Aaron Blake of The Washington Post reports that Trump’s allies want to focus the Ukraine scandal on the tree, so you miss the forest: The new GOP strategy appears to be misdirection. In recent days, Republicans have maintained a laserlike focus on a very narrow defense of Trump: that there was nothing illegal about his July … Read more
In the Watergate scandal, White House counsel John Dean had a photographic memory and near total recall of events in delivering his devastating testimony before Congress. The Nixon tapes later confirmed John Dean’s testimony in astonishing detail. Ambassador William Taylor may not have John Dean’s photographic memory, but he does appear to have near total … Read more
Permanent musical accompaniment: When the walls come crumblin’ down. Kurt Volker, the former special envoy to Ukraine who resigned abruptly, testified before lawmakers behind closed doors for more than nine hours [last] Thursday. He provided messages he had exchanged with other diplomats, the president’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and a high-level adviser to Ukrainian President … Read more
“Tired of so much winning” yet? The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected President Trump’s appeal to block the release of his tax returns to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. The court’s decision affirmed that the Committee has the authority to subpoena the financial documents of the president and that … Read more
The other day I took a shot in the dark speculating about what the quid pro quo was in Donald Trump’s telephone conversation with Turkish authoritarian president Recep Tayyip Erdogan: “I wonder what the quid pro quo was on this call? I’m sure it must have had something to do with unregistered foreign agent for Turkey, … Read more