Mediaboss Marketing

A recent Office of Inspector General report from the Department of Homeland Security reads like a Charles Dickens novel in that it helps us to see the ghosts of Trump's past, present and future, each one bringing bad tidings.

A recent report helps us see the ghosts of Trump past, present and future, each one bringing bad tidings.

An April 26 report finding that former President Donald Trumps DHS diluted and delayed a 2020 intelligence report that told of Russias plans to aid Trumps re-election with propaganda casting doubts on candidate Joe Bidens health is more than just official confirmation of what has already been alleged by a whistleblower. Its added value is that it provides a window into what the intelligence community was like under Trump, what it might have been like if hed been re-elected and how it would likely operate in the event of a future Trump regime.

Prompted in part by that high-level whistleblowers assertions, the OIG investigated whether then acting Secretary Chad Wolf and his leadership team properly handled the drafting, approval and dissemination of a report revealing that Russias government had a propaganda strategy to denigrate candidate Bidens health. The report found that their treatment of the intelligence and analysis report was anything but proper under the standards of the intelligence community.

We found that DHS did not adequately follow its internal processes and comply with applicable policy standards and requirements when editing and disseminating an I&A [information and analysis] intelligence product regarding Russian interference with the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.

The OIG identified three significant problems. First, it cited DHS for altering the scope of its intelligence reporting for reasons that appear to be based in part on political considerations. Second, the OIG concluded that Wolf participated in the review process multiple times despite lacking any formal role in reviewing product. Third, it determined that delays and deviations put I&A at risk of creating a perception of politicization.

No kidding.

Essentially, certain higher-ups at DHS treated as toxic the intelligence reporting that Russia was going to support Trumps re-election by using its social media propaganda machine to malign Bidens mental health. According to the OIG findings, career intelligence analysts were told the revelations of Russian help must be held because, as the whistleblower told OIG, Wolf said it made the President look bad. A DHS executives notes reflect that Wolf stated in a meeting that the report "will hurt POTUS kill it per his authorities.

Suddenly, the OIG found, the report on Russias intentions was transformed into a draft with dubious claims that it was Trumps campaign that was being targeted, specifically, that Iran and China were trying to support Biden by questioning Trumps health. The OIG found that this alteration was misleading and inconsistent with intelligence information.

The original report, first conceptualized in the spring of 2020, wasnt fully disseminated until six months later on October 15, 2020, 18 days away from the election not with a bang but with a whimper. Thats because the report ultimately watered down the solid intelligence that Russia would help Trump by targeting Biden, by inserting the notion not fully vetted -- that Iran and China might help Biden by targeting Trump.

The OIGs report confirmed what we already knew: Trump disdained and distrusted the intelligence community, even when it meant siding with our adversaries, and he appointed a string of unqualified, but loyal "acting" officials so they could protect his interests but avoid the scrutiny that comes with the Senate confirmation process. As an acting secretary at DHS for more than a year, Chad Wolf was a poster child of an unaccountable lackey. Thats how the OIG report gives us insight into the ghost of the Trump administrations past. But it offers a picture of what a Trump present might have looked like had he won the election, and foretells what a future Trump administration would look like particularly regarding Russia, the U.S. intelligence community and the battle for Ukraine.

The report confirms what we already knew: Trump disdained and distrusted the intelligence community, even when it meant siding with our adversaries.

Under President Biden, weve seen the opposite of intelligence suppression. In fact, theres been an unprecedented public disclosure of intelligence as a strategy against Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin, and in support of a democratic Ukraine. Bidens reliance on U.S. intelligence has allowed Ukraine and the world to better understand the peril posed by Putin. And, in the interest of freedom and democracy, Biden has promised even more American intelligence sharing with Ukraine moving forward.

The OIG report prompts us to imagine what a present Trump administration might do to defend or not defend Ukraine against Russia. Despite the alleged war crimes perpetrated by Russia in Ukraine, Trump continues to brag of his enduring bond with Putin. If he were still president, would we see the kind of skillful and strategic intelligence collection and disclosures Biden is executing in support of Ukraine? That's unlikely. Might we instead see Trump share with Putin intelligence about Ukraines plans and vulnerabilities? We cant discount that possibility. Hes disclosed highly classified intelligence to the Russians, at the expense of an ally, before.

In the OIG report, we also see the ghost of a Trump future, that is, a second term of even more sinister sycophants primed to pervert the intelligence process for political purposes. The OIG report contains one seemingly simple recommendation: Improve the review and dissemination process for election related intelligence products. The report reflects that the Biden administration concurs with this recommendation, and it has 30 days to implement it.

Would a new Trump administration honor such improvements to the intelligence process? Would they even read the OIG findings? More than likely, wed be faced with an even greater contrast between the Biden and the Trump approaches to intelligence. A contrast that is reminiscent of yet another Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities. Because for our intelligence community, depending on whos running the Oval Office, it can be the best of times or the worst of times. It can be the season of Light or the season of Darkness.

Frank Figliuzzi is an MSNBC columnist anda national security contributor for NBC News and MSNBC. He was the assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, where he served 25 years as a special agent and directed all espionage investigations across the government. He is the author of "The FBI Way: Inside the Bureau's Code of Excellence."

Read this article:
Watchdog report shows just how bad another Trump term would be - MSNBC

Karine Jean-Pierre has occasionally filled in for Psaki at the podium.Andrew Harnik/AP

Karine Jean-Pierre will take over as White House press secretary, Biden announced Thursday.

Jean-Pierre will be the first Black and openly gay White House press secretary in US history.

The Haitian-American immigrant has worked for the Obama and Harris presidential campaigns.

Karine Jean-Pierre will make history in coming weeks as the first-ever Black and first openly gay person to serve as White House press secretary, but she's been making her mark in Washington, DC, for years.

President Joe Biden announced Thursday that Jean-Pierre, the current deputy White House press secretary, will take over the role after Jen Psaki steps down on May 13 to reportedly take on a job at MSNBC.

Jean-Pierre worked for former President Barack Obama and the Biden-Harris presidential campaign, and taught at Columbia University as a lecturer. Jean-Pierre was also a "top candidate" being considered for the press secretary role last year, but the job ultimately went to Psaki.

Jean-Pierre was born in 1977 on the island of Martinique to Haitian parents. She later grew up in the borough of Queens in New York City after moving there at 5 years old.

Jean-Pierre has spoken about how her parents her father a cab driver and mother a home health aide and her immigrant background have inspired her politics.

"Growing up in an immigrant household really defined me. It taught me to work hard," she said of her family during an interview for MoveOn.

Jean-Pierre also said when she told her parents she was going to work for then-President Obama her parents said she was "changing the world."

She earned her bachelor's degree from the New York Institute for Technology in 1997 and went on to graduate from Columbia University in 2003 with a Master's of Public Affairs.

The 44-year-old came out as a lesbian at the age of 16 and has written about the experience on Twitter.

Story continues

"I came out to my Mom when I was 16 years old," Jean-Pierre wrote. "The revolted look on her face sent me running back into the proverbial closet and slamming the door shut. After that, my sexuality became a family secret and it would stay that way for years."

Jean-Pierre said her mom eventually came around and is "proud" of her.

She is raising a daughter, Soleil, with her partner, Suzanne Malveaux, a CNN correspondent.

Jean-Pierre has also spoken about how her gender and sexuality affect her career in politics, which she refers to as a "boys' club," in her memoir "Moving Forward: A Story of Hope, Hard Work and the Promise of America."

Jean-Pierre has been open about her criticisms of former President Donald Trump, including his implementation of a travel ban for Muslim-majority countries.

"I am everything that Donald Trump hates," Jean-Pierre said in 2018. "I'm a black woman. I'm gay. I am a mom. Both my parents were born in Haiti, and they came here for the American dream."

In 2018, after Trump referred to a handful of countries as "shithole countries," Jean-Pierre called him out during a speech at the University of Michigan, saying she was tired of his "immigrant bashing" and "homophobia."

"The President of the United States called the land of my ancestors, the land of my heritage, the land of my parents, an s-hole. And ironically 24 hours after he made those racist remarks, he signed a proclamation to honor Dr. King."

Jean-Pierre began her career at the Center for Community and Corporate Ethics. Throughout her professional life, she has worked for the ACLU, as a political analyst for MSNBC and NBC, as chief public affairs officer for MoveOn, and as a lecturer at Columbia University.

She's also had a career steeped in politics. She worked on a number of presidential campaigns, including Martin O' Malley, Obama, and Vice President Kamala Harris. She also worked at the White House Office of Political Affairs during the Obama administration.

As deputy press secretary for Biden, she became the first openly gay and second Black woman to ever hold a White House press briefing in May 2021.

"I think if you are passionate about what you want to be or where you want to go and you work very hard to that goal, it will happen," Jean-Pierre said Thursday during the press briefing announcing her promotion. "And, yes, you'll be knocked down and you'll have some tough times. And it won't be easy all the time, but the rewards are pretty amazing, especially if you stay true to yourself."

Read the original article on Business Insider

See the article here:
Who is Karine Jean-Pierre, the soon-to-be White House press secretary who called herself 'everything that Donald Trump hates' - Yahoo News

Piers, we have a problem.

I was standing inside the gilded confines of President Donald Trumps exclusive Mar-a-Lago private members resort in Palm Beach, Florida, and one of my production team was brandishing a document with a concerned look on his face.

Whats that? I asked, bemused.

This is a collection of quotes youve apparently said about President Trump in the past two years. Someone sent it to him in the last hour, and the quotes are not good. In fact, theyre really bad.

I was due to start an interview with Trump in precisely eight minutes, and it was intended to be a blockbuster exclusive to rocket-launch my new global TV show, Piers Morgan Uncensored, on Monday, April 25.

My four-camera crew were all set up in a palatial bar, I was suited, booted, made up and had been exchanging cordial small talk with Secret Service agents designated to ensure we behaved ourselves.

But as I hurriedly scanned the three-page white paper document, my heart sank.

There were several dozen comments from me, taken from columns Id written and interviews Id given, in which I was savagely critical of Trumps conduct in the last year of his presidency, from his woeful handling of the coronavirus pandemic to his refusal to accept defeat in the 2020 election, and the appalling January 6 riot at the Capitol that followed.

Whoever sent it knew exactly what they were doing.

These were by far the worst things Id ever said about a man with whom Id been friends for 15 years, but I felt they were justified when I said them, and I still do now.

In the suddenly very chilly light of a sun-kissed Florida afternoon, however, they made distinctly unhelpful reading.

Is he going to cancel the interview? I asked, trying not to panic.

I dont know, came the reply. But he is VERY upset.

See if I can go and talk to him about it, I suggested.

Twenty minutes later, I was sitting in Trumps office.

Normally, hed greet me with a cheery smile and the words, Hows my champ?, because I was his first Celebrity Apprentice on the series that made him a TV superstar.

But this time, there were no such welcoming niceties.

He was staring at me across his desk with undisguised fury, clutching the document titled Piers Morgan Comments About President Trump.

What the fk IS this? he snarled.

Then he began slowly reading out some of the quotes.

Trumps a supreme narcissist

Pause.

His pathetic antics in the past few weeks since losing the election in November have been utterly contemptible.

Pause.

Trumps now too dangerous, hes morphed into a monster that I no longer recognize as someone I considered to be a friend and thought I knew.

Pause.

Hes now acting like a Mafia mob boss.

Pause.

And all because Donalds stupendous ego couldnt accept losing and sent him nuts.

Each time he paused, he peered over the document at me, with mounting rage in his eyes.

When I won Trumps Celebrity Apprentice show in 2008, his final words to me as he announced the result were: Piers, youre a vicious guy. Ive seen it. Youre tough. Youre smart. Youre probably brilliant. Im not sure. Youre certainly not diplomatic. But you did an amazing job. And you beat the hell out of everybody youre the Celebrity Apprentice.

When he won the 2016 election, I returned the favor by sending him a card saying: Well, Donald, youre a vicious guy. Ive seen it. Youre tough. Youre smart. Youre probably brilliant. Im not sure. Youre certainly not diplomatic. But you did an amazing job. And you beat the hell out of everybody youre the President of the United States.

So we had a reasonable understanding of each others personalities, good and bad.

And it wasnt like wed never had a spat.

He unfollowed me on Twitter (he only followed around 50 accounts at the time, so this didnt go unnoticed!) in April 2020 after hed proposed using household disinfectant to fight COVID, and Id hammered him in a column for spreading batst crazy coronavirus cure theories.

But a few months later, he called me for a lengthy chat before the election and chuckled about how mean and nasty Id been about him, so I mistakenly assumed he didnt really mind me verbally whacking him from time to time.

Wrong!

Id never seen him so livid or felt so uncomfortable in his presence as I did right now in his office.

He was almost foaming at the mouth and kept shaking his head slowly and menacingly at me, like Don Corleone when he felt hed been disrespected.

There was no point in trying to deny the quotes.

Id said them, and Id meant them.

Ive always been critical of you when Ive felt you deserved it, I eventually said, but as you know, Ive also written and said many supportive things about you too. This is a one-sided hatchet job designed to stop you doing our interview.

Its definitely a hatchet job, he retorted, ON ME!

Then he read another line: January 7, 2021 President Trump needs to be removed from office. As soon as possible through new emergency articles of impeachment, which would have the additional benefit of barring him from ever running for the presidency again.

REMOVED FROM OFFICE?! he spat. BARRED FROM EVER RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT AGAIN?!

Then he threw down the document and threw me a look of withering contempt.

I thought we were friends? he shouted. This is so disloyal! After all Ive done for you? Why would you say all this about me?

I thought what you did was wrong, I replied, feeling myself beginning to sweat.

This wasnt going well.

It looked for sure like Trump was about to can the interview, which would have been a massive waste of time and money for me and our team and leave me an even more massive hole for the first show.

I was desperately thinking of some way to salvage things.

I dont intend our interview to be confrontational, I said. A lot of time has passed since I said those things, and a lot has happened in the meantime.

Why should I do it at all? he scoffed. Youre not real. Youre a fake.

No, Im just brutally honest.

DIS-honest!

You didnt make me your Celebrity Apprentice because Im a shrinking violet who sits on the fence or doesnt say what he really thinks.

We stared at each other for a few seconds, his eyes boring into mine with all the warmth of an Arctic glacier.

It was time to change the mood music.

Id love to talk about your recent golf hole-in-one, I stammered. Your playing partner Ernie Els was raving about it.

Trump sat bolt upright.

He was? Where?

In a newspaper interview I read. He said it was a brilliant shot and you played really well.

I did, I did.

Was that your first hole-in-one?

No! Ive had seven!

Seven?

This claim seemed highly implausible. (Im a keen golfer and only had one. Most amateurs havent even had that.) But this wasnt a good moment to fact-check him about his sporting prowess.

Amazing, I replied. Congrats!

Suddenly, Trump clapped his hands.

OK, I guess Ill still do the interview. I dont know why, honestly, but Ill see you down there.

My extremely fractious audience was over, and I felt a huge wave of relief as I headed back to my team.

How was he? asked my executive producer, Winnie Dunbar-Nelson, whod flown from London to oversee the interview.

Hes very annoyed, I said, more annoyed than Ive ever seen him. Spitting blood, in fact. But hes going to do it.

Ten minutes later, President Trump arrived in the interview room, and acted like nothing had happened as we posed for smiling photos together. He was even charm personified to Winnie, whom he remembered from three previous presidential interviews wed taped for my old show, Good Morning Britain, in Davos, onboard Air Force One and inside the Churchill War Rooms.

But I could sense he was still very wound up, and there was none of the usual bonhomie between us that I was used to in our many previous encounters.

Id been promised 20 minutes and feared he would cut that down to punish me.

But in the end, I got 75 minutes, by far the longest time Id ever had with him on camera, and it was a fascinating, often riveting, sometimes hilarious series of exchanges with arguably the worlds most famous person as we talked about everything from Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un and nuclear weapons, to the royals, transgender athletes, Twitter and Joe Biden.

For the first hour or so, it was a perfectly normal interview, and we even shared a few laughs.

Trump displayed the extremely forthright style and brash humor that first propelled him into the White House, and certainly showed no sign of losing any of his fabled energy.

I also agreed with him about a number of issues, as I have done in the past.

Ive never been tribal or partisan about Trump of the 100 or so columns I wrote about him during his presidency, around half were positive, half negative.

But things took a dramatic downward turn when I finally brought up his refusal to accept defeat in 2020 and the appalling scenes on January 6.

I told him I believe he lost the supposedly rigged, stolen election, I repeatedly pointed out his failure to produce any evidence of the widespread voter fraud he insists occurred to rob him of his presidency, and I blamed his refusal to admit defeat for the deadly riots at the Capitol.

Then youre a FOOL! he sneered. And you havent studied!

He was back to the furious Trump hed been in his office and branded me a fool six more times, in between calling Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stupid, and his former vice president, Mike Pence, foolish and weak.

Our collective crime was that none of us agree he had the election stolen.

Now abandoning any pretense at cordiality, Trump ranted that he was far more honest than I, and again sneered that I wasnt real before haranguing me for exceeding our 20 minutes, which was particularly disingenuous given that during all our previous interviews, hed invariably decided exactly how long he wanted to keep talking.

As he bellowed insults at me for disbelieving his rigged-election bullst, it reminded me of the scene in A Few Good Men where Jack Nicholsons arrogant, deluded Colonel Jessup calls Tom Cruises military lawyer, Lt. Kaffee, a snotty little bastard for grilling him about ordering a deadly Code Red punishment on a Marine.

I want the truth, demands Kaffee.

YOU CANT HANDLE THE TRUTH! roars a contemptuous Jessup, before losing his rag, lecturing Kaffee about loyalty and honor, and then finally admitting his culpability.

I dont expect Trump to ever admit he lost the election fairly or confess to being responsible for the January 6 carnage.

Well never hear him say, Youre goddamn right I did! like Col. Jessup because, ironically, he cant handle the truth.

Incensed Trump tried to end things by declaring, Thats it! before I reminded him that we hadnt discussed his hole-in-one, which he then sat down again and did briefly before abruptly jumping to his feet, looking hateful, and barking at the shocked crew: TURN THE CAMERAS OFF!

Then he turned on his heel, and sloped angrily off through a side door, loudly muttering, SO dishonest

It wasnt a rhetorical observation.

Apparently, he was later heard denouncing me as a scumbag and saying he wished hed never done the interview.

But I thought it was the best one weve ever done together, and all the tension created by the damning document he was given gave it a crackle and energy that makes for compelling television.

As for who sent him the document in the first place, Trump told me it came from London and gave it to me to keep as souvenir of your treachery.

Mysteriously, it contains two random, very positive comparative quotes from British politician Nigel Farage, who now works as a presenter for my rival UK network GB News.

Oh, and by an extraordinary coincidence, Farage happened to have dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on April 8, just three days before I was there.

See more here:
How all hell broke loose after my fiery showdown with Trump over his stolen election claims - New York Post

That gap of information looms as the House panel works to finalize a minute-by-minute account of Trumps actions on Jan. 6, when he pushed Pence to prevent the transfer of power to Biden. Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) has remained publicly undecided about whether to seek testimony from Pence himself, noting that Pences closest advisers have cooperated fulsomely. But investigators must also confront whether Pences side of that conversation for which no Pence advisers were present is significant enough to ask him to fill in the blanks.

Its unlikely the committee will attempt to force Pence to testify. There are imposing legal obstacles for subpoenaing a former vice president, and the panel considers Pence a witness, not a target of their probe. Whether they ask for his voluntary help is another question.

An hour after the call, Pence would publicly declare what hed privately told Trump for weeks: He would not assert unprecedented power to overturn the election. Barring some unforeseen twist, Joe Biden would be the next president. Aides who had been working all morning to finalize Pences statement delayed it to give Trump a chance to address his supporters, but the decision had long been settled.

But Pences words to Trump could be significant as congressional and criminal probes of Jan. 6 advance. A federal judge has concluded that Trump more likely than not criminally conspired to obstruct Congress proceedings to finalize Bidens victory. He described Trumps pressure campaign against Pence as a coup in search of a legal theory. The select committee has also argued that Trump committed multiple crimes as he leaned on Pence to subvert the election.

Jan. 6 call logs obtained by the select committee, revealed last month by The Washington Post and CBS, show that Trump first tried to reach Pence at 9:02 a.m. But the two men did not connect. The operator, according to those call logs, left a message at 9:15 a.m. Trump had already twice tweeted that morning that Pence had the power to stop Congress from finalizing Bidens victory.

The logs dont reflect Trumps subsequent call with Pence, but a private schedule investigators obtained from the National Archives suggests the two men connected at 11:20 a.m. while Pence was in his residence and Trump was in the Oval Office. Pences chief of staff Marc Short and chief counsel Greg Jacob told the select committee that they remembered Pence receiving the call from Trump at about that time.

[A]t some point during our meeting a military aide knocked on the door and said the President was holding for the Vice President, at which point he excused himself to take the call, Short recalled.

How long was he gone? a committee attorney asked.

My best guess would be 15, 20 minutes, Short replied.

Upon his return, did he share any details of the conversation with you? the investigator asked.

No, Short said.

Jacob also recalled that Pence left the room to take Trumps call and agreed Pence didnt brief them on it when he came back.

The Vice Presidents rule was never to divulge the contents of his conversations with the President, Jacob testified.

Shortly after hanging up, Pence traveled to the Capitol to preside over the joint session of Congress.

Pences apparent privacy hasnt stopped accounts of the call from emerging. Theyve just all come from people who only heard Trumps side of it.

The same private schedule showing Trumps call with Pence also reveals who entered the Oval Office just minutes earlier, a group that appeared to be present while Trump made his final push to pressure his vice president. The list includes Trumps adult children Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric, as well as Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Jr.s then-girlfriend. Also in the room were White House aide Keith Kellogg, chief of staff Mark Meadows and counsel Eric Herschmann. Kellogg, who testified to the select committee, said he recalled seeing Eric Trumps wife, Lara, in the vicinity, though shes not listed on the schedule.

Multiple people familiar with the testimony given to the select committee about the call offered a consistent account. One of those people granted anonymity to speak candidly said witnesses described the conversation as beginning relatively pleasantly, with Trump embracing the legal advice he was given about Pences ability to send the election back to the states.

Although people in the Oval Office couldnt hear him, Pence had clearly rejected Trumps entreaties, the person indicated. Witnesses have said listeners in the room were surprised because it was the first time they recalled Pence saying no to Trump. The call deteriorated and Trump grew frustrated.

A portion of Kelloggs testimony has become public in court filings and provided a similar recollection of Trumps side of the phone call. Kellogg said he couldnt hear Pences responses but remembered Trump pushing his vice president to embrace a fringe theory intended to stop Bidens victory: sending the election back to a handful of GOP-controlled state legislatures to appoint new presidential electors.

Kellogg said he presumed Pence rebuffed Trump because Trump seemed disappointed. He recalled Trump saying something to the effect of: Youre not tough enough to make the call.

I would say [he] was frustrated, Kellogg told the committee. He hung up. And after he hung up, we went right back to speech prep. He didnt get up, walk out, yell, throw things. He just said okay and went back to the speech discussion.

Kellogg also told the select committee that Ivanka Trump turned to him at the close of the call and said, Mike Pence is a good man.

Importantly, Ivanka Trump, Guilfoyle and Herschmann, the former Trump White House lawyer, have all recently testified to the select committee and were likely asked about their recollection of the call. Aides to all three did not respond to requests for comment.

But a harsher version of the exchange described by Kellogg has emerged in books and news reports.

You can either go down in history as a patriot or you can go down in history as a pussy, Trump said, according to an account reported by The New York Times days after the Jan. 6 attack.

Months later, Trump told ABC that he wouldnt dispute the Times account. I also said You can be Thomas Jefferson or you can be no Thomas Jefferson, and you turned out to be no Thomas Jefferson, Trump recalled to ABC.

The book Peril, by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, describes some of Pences pushback on the call, quoting him as telling Trump, Ill do my job. The comment reportedly prompted furious pushback from Trump.

The select committee has used those books as a rough guide for questioning witnesses, looking to confirm reported details. But its unclear whether the panel has collected more details on Pences final words to Trump that day.

Shortly after they hung up, Trump traveled to the Ellipse to deliver his remarks to the Stop the Steal rally he assembled in Washington to pressure Pence and Congress. He told the crowd that he had just spoken to Pence, whom he referenced a dozen times in his speech.

All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify and we become president and you are the happiest people, Trump told the crowd.

I just spoke to Mike. I said, Mike, that doesnt take courage. What takes courage is to do nothing. That takes courage. And then were stuck with a president who lost the election by a lot and we have to live with that for four more years, Trump continued. Were just not going to let that happen.

Here is the original post:
Jan. 6 panel piecing together details of final Trump-Pence call - POLITICO

At first blush, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich appears to be the kind of Republican whom Donald Trump should love. Brnovich not only routinely offers gushing praise for the former president, the conservative Arizonan even looked the other way when presented with evidence of potential crimes related to the pro-Trump fake electors scheme.

But as hard as Brnovich tries to stay in the former presidents good graces, especially as his U.S. Senate campaign continues, the more the state attorney general falls short. For example, Trump issued this written statement this week:

Attorney General Brnovich of Arizona was given massive information on the fraud and so-called irregularities that took place in the 2020 Presidential Election.... [R]ather than go after the people that committed these election crimes, it looks like he is just going to kick the can down the road and stay in that middle path of non-controversy. He wants to be politically correct.

Trump went on to say in the written statement that unnamed people are upset with Brnovich for not pursuing election conspiracy theories. The former president, his idiosyncratic approach to grammatical rules intact, concluded, The good news is Arizona has some very good people running for election to the U.S. Senate. I will be making an Endorsement in the not too distant future!

The implication, of course, was that Trump does not see the state attorney general as among the very good people.

Brnovich responded to Trump yesterday with a statement of his own that read in part, I understand his frustration, but as Ive said previously, I will continue to follow the facts and evidence and do what the law requires. Thats what Ive always done and what I will do as Arizonas next senator.

To be sure, there are several intra-party fissures in Republican politics right now, but its worth appreciating what makes this one among the most amazing.

Circling back to our earlier coverage, Brnovich is clearly in a politically tricky position. On the one hand, hes a Republican U.S. Senate candidate in a crowded primary, and hes eager to impress Trump and his partys far-right base.

On the other hand, Brnovich is also Arizonas top law enforcement official, whos faced intense lobbying from the former president to help with the partys crusade against the 2020 election.

The more Brnovich boosts Trumps Big Lie, the more its likely to help his statewide campaign. The more he uses his office responsibly, and sidesteps ridiculous conspiracy theories, the more he risks being seen as a villain by the former president and his followers.

Its why, as Politico recently put it, Brnovich is effectively caught in a vice.

With this in mind, Trumps pressure campaign has been painfully overt. Indeed, as weve discussed, Trump has publicly criticized the state attorney general for not going far enough to kowtow to the former presidents anti-election nonsense. Trump even issued a written statement last year, saying Brnovich was nowhere to be found in helping spread ridiculous ideas about the 2020 race.

The lackluster Attorney General of Arizona, Mark Brnovich, has to get on the ball and catch up with the great Republican patriots in the Arizona State Senate, Trump added.

Last month, the former president went on to demand to know whether Brnovich would do the right thing. Soon after, Trump called on the state attorney general to take the matter to the next level. He also held a rally in Arizona in which he told supporters, in reference to Brnovich, I think hes going to do his job well find out.

Subtle it was not.

The trouble, of course, is that no matter how aggressive the former presidents lobbying becomes, the state attorney general cant create evidence that doesnt exist. NBC News reported a few weeks ago that Brnovich issued a report on his offices investigation into the 2020 race, and the findings showed no evidence of widespread voter fraud or irregularities.

This, naturally, enraged Trump, who believes the non-existent evidence in Arizona must exist because ... well, just because.

Indeed, the former president is so convinced that his own lies are true that hes come to an inescapable conclusion: Brnovich is disloyal for failing to pursue investigations based on the proof that definitely exists in Trumps overactive imagination.

In other words, Brnovich isnt quite corrupt enough for Trump, and the Arizonans career is likely to end as a result.

Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MSNBC political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics."

Read the original here:
Why Trump is lashing out at one of his own GOP allies in Arizona - MSNBC