The Week in Washington: “Some Very, Very Evil Things”
“There are a lot of people out there that have done some very, very evil things, very bad things, I would say some treasonous things against our country,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday. He was not referring to his plan to destroy Obamacare, eviscerating the health care of millions of Americans and messing with protections for preexisting conditions, which “a lot of people” would consider a “very evil thing.”
The president has spent the past week on a wild tear, what his old buddy, the hellacious Steve Bannon, described as “com[ing] off the chains” to “go full animal” on his opponents. Instead of basking in the knowledge that the Mueller report—or at least Attorney General Barr’s four-page summary of it, which is all we have to go on—states that he does not face imminent indictment, Trump spent the week bludgeoning his enemies, real and imagined. With his usual gift for subtlety, he took to the stage of Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Thursday and bellowed: “The Democrats have to now decide whether they will continue defrauding the public with ridiculous bullshit partisan investigations or whether they will apologize to the American people . . . ”
But the House is in no mood for apologizing or ridiculous bullshit. Instead, that body informed Barr that he had better release the full Mueller report by this coming Tuesday—all 400 or so pages of it, complete and unexpurgated. When the A.G. replied that he would turn it over by mid-April, House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler doubled down. “As I informed the Attorney General earlier this week, Congress requires the full and complete Mueller report, without redactions, as well as access to the underlying evidence, by April 2,” Nadler said. “That deadline still stands.”
In other news, the president, in addition to mysteriously reversing additional sanctions on North Korea and threatening to close the southern border—two big new caravans on the way! he announced on Friday—also found time to weigh in on the Jussie Smollett situation, tweeting on Thursday: “FBI & DOJ to review the outrageous Jussie Smollett case in Chicago. It is an embarrassment to our Nation!” And in another outrageous embarrassment for our nation, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos went before Congress on Tuesday and attempted to explain why it’s okay to end federal funding for the Special Olympics. This repulsive idea reportedly originated from the White House, but don’t tell Trump that: He was happy to throw Betsy under the bus, informing reporters outside the White House on Thursday: “The Special Olympics will be funded. . . . I just authorized the funding of the Special Olympics. . . . I have overridden my people.”
Lastly, in what could be argued is the most chilling development of the week—and there was, as always, plenty of competition—the Trump campaign sent a memo to TV news producers on Monday, asking them to consider dropping a number of Democrats as guests for “lying to the American people” about the Mueller report. According to the Daily Beast, “After falsely claiming that Attorney General Barr’s four-page summary of Mueller’s findings can only be viewed as ‘a total and complete vindication of President Trump,’ the memo accused prominent Democrats of ‘lying to the American people by vigorously and repeatedly claiming there was evidence of collusion.’ The memo calls out Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CA); Representatives Adam Schiff (D-CA), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), and Eric Swalwell (D-CA); DNC chairman Tom Perez; and former CIA director John Brennan, and advises networks to consider if their past ‘outrageous and unsupported claims’ merit further appearances.” Swalwell quickly fired back on Twitter, writing: “The only person who has been caught lying about Russia is Donald Trump. If he thinks I’ve made a false statement, he can sue me. And I’ll beat him in court.”
