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BY BRIAN BEUTLER, PRIYANKA ARIBINDI & CROOKED MEDIA Thursday, May 2, 2019 |
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| —Hillary Clinton on a hypothetical Democrat taking a page from Donald Trump |
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| ROUGH JUSTICE |
| Having faced no consequences for the obstruction of justice Special Counsel Robert Mueller documented, or for giving the finger to Congress, or for any of his other abuses of power, President Trump has decided it’s open season on his political enemies.
A new report in the New York Times details how Trump has dispatched his own criminal-defense lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to convince Ukrainian prosecutors to reopen an investigation of an energy company that Joe Biden’s son Hunter consulted for when his father was vice president. Simultaneously, Trump has pressured Attorney General William Barr to “look into the material gathered by the Ukrainian prosecutors—echoing repeated calls from Mr. Giuliani for the Justice Department to investigate the Bidens’ Ukrainian work.”
(Side note: This is probably why Barr froze and stammered like a fool when Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) asked him if “anyone at the White House had asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone.”)
(Side, side note: Kamala Harris is so good at this. That was amazing. And a critically important moment.)
Trump’s associates have made no secret of the fact that they view Biden as the biggest political threat to Trump’s re-election. So naturally, they want a foreign government to sabotage him, and then get him ensnared in a trumped up federal criminal investigation. Worked last time.
The bad news is, Barr has refused to answer further questions from the House Judiciary Committee about Trump’s efforts to use the Department of Justice for political purposes, because its chairman, Jerrold Nadler, wants the smart lawyers on his staff to be able to ask questions. The worse news is Democrats remain completely unwilling to consider impeaching Trump—on Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said impeachment was “too good for” him. ($2 trillion for an infrastructure bill is just right, apparently.)
And the worst news of all is that ordering political prosecutions of your political enemies isn’t a crime, and Trump and Barr can just keep doing it until the only Democrat left standing is Mike Gravel. Barr has been Trump’s attorney general for only two and a half months—which means they’re just getting started.
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| More high-profile Democrats in key swing states have opted out of running for Senate.
Term-limited Gov. Steve Bullock (D-MT) plans to launch a presidential candidacy later this month, joining Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-CO), and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX). Rep. Cindy Axne (D-IA), and Rep. Joaquín Castro (D-TX) have each decided to pursue re-election to the House. Georgia phenom Stacey Abrams has not announced a candidacy for any office yet, but has decided not to challenge incumbent Sen. David Perdue (R-GA).
That’s not to say no one is or will decide to challenge incumbent Republicans in these states, or that these candidates can’t change their minds. Election Day is still 19 months away [weeps uncontrollably] and competitive Senate campaigns tend to launch between 12 to 16 months out. More importantly, a big names aren't always the best candidates. But winning back the Senate is an absolutely critical task for Democrats, and that makes these recruiting difficulties troubling. |
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| House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has accused Attorney General William Barr of lying to Congress during his Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday—“that’s a crime,” she said.
The White House is very mad that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had the nerve to write all of President Trump’s crimes down on paper, even though he wasn’t allowed to charge Trump with a crime.
Conservative pundit Stephen Moore withdrew from consideration to join the Federal Reserve Board of Governors after Senate Republican senators made clear his past sexist and racist comments made him impossible to confirm. The fact that he’s an unqualified political hack was actually OK by them, though.
Facebook and Instagram banned right-wing extremists including Alex Jones, Laura Loomer, and Milo Yiannopoulos, for violating policies meant to combat extremism. Hey Facebook, welcome to two-thousand and LATE (this joke works better out loud).
Facebook is also involved in discussions with the Federal Trade Commission about creating new privacy oversight roles. Before you get too excited, though, the company is allowed to name CEO Mark Zuckerberg as its head of compliance, which is like making Tony Soprano a bank-security compliance officer.
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) has announced his candidacy for president. Bennet’s younger brother James serves as the editorial page editor of the New York Times, and has recused himself from the section’s 2020 coverage.
Elizabeth Warren has introduced a new plan that would give Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories that have suffered disasters, or otherwise become bankrupt, the ability to discharge their debts, in a way that would keep valid creditors whole and require an audit of the debt itself to determine whether and how much of it was issued illegally.
Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh has resigned amid a criminal bribery investigation.
Reported instances of sexual assaults in the military jumped by 38 percent between 2016 and 2018, to 20,500 allegations last year alone.
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| Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaidó has acknowledged he didn’t have enough support from Venezuela’s military to overthrow the country’s president Nicolás Maduro. After calling for a final wave of protests against Maduro earlier this week, Guaidó admitted he believed more military members would defect and join his side against Maduro’s authoritarian regime. Over 50 other governments around the world continue to support Guaidó, and the Trump administration has provided financial support to Guaidó’s efforts. |
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| Britain’s parliament has become the first government in the world to declare an environment and climate emergency, after weeks of protests by thousands of activists. The protests were organized by Extinction Rebellion, a group that has promoted civil disobedience in London to rally support for combating climate change. The recent wave of large-scale protests for action against climate change throughout Europe and around the world arguably began with teenagers, including Sweden’s Greta Thunberg, who organized high school walkouts to demand that governments address climate change immediately. |
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