Here’s a Part II to for the live feed for the Senate Judiciary Hearing with Dr. Blasey and Judge Kavanaugh.
Open thread!
by Adam L Silverman| 280 Comments
This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Election 2018, Open Threads, Politics, Popular Culture, Post-racial America, Not Normal
Here’s a Part II to for the live feed for the Senate Judiciary Hearing with Dr. Blasey and Judge Kavanaugh.
Open thread!
by Adam L Silverman| 309 Comments
This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Election 2018, Open Threads, Politics, Popular Culture, Post-racial America, Not Normal
Here’s the live feed for today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with Dr. Blasey and Judge Kavanaugh. A quick note: it has been reported that they are using one of the smaller/smallest hearing rooms in the Dirkson Senate Building. It is so small that there will only be room for about six reporters, basically a small reportorial pool, in the room. I think this was done to try to minimize the audience/crowd so as to minimize protestors and prevent this from getting completely out of hand and becoming a complete circus. For instance, it has also been reported that Juanita Broaddrick is traveling to the Capitol to headline a rally in support of Judge Kavanaugh and try to attend today’s hearing, so…
Updated at 9:58 AM EDT
Here’s Dr. Blasey’s opening statement that was released/submitted last night.
And here’s Judge Kavanaugh’s.
Open thread!
Senate Judiciary Hearing with Dr. Blasey and Judge Kavanaugh Live FeedPost + Comments (309)
by Adam L Silverman| 97 Comments
This post is in: America, Crazification Factor, Election 2016, Election 2018, Open Threads, Politics, Popular Culture, Post-racial America, The War On Women, Women's Rights Are Human Rights, Not Normal
Chuck Grassley’s staff says two different (unnamed) men came forward and admitted sexual assault in the past week, looking to exonerate Kavanaugh https://t.co/ylpNsiwkNz
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) September 27, 2018
Now we know why they brought in the sex crimes prosecutor from Arizona.
In a timeline of actions the Senate Judiciary Cmte has taken in response to allegations against Kavanaugh, they says TWO individuals have come forward to the Cmte saying THEY had the encounter with Dr Ford instead of Kavanaugh —> pic.twitter.com/WqgX4gRSYo
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) September 27, 2018
Asked for more info about the individuals, @ChuckGrassley Spox Taylor Foy says “Nothing further at the moment.”
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) September 27, 2018
Dem aide responds: “Twelve hours before the hearing they suggest two anonymous men claimed to have assaulted her. Democrats were never informed of these assertions or interviews, in violation of Senate rules. This is shameful and the height of irresponsibility.”
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) September 27, 2018
The state of play less than ten hours out from the hearing is that the Senate Judiciary Committee’s GOP majority has conducted three interviews, with two men, without notifying the ranking Democratic member or any of the Democratic staff on the Judiciary Committee, both of whom claim they are the man who attacked Dr. Blasey. I will be very, very, very (pleasantly) surprised if the female sex crimes prosecutor from Maricopa County, AZ doesn’t conduct an inquisition of Dr. Blasey tomorrow morning.
Dr. Ford KNOWS it was Kavanaugh. She has no doubt. Republicans still trying this "silly woman must be confused" defense is so so offensive.
— JackiSchechner (@JackiSchechner) September 27, 2018
Make them come before the committee and publicly say it. On live television, make them say “yes, I believe I was the one who committed sexual assault”. https://t.co/rnDT8VKw2N
— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) September 27, 2018
Brace for impact!
Open thread!
Senator Grassley, Via His Staff, Tips His HandPost + Comments (97)
by Adam L Silverman| 331 Comments
This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Election 2018, Open Threads, Politics, Popular Culture, Post-racial America, Silverman on Security, Not Normal
With the new allegations brought forth by Michael Avenatti, as well as the reporting that the President is taking over the public relations regarding his nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, including an announced 5 PM press conference/statement/availability, the real action will be within the Republican majority caucus in the Senate. Specifically all the attention needs to be on Senator McConnell.
The Senate majority leader is not particularly popular within his own caucus. He’s a top down, micromanager who tries to control everything. This includes the committees. The GOP committee chairs in the Senate are, in many ways, just figureheads. Right now every reporter is scrambling to get answers from Senator Grassley, who is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, about what is going to happen. And while he or his office will eventually provide some, they aren’t really Grassley’s answers. They’re McConnell’s. Senator Grassley is just the face of the GOP majority on the committee, McConnell is really calling the shots.
Senator McConnell is almost the truest example of a natural fascist in American politics and public life today. His guiding principle that might makes right is the distilled essence of totalitarianism and was a hallmark of Mussollini’s fascism (national-syndicalism), as well as part of the bastardization of Nietzche’s philosophies adopted and used by the NAZIs. As I wrote back in June:
Senate Majority Leader McConnell isn’t a politician or like any politician who has ever served as Senate Majority or Minority Leader. Rather than view him as a politician, it is more appropriate to understand Senator McConnell as an insurgent, albeit a non-violent one. He recognizes no legitimacy but his own. When out of power he’ll do whatever is necessary using asymmetric, irregular, and/or unconventional means to achieve power. And once he achieves power he will do whatever he can to achieve his objectives to consolidate his gains as quickly as possible using any means necessary as he believes his actions are self justifying – that his achievement of power justifies his by any means necessary strategy. This is, by the way, the basic argument of the premier Italian fascist (national-syndicalist) theorist Sergio Panunzio, who delineated the fascist theories for the use of political violence and low intensity warfare in the 1920s. As a result, there is no law, rule, tradition, norm, ethic, promise, and/or deal he won’t violate or renege on. This also makes him an unreliable interlocutor and makes it impossible to negotiate with him in good faith as he doesn’t believe in good faith negotiations.
Senator McConnell doesn’t do anything in good faith. The last thing that Senator McConnell wants is to lose control of the Senate. Whether now because of the defections of a pair of his retiring members using it as leverage to achieve their own objectives or in the mid terms because enough voters want a check on the President to override the partisan Republican advantage in this senatorial election cycle. It is why he’s ground everything in the chamber other than handling nominations, specifically judicial nominations, to a halt. It is why he doesn’t want to do the legally required annual budgetary resolution so he can avoid having his members take tough votes before the midterms. And it is why he’s cancelled most of the August recess under the pretense that it is the only way he can move judicial nominees because of what he alleges is Democratic obstruction. Nominations that only exist because he prevented President Obama from seating almost any judicial nominees during his final two years in office. The Democratic minority has no tools to stop these nominations, regardless of what Senator McConnell says because Senator McConnell in conjunction with Senator Grassley has gotten rid of the blue slip rule and refuses to recognize Democratic senators holds on nominees. Senator McConnell’s cancellation of the August recess is really just a thinly veiled attempt to keep incumbent Democratic senators up for reelection off the campaign trail. Every Senate rule, tradition, norm, ethic, and even law (Congressional Budget Act) has been bent or stretched to breaking or just outright ignored by Senator McConnell in his quest to consolidate his power and achieve his revanchist and reactionary objectives. As an insurgent, albeit a non-violent one, Senator McConnell only understands and recognizes the application of leverage and force.
If you want to know how the Senate is going to respond to these recent allegations, or specifically how the Senate’s GOP majority is going to respond, watch Senator McConnell. He is the only Republican senator that matters.
Open thread.
What to Watch for in the US Senate Over the Next Several DaysPost + Comments (331)
by Adam L Silverman| 209 Comments
This post is in: 2020 Elections, America, Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Election 2018, Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Politics, Popular Culture, Post-racial America, Silverman on Security, Not Normal
The President’s speech to the UN General Assembly this morning was basically a modified rally speech. He started off with his usual vigorous patting himself on the back, which was received well…
Trump begins his UN speech by saying his administration has accomplished more than "almost any administration in the history of our country." There is some laughter in the hall. "So true," he says. The laughter gets louder. "Didn't expect that reaction," Trump says.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 25, 2018
WOW! The UN audience laughs at Trump after he claims, "my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country." pic.twitter.com/tXg50ejQqy
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 25, 2018
So that went well. But as the speech went on, it went someplace weird. And not just weird, but obscurely weird.
Trump: "We reject the ideology of globalism, and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 25, 2018
We already know that globalism is the code that Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon use to refer to not just the current global system of international trade, international relations, and international security agreements, but to Jews. It is intended to be understood, if I may, literally by the majority of people who aren’t anti-Semites or anti-Semitic curious and figuratively by the President’s supporters who are. But what is this Doctrine of Patriotism? The Doctrine of Patriotism was proposed by Charles Spurgeon a mid to late 19th Century Calvinist Baptist from London.
Specifically, Spurgeon wrote (emphasis mine):
Patriotism is an instinct which is found, I think, in every true Englishman. And most of the other nations of the earth can also boast of their patriots. Let it never be said that the Church of God has no feeling of patriotism for the Holy City, for the Heavenly Land and for her glorious King enthroned above. To us, Christian patriotism means love to the Church of God, for—
“There our best friends, our kindred dwell, There God our Savior reigns.”
Let us have loyalty, by all means, but, chiefly, loyalty to Christ! Let us have true patriotism, but, especially that patriotism which consists in love to “the land of the living” of which Christ is the one King and Ruler.
So here too we have the President using a phrase that is going to either just get a “hmm, that sounds a bit odd” or “what does he mean by that” from most listeners, including scholars of international relations and security and national security professionals and that is going to be heard and understood differently by a very specific group of the President’s base: white Evangelical Christians. Moreover, this concept dovetails with a lot of Putin’s attempts to use and leverage the Russian Orthodox Church to promote himself to white American Evangelicals, as well as a variety of American and European white supremacists, neo-NAZIs, neo-fascists, and neo-nationalists. The President’s use of the doctrine of patriotism, like his use of the term globalist, is meant to be taken figuratively by his base and fellow travelers, but literally by everyone else who doesn’t speak in this coded jargon.
Sweet jumping jeebus. Tha what? https://t.co/Sbb9W7809H
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) September 25, 2018
Aside from the fact that realism can’t really be principled by its very nature, neither of these two things – principled realism and the doctrine of patriotism – are actually the Trump Doctrine. The Trump Doctrine, as we’ve discussed here extensively, is “I will be treated fairly or else and only I can ensure that America will be treated fairly or else and only I can ensure that the forgotten men and women of America will be treated fairly or else.”
I’m sure tomorrow’s UN Security Council meeting is going to go very smoothly…
Open thread.
The President Had Quite the Morning at the UNPost + Comments (209)
by Adam L Silverman| 151 Comments
This post is in: America, Crazification Factor, Election 2016, Election 2018, Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Politics, Popular Culture, Post-racial America, Silverman on Security, Not Normal
Not to step on Dave’s post, but this is a fast moving story. Here’s the most recent reporting:
Vacancies Act means if a senior official "dies, resigns, or is otherwise unable to perform the functions and duties of the office," then president can fill it w/someone already confirmed by Senate for a period of time w/o being reconfirmed. Being fired doesn't qualify as reason.
— Jeremy Pelofsky (@wdcscribe) September 24, 2018
What does this exactly mean? Here’s a quick explainer on the Vacancy Act that Steve Vladek at Lawfare did when VA Secretary Shuklin was either fired (according to Shulkin) or resigned (according to the White House):
One of the obscure federal statutes that has come to prominence in the Trump administration is the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 (FVRA), a statute designed to increase the president’s flexibility with respect to filling vacancies within the executive branch on a temporary basis. Most discussion of the FVRA has centered on the Justice Department, and whether President Trump could use the statute to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, or both, with someone from outside of the Justice Department. But the real action with the FVRA has largely involved the Department of Veterans Affairs—with respect to which the White House has now completely bungled matters, twice.
Let’s start at the beginning: When a federal office becomes vacant, the default is usually that the “first assistant” to that office is entitled to exercise the functions of the office (but does not formally ascend to the office) on a temporary, or “acting,” basis. But both because numerous positions don’t have obvious “first assistants” and because sometimes there’s no one holding that position, either, Congress in 1998 sought to provide a bit more flexibility to the president when filling many—if not most—vacancies in federal offices.
Thus, as the FVRA provides, when an executive branch officer whose position requires Senate confirmation “dies, resigns, or is otherwise unable to perform the functions and duties of the office,” the default is still the “first assistant,” but the president can override that default—and choose any other executive branch officer holding a Senate-confirmed position, or some senior, non-Senate-confirmed officers from the relevant agency, to exercise the functions of the office for no more than 210 days. The two big questions that the FVRA raises but does not answer are whether (1) it overrides all agency-specific succession statutes, such that the FVRA process is always available; and (2) even if it does, whether it applies when the vacancy is created by the president—i.e., when the prior permanent officeholder is fired, rather than dies or resigns.
The former question is hypertechnical. (With regard to the Justice Department, at least, the Office of Legal Counsel has concluded that it can be used in lieu of the more specific DOJ succession statute.) The latter question is much more important—and much less clear. Although the text of the statute could be read to encompass allvacancies (and at least one senator said on the floor that it would apply to firings), there are strong prudential and contextual arguments militating in the other direction—including that the purpose of the FVRA is to give the president flexibility to deal with unexpected vacancies, not to create vacancies himself and then sidestep existing succession schemes. Indeed, if the answer to both questions is “yes,” then the president would have the power not only to create vacancies in every executive branch office, but to fill them on a temporary basis with individuals who were never confirmed by the Senate either to that specific position, or, in some cases, at all. It’s easy to see, then, why the FVRA has loomed large in the repeated rumors over succession at the Department of Justice.
But for all of the focus on the Justice Department, the real flashpoint for the FVRA lately has been the Veterans Affairs Department (with an honorable mention to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau). In late March, President Trump fired the VA Secretary, David Shulkin, and named a Pentagon undersecretary, Robert Wilkie, to serve as acting secretary under the FVRA. (The VA has its own succession statute, but that statute expressly incorporates other authorities.) Thus, Wilkie raised the big FVRA question: Does it apply when the vacancy is created by the president firing the incumbent? (Veterans’ groups brought a lawsuit arguing that the answer was no.)
Shortly after Shulkin was fired, however, the White House began arguing—loudly—that Shulkin had not been fired, but that instead, he had resigned. The only reason why this could have mattered is the FVRA: If the statute does not apply to vacancies created by the president, then Wilkie could not have been named to serve as acting VA secretary—and any actions he undertook in his capacity as acting VA secretary were subject to legal challenge. Thus, the White House, at least, seemed wary of the second FVRA question. (President Trump also ran into a different statutory problemwhen he nominated Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, the White House doctor, to hold the position on a permanent basis, but that issue was mooted by Jackson’s withdrawal.)
This brings us to the latest VA-based FVRA kerfuffle: Last Friday, President Trump surprised everyone (including the putative acting secretary) by announcing at a public event that he was nominating Wilkie to hold the position of VA secretary on a permanent basis. Small problem: The FVRA expressly prohibits such a move. Although the FVRA allows lots of folks to hold an office on an acting basis, one of the few exceptions is an individual who has not been the “first assistant” to the office for at least 90 days who is then nominated by the president to hold the office permanently. Put another way, Wilkie’s formal nomination, by dint of the FVRA, disqualifies him from continuing to serve as acting secretary. This is not an open question about the FVRA; it’s compelled by the plain text.
Wholly apart from what this whole mess says about how seriously the Trump administration takes the VA (which is to say, not), it also suggests two important, related points about the FVRA: First, the White House is at least outwardly wary of the open question concerning its application in cases in which the vacancy is created by firing. It might therefore be a bit gun-shy about relying on the FVRA in a higher-profile case going forward. Second, the White House (or, at least, the president) doesn’t seem to fully understand the FVRA—as evidenced by the Wilkie mess. Neither of these conclusions is earth-shattering, of course. But both could be important markers for the vacancy fights to come.
This is going to be an ongoing, fast moving story. Expect it to change several times over the next few hours until all the details are nailed down. And then expect that regardless of those actual details, the White House will claim that Rosenstein resigned, so they can just use the Vacancy Act to slide someone already approved by the Senate into the position. They’ve done this several times now – at VA and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – to circumvent the rules.
I think it is also important to note that once again the President is trying to fire or force out by pressuring a senior appointee to resign and he can’t bring himself to actually do it. He either has someone else do it, as was the case with Comey and now, potentially, Rosenstein or he does it by passive-aggressive tweet.
Update at 12:15 PM EDT
He spoke before this meeting with COS Kelly. On Saturday, Rosenstein and Kelly had a conversation about his tenure in wake of NYT story about wiretapping White House
— Del Quentin Wilber (@DelWilber) September 24, 2018
Pete Williams is now suggesting that this meeting at the White House could be a clearing of the air and Rosenstein may keep his job.
— Josh Dorner (@JoshDorner) September 24, 2018
Here’s what I think happened, someone called up Jonathon Swan at Axios, and leaked that Rosenstein was resigning, in order to create a fait accompli by boxing in the President Swan, like The New York Times‘ reporters on Friday, appears to have been manipulated and used by their sources for those sources’ own interests.
We are off the glass and through the map.
Happy infrastructure week!!!
Open thread.
by Adam L Silverman| 231 Comments
This post is in: America, Crazification Factor, Criminal Justice, Election 2016, Election 2018, Open Threads, Politics, Popular Culture, Post-racial America, Not Normal
Michael Avenatti has released his email correspondence with Mike Davis, who is Senator Grassley’s Chief Counsel for Nominations for the Senate Judiciary Committee.
My e-mail of moments ago with Mike Davis, Chief Counsel for Nominations for U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. We demand that this process be thorough, open and fair, which is what the American public deserves. It must not be rushed and evidence/witnesses must not be hidden. pic.twitter.com/11XLZJBTtY
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) September 24, 2018
So you don’t have to squint, here’s the email correspondence that Avenatti tweeted:
As I’ve been saying in comments for several days, there is a lot of time between now and when Dr. Blasey testifies on Thursday for more shoes to drop, let alone between now and the following week, which is most likely when Senator McConnell will try to schedule the floor vote on Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination. And Avenatti is just beginning his campaign of death by a thousand twitter cuts.
Open thread.
Avenatti Drops a Bomb on the Senate Judiciary CommitteePost + Comments (231)