Tuesday Reads: Flynn Resigns. Who Will Be Next?
Posted: February 14, 2017 Filed under: Foreign Affairs, morning reads, U.S. Politics | Tags: Donald Trump, Michael Flynn, Russia 68 Comments
Michael Flynn leaves WH after ResignationGood Morning!!
Good Morning!!
Chaos has become our day-to-day reality. Every morning I wake up to more insanity in the news. Yesterday it was tRump conducting national security discussions in the middle of a public dining room using an unsecured cell phone (See Dakinikat’s Monday post). Now the pace of crazy has sped up even more–last night a 11PM I got a call from Dakinikat telling me Michael Flynn had resigned (I was watching MSNBC and they didn’t have it yet). Of course I had to stay up late and watch all the talking heads spewing nonsense about it, and now it’s Tuesday morning and I’m exhausted. Will we ever return to normal?
I don’t care for Bill Maher, but he said something on his Friday night show that I totally agree with.
They say a week is a long time in politics. But for Bill Maher, the Trump administration “happens in dog years.”
“As always with Donald Trump, there’s just too much news to get to,” said the “Real Time” host on Friday’s broadcast of the show. “There’s so much fucking crazy, it’s like three weeks of Trump is like five years of Nixon.”
You can watch it at the HuffPo link above.
That is so true. It does feel like Watergate on steroids–but it’s happening so much faster, it’s hard to keep up. Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker at The Washington Post: Upheaval is now standard operating procedure inside the White House.
With President Trump in his fourth full week in office, the upheaval inside the administration that West Wing officials had optimistically dismissed as growing pains is now embedding itself as standard operating procedure.
Trump — distracted by political brushfires, often of his own making — has failed to fill such key posts as White House communications director, while sub-Cabinet positions across agencies and scores of ambassadorships around the globe still sit empty.
Upset about damaging leaks of his calls with world leaders and other national security information, Trump has ordered an internal investigation to find the leakers. Staffers, meanwhile, are so fearful of being accused of talking to the media that some have resorted to a secret chat app — Confide — that erases messages as soon as they’re read.
The chaos and competing factions that were a Trump trademark in business and campaigning now are starting to define his presidency, according to interviews with a dozen White House officials as well as other Republicans. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss internal White House dynamics and deliberations.
Some senior officials are worried about their own standing with the president, who through his casual conversations with friends and associates sometimes seems to hint that a shake-up could come at a moment’s notice.
Much more at the link.
Sean Spicer: Is he next?
Of course the Flynn resignation is only the beginning. Some in the media are arguing that Trump didn’t know about Flynn’s suggestions to the Russian ambassador that the tRump administration would weaken or remove the Obama administration sanctions. Come on. Trump undoubtedly order Flynn to make the calls. Here’s what Josh Marshall wrote late last night: The Wind is Sown.
As the Russia story submerged out of view in the first days of February, the Acting Attorney General had already warned the White House about Michael Flynn’s deceptions and susceptibility to blackmail. She was fired for refusing to enforce the immigration executive order days later. Though the White House now denies it, it seems that the President and his top advisors took no action in response to these warnings….
It appears that repeated efforts were made to apprise President Trump or those around him of the situation with Michael Flynn. When those warnings were ignored, people in the national security and law enforcement apparatus went instead to the press to get the word out that way….
This is not some ill-considered discussion by Michael Flynn. The role of Russia in the 2016 election and the President’s relationship to Russia has been the un-ignorable question hanging over President Trump for months. Flynn’s resignation does not come close to resolving it. It is highly likely that the Flynn/Russia channel was authorized by the President himself. There’s much more to come.
We need to brace ourselves. This is going to get really ugly.
Yes, the DOJ warned tRump about Flynn weeks ago. The Washington Post reports: Justice Department warned White House that Flynn could be vulnerable to Russian blackmail, officials say.
The acting attorney general informed the Trump White House late last month that she believed Michael Flynn had misled senior administration officials about the nature of his communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States, and warned that the national security adviser was potentially vulnerable to Russian blackmail, current and former U.S. officials said.
The message, delivered by Sally Q. Yates and a senior career national security official to the White House counsel, was prompted by concerns that Flynn, when asked about his calls and texts with the Russian diplomat, had told Vice President-elect Mike Pence and others that he had not discussed the Obama administration sanctions on Russia for its interference in the 2016 election, the officials said. It is unclear what the White House counsel, Donald McGahn, did with the information.
In the waning days of the Obama administration, James R. Clapper Jr., who was the director of national intelligence, and John Brennan, the CIA director at the time, shared Yates’s concerns and concurred with her recommendation to inform the Trump White House. They feared that “Flynn had put himself in a compromising position” and thought that Pence had a right to know that he had been misled, according to one of the officials, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.
A senior Trump administration official said before Flynn’s resignation that the White House was aware of the matter, adding that “we’ve been working on this for weeks.”
And check this out:
Yates, Clapper and Brennan argued for briefing the incoming administration so the new president could decide how to deal with the matter. The officials discussed options, including telling Pence, the incoming White House counsel, the incoming chief of staff or Trump himself.
FBI Director James B. Comey initially opposed notification, citing concerns that it could complicate the agency’s investigation.
Comey again! I think it’s time to start asking seriously whether Comey has also been compromised. Be sure to read the entire story if you haven’t already.
Politico has more White House leaks: Why Donald Trump let Michael Flynn go. Inside Donald Trump’s national security adviser’s final days in the White House.
Pence was unhappy with Flynn for not telling him the truth and told the president about his displeasure, a White House official said, but said he would accept whatever decision the president made.
Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, who is close with Steve Bannon, his strategist, was aware of the uncertainty about Flynn’s future and the concerns in Trump’s orbit but tried to telegraph on TV that the adviser wasn’t in trouble hoping the storm could pass, one person familiar with her thinking said.
“General Flynn does enjoy the full confidence of the president,” Conway said.
Her appearance created waves in Trump’s orbit, and Sean Spicer, Trump’s press secretary, who has expressed displeasure about Conway to associates, immediately put out a statement that seemed to contradict her.
“The president is evaluating the situation,” Spicer said soon after Conway’s remarks.
One person who frequently speaks to Trump said the president was reluctant to ditch Flynn because he doesn’t “like to fire people who are loyal.” Even Monday evening, Trump was still pondering the decision, the person said.
“He has this reputation of being a ‘you’re fired’ kind of guy, but he really didn’t want to have that conversation,” the person said.
Whatever. I don’t believe for one minute that tRump didn’t know exactly what Flynn was up to. And how is Russia reacting to the loss of Flynn–their good friend in the White House?
James Comey: how long will he last?
The Washington Post reports: Russian lawmakers rush to the defense of Trump’s ex-national security adviser.
MOSCOW — Leading Russian lawmakers rushed to defend President Trump’s former national security adviser on Tuesday after he resigned for misleading senior White House officials, including Vice President Pence, about his contacts with Russia.
The heads of the foreign affairs committees in both Russia’s upper and lower houses of parliament chalked up Michael Flynn’s resignation to a dark campaign of Russophobia in Washington, and said it would undermine relations between the White House and the Kremlin.
Konstantin Kosachev of the upper house wrote in a post on Faceboo
k that readiness for dialogue with Moscow was now seen in Washington as a “thoughtcrime,” a reference to the George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984.
“To force the resignation of the national security adviser for contacts with the Russian ambassador (normal diplomatic practice) is not even paranoia, but something immeasurably worse,” he wrote. “Either Trump has failed to gain his desired independence and is being cornered consistently (and not without success), or Russophobia has infected even the new administration, from top to bottom.”
Here’s one more “bombshell” for you from Raw Story: Michael Flynn may have used encryption to hide Russia talks from US.
Speaking to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Schiff explained that the Trump administration was not labeling allegations against Flynn as “fake news” because U.S. intelligence agencies may have audio recordings of him speaking to Russian officials while President Barack Obama was still in office.
“They know that if there is a transcript, if there are recordings, that can’t be dismissed,” Schiff said. “The fact that they would mislead the country about this is inexplicable.”
Is Reince next?
“What I think is interesting here, there are allegations — again, as yet unproven — that they may have also used encrypted communications,” he added. “Since Flynn was talking with the Russians, if he was using encrypted communications, it wasn’t to conceal it from the Russians. Then you have to ask, who were they concealing conversations from?”
According to Schiff, the allegations suggest that Flynn engaged in encrypted communications in addition to the un-encrypted discussions that were reportedly recorded by U.S. intelligence agencies.
“This is something that I think we need to determine as part of an investigation,” he said. “But if there were then the question is, why were those being used? Who were those conversations to be concealed from, why was it necessary to go to that if you were simply talking about Christmas greetings as Sean Spicer apparently misrepresented to the country?”
Wow. Who will be next to go? I imagine Mike Pence is happily waiting around until he gets to be POTUS.
I know I’ve only scratched the surface of the breaking news coming out of tRumpland. What are you hearing. What do you think. Let us know in the comment thread below.
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
mablue2
Mama Lopez
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
What bombshells will break today? My head is spinning.
Wow. Your comments from Schiff is the first I’ve heard /read about encrypted messages. All I have to say is WE ALREADY KNEW THAT THERE WAS SOMETHING ROTTEN GOING ON BETWEEN trump AND Putin. Thank you BB for a great post
There is enough smoke coming out of these fires that calls for investigations by congress as to the true nature of the “Russian connection”. My guess is that it won’t happen, or if it does it will short and swift and whitewashed. The GOP is party first over nation and they are not about to expose an illegitimate election won by an illegitimate member of their own party.
My belief is that Trump has been involved from the beginning. Flynn and Manafort acted as guides in how to respond. Deals were made, bargains were struck, promises agreed upon all with an eye on money through oil. I am convinced that blackmail was also used as a means of “influencing” President Stupid to get onboard.
The GOP must do its job or this nation is lost. Arctic drilling must not stand in the way of doing right by its citizens.
I will happen eventually. The ones who stick with Trump will go down with him.
I agree. This is going to be wide and deep and the GOP must be pretty frightened. Nunez, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee that should be investigating the Russian influence and how far it went, also ran T’s transition intelligence matters per Armandokos via twitter. That seems unsustainable. Maybe Peter Daou is right and the IC is buidling a case through leaks. But this isn’t going to be droppable.
Nunez is in the House. The Senate Intel Committee is investigating.
Thank you for the correction! That was my error, not Armando’s btw. Should have realized that. But my basic point still holds…that is an untenable conflict.
This is his third political operative/advisor to be fired for Russian connections. How can any one ignore the dots that can be clearly connected?
Precisely!
Dak, I was thinking precisely that this AM. How many pictures of these comrades shmoozing with Putin, and tapped phone calls, do we need? They’re in bed with the russies, republicans!
Yup, very well connected.
Pat, don’t forget Steve Bannon’s plan to change the world order. He and trump want to weaken, if not dissolve, the EU and NATO by pulling the US out to join Russia and any EU country that can be influenced to leave as the U.K. has done. trump will entice with similar trade deal he plans with the U.K.
Clearly, in a sane world their actions would void the election. But I imagined T’s planning sessions with Manafort, Flynn and others as T listening and then responding with a jumble of inarticulate noise and a simple ‘good plan’
He is indeed Bannon and their puppet – he hasn’t a clue what should be done
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He actually snarled out the pronoun “she.” Clearly, HE has done something a billion times worse than what Hillary did. Based on this rant, HE should turn in his sorry, traitorous ass to the authorities. Why do all 45’s supporters and associates seem certifiably demented?
Seeing that Comey is again sticking his dick in the ass of democracy…maybe Comey is tRump’s inside man and “handler”?
This shit is deep. I don’t think it is limited to people connected to tRump prior to 1/20 or the campaign. And I also don’t think for a minute that Pence didn’t know what was going on…
I bet many of the GOP jackoffs (Ryan, Turtle head, etc) and even the Dems are being blackmailed by Putin…somehow. He has something over them, and I wonder if we will ever see the real scope of this diseased administration.
With the republicans in control, the only one who could save our asses is the FBI, and we known what Comey did. We must force the FBI to show there hand. They must go after more than just Flynn.
Is this a domestic or a foreign issue or both? Shouldn’t an investigation be within the purview of the FBI, the CIA and the NSA and any other bunch of letters that can be put on the scent? Somewhere I also read there may be trump casino money laundering for the Russkies. Not sure how all that gets coordinated but if this is as massive as it seems (I think the NY FBI office needs fumigating while they are at it), it is going to need some serious teamwork. And unfortunately, a whole lot of time.
Yes, the FBI needs to come out, and let the America people know.
Yes, Adam Khan has uncovered a lot about the extensive money laundering, but there’s been little MSM coverage. And no FBI/CIA investigation.
Comey certainly acts as if someone with — or over — tRump has kompromat on him. How the hell much longer will he drag out his so-called investigation? That is, if he’s doing anything at all.
Happy Valentines Sky Dancers………..break some chocolate, and enjoy.
I already got into it. The shock and awe exercises are still going on in my neighborhood and I’m experiencing shell shock.
I can’t believe what’s happening in your neighborhood. W.T.F.!?
I know. It’s awful. I’m aching from all the adrenaline from jumping continually at the totally random sound of guns, flash grenades and cannons.
It’s audio and psychological warfare.
That’s insane.
I’m angry on your behalf Dak. I never liked firecrackers because it scares my pets so much.
I can’t imagine Dak, I’d be on the look out for what’s next?
Thread:
Oh, wunderbar! Of the 2 missile launching sites, only Volgograd in southern Russia is known.The missile range is 310 to 3,420 miles. The air distance between Volgograd and Berlin is a mere 1,377 miles. trump dislikes Merkel and hope she loses election in September.
Correction: …, only Volgograd in southern Russia is known. Its missile range is 310 to 3,420 miles.
trump dislikes Merkel and hopes she loses her election in September.
Or…coming up with an external “threat” so that the country would rally around the Trump administration? Is he trying to help Trump with this? That’s what I first thought when I read about it.
They’re remapping our strategies. This is game theory. They’re checking to see if State Department is functioning, NATO, and what the response is … They’re assessing the damage to these institutions done by Trump by testing then seeing responses and how they’ve changed.
Yes, I’ve read that Putin is challenging trump/us to see our responses for his next steps. He seems to be ratching things up for the spring 2018 Russian presidential election.
Dumbo has planned a Melbourne, Florida rally Saturday because he misses the love. He only looks after baby don.
For a break from the politics to enjoy part of what really makes America already great:
Lovely. Interior maybe taking a dig at tRump’s white supremacy, anti-LGBTQ agenda?
Last night TCM aired Inherit the Wind (Fredric March, Spencer Tracy – about the Scopes trial). Wonderful. Huge dig to fundamentalist Xtians who want to take over education, like Betsy DeVos.
RESIST YA’LL!
Nice to see the diversity of couples in that vid!
Thanks for that Luna, it was sweet!
‘Bout fell over when I saw this:
Surely this is just to whitewash it or provide cover. Chaffetz pushes my buttons (in a very bad way) like Comey and Conway – I cannot stand the sight of their faces.
“Oh Shit” Category:
Yup. Remapping our strategies to see how compromised we’ve become.
A few so-called violations, apparently….
Meanwhile, peaceful people get arrested:
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN15T307
Thankful for my Senators:
I’m so trying to get up there.
word has it that White House Mommy is leaving the building.
the just said he refollowed her … lol … weird.
Ya gotta excuse him — why, things are in chaos over there! New admin, ‘n’ all!
Not. Fit. For Office. Oh, except for the penis.
At this rate, Comey will come out with a report by about 2025.
We knew it. We. Were. Robbed.
https://twitter.com/LouiseMensch/status/831646393789984768
https://twitter.com/_erock/status/831732781617184768
Day 27 of the Treason Administration.
Trump’s been tweeting against the National Security agencies…
From Raw Story:
On top of treason, he is just fking insane.
https://twitter.com/Hayder_alKhoei/status/831850080785276932
Bannon is itching to set up a war with Iran, or with ISIS in that vicinity. The 7-nation refugee ban makes sense if thousands more middle-eastern civilians flee to any of these countries and attempt to come here. The meeting today with Netanyahu is a next step in this plan of gathering allies. Russia wants to return to the power stage and, with new cruise missiles, it may join the U.S.