A little crack in the wall?
by digby
My Salon column this morning:
It feels as though every week during the Trump administration is a year and every year a decade. Every day there is a crisis or an outrage or a revelation that takes your breath away. But the underlying dynamics always seem to be the same no matter what. The press reports the story, the Democrats get outraged, the pundits analyze it, the president rages and then Fox and the Republicans all line up like a bunch of robots and salute smartly and we reset until the next crisis, outrage or revelation. It's an exhausting cycle that never seems to get anywhere and it's bred a fatalistic response in many of us: "nothing matters."
But this past week is the first time I've thought that we might have seen something truly fundamental shift. A cascade of recent and current National Security Counsel and State Department officials have now defied White House orders and given sworn testimony to congressional investigators which charge that Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani were running a shadow foreign policy that was at odds with the stated administration policy and US interests and aimed solely at securing personal political benefit for Trump. The whistleblower was right.
On Thursday, Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney held a rare press briefing in the White House and admitted that the president had, in fact, demanded a quid pro quo for military aid to Ukraine, astonishing everyone including the White House which quickly had him run out and declare that he didn't actually say what he said. (Hey, it's worked for Trump so far.)
Mulvaney obviously thought he was being clever by copping to Trump withholding military aid until they agreed to investigate this bogus "DNC 2016 election interference" because it's looking into the past rather than the future as with the Biden investigation demand. They all seem to be unable to grasp that asking foreign governments to manufacture dirt on your domestic political opponents in exchange for American aid no matter how you slice it. Their inane "mirror-Mueller" probe seeking to exonerate Russia for its activity in 2016 by proving they were framed by the Deep State, the DNC and Hillary Clinton is not only absurd, it's extremely suspicious.
Let's just say that Mulvaney's explanations didn't help his or the president's cause:
Meanwhile, even congressional Republicans have been agitated by the president's seemingly abrupt decision to greenlight a Turkish invasion of northern Syria last Friday night, paving the way for ethnic cleansing of US allies and creating an opportunity for ISIS to regenerate. The normally enthusiastic Trump bootlicker Senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC, was beside himself as the week wore on even claiming that Trump would have blood on his hands and proclaiming it the worst decision of his presidency. Mitt Romney, R-Ut, spoke out as well as did Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Others tip-toed around the issue by tepidly voicing some concern rather than their usual full-throated endorsement of Donald Trump's genius, obviously waiting to see which way the wind was blowing. Nonetheless, the Senate prepared to pass a sanctions bill against Turkey on a bipartisan basis and the House passed a resolution condemning the abrupt withdrawal of US troops, 354 to 60, with the full support of Democrats and 129 Republicans. That's right, two-thirds of House Republicans joined that vote.
That is unusual, to say the least, particularly since the House is in the midst of a dramatic process that will, in all likelihood, result in the impeachment of this president. The votes weren't specific to that charge but the fact that they happened at this moment is a sign that his power over them may be diminishing.
Trump flailed about all week using the same gambit he tried with the notorious Ukraine phone call: "you can believe me or you can believe your lyin' eyes." In this case, he had circulated an official White House announcement declaring the troop withdrawal and blessing the invasion and days later he was saying that he never did any such thing.
As the pressure mounted, Trump got more and more frantic, holding rambling incoherent press avails, finally culminating in a White House meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi D-Ca, and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer,D-NY, in which he suffered a serious meltdown. He insulted Pelosi to her face causing the Democratic leaders to leave the meeting. The White House circulated an unhinged, juvenile threatening letter Trump had sent to Turkish President Erdogan three days after his assent to their invasion plan, obviously trying to back peddle in the face of the Republicans balking, which was later reported to have landed in the rubbish bin beneath Erdogan's desk.
It's become clear even to many of his allies on Capitol Hill that this decision was a sign of either dangerous impulsiveness, possible corruption or both. As with the Ukraine mess, Trump carried out this policy in defiance of his national security and foreign policy expert's advice and for inscrutable reasons. His decision-making has always been erratic but the consequences are becoming deadly.
As part of the pretense that he hadn't given Erdogan the go-ahead, Trump sent Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Turkey to "negotiate." They announced a short "cease-fire" in order to ethnically cleanse a portion of Northern Syria and announced they would reverse all sanctions and called it a breakthrough.
According to the Washington Post Turkish officials were happily surprised to learn they would get everything they wanted without having to give anything up at all:
The request for a temporary cease-fire seemed to be “face-saving, for the U.S. side,” the official said. “It was as easy a negotiation as we’ve ever had,” the official said.
The president was very pleased as well:
This is a great day for civilization. I am proud of the United States for sticking by me in following a necessary, but somewhat unconventional, path. People have been trying to make this “Deal” for many years. Millions of lives will be saved. Congratulations to ALL!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 17, 2019
And as if to emphasize once more that he doesn't give a flying Florida flamingo about anything resembling reality anymore, he had his henchman Mulvaney announce that they had searched high and low for appropriate venues for next year's G7 meeting and had determined that the only possible place to have it would be at Trump's Doral golf club in Miami. He's not really even trying to hide his intentions anymore:
All of this adds up to a dawning recognition among Trump's allies that he's adopting some kind of YOLO attitude that he's just going to do whatever he wants and damn the consequences. His pronouncements are becoming even more grandiose than before and he apparently thinks he has the power to literally shape reality simply by saying what he wants to be true. For the first time it feels as if some of them are starting to realize just how dangerous that can be.
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