The Fusion GPS guys/NY Times:
The Business Deals That Could Imperil Trump
We pored over Donald Trump’s business records for well over a year, at least those records you can get without a badge or a subpoena. We also hired a former British intelligence official, Christopher Steele, to look into Mr. Trump’s possible ties to Russia. In that 2015-2016 investigation, sponsored first by a Republican client and then by Democrats, we found strong indications that companies affiliated with Mr. Trump, then a presidential candidate, might have been entangled in foreign corruption.
This gets at something well worth more discussion:
See also Scott’s extended discussion here.
Jules Witcover/Baltimore Sun:
His presidency in disarray, Trump lashes out at Comey
At stake here may be not just his presidency but his personal world as well: the high-level real-estate and business deals involving almost his entire family.
Mr. Trump's business model of personal deals of questionable legality and financial corner-cutting, and his domination of all in his grasp, have not seemed to be very effective to date in the unfamiliar realm of politics and governance. As these two investigations appear to be closing in on him, Mr. Trump increasingly resorts to hitting back, now taking on the law-enforcement apparatus — the Justice Department, the FBI, even the courts. This time, he may well be overmatched, as long as the basic concept that no man is above the law remains a cherished American belief.
One needn’t make an idol out of Comey (I’m still thinking he unwittingly threw the election out of political naivety) to appreciate that his memos are consistent with his book and the story he told.
Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes/Atlantic:
Bad News for President Trump
The Comey memos are more revealing than they seem.
The memos, on the whole, tell the same story as Comey told in his book. They tell the same story as he told in his congressional testimony last year. They corroborate these statements, often down to the level of the specific words spoken and the specific details reported. Notably, Comey did not have access to the memos while he was writing the book.
The truth is sticky.
NY Times:
Pressure to Release Comey Memos May Have Backfired on G.O.P.
“I’m not quite sure how this improved the strategic posture of those who want to dismantle the special counsel investigation,” said Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland. “This is a tactic that has backfired. From what I’ve seen of the Comey memos, they bear out completely the authenticity of his reports and his own credibility.”
Let’s not do it again, kids.
Axios:
14 states can't guarantee accurate election results
Multiple states lack the ability to guarantee the accuracy of election outcomes in the event of a suspected breach.
The big picture: Five states — Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, New Jersey and Delaware — have no paper trails of votes. The other nine are in better shape, but still do not have all their counties’ machines spitting out a paper record.
The backstory: This is due to the direct recording electronic machines (DREs) these states use in some counties, which don’t cough up a paper copy of cast ballots.
Why it matters: Russia is likely hacking again this year, according to intelligence directors. And a hacker who wanted to insert doubt in the outcome of an election would just have to target the counties and states that lack 100% verification capabilities.
NY Times on D primaries and intervention:
Fearing Chaos, National Democrats Plunge Into Midterm Primary Fights
National Democrats may also intervene in the Southern California districts held by Representatives Dana Rohrabacher and Jeff Denham, where multiple Republicans and Democrats are running, and in the seat held by Representative Darrell Issa, a Republican who is retiring. Voters receive mail-in ballots starting in early May, making the next few weeks exceptionally important.
House Majority PAC, a heavily financed Democratic group that spends millions in congressional elections, recently polled all four races and has been conducting digital surveys that simulate the complicated California ballot, according to people briefed on the group’s strategy. The super PAC has run ads in California in the past when Democrats have faced disaster in primary season.
Representative Judy Chu, a Los Angeles-area Democrat, said the open primaries had led Democrats to take unusual steps to prevent Republicans from dominating the first round of voting.
“That would stop our goal of taking the House back,” Ms. Chu said. “We have to have a viable candidate, and I think that if it does turn out to be a Democrat versus a Republican, the Democrat will win.”
john Dickerson/Atlantic:
The Hardest Job in the World
What if the problem isn’t the president—it’s the presidency?
Members of maga nation scoff at the president’s detractors, and bask in the glow of the burning norms. Why should Trump throw all his energy and political capital into producing quick results in Puerto Rico when the island’s poor planning and weak infrastructure have made success impossible? Why should he bow before Democrats who will never work with him anyway? Trump’s backers see him as a new kind of president, unburdened by political correctness and unconstrained by the old rules of Beltway deal making. He doesn’t let niceties get in the way of taking care of business.
The intensity of public feelings about President Trump makes it hard to measure him against the presidency. His breaks with tradition are so jarring, and the murmuration of tweets so thick, that debate about his behavior tends to be conducted on the plane of propriety and the president’s seeming disregard for it.
If Trump were a less divisive figure, we might view these lapses differently. We might consider that what looks like incompetence or impertinence on the part of the officeholder could also be evidence that the office itself is broken.
But so much of it is him this this is an unsatisfying explanation. Still, an interesting piece.
Conor Friedersdorf/Atlantic:
The GOP's Problems Are Bigger Than Trump
President Trump’s hold on the Republican Party is overstated. But that doesn’t mean that his downfall would resolve its challenge
Still, the conclusion that he has taken over the Republican Party is overstated and premature.
Consider these counter-points:
First, Trump’s position is unusually shaky for a first-term president. His influence will take a huge hit if the GOP loses big in the 2018 midterms. And it could suffer if investigations into Trump or his associates expose a significant new scandal. Neither of those outcomes is assured. But both are very plausible.
Second, if Trump starts to seem like he’s hurting the GOP’s popularity more than he is helping it, he has no reserve of personal goodwill or substantive support for his ideas on which to fall back. Trump’s unpopularity was illustrated most colorfully by an unnamed GOP representative quoted by conservative commentator Erick Erickson. “I say a lot of shit on TV defending him,” the legislator said. “But honestly, I wish the motherfucker would just go away. We’re going to lose the House, lose the Senate, and lose a bunch of states because of him. All his supporters will blame us for what we have or have not done, but he hasn’t led. He wakes up in the morning, shits all over Twitter, shits all over us, shits all over his staff, then hits golf balls. Fuck him. Of course, I can’t say that in public or I’d get run out of town.” The unnamed congressman even declared of the president he has defended on television, “If we’re going to lose because of him, we might as well impeach the motherfucker.”
Third, the GOP establishment has so far accomplished much more than whatever is supposed to be replacing it.
Hey did you hear about Hannity’s real estate empire? This from the Guardian:
Michael Cohen case shines light on Sean Hannity's property empire
Dozens of the properties were bought at a discount in 2013, after banks foreclosed on their previous owners for defaulting on mortgages. Before and after then, Hannity sharply criticised Barack Obama for the US foreclosure rate. In January 2016, Hannity said there were “millions more Americans suffering under this president” partly because of foreclosures.
Hannity, 56, also amassed part of his property collection with support from the US Department for Housing and Urban Development (Hud), a fact he did not disclose when praising Ben Carson, the Hud secretary, on his television show last year
On a lighter note: