Yes, he really could shoot someone on 5th Avenue
by digby
My Salon column this morning:
With Trump's political woes being overshadowed by the news of John McCain's death over the week-end one would think he'd be relieved to have a change of subject from his no good, very bad week. And yet one imagines that he's angry and fulminating at all the praise and attention for his nemesis as even his beloved Fox give their airwaves over to some paeans to the man Trump loathes above all others. The Washington Post reported that he even refused to issue a laudatory tribute to McCain's years of service to the country insisting instead on issuing a flaccid tweet sharing thoughts and prayers for the family after which he tweeted some standard insults about the Mueller investigation, threw out some economic news, complained about social media censorship and whined about President Obama getting too much credit for the economy. Even some of his defenders who evidently expected him to step up and act like a normal president in this circumstance, were disappointed.
Of course that didn't deter the Fox News anchor from shrugging his shoulders and carrying on as usual. He went right back to defending the president, retweeting a Washington Examiner story that claimed "Robert Mueller's 'win' exposes how the media never cared about Russia 'collusion'" and linking to a story entitled "How Anti Trump Hyperbole Fosters Insanity."
Brit Hume has known John McCain for decades and seemed to genuinely grieve at the news of his passing. He was also once a respected newsman, even during his early years at Fox. But his allegiance to Trump is so central today that the president behaving like a petulant child at a moment that requires political leaders to be gracious and dignified (all of whom rose to the occasion except him) he didn't miss a beat before going right back to rationalizing and excusing his childish behavior. Not that anyone should expect otherwise. Trump's degradation of McCain's years of torture as a POW is well known and yet massive numbers of Republicans still adore him.
Recall that last week was widely seen as Trump's worst among many bad weeks. He started off still trying to fend off his former staffer Omarosa who is peddling a book (and tapes!) about her time with the campaign and in the White House. The entire intelligence community was up in arms about Trump's abrupt withdrawal of former CIA chief John Brennan's security clearance for political reasons. His former lawyer Michael Cohen pled guilty to a felony and said under oath that Trump had ordered him to do it and his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty of 8 counts of tax evasion and bank fraud.
Soon he was talking like a gangster and pretty clearly dangling a pardon for Manafort on twitter as long as he doesn't "break." Then he found out that his pal David Pecker, the publisher of the National Enquirer (who apparently literally kept Trump's secrets in a safe) was reported to have been given immunity by the feds along with the Trump Organization's Chief Financial Officer, Allen Weisselberg. The state of New York is also pursuing an investigation into the misuse of his private charity funds.
Oh, and he also took after his besieged Attorney General Jeff Sessions again on Fox and Friends prompting a rare response from the AG. By the end of the week it appeared that the Republicans in the Senate were so afraid that Trump was about to blow his lid and fire Sessions before they can pack the Supreme Court with right wing extremists that they signaled him the go ahead to do it after the mid-terms.
That's a lot and none of it is good for the president. His legal jeopardy is more acute by the day and it's coming from different directions. The chaos in the White House is all-consuming and the twitter feed is a stream of consciousness expression of a man who is drowning. At one point in the week he sent out one of his "NO COLLUSION --- RIGGED WITCH HUNT!" primal tweets at 1:10 in the morning. It feels as though something has to give.
And yet, according to the latest NBC/WSJ poll:
After a week that saw President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman convicted on eight counts of fraud and his former lawyer plead guilty to felony campaign finance charges, the president's job approval rating remains virtually unchanged...Between Aug. 18 and Aug. 22 — the day after the news involving former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former Trump attorney Michael Cohen — the president's approval rating stood at 46 percent approve, 51 percent disapprove. In a separate NBC/WSJ survey, conducted Aug. 22 through Aug. 25, Trump's approval rating was 44 percent approve and 52 percent disapprove. That's within the poll's margin of error.
Republicans are more behind him than ever. 90 percent of them approve of the job he's doing. The more trouble he's in, the more they like him. And this week could bring him some more very serious trouble:
The world will see John McCain lying in state at the capitol and he'll be eulogized by former presidents Bush and Obama. Trump is not invited and for good reason. He would almost certainly make a mockery of the occasion and turn it into a bragfest for himself. His boorish behavior toward the man during his illness was almost certainly a bridge too far for McCain's family.
I wouldn't expect any of that to affect the esteem that 90 percent of Republicans feel for Donald Trump, however. I'm honestly not sure that Trump wasn't right when he said he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose any voters. At this point I can't imagine what it would take.
Update: You cannot make this stuff up ---
As the nation continued to mourn the death of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the White House returned its flag to full-staff on Monday, although past presidents have kept the flag lowered for longer after the deaths of other sitting senators. The Capitol flag remained at half staff.
For example, after the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., on Aug. 25, 2009, President Barack Obama issued a proclamation ordering flags be flown at half-staff for four full days.
Obama said in the proclamation that the "flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff until sunset on the day of his interment."
Obama issued a similarly worded proclamation on Dec. 18, 2012, one day after the death of Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, calling for the American flag at the White House and at public buildings and military posts to be flown at half-staff "until sunset on the day of his interment."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., want flags on all government buildings to be at half staff until McCain's funeral and have asked the Department of Defense of help in doing so, Schumer's spokesman tweeted.
Jesus...
