https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...comeys-testimony-with-white-house-tapes-ruse/
Trump congratulates himself for influencing Comey’s testimony with White House tapes ruse
By Aaron Blake June 23 at 10:20 AM
President Trump sat down for his first interview in more than a month on Thursday, and the result — airing Friday morning on Fox News — included Trump congratulating himself for his suggestion that there might be tapes of his conversations with former FBI Director James B. Comey.
What's interesting here is that this isn't the official White House position. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied Thursday that Trump's six-week-old tweet about possible tapes was meant to threaten or influence Comey. But then Trump, as he often does (most notably when he suggested to NBC that he fired Comey because of the Russia investigation), just went out and basically said it himself.
Below is the full interview between Fox's Ainsley Earhardt, Trump and first lady Melania Trump, along with our notes and analysis. To see an annotation, click on the yellow, highlighted text.
PART ONE:
EARHARDT: Today there are four senators that are not supporting this health care bill, four Republican senators. What is your message to them, because your supporters that voted for you are a little frustrated, because you have the White House, Republicans have the House and the Senate, but you have these senators that are not on board.
TRUMP: Well, they're also four good guys and they're four friends of mine. And I think that they'll probably get there. We'll have to see.
You know, health care is a very difficult situation. If you look, the Clintons tried to get it and after years and years, they couldn't do it. Obamacare was murder for them to get. And now it failed. It's virtually out of business. Obamacare is a disaster. And we're trying to do something in a very short period of time.
It's interesting, because I've been here for only five months. People are saying, where's the health care, where's the health care? Well, I've done in five months what other people haven't done in years. And it's been — people have worked on health care for many years. It's a very complicated situation from the standpoint, you do something that's good for one group but bad for another.
It's that very, very narrow path. But I think we're going to get there. We have four very good people that — it's not that they're opposed, they'd like to get certain changes. And we'll see if we can take care of that.
EARHARDT: We're getting word now that some Democrats even want Nancy Pelosi to step down. A lot of Republicans think Democrats are in denial, they didn't win these special elections, they don't have the House, they don’t have the Senate, they don’t have the White House.
What do Democrats need to do? Are they in denial? And what do they need to do to get on board?
TRUMP: Well, first of all, I hope she doesn't step down. I think that it would be a very, very sad for Republicans if she steps down. I'd be very, very disappointed if she did. I'd like to keep her right where she is, because our record is extraordinary against her.
But we'll see what happens. There has been a lot of talk about her stepping down. We'll have to see what happens. The victory in Atlanta was very big. They spent $30 million. We had a candidate who did a very, very good job. I think I helped a lot. And we had a great candidate.
But we are 5 and 0, as you know, in these special elections. And I think the Democrats thought it would be a lot different than that. 5-0 is a big — that's a big margin. And this last one was very interesting, though, because they put everything into it. They had every consultant, they had agencies — advertising agencies.
EARHARDT: Hollywood.
TRUMP: I mean think of it — Hollywood came out. And in the end, we won quite easily, much, you know, by a bigger margin than anybody would have thought.
So they're going to have to do something. I will say this. They are, right now, obstructionists. All they want to do is try and obstruct. I think they'd do much better, as a party, if they got along with us, if they called us and said let's work on health care together, let's work on tax cuts together and tax reform. Let's work on infrastructure together. We can do it together.
I honestly think they'd do better at the polls. I think the American public is tired of obstructionists. And I honestly believe that. And when I say that, boy, would the people love to see two parties getting together and coming up with the perfect health-care plan, because Obamacare has failed now. It's dead. The insurance companies are all flocking and leaving. And it's a real problem.
EARHARDT: Wouldn't that be refreshing if we could all come together...
TRUMP: It would be so nice.
EARHARDT: I know.
TRUMP: And that's the way it should be. And there have been moments in our country's history where that's what happened. And those were the greatest things, whether it was Social Security or Medicare. It was two parties got together and came up with great solutions to problems.
I don't think that's going to happen, but that is what should happen.
PART TWO
EARHARDT: Congratulations, you moved into the White House — how is it?
MELANIA TRUMP: We are enjoying it very much.
EARHARDT: How about Barron with school — is he settled?
MELANIA TRUMP: He loves it, yes, all settled. He loves it here.
EARHARDT: Good. Are you missing New York?
MELANIA TRUMP: Not really. I’m so busy and we’re doing so many great stuff. So it’s really special place and I love it here.
EARHARDT: And tonight…
MELANIA TRUMP: Tonight, it’s a great picnic, Congressional Picnic, with all of us getting together. It's New York City team. And we have carousel and great stuff outside.
EARHARDT: Great. Big news today, you didn't have — you said you didn't tape James Comey. Do you want to explain that? Why did you want him to believe that you possibly did that?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I didn't tape him. You never know what's happening when you see that the Obama administration, and perhaps longer than that, was doing all of unmasking and surveillance and you read all about it. And I've been reading about it for the last couple of months about the seriousness of the — and horrible situation with surveillance all over the place. And you've been hearing the word unmasking, a word you probably never heard before. So you never know what's out there.
But I didn't tape. And I don't have any tape and I didn't tape. But when he found out that I, you know, that there may be tapes out there, whether it's governmental tapes or anything else, and who knows, I think his story may have changed. I mean you'll have to take a look at that, because then he has to tell what actually took place at the events.
And my story didn't change. My story was always a straight story. My story was always the truth. But you'll have to determine for yourself whether or not his story changed. But I did not tape.
EARHARDT: So it was a smart way to make sure he stayed honest in those hearings?
TRUMP: Well, it wasn't — it wasn't very stupid, I can tell you that. He was — he did admit that what I said was right. And if you look further back, before he heard about that, I think maybe he wasn't admitting that.
So you'll have to do a little investigative reporting to determine that. But I don't think it will be that hard.
EARHARDT: Robert Mueller, do you think he should recuse himself from the investigation? Because he is good friends with James Comey. He's hired some attorneys that were part of Hillary Clinton's foundation and have given money to President Obama and Hillary Clinton's campaign?
Should he recuse himself?
TRUMP: Well, he's very, very good friends with Comey, which is very bothersome. But he's also — we're going to have to see. I mean we're going to have to see in terms — look, there has been no obstruction. There has been no collusion. There has been leaking by Comey. But that's been no collusion, no obstruction and virtually everybody agrees to that.
So we'll have to see. I can say that the people that have been hired are all Hillary Clinton supporters. Some of them worked for Hillary Clinton. I mean the whole thing is ridiculous, if you want to know the truth, from that standpoint.
But Robert Mueller is an honorable man and hopefully he'll come up with an honorable solution.
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/thom...ce-that-donald-trump-is-completely-delusional
Further and Further Out of Touch
Does Donald Trump really not understand why people believe James Comey over him? Seriously?
Further and Further Out of Touch
(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
By Robert Schlesinger | Managing Editor for Opinion
June 23, 2017, at 11:00 a.m.
MORE
How delusional is President Donald Trump? The Washington Post has Friday's answer to that evergreen question, in the form of a sprawling deep-dive into the dysfunctional circus known as the Trump presidency.
There are a bunch of juicy details in the piece, by Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker, but this stuck out at me for being a hallmark of self-absorption and separation from reality:
Trump is most bothered by what he views as the one-sided portrayal and overall unfairness of the Russia investigation, senior White House officials said. He thinks media reports automatically treat Comey's version of events as superior to his own and have not focused enough on Mueller's hiring of some investigators who have donated to Democratic candidates.
Why, oh why, would anyone view former FBI director and painfully straight shooter James Comey over Donald Trump? You mean putting aside the fact that Trump is a renowned fabulist who makes things up on a daily-or-more basis?
How about the fact that Comey wrote out contemporaneous memos recounting his conversations with Trump? And has testified about the encounters under oath? And that no evidence has come to light – I mean real evidence, not denials from Trump and his team – to disprove anything Comey's said? There are phone logs which can be checked, witnesses to Comey's side of some of the conversation and other confirmation (like Attorney General Jeff Sessions saying that he was indeed shooed out of the Oval Office so Trump and Comey could meet alone).
Cartoon Gallery
x of x
| Full Screen
What's Trump got? He's got the "tapes" cul-de-sac, which perfectly exemplifies his credibility problem. He famously floated on Twitter, remember, the notion that he had recorded his conversations with Comey. Did he? He now says that he did not. The whole notion seemed implausible from the start, but really Trump saying anything – whether it's that he recorded conversations or didn't – should not at this point cause anyone to think the assertion more or less likely. There is no more or less reason, in other words, to think that Trump recorded conversations now than there was before he first raised the idea.
But were we to take him at his current word, we could only conclude that he had engaged in a 40-day epic prevarication. There were never tapes but he threw the idea out there baselessly and let it linger as a distraction until withdrawing it. And he wonders why he has a credibility problem?
Of course the original "tapes" tweet prompted Comey to pass his memos to the press, which in turn helped spur the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, so Trump's own clumsiness backfired spectacularly. (And on Mueller, is Trump suggesting that the special counsel should only be permitted to hire people who were Trump supporters? Seriously?)
And it's the Trumpster fire that keeps on burning: The president suggested in a "Fox & Friends Interview" aired Friday morning that the tweets had been aimed at affecting Comey's testimony before Congress. That seems like something which might end up in Mueller's investigation as well.
Which brings us back to The Washington Post piece. The reporters interviewed 22 administration officials and other Trump allies and found "a White House still trying, after five months of halting progress, to establish a steady rhythm of governance while also indulging and managing Trump's combative and sometimes self-destructive impulses."
The tapes tweets and virtually everything Trump has said and done regarding them since falls pretty squarely into the category of self-destructive impulses. And no surprise, per the Post, Trump's aides "have resigned themselves to managing – rather than curtailing – his almost-daily missives." As I've said before, Team Trump can't hope to stop him, they can only hope to contain him.
RELATED CONTENT
Nine Ways to Crazy
Here are nine news items from just Friday which demonstrate how insane the Donald Trump era is.
Part of that containment process apparently involves 6:30 a.m. daily phone calls from the president to one of his outside lawyers to vent about the Russia investigation. The idea apparently is to let him spend his Russia-rage before heading to the office in hopes that he might actually be productive in his day job. "Asked whether the tactic was effective, one top White House adviser paused for several seconds and then just laughed," the Post reports. (And oh my god how does that miserable morning duty get allotted? Do the lawyers draw straws and tell him who to call the next morning? Do they all have to be ready because he decides spur-of-the-moment?)
Then there's this:
Some in the White House fret over what they view as the president's fits of rage, and Trump's longtime friends say his mood has been more sour than at any point since they have known him. They privately worry about his health, noting that he appears to have gained weight in recent months and that the darkness around his eyes reveals his stress.
Many have wondered how well a 70-year-old with a junk food diet would adjust to the most stressful job in the world. Would he feel the weight of the office or be so self-absorbed that it would slide right off? Apparently he feels the weight of his own self-absorption.
This would be great entertainment if it wasn't real life.
Tags: Donald Trump, James Comey, Robert Mueller, politics
Trump congratulates himself for influencing Comey’s testimony with White House tapes ruse
By Aaron Blake June 23 at 10:20 AM
President Trump sat down for his first interview in more than a month on Thursday, and the result — airing Friday morning on Fox News — included Trump congratulating himself for his suggestion that there might be tapes of his conversations with former FBI Director James B. Comey.
What's interesting here is that this isn't the official White House position. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied Thursday that Trump's six-week-old tweet about possible tapes was meant to threaten or influence Comey. But then Trump, as he often does (most notably when he suggested to NBC that he fired Comey because of the Russia investigation), just went out and basically said it himself.
Below is the full interview between Fox's Ainsley Earhardt, Trump and first lady Melania Trump, along with our notes and analysis. To see an annotation, click on the yellow, highlighted text.
PART ONE:
EARHARDT: Today there are four senators that are not supporting this health care bill, four Republican senators. What is your message to them, because your supporters that voted for you are a little frustrated, because you have the White House, Republicans have the House and the Senate, but you have these senators that are not on board.
TRUMP: Well, they're also four good guys and they're four friends of mine. And I think that they'll probably get there. We'll have to see.
You know, health care is a very difficult situation. If you look, the Clintons tried to get it and after years and years, they couldn't do it. Obamacare was murder for them to get. And now it failed. It's virtually out of business. Obamacare is a disaster. And we're trying to do something in a very short period of time.
It's interesting, because I've been here for only five months. People are saying, where's the health care, where's the health care? Well, I've done in five months what other people haven't done in years. And it's been — people have worked on health care for many years. It's a very complicated situation from the standpoint, you do something that's good for one group but bad for another.
It's that very, very narrow path. But I think we're going to get there. We have four very good people that — it's not that they're opposed, they'd like to get certain changes. And we'll see if we can take care of that.
EARHARDT: We're getting word now that some Democrats even want Nancy Pelosi to step down. A lot of Republicans think Democrats are in denial, they didn't win these special elections, they don't have the House, they don’t have the Senate, they don’t have the White House.
What do Democrats need to do? Are they in denial? And what do they need to do to get on board?
TRUMP: Well, first of all, I hope she doesn't step down. I think that it would be a very, very sad for Republicans if she steps down. I'd be very, very disappointed if she did. I'd like to keep her right where she is, because our record is extraordinary against her.
But we'll see what happens. There has been a lot of talk about her stepping down. We'll have to see what happens. The victory in Atlanta was very big. They spent $30 million. We had a candidate who did a very, very good job. I think I helped a lot. And we had a great candidate.
But we are 5 and 0, as you know, in these special elections. And I think the Democrats thought it would be a lot different than that. 5-0 is a big — that's a big margin. And this last one was very interesting, though, because they put everything into it. They had every consultant, they had agencies — advertising agencies.
EARHARDT: Hollywood.
TRUMP: I mean think of it — Hollywood came out. And in the end, we won quite easily, much, you know, by a bigger margin than anybody would have thought.
So they're going to have to do something. I will say this. They are, right now, obstructionists. All they want to do is try and obstruct. I think they'd do much better, as a party, if they got along with us, if they called us and said let's work on health care together, let's work on tax cuts together and tax reform. Let's work on infrastructure together. We can do it together.
I honestly think they'd do better at the polls. I think the American public is tired of obstructionists. And I honestly believe that. And when I say that, boy, would the people love to see two parties getting together and coming up with the perfect health-care plan, because Obamacare has failed now. It's dead. The insurance companies are all flocking and leaving. And it's a real problem.
EARHARDT: Wouldn't that be refreshing if we could all come together...
TRUMP: It would be so nice.
EARHARDT: I know.
TRUMP: And that's the way it should be. And there have been moments in our country's history where that's what happened. And those were the greatest things, whether it was Social Security or Medicare. It was two parties got together and came up with great solutions to problems.
I don't think that's going to happen, but that is what should happen.
PART TWO
EARHARDT: Congratulations, you moved into the White House — how is it?
MELANIA TRUMP: We are enjoying it very much.
EARHARDT: How about Barron with school — is he settled?
MELANIA TRUMP: He loves it, yes, all settled. He loves it here.
EARHARDT: Good. Are you missing New York?
MELANIA TRUMP: Not really. I’m so busy and we’re doing so many great stuff. So it’s really special place and I love it here.
EARHARDT: And tonight…
MELANIA TRUMP: Tonight, it’s a great picnic, Congressional Picnic, with all of us getting together. It's New York City team. And we have carousel and great stuff outside.
EARHARDT: Great. Big news today, you didn't have — you said you didn't tape James Comey. Do you want to explain that? Why did you want him to believe that you possibly did that?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I didn't tape him. You never know what's happening when you see that the Obama administration, and perhaps longer than that, was doing all of unmasking and surveillance and you read all about it. And I've been reading about it for the last couple of months about the seriousness of the — and horrible situation with surveillance all over the place. And you've been hearing the word unmasking, a word you probably never heard before. So you never know what's out there.
But I didn't tape. And I don't have any tape and I didn't tape. But when he found out that I, you know, that there may be tapes out there, whether it's governmental tapes or anything else, and who knows, I think his story may have changed. I mean you'll have to take a look at that, because then he has to tell what actually took place at the events.
And my story didn't change. My story was always a straight story. My story was always the truth. But you'll have to determine for yourself whether or not his story changed. But I did not tape.
EARHARDT: So it was a smart way to make sure he stayed honest in those hearings?
TRUMP: Well, it wasn't — it wasn't very stupid, I can tell you that. He was — he did admit that what I said was right. And if you look further back, before he heard about that, I think maybe he wasn't admitting that.
So you'll have to do a little investigative reporting to determine that. But I don't think it will be that hard.
EARHARDT: Robert Mueller, do you think he should recuse himself from the investigation? Because he is good friends with James Comey. He's hired some attorneys that were part of Hillary Clinton's foundation and have given money to President Obama and Hillary Clinton's campaign?
Should he recuse himself?
TRUMP: Well, he's very, very good friends with Comey, which is very bothersome. But he's also — we're going to have to see. I mean we're going to have to see in terms — look, there has been no obstruction. There has been no collusion. There has been leaking by Comey. But that's been no collusion, no obstruction and virtually everybody agrees to that.
So we'll have to see. I can say that the people that have been hired are all Hillary Clinton supporters. Some of them worked for Hillary Clinton. I mean the whole thing is ridiculous, if you want to know the truth, from that standpoint.
But Robert Mueller is an honorable man and hopefully he'll come up with an honorable solution.
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/thom...ce-that-donald-trump-is-completely-delusional
Further and Further Out of Touch
Does Donald Trump really not understand why people believe James Comey over him? Seriously?
Further and Further Out of Touch
(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
By Robert Schlesinger | Managing Editor for Opinion
June 23, 2017, at 11:00 a.m.
MORE
How delusional is President Donald Trump? The Washington Post has Friday's answer to that evergreen question, in the form of a sprawling deep-dive into the dysfunctional circus known as the Trump presidency.
There are a bunch of juicy details in the piece, by Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker, but this stuck out at me for being a hallmark of self-absorption and separation from reality:
Trump is most bothered by what he views as the one-sided portrayal and overall unfairness of the Russia investigation, senior White House officials said. He thinks media reports automatically treat Comey's version of events as superior to his own and have not focused enough on Mueller's hiring of some investigators who have donated to Democratic candidates.
Why, oh why, would anyone view former FBI director and painfully straight shooter James Comey over Donald Trump? You mean putting aside the fact that Trump is a renowned fabulist who makes things up on a daily-or-more basis?
How about the fact that Comey wrote out contemporaneous memos recounting his conversations with Trump? And has testified about the encounters under oath? And that no evidence has come to light – I mean real evidence, not denials from Trump and his team – to disprove anything Comey's said? There are phone logs which can be checked, witnesses to Comey's side of some of the conversation and other confirmation (like Attorney General Jeff Sessions saying that he was indeed shooed out of the Oval Office so Trump and Comey could meet alone).
Cartoon Gallery
x of x
| Full Screen
What's Trump got? He's got the "tapes" cul-de-sac, which perfectly exemplifies his credibility problem. He famously floated on Twitter, remember, the notion that he had recorded his conversations with Comey. Did he? He now says that he did not. The whole notion seemed implausible from the start, but really Trump saying anything – whether it's that he recorded conversations or didn't – should not at this point cause anyone to think the assertion more or less likely. There is no more or less reason, in other words, to think that Trump recorded conversations now than there was before he first raised the idea.
But were we to take him at his current word, we could only conclude that he had engaged in a 40-day epic prevarication. There were never tapes but he threw the idea out there baselessly and let it linger as a distraction until withdrawing it. And he wonders why he has a credibility problem?
Of course the original "tapes" tweet prompted Comey to pass his memos to the press, which in turn helped spur the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, so Trump's own clumsiness backfired spectacularly. (And on Mueller, is Trump suggesting that the special counsel should only be permitted to hire people who were Trump supporters? Seriously?)
And it's the Trumpster fire that keeps on burning: The president suggested in a "Fox & Friends Interview" aired Friday morning that the tweets had been aimed at affecting Comey's testimony before Congress. That seems like something which might end up in Mueller's investigation as well.
Which brings us back to The Washington Post piece. The reporters interviewed 22 administration officials and other Trump allies and found "a White House still trying, after five months of halting progress, to establish a steady rhythm of governance while also indulging and managing Trump's combative and sometimes self-destructive impulses."
The tapes tweets and virtually everything Trump has said and done regarding them since falls pretty squarely into the category of self-destructive impulses. And no surprise, per the Post, Trump's aides "have resigned themselves to managing – rather than curtailing – his almost-daily missives." As I've said before, Team Trump can't hope to stop him, they can only hope to contain him.
RELATED CONTENT
Nine Ways to Crazy
Here are nine news items from just Friday which demonstrate how insane the Donald Trump era is.
Part of that containment process apparently involves 6:30 a.m. daily phone calls from the president to one of his outside lawyers to vent about the Russia investigation. The idea apparently is to let him spend his Russia-rage before heading to the office in hopes that he might actually be productive in his day job. "Asked whether the tactic was effective, one top White House adviser paused for several seconds and then just laughed," the Post reports. (And oh my god how does that miserable morning duty get allotted? Do the lawyers draw straws and tell him who to call the next morning? Do they all have to be ready because he decides spur-of-the-moment?)
Then there's this:
Some in the White House fret over what they view as the president's fits of rage, and Trump's longtime friends say his mood has been more sour than at any point since they have known him. They privately worry about his health, noting that he appears to have gained weight in recent months and that the darkness around his eyes reveals his stress.
Many have wondered how well a 70-year-old with a junk food diet would adjust to the most stressful job in the world. Would he feel the weight of the office or be so self-absorbed that it would slide right off? Apparently he feels the weight of his own self-absorption.
This would be great entertainment if it wasn't real life.
Tags: Donald Trump, James Comey, Robert Mueller, politics
