The Week in Washington: “This Is the End of My Presidency!”
“Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I’m fucked,” Donald Trump moaned when he learned of the appointment of a special prosecutor, according to page 78 of the long-awaited Mueller Report, finally released in redacted form on Thursday. But is he really fucked? Those who have not yet cracked this 448-page document may be surprised that it’s a fun read, in a horror novel sort of way. (Start with Volume Two, it’s juicier.) Along with the staggering number of examples where Trump campaign officials and various Russian operatives emailed, texted, chatted, and cozied up to each other, and the many, many times the president appears to have clearly obstructed justice, there are a lot of other shiny little gems.
All your favorite characters are here! Hope Hicks, referring to the president as “Boss Man”! Don Jr., reprising his now famous mantra—when Russians supposedly had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, he emailed, “If it’s what you say, I love it!” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, admitting she’s a liar, telling the Mueller team that one of her more outrageous fibs was a mere “slip of the tongue.” And remember when Mueller decided to let Trump off the hook and allowed him to answer written questions rather than sit down for an interview? Well, guess what? The guy who boasted that he has “one of the world’s greatest memories” stated that he did not “recall” or “remember” or have an “independent recollection” more than 30 times.
Unlikely heroes emerge: On page 158 of the report, Mueller states, “The President’s efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests.” Among these unsung saviors are, believe it or not, fired AG Jeff Sessions, former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, and erstwhile White House lawyer Don McGahn, who flatly refused to fire Mueller when Trump insisted he do so.
It remains to be seen if the Dems will eventually bring impeachment proceedings. So far Elizabeth Warren and Julián Castro are the loudest voices calling for this action, and Warren certainly makes a compelling case: “The severity of this misconduct demands that elected officials in both parties set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty,” she asserted on Friday. For his part, Trump wants to have it both ways: If the report totally exonerates him, as he has repeated ad nauseam, then why he is spending his time attacking it so fiercely? On Friday he tweeted, “Statements are made about me by certain people in the Crazy Mueller Report, in itself written by 18 Angry Democrat Trump Haters, which are fabricated & totally untrue. … This was an Illegally Started Hoax that never should have happened…”
The report may have eclipsed other developments of the week, but it was hardly the only news. On Monday, viewing the horrific Notre Dame fire, the President tweeted: “Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out. Must act quickly!” French authorities responded that this might well result in demolishing the entire structure. On Tuesday, Attorney General William Barr, taking a moment away from white-washing the Mueller report, ruled that some asylum seekers who have a credible fear of returning home cannot be released on bond, as had been the previous practice, which may result in these immigrants being held indefinitely. That same day, the president vetoed a bi-partisan resolution to end U.S. participation in Yemen’s civil war, calling the legislation “an unnecessary, dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities.”
Lastly, who would expect conservative lawyer/pundit George Conway, the husband of the venal Trump apologist Kellyanne, to issue the most stirring call to arms of the week? If his wife excels in her slavering devotion to the commander-in-chief, her spouse is just as ferocious in his condemnation of the president. On Thursday, Conway declared in an op-ed in the Washington Post: “What the Mueller report disturbingly shows, with crystal clarity, is that today there is a cancer in the presidency: President Donald J. Trump. Congress now bears the solemn constitutional duty to excise that cancer without delay.”
