Maverick's World

Panic in Trump World

With major races in Florida and Georgia tightening - it appears that panic has broken out in Trump world.

Yesterday in what appeared to be an incredibly hasty move, Trump fired AG Jeff Sessions and removed DAG Rosenstein from oversight of the Mueller probe. While this should have triggered a major response from the GOP in the Senate (as described Sen. Lindsey Graham)... quite predictably Bit... err I mean Mitch McConnell stuck his tail between his legs and ran for cover. Poor Jeff Sessions was fired unceremoniously and then his plan to stand for election in AL has gone south as he's got nowhere to go to. Guess that joke about Kislyak didn't go over quite as well as he thought it would.

The new guy - Whitaker was supposed to stick up for Trump but he recused himself and that has created a lot of problems for Trump. I guess the news of the Whitaker recusal broke roughly before the time that Jim Acosta was asking Trump some questions and that is what led to the meltdown*.

The grand stupidity of all this is that attacking Mueller is the fastest way to ensure that the investigation is turned into something permanent but I guess with Don Jr. worried that he is going to jail - stupidity is the only thing that one can expect at this time.

I really don't know what Donald Trump is trying to do. If he is trying to keep himself out of jail, he can't protect Putin's interests. If he wants to protect Putin's interests - he can't keep himself out of jail. And when either Ivanka or Don Jr or Jared go to jail - that dramatically shortens the time needed to put Trump himself in jail.

I understand there is no end game - the idea is to dodge jail time for as long as possible and to dupe as many "Real Americans" for as long as possible but the above dynamic remains in place. The time to choose between Trump's own foreskin and Putin's interest is coming.

Can something be done to shake up the Mueller probe during the lame duck session ... sure but at what cost? and to whom?

If GOP is expected to martyr itself to secure Trump's rear - that is a bizarre thing to expect of it. The GOP is only interested in Trump to the extent he helps re-elect them into office by duping the "core" but beyond that GOP has no interest in Trump.

Which brings me to Mitch McConnell - now that Trump has his majority in the Senate - he doesn't need McConnell anymore than he needed Sessions. It is difficult to see how McConnell will survive as speaker unless he does exactly Trump's bidding. And if that is what he does - how long can he stay out of jail? and what is the point of being Mitch McConnell if all you really are is Trump's bitch?

I think sensible portions of the US electorate have done what they can. Now it is up to the US national security establishment to do it's part.

* And now Whitaker is trying to walk back his own recusal statement. This is going fantastically well so far from him.

posted by maverick @ 12:49 PM