A Barrage of Political Deceit, Sleaze & Lies

A small, partial list, there is also: 
I will show my tax returns
Etc.

The last 24 hours has been amazing and disgusting on a grand scale. No president other than this one would survive. American conservative politics clearly has moved from merely tribal to personality cult tribal. The New York Times reports on moves by the president to subvert the Department of Homeland Security for his own political gain at the expense of America’s national security:

“WASHINGTON — Top officials with the Department of Homeland Security directed agency analysts to downplay threats from violent white supremacy and Russian election interference, a Homeland Security official said in a whistle-blower complaint released on Wednesday.

Brian Murphy, the former head of the Homeland Security Department’s intelligence branch, said in the complaint that he was ordered this spring by Chad F. Wolf, the acting secretary of the department, to stop producing assessments on Russian interference and focus instead on Iran and China. That request, Mr. Murphy said, was routed through Mr. Wolf from Robert C. O’Brien, the White House national security adviser.

Mr. Wolf later told him not to disseminate a report on a Russian disinformation campaign to denigrate Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s mental health because it “made the president look bad,” said Mr. Murphy, who warned that the actions in their totality threatened national security.

In other instances, the department’s second-highest ranked official, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, ordered Mr. Murphy to modify intelligence assessments to make the threat of white supremacy ‘appear less severe’ and include information on violent ‘left-wing’ groups and antifa, according to the complaint, which was filed on Tuesday but released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee.”

In a different article, the NYT reports that in taped interviews with reporter Bob Woodward, the president admitted that he lied to the American people about how severe the pandemic actually was. The president was aware of the threat in February, but kept lying about it until March:

“President Trump acknowledged to the journalist Bob Woodward that he knowingly played down the coronavirus earlier this year even though he was aware it was life-threatening and vastly more serious than the seasonal flu.

‘This is deadly stuff,’ Mr. Trump said on Feb. 7 in one of 18 interviews with Mr. Woodward for his coming book, “Rage.”

‘You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed,’ the president told Mr. Woodward in audio recordings made available on The Washington Post website. ‘And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flus.’

But three days after those remarks, Mr. Trump told the Fox Business anchor Trish Regan: ‘We’re in very good shape. We have 11 cases. And most of them are getting better very rapidly. I think they will all be better.’ A little less than two weeks later, he told reporters on the South Lawn that ‘we have it very much under control in this country.’”

The president claimed he lied to prevent a pubic panic. Regardless of his motive, very likely political self-interest, lies are lies and this batch of lies was not justified by the ‘public panic’ excuse. The ‘it was for the public’s own good’ is an excuse that politicians and rulers have used to justify lies when justification is needed. The historical records shows that very rarely are such lies justified.

In a third article, the NYT reports that postmaster General Louis DeJoy has hired a big gun GOP lobbyist to reach out to democrats in the House to try to get them to stop investigating his campaign finance felonies and his sabotage of the post office:

“Facing calls for his ouster by Democrats and a flurry of investigations on Capitol Hill, Mr. DeJoy informed postal officials that he had selected Peter Pastre, a former Republican congressional aide and insurance lobbyist, to act as a liaison for the agency with Congress and state and local governments, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The move came as the Postal Service was facing mounting political and operational crises. Mr. Trump has raised concerns about the security of voting by mail, and the independent quasi-governmental agency has struggled to overcome a delivery slowdown and a dire financial forecast — all while Democrats accuse Mr. DeJoy and the agency’s Republican-majority governing board of doing the president’s bidding.”

The AP describes Mr. DeJoy’s illegal campaign finance operation:

“Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is facing increased scrutiny as House Democrats investigate allegations that he encouraged employees at his former business to contribute to Republican candidates and then reimbursed them in the guise of bonuses, a violation of campaign finance laws. 

Five people who worked for DeJoy’s former company, New Breed Logistics, say they were urged by DeJoy’s aides or by DeJoy himself to write checks and attend fundraisers at his mansion in Greensboro, North Carolina, The Washington Post reported. Two former employees told the newspaper that DeJoy would later give bigger bonuses to reimburse for the contributions. 

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who chairs the oversight panel, said in a statement Tuesday that if the allegations about campaign finance violations are true, ‘DeJoy could face criminal exposure — not only for his actions in North Carolina, but also for lying to our Committee under oath.’”

As always, the president’s best people include liars and felons. This time the sleazeball is Mr. DeJoy and us taxpayers are going to pay for this sleazeball lobbyist to defend DeJoy.

An finally, the outrage among outrages, it turns out that us idiot taxpayers will be paying for our scumbag president’s legal defense in a sexual assault case brought by one of the president’s many sexual assault victims. The NYT writes: 

“The attorney general argued that the intervention was routine but did not say why the department waited 10 months to step in.

The White House asked the Justice Department to replace President Trump’s private lawyers to defend against a woman’s accusations that he defamed her last year in denying her claim that he sexually assaulted her a quarter-century ago, Attorney General William P. Barr said on Wednesday.

The Justice Department’s intervention in the lawsuit means that taxpayer money will be used to defend the president, and it threatens the continued viability of the case of the plaintiff, the author E. Jean Carroll.

Mr. Barr defended the decision to intervene, arguing that it was routine for the department to take over lawsuits against federal officials — substituting the government as the defendant.

‘This was a normal application of the law,’ Mr. Barr said during a news conference in Chicago. ‘The law is clear. It is done frequently. And the little tempest that is going on is largely because of the bizarre political environment in which we live.’”

As usual, our corrupt Attorney General Bill Barre is subverting justice and lying to the American people. There is nothing normal about this. The president hired Barr to protect him from the rule of law. President Clinton did not use the DoJ to defend himself for his colossal stupidity and crimes in office. Barr is, among some other bad things, a liar.

And that is today’s roundup of lies, deceit and sleaze that surrounds our president.