Attorney General Pam Bondi is claiming that in the first hundred days of this new Trump regime, agents have seized so many illegal fentanyl shipments that they've saved more than 75% of the U.S. population from a fentanyl-related death. I dunno about you but if any fentanyl came anywhere near me, I'd certainly be a dead man by now. Snopes explains.
I woke up this morning and almost my first thought was "I bet there will be fact-checks I can link to about Trump's speech yesterday on his tariffs." And sure enough, here's Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post and Daniel Dale of CNN covering a lot of the same ground.
I don't really think Trump is going to run for a third term. I kinda doubt he'll even finish out his second. I just think he says things — and their veracity doesn't matter one bit for his purposes — because he knows they'll thrill members of his hardcore base. Also of course, he has this "I can do anything I damn well want and no one can stop me" attitude about the world. Cut the clip from The Howard Stern Show where Trump says that because he owns beauty pageants, as he did at the time, he can walk into the dressing room when the contestants are naked.
The folks at U.S. News & World Report did a not-too-deep dive into the possibility of a third term happening.
Yesterday, I mentioned the possibility of Trump running as Vice-President to a cutout candidate who'd vow to immediately after taking office, resign and turn the Oval Office over to Donald. Based on my e-mail, I didn't do a good job of indicating that while that could be what Trump means when he says "There are ways of doing it," I don't think it would work — not now, not then even if by the next election, the Supreme Court consists of seven Clarence Thomas clones.
A few of you mentioned another way he might now think he could do it: Congress names him Speaker of the House and then the Republican ticket is two people who'd vow to step down right after taking office. That would, of course, depend on the G.O.P. having control of the House but even then, I don't think that would fly. It just might be one those "ways" he'll pretend makes him eternal.
By the way: This fact check I've linked to today is a strange one from the folks at U.S. News & World Report. At one point in it, they say — and this is actually in there; I cut-and-pasted it…
According to The Associated Press, the 12th Amendment states that "no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."
What kind of fact-checker fact-checks something like that by taking some other fact-checker's word for it? Did it ever occur to anyone at U.S. News & World Report to go to a better source? Like, say, looking at a copy of the United States Constitution?
I'm reading pieces online now by usually-sane leftists that say maybe we should start taking that threat seriously because, you know, there are things this man has done or achieved that we thought he could never do. If Trump were to announce he was going to flap his arms and fly to Saturn, they'd say, "I know it sounds crazy but that's what we all thought when he announced he was going to run for president." Me, I think he's saying it because he's always said he can do anything — you know, like his perfect health care plan or getting Mexico to pay for The Wall — and it gives his followers a thrill to think their kind will rule America forever.
In the same breaths, he's saying he's The Most Popular President Ever with a 70% approval rating — and we know that ain't true. Here's a review of what the various pollsters are actually saying.
He's saying "there's a way" he could do an end run around The Constitution and get a third term. The only thing I can think of is that he'd run as the Vice-Presidential candidate to some placeholder candidate who would promise to resign the day after Inauguration Day. I have no idea if that would work and I don't think we'll ever know because I don't even believe he's going to finish out this term…or that if he does, even his most fanatic supporter today will be chanting "Four more years" by then. I can think of a whole lotta things I'd worry about before I'd worry about Trump Term III…and he'd be responsible for most of them.
Last Friday, our 45th, 47th and perhaps last president gave a speech at the Justice Department that cried out for major league fact-checking. A team at The New York Times did the honors and there was a lot there to correct or clarify.
In addition to the Fact Check that CNN posted last night on Trump's speech to Congress, we have FactCheck.org fact-checking the speech, Politifact fact-checking the speech, The Washington Post fact-checking the speech, The Associated Press fact-checking the speech, N.P.R. fact-checking the speech, The New York Times fact-checking the speech, The B.B.C. fact-checking the speech, NBC News fact-checking the speech, ABC News fact-checking the speech, CBS News fact-checking the speech, Steve Benen over at The Maddow Blog fact-checking the speech, The Guardian fact-checking the speech, Al Jazeera fact-checking the speech…and there are probably a few others I missed.
Interesting how much these different journalists agreed upon, how many some of them missed that others caught…and how little truth matters to low-income people who think President Trump is going to make their lives better.
Last Saturday, that president of ours spoke to the friendliest audience he could possibly have — at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Still, he said an awful lot of things that were demonstrably false. Daniel Dale goes down a long list of them.
So now the man is claiming that his approval rating is at 71% or at least 69% and no one can find such a poll except maybe around Sean Hannity's dinner table. No one can even find a poll where Trump's approval rating is as high as his disapproval rating. The Huffington Post has more on this but what I'd love to know is if he's saying this because he actually believes it. Are aides telling him what he wants to hear?
Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post goes over what the occupant of the Oval Office has recently said about Ukraine and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He then compares it to the truth. Even Mike Pence ain't buying it.
I know very little about baseball. The last time I went to a Dodgers game, Sandy Koufax was on the mound. But I do know that Pete Rose had an incredible career that came to an unseemly halt in 1989 when he was found to have been wagering on games — a big no-no for professional athletes. Then two years later, he received a lifetime suspension from being considered for the Hall of Fame. (To be honest, I had to go look up the exact years but I knew the rest of what I just typed.)
I also know that he spent his remaining years apologizing and begging and doing everything he could to get into the Hall of Fame and he was repeatedly turned down. In case you're wondering, Rod Carew — whose record was such that he shared the above baseball card with Rose — was inducted in 1991.
And I know one little thing that Mr. Rose did in his later years beyond petitioning to get into the Hall of Fame. In Las Vegas, there is or was a sports memorabilia shop located along a walkway of stores between the Luxor hotel and the Mandalay Bay hotel. One year, a decade or three ago, I spent a lot of time in Vegas and often had to walk down that row of shops and Pete Rose always seemed to be there signing autographs for what I suspect was a substantial fee.
One day, I had some time to kill so I browsed that shop finding absolutely nothing I would ever buy but I was fascinated to eavesdrop for a while on conversations Mr. Rose was having with a rather steady line of people who came by to meet him and buy something on which he would write his name. He was very nice to those folks and why wouldn't he be? They were telling him what a great ball player he'd been and how unfair it was that he was not in the Hall of Fame. Oh — and they were paying him an awful lot of money. Godzilla would be all buddy-buddy with you if you were forking over that kind of dough for his autograph.
I'm sure there are folks in and around baseball who think he did something against the rules and needed to pay the price for that. Okay, fine. But I couldn't listen to those chats for more than a few minutes without thinking, as Mssrs. Gilbert and Sullivan put it, that the punishment did not fit the crime.
Pete Rose was found dead at his home in Clark County, Nevada last Monday. He served out his "lifetime sentence" and now that that lifetime is over, it's time to give him whatever honor he deserved. We've had the public example of paying the price for doing wrong. It might be nice to now see a public example of the power of forgiveness.
Jonathan Chait explains why Donald Trump's latest economic proposals are just another part of the G.O.P. crusade to make sure that the richest people pay less tax and the poor and middle class pay more. 'Twas ever thus.
Steve Benen says that Trump wants business leaders who fail to support him to be fired. How does Benen know this? Because Trump wrote on Truth Social, "Business Executives and Shareholder Representatives should be 100% behind Donald Trump! Anybody that's not should be FIRED for incompetence!"
And Eileen Sullivan brings us the latest on Rudy Giuliani's crusade to see how much legal and financial trouble a man can be in at one time. Go, Rudy!
Philip Lacovara was once the deputy solicitor general of this country and president of the D.C. Bar and he has all sorts of other impressive credentials. He wrote this open letter to U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito about why it would be right and proper for Justice Alito to recuse himself from cases involving January 6 and the legitimacy of the last presidential election. Justice Alito probably won't read it and probably wouldn't do as suggested even if he did.
Kevin Drum explains that crime in this country is down. Those who wish to oust Joe Biden will never, of course, admit that.
Here is a link to Politico's rundown on all of the criminal cases against Donald J. Trump and where they currently stand. That man is still in — and will always be in — a heap o' trouble.
If I had to bet money — and I don't — I'd bet that Donald Trump will be found guilty in the Hush Money trial. And the main thing that makes me think that is that he obviously thinks that. He's ramping up his hysterical excuses about why the trial is rigged, unfair, a Witch Hunt, etc. He hasn't started attacking the jury yet because they haven't voted yet.
As I've suggested here, I'm skeptical of "analysis" of the current trial from folks who have never (a) set foot in that courtroom a lot and/or (b) passed the bar. So be skeptical of this post since I qualify in neither category.
So right now, we're kind of in the middle of the cross-examination of Michael Cohen and the Defense has probably convinced at least some members of the jury — or will soon convince them — that Michael Cohen is a man for whom "The Truth" is whatever statement Michael Cohen thinks will benefit Michael Cohen at the moment. Someone in that jury box might well be thinking, "Okay, that guy lied a lot and often because that was a job requirement of working for Trump, and maybe now he's learned his lesson and is coming clean." But I don't think anyone — juror or not — thinks Mr. Cohen is a pillar of honesty.
That may or may not matter. Most of what he has to say of substance has already been substantiated by others whose credibility is not so fragile. Then again, there was that jury in the first O.J. Simpson trial.
Much of what makes me think Trump will be found guilty is in the writings and interviews of George Conway, who is usually identified as a "conservative lawyer" to remind you that he is not reflexively on Trump's side and used to be a big Trump supporter married to the biggest Trump supporter. He's been putting out a newsletter that could be subtitled "Why Trump Is Heading For The Slammer" and you can read the latest installment of it here and sign up to have future ones sent to your e-mailbox.
And in the interest of hearing another view, here's a link to a column by attorney Stacy Schneider who once thought Trump would be found guilty but has now changed her mind. We link, you decide.
Following this case, it helps to remember that we're mostly getting our accounts from (a) reporters who were in the courtroom and (b) newsfolks in studios who are basing their views of what's going on in the courtroom by listening to reporters who were in the courtroom. And ultimately what matters will not be what either group thinks. What matters is what the ladies and gentlemen of the jury think.
All the accounts of the folks in the first two groups say it went well today for the prosecution, not so good for the defense. But this is direct testimony that has been more-or-less rehearsed. It's supposed to go well. The question is how things will go when they get around to cross-examination…but even then, we'll only get the perceptions of the folks in those two groups that don't count.
I have to keep reminding myself of these things. In the process, I may keep reminding you of these things.