Demagogue Me with a Spoon
Requesting and/or accepting dirt from a foreign country is basically Potus operandi at the White House these days. When asked by George Stephanopoulos if he’d accept opposition research from those outside the US, Trump explained: “I think you might want to listen, there isn’t anything wrong with listening … If somebody called from a country, Norway, [and said] ‘we have information on your opponent’ — oh, I think I’d want to hear it.” (Me too. On OPPOsite Day.) When told that the FBI director said that anyone who receives an offer for such information should contact the agency immediately, Trump shot back: “The FBI director is wrong, because frankly it doesn’t happen like that in life.” Not in our current national life, anyway. As long as someone in this White House can accept such foreign assistance without any risk of penalty, we can expect that the behavior will be par for the course (and the course will be owned by the president, while the green fees, cart rental, and other associated costs will be picked up by American tax payers).
+ AP: “A federal watchdog agency recommended Thursday that President Donald Trump fire one of his most ardent defenders, counselor Kellyanne Conway, for repeatedly violating a law that limits political activity by government workers.” (The Justice Department will probably respond by investigating the watchdog…)