” Mr. Rosenstein said, referring to comments he made during his confirmation hearing. “I believe I have been faithful to that.”

The low-key Mr. Rosenstein has unexpectedly become the highest-profile deputy attorney general in recent memory after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself in March 2017 from the Russia probe in light of his prominent role in the Trump campaign.

Mr. Sessions’ recusal, widely seen as appropriate in the legal community, damaged the attorney general’s relationship with Mr. Trump and made Mr. Rosenstein the point man on some of the department’s most pressing challenges.

Last month, Mr. Rosenstein’s future as the Justice Department’s No. 2 official seemed in doubt, after officials said he offered to resign—and expected to be fired—following reports that he discussed secretly recording Mr. Trump and recruiting cabinet members to remove him from office in 2017. Mr. Rosenstein has steadfastly denied those allegations.

After a conversation aboard Air Force One last week, Mr. Trump opted not to fire Mr. Rosenstein, a sign that the longtime federal prosecutor has been able to develop a somewhat stable relationship with the president despite the strains of the continuing probe. Still, Mr. Trump is expected to make changes at the Justice Department after next month’s midterm elections, with Mr. Sessions’ departure widely anticipated.

Some GOP lawmakers have sought to call Mr. Rosenstein to testify about whether he did in fact suggest secretly recording the president, but that hasn’t happened. Mr. Rosenstein wouldn’t discuss the alleged episode in the interview, nor would he discuss its effect on his relationship with the president.

“The president knows that I am prepared to do this job as long as he wants me to do this job,” he said. “You serve at the pleasure of the president, and there’s never been any ambiguity about that in my mind.”

As he has been pressed into taking the lead on some of the department’s most contentious issues, Mr. Rosenstein has tried to make progress on an administration agenda that includes aggressive prosecutions of drug offenses, gun crimes and immigration violations. That policy focus has often been overshadowed by the Russia investigation and perpetual questions about his job future.

“I try very hard to ignore media speculation about what we’re doing and focus instead on what we’re actually doing,” Mr. Rosenstein said. “We sit down every day and we work toward the goals of the department and try to ignore the inevitable attention in the media.”
[…]
If a new attorney general takes office after the midterm elections, that individual would likely not be recused, relieving Mr. Rosenstein of the task of supervising the investigation and moving him somewhat out of the spotlight.

Meanwhile, Mr. Rosenstein said he acknowledges his critics but stands by his oversight of the inquiry.

“I believe that our department and our office have been appropriately managing that investigation,” Mr. Rosenstein said.

Rosenstein has been going out of his way to keep Trump happy. He ostentatiously sat behind Kavanaugh at the hearings. He flew with Trump on AF One showing the world a certain “chumminess” with his boss. What is unclear is whether he’s managing him or if he’s joining him.

Everyone is expecting a flurry of activity agter the midterms from the White House and possibly the Special Prosecutor. It feels as though this lame duck session of congress is also giong to be very turbulent. So fasten your setbelts.

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Memory lane

by digby

Did you know this? I didn’t …

And when MBS said he had Jared “in his pocket” from last March:

In June, Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman ousted his cousin, then-Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, and took his place as next in line to the throne, upending the established line of succession. In the months that followed, the President’s Daily Brief contained information on Saudi Arabia’s evolving political situation, including a handful of names of royal family members opposed to the crown prince’s power grab, according to the former White House official and two U.S. government officials with knowledge of the report. Like many others interviewed for this story, they declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak about sensitive matters to the press.

In late October, Jared Kushner made an unannounced trip to Riyadh, catching some intelligence officials off guard. “The two princes are said to have stayed up until nearly 4 a.m. several nights, swapping stories and planning strategy,” the Washington Post’s David Ignatius reported at the time.

What exactly Kushner and the Saudi royal talked about in Riyadh may be known only to them, but after the meeting, Crown Prince Mohammed told confidants that Kushner had discussed the names of Saudis disloyal to the crown prince, according to three sources who have been in contact with members of the Saudi and Emirati royal families since the crackdown. Kushner, through his attorney’s spokesperson, denies having done so.

“Some questions by the media are so obviously false and ridiculous that they merit no response. This is one. The Intercept should know better,” said Peter Mirijanian, a spokesperson for Kushner’s lawyer Abbe Lowell.

On November 4, a week after Kushner returned to the U.S., the crown prince, known in official Washington by his initials MBS, launched what he called an anti-corruption crackdown. The Saudi government arrested dozens of members of the Saudi royal family and imprisoned them in the Ritz-Carlton Riyadh, which was first reported in English by The Intercept. The Saudi figures named in the President’s Daily Brief were among those rounded up; at least one was reportedly tortured.

The Saudi Embassy did not respond to questions from The Intercept. The White House referred questions to National Security Council spokesperson Michael Anton. Anton declined to comment, referring questions on Kushner’s discussions with MBS to Lowell.

It is likely that Crown Prince Mohammed would have known who his critics were without Kushner mentioning them, a U.S. government official who declined to be identified pointed out. The crown prince may also have had his own reasons for saying that Kushner shared information with him, even if that wasn’t true. Just the appearance that Kushner did so would send a powerful message to the crown prince’s allies and enemies that his actions were backed by the U.S. government.

One of the people MBS told about the discussion with Kushner was UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, according to a source who talks frequently to confidants of the Saudi and Emirati rulers. MBS bragged to the Emirati crown prince and others that Kushner was “in his pocket,” the source told The Intercept.