Having seen every minute, I can attest that the sub committee hearing featuring Sally Yates and former DIA Director James Clapper was high quality educational tv. I am not going to re-litigate the whole hearing, the highlights have been ably covered by several other excellent diaries, but there are a couple of things that struck me yesterday that seem to have gone under the radar. Maybe that’s cuz I’m an idiot, but ere we go.
Trump is in trouble no matter which way you slice the “heads up” pie. In a press conference response at the time Mold Spice stated that the acting AG had come over to the White House to give the WH counsel a heads up that there may be some inaccuracies in what Flynn was saying, and leading other administration members to say. He went on to say that once Mcgahn got through with Yates, he immediately advised the President, whose only concern was whether or not there was a legal issue at stake.
OK, this looks like shit either way it actually worked out. We now know that this was not just a friendly “heads up” from Yates that Flynn might be telling an occasional Sunday fib to the media and the Veep, she gave a detailed report of what the FBI could confirm about Flynn, and the risk to not only the administration, but the country as a national security issue. If Spicer was simply trying to cover for Mcgahn, if McGahn had simply heard out Yates, and then never bothered to brief the President, what kind of judgement does Don Mcgahn have, not bringing a possible national security issue to the attention of the President? And if Mcgahn did brief Trump, and his only concern was whether or not the administrations ass could be hanging out for possible legal difficulties, what about his oath of office to defend the nation from all intruders, both foreign and domestic? And while this may not matter to the faithful Trombies, just like with Watergate, this is the kind of severe dysfunction in an administration that makes GOP lawmakers start to wonder about how defensible this Keystone Kops operation actually is.
Next, as much as he would like to wish and tweet this away, it’s only going to get worse for Trump. In response to several questions from Senators, both Clapper and Yates declined to answer due to “classified information” or more importantly, the possibility of impacting “the investigation” or an “ongoing investigation”. It was noted that in one question, Clapper replied that he was unaware of any information, while Yates declined to respond due to “the investigation”. If the FBI is playing their hand so close to their vest that they didn’t even brief the DNI on certain information, then the Deputy DA is not going to get any information either. But it is clear that this investigation is continuing, and Trump is in the dark as to where it’s going or how serious it is. Especially since former Director Clapper sank the hearts of the GOP Senators when he responded that there were no Trump-Russia business connections that were relevant to the final report that was issued, but when pressed admitted that there were business dealings that raised concerns at another level, in an ongoing investigation. What level, the FBI investigation? Good thing that Trump doesn’t sleep much at night, this alone should keep him up.
Lastly, the GOP is boned on this thing. Clapper literally scolded the GOP Senators for trying to distract from the core issue of Russia’s current, and likely future interference with drivel about leaks and the unmasking of names. And Sally Yates threw it back in John Cornyn’s face when he tried to shame her for her Muslim Ban decision, reminding her that she did exactly what she promised him she would do in her confirmation hearing, standing up to the President over an unlawful EO. And she got a twofer with Cruz, first refusing to wander off into the weeds with him over the deceased equine of Hillary’s e-mail investigation, and then schooling him up on the US legal code on national television. What do you do if you’re the GOP, and you go into this already knowing that the witnesses you’re going to sidetrack or discredit already have all the answers, and not friendly answers for you?
Let’s face it my friends, when you have the Chairman of the sub committee, Lindsey Graham, going on “On the Record” with Greta to admit what a compelling and believable witness Sally Yates was, and how proud he was of her courage in going to the White House with her warning, You’re not on the most solid of ground, in fact you might already be up over your ankles in the tar.