I added a poll to the OP.
Have at it.
Brilliant. He is the best at the cyber, after all. I could see him installing Signal on his laptop and dropping his insider knowledge on the Grey Lady. Except for that there was no mention of how Trump won’t order the White House staff to stock the right flavour of juice box as one of the listed grievances.
The failing NYT actually identifies the author as a “senior official in the Trump administration” and not as a “senior White House official.”
So Huntsman (and Haley) are fair game.
(Re-reading the op-ed the author is fairly crafty about not revealing whether they’re located in the White House or not.)
Hopefully I didn’t miss this already being posted.
Mike Selinker has a theory on the writer.
The true option, that it is Donald Trump himself leaking it to distract public attention, is not in your poll.
The chance of Trump himself literally being the author of the op-ed is zero, though. A Trump-penned op-ed would read like Finnegans Wake for morons.
Why would the Times publish an op-ed by Trump pretending to be someone else? Did he somehow fool them? Did he say he’s John Barron, Senior Executive Vice Chairman of the White House?
Mike Pence is very pleased you’re all debating if it’s someone other than him.
Mike Pence doesn’t have the balls to write something like that even. Mother might, though.
If only. I think you give him too much credit. That is too smart of a plan to be executed so well.
Also, he didn’t sign the op ed as some stupid phony name. And it was all spelled correctly. I didn’t catch one bigly in there.
AFAIK every person (at least all the senior official) take the following oath.)
“I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.” 5 U.S.C. §3331
The Constitution not only establishes our system of government, it actually defines the work role for Federal employees – “to establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty.”
The concept of acting lawfully is also deeply ingrained in the military. I remember that in a ROTC class, on military ethics, we were taught you have to obey all lawful orders not all orders. The instructor a was former Minuteman missile commander. We earned that James R. Schlesinger, during the final year of Nixon, issued a directive that all military orders had to pass through him because he feared what cornered Nixon might do. I didn’t fully appreciate but instructor felt he had an obligation to question if Nixon had given the order to launch on Russia absent a congressional declaration of war, it was a lawful order.
IANAL, so I don’t know if their actions are breaking the law, but I do know that they can certainly use they were upholding their oath in defying Trump’s illegal order would be a defense
Speaking of Nixon, I happened to this article about roles by Nixon’s staff to defy orders by Nixon they thought were unlawful (Frankly, it seems much harder to convince yourself to reject Nixon’s order as unlawful, because Nixon was very smart and good lawyer with tons of government experience.) Trump is has none of those skills.
Going back to Cohn, it seems like his attempt to distract Trump from altering a trade agreement with South Korea (I think it was?) can’t be viewed, at least, as a good-faith attempt to prevent unlawful actions by the President – the order doesn’t sound unlawful as far as I can tell. Assassinating Assad is another matter, perhaps. (I know JFK used to try to off Castro, but I think there have been laws since then?)
Meanwhile, Rick Wilson’s thoughts…
I’m giving you half marks. You speak the truth we’ve seen reported since the start; Donald Trump is mentally, intellectually, and morally unfit to serve as President. His election was a repulsive historical lacuna in the long line of patriots from both parties to hold the highest office in the land. You’ve borne witness to his behavior, and claim a role in blocking actions even after President Trump utters his various mad-hatter declarations. Bravo for trying to keep the Gold Codes out of Trump’s wee little grippy paws so he doesn’t launch a nuclear war with Iceland.
For all that, you’re not getting any awards. You know what you’re doing in service to Trump is morally indefensible, but you’re trying to “But Gorsuch!” yourself out of the ethical sewer. That’s so Swamp.
I agree with that piece’s conclusions. The letter screams “I’m Presidential!” (Though, as many have pointed out, he loses all credit for spekaing truth to power by remaining anonymous.) Pence, it’s worth noting, was elected and is the least shitty person to be playing shadow President.
Anyway, if it’s not Pence it’s someone trying to make it look like it was Pence. We’ve all been second guessing this conclusion because it’s too obvious (and fucking insane.) But I still think Pence is the odds on favorite.
There is nothing in the constitution that gives the president power to conduct trade deals
The Congress shall have power…:To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes. Same thing about the President impose tariffs the constitution explicitly gives that right to Congress.
So I’d argue that any action by a staffer to prevent the president from exceeding his constitutional authority is not illegal. Although there may other laws he broke, so if took the paper from the president desk and took home that would theft of government property, filing under really bad ideas, that would be just fine.
That’s not how our democracy is supposed to work,” Obama said. “These people aren’t elected … They’re not doing us a favor by actively promoting 90% of the crazy stuff coming out of this White House and saying, ‘Don’t worry, we’re preventing the other 10%.’”
I like the way he phrased that. Especially the part about everything coming out of the White House atm being “crazy stuff”. But still, he does have a point. If employees working at the White House decide what’s right or wrong, instead of the elected government, that is somewhat worrying.
Yeah I think we all come into agreement around that.
This is bad.
This shouldn’t be how things work.
This is not the purview of unelected officials.
This may be better than letting the things they swipe happen.
This is bypassing the constitutional and legal process for such situations.
Anyone else kind if want Trump to go full on Trump, just to scare the shit out of Rank and File GOP members and show how bad it can be? I mean, short of actual war, that is.
I guess I feel like Trump is a virus, and by turning up the heat, we all get burned, but the virus gets destroyed.
Of course, that might not be the greatest idea in the world.
Well hell, no wonder we have so many wars… otherwise the president wouldn’t get to do anything!
Heh. Of course the constitution explicitly prohibits the president from declaring war.