How’s this for a puff piece obviously planted by the White House? The White House effort to fight impeachment isn’t completely dysfunctional, Politico reports. Like, wow, Donald Trump doesn’t hate Pat Cipollone, the current White House counsel, and therefore might have a competent attorney acting as his lead counsel during the Senate trial.
Trump is also—for the moment—listening to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell about what kind of trial is in his best interest. “We did nothing wrong. So, I’ll do long, or short. I’ve heard Mitch. I’ve heard Lindsey. I think they are very much in agreement on some concept,” Trump said Friday. “I’ll do whatever they want to do. It doesn't matter. I wouldn’t mind the long process, because I’d like to see the whistleblower, who’s a fraud.”
Cipollone and Director of Legislative Affairs Eric Ueland are in “total coordination” with McConnell, making frequent trips to Capitol Hill to plan how to circumvent the full impeachment process. And the White House has beefed up its communications efforts with Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general who declined to investigate Trump University after receiving a $25,000 campaign contribution from Trump, and former Treasury Department official Tony Sayegh.
Naturally, these efforts to try on basic competence for a change could all be undermined by a passing whim of Trump’s.