Diary, Politics
This week in Trumpland. As excerpts of Wolff’s book Fire and Fury appeared in New York Magazine, the White House released a statement than I republish below. Bannon calling the Trump family meeting with Russians as “treasonous” in my mind has raised the stakes considerable for Trump. It is truly getting interesting and I suspect that the chance of him not serving out a full term (which at this point I still is more likley) has clearly increased.Trump Got Wolffed
Diary
WSJ: Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona announced Tuesday in a speech on the Senate floor that he wouldn’t stand for re-election in 2018, citing sharp differences with both President Donald Trump and the direction of the Republican Party. Here is the text of his speech, as provided by his office.Flake’s Speech
PM: This may become a historic speech and hence I repost it here from the WSJ.
Diary, Politics
Peggy Noonan just published (May 18) this very strong piece in the WSJ. When the circus comes to Washington, it consumes everything, absorbs all energy. The president of the United States has produced a building crisis that is unprecedented in our history. The question, at bottom, is whether Donald Trump has demonstrated, in his first four months, that he is unfit for the presidency—wholly unsuited in terms of judgment, knowledge, mental capacity, personal stability. That epic question is then broken down into discrete and specific questions: Did he improperly attempt to interfere with an FBI criminal investigation, did his presidential campaign collude with a foreign government, etc.Peggy Noonan: “Democracy Is Not Your Plaything”
This will be unpleasantly earnest, but having witnessed the atmospherics the past 10 days it’s what I think needs saying:
Democracy is not your plaything.
This is not a game.
Diary, Politics
Not surprisingly but still disappointingly, the WSJ editorial pages wholeheartedly supported the firing of the FBI. The left-leaning predictably compared the firing to Watergate. Below are the two most interesting articles from this week. First the Guardian’s take on the week and then an opinion piece in the WSJ that argues that not FBI but congress should investigate whether Trump’s Russian connections constitute an impeachable offense.Good Summary of the Week: Trump fired director of the FBI who investigated the Trump campaign
