The word is that John Bolton is not going quietly after President Trump’s ostentatious slam-dunking of him on Twitter. Maybe he won’t. But there’s a part of this equation I doubt we’ll see discussed much in the press coverage of this story. Bolton isn’t really a foreign policy guy and hasn’t been for more than a decade. Yes, he still discusses foreign policy and for the last year or so he had what is basically the top foreign policy job in the U.S. government. But since the end of the Bush years Bolton has really been a public politics guy and a consummate player in the GOP buck-raking industrial complex.
This is quite astounding. President Trump is considering issuing a $15 billion line of credit to Iran to help them weather the financial chaos created by the sanctions we placed on them after Trump tore up the Iran nuclear deal, according to a new report from the Daily Beast. We would be doing this to get them to come back into compliance with the deal that Obama negotiated, which was working and being complied with until Trump abrogated the deal. That led to sanctions and to Iran eventually “violating” the deal.
It sounds like Jerry Falwell Jr. may be taking legal advice from lawyers who went to Liberty University.
In discussing firing John Bolton, Trump tells reporters Kim Jong-un “wanted nothing to do with John Bolton.”
Trump explaining firing of John Bolton. "I don't blame Kim Jong-un for what he said after that. He wanted nothing to do with John Bolton." pic.twitter.com/d7Fvk9qwHn
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) September 11, 2019
We have yet another poll where all of the major Democratic presidential candidates are beating President Trump in a head-to-head match-up. This one from ABC-WAPO — Biden (15), Sanders (9), Warren (7), Harris (7), Buttigieg (4). (I’m a Buttigieg fan but I’m not sure he warrants inclusion in this top group anymore.)
Take a moment to watch this video Rudy Giuliani tweeted this morning to commemorate 9/11. Even in the age of Trump, it’s disturbing. It ties the battle against the perpetrators of 9/11 with battles against Antifa or generic left-seeming protestors. Indeed, it basically says they are one and the same. Watch.
Pretty stunning development down in North Carolina. We’ll have more on it shortly. But North Carolina Republicans used the opportunity of a morning session, which was supposed to have no votes, to push through a surprise veto override of the state budget with barely half the legislators there. There are reports that a number of the Dems were at 9/11 commemorations. But that’s less clear. More to come shortly.
In addition to various other hucksterism and shadery, Trump’s website designer-turned campaign manager Brad Parscale has the boss’s knack for fabulism.
Today in CNBC sponsored content for the Elizabeth Warren campaign …
Remarkable development here in the Alabama imbroglio. The headline is that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, one of the most corrupt of President Trump’s Cabinet secretaries, threatened to fire NOAA leadership over the Alabama dispute. (I hesitate even call it a “dispute.”) What struck me more is that administration officials are putting out word that staffers at the Birmingham office of the National Weather Service were simply trying to embarrass the President rather than acting out of concern for public safety. In the Times’ words: “That official suggested the Twitter post by the Birmingham forecasters had been motivated by a desire to embarrass the president more than concern for the safety of people in Alabama.”