CommentsTHE COHEN COLUMN-Never mind the man waving his arms behind the curtain, the White House now says. After telling us over and over that Trump's tweets are the most important channel of communication he's got, not sullied by the "filter" of the "lying" news media, now it's pay no attention when he insists on Twitter that his travel ban was always and forever will be a ban…a Muslim ban.
Yesterday, Joy Reid, who is filling in for Rachel Maddow, suggested that the Comey testimony hearing this Thursday would be a great occasion for grabbing some popcorn and jujubes. The only judges who have, in the minority, endorsed Trump's clearly religious discriminatory travel ban bought the argument that it was not really a ban, but rather a pause to allow time for better vetting, extreme style.
But Trump's latest tweet tantrum has cut the legs off of this argument. And also its arms. The reason why Trump has lost every court hearing so far is because the judges have assessed the intent of his
executive orders by considering his collateral statements. These latest statements demonstrate that the new Trump is just the old Trump lying about being a new Trump.
If there is any justice in the world, his case is now such a slam dunk loss, such a face plant, that Kellyanne Conway's own husband, himself in line for a top Justice Department position, actually got on Twitter to declare just that Trump was dooming his own attorneys.
We would not be surprised if Trump now lost 9-0 in the Supreme Court, though we will refrain from predicting that. In particular, Clarence Thomas has never met a reactionary argument he did not embrace.
If nothing else we will get a confirmation of which Supreme Court justices are intellectually corrupt beyond redemption -- we're talking to you, Gorsuch. And if not, then Trump can whine to Twitter about how all these judges up there are just stupid, dummy losers. In fact, he's already doing it.
Trump's tweets are not just a powerful way (in his mind) to connect with his supporters, as advertised and promoted. It is also a powerful way to tilt the Supreme Court against him, especially as Trump attacks the characters of the justices preemptively.
When there is no other "official" White House statement, and Trump drops a bunch of tweet bombs, this is his official statement, as Sean Spicer sheepishly affirmed on June 6.
There's probably serious discussion going on in the Solicitor General's office about whether they can get a gag order enforced on their own client. In fact, the latest report is that no top law firm in Washington will represent Trump (four have turned him down already) because they don't want Trump to make fools of them on Twitter, not to mention his lifelong deadbeat reputation.
And at the same time nobody can get Trump to say what he's supposed to say.
Our best and most faithful allies in Europe were stunned when Trump neglected to affirm adherence to NATO's Article 5 for collective defense, which has only been triggered one time before when these same countries fought and died for our defense after 9/11.
Guess who else was stunned? The speechwriter who wrote the speech and all the top cabinet members who signed off on it. It's being reported that those Article 5 words were in there, but somebody yanked them out at the last minute.
Who could have cut that part out without anyone else knowing? We wonder, who could it be? Somebody, like, oh we don't know…could it be Steve Bannon? Or maybe the Liar-in-Chief himself?
Wouldn't it be nice to have people representing us who were not biblically untrustworthy? Of course we do. So let’s make it happen. Pass the word: VOTE.
The answer is always to vote. No matter how cynical we get, Trump proves the rule.
Vote, Vote, Vote.
(Michael N. Cohen is a former board member of the Reseda Neighborhood Council, founding member of the LADWP Neighborhood Council Oversight Committee, founding member of LA Clean Sweep and occasional contributor to CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
