This Week in Washington: Bald Spots and Bald Accusations
Two days after his White House “listening session,” where he met with anguished survivors of the Parkland, Florida high school massacre and the parents of the dead, President Trump is in a jocular mood. “I try like hell to hide that bald spot, folks, I work hard at it,” he tells the adoring audience at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference. “We’re hanging in there folks—together we are hanging in.”
He is clearly having a fine time hanging in. His rambling, bellicose speech: Bragging about eviscerating Obamacare; disparaging John McCain; smirking as the crowd reprises the stale “Lock Her Up” chant; reminding the audience of his miraculous electoral college victory. (Even they must be sick of this by now?)
It takes him almost an hour to mention the Parkland massacre. When he does, he promulgates what has emerged as his favorite solution for combatting school shootings—giving guns to teachers. Elaborating in a tweet on Saturday, the President wrote: “Armed Educators (and trusted people who work within a school) love our students and will protect them. Very smart people. Must be firearms adept & have annual training. Should get yearly bonus. Shootings will not happen again - a big & very inexpensive deterrent. Up to States.”
To this notion, Senator Richard Blumenthal, speaking for many, responded, “The idea of arming teachers is inane and insane—and soundly rejected by the education community—despite both the NRA and President Trump continuing to tout it.”
Towards the end of his interminable CPAC spiel, the President treats the audience to a recitation of “The Snake,” the xenophobic poem that made such a hit with his followers of the campaign trail. But there are snakes in the grass, real ones, slithering closer and closer to the White House. On Friday, the big news is that Rick Gates, Trump’s former deputy campaign chairman, has “flipped,” agreeing to plead guilty to financial fraud and lying to investigators, and to cooperate with the special counsel inquiry into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Gates’s willingness to sing could doom his ex-buddy, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who has reportedly taken millions in fees from the government of Ukraine and is facing a raft of charges from money laundering to bank fraud.
Don’t you wish you were Keith Schiller? This week, it came to light that Trump’s bodyguard and lifelong BFF, since quitting his White House post, has been receiving $15,000 a month from the Republican National Committee, for reportedly advising on security for the 2020 convention. And remember when Trump said on that Access Hollywood tape, “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. . . .”? Well, Rachel Crooks, one of the many women accusing Trump of unwanted sexual advances, says he did just that to her in the lobby of Trump Tower in 2005. Crooks is not just telling her story to anyone who will listen, she is now running for the state legislature in Ohio.
But wait, what’s this? It’s late Saturday afternoon, and here comes the release of the Democratic House Intelligence Committee’s response to the Republican FISA memo! To refresh your recollection: The Repubs’ memo argued that the Steele memorandum was used to justify getting a FISA warrant on Carter Page, and that this arcane allegation somehow clears the President of any accusations of collusion. I can hear you now saying, “Huh?” Tell me again, what’s a FISA warrant? Who is Carter Page? It’s enough to make you tear your hair out and give you a bald spot as big as the president’s.
As if all of this isn’t quite enough, Saturday also brings news that plans for Trump’s military parade continue apace, and this display of martial might is now scheduled for Veterans Day, November 11. But let us leave you with news of another event, to take place on March 24. On that day, students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, along with young people from all over the country and their adult supporters, will flood the streets of Washington for the March for Our Lives. “The mission and focus of is to demand that a comprehensive and effective bill be immediately brought before Congress to address these gun issues,” reads the students’ statement of purpose. In the end, their fury and fervor may prove more powerful than all of Trump’s tanks.
