If you were deep into politics in the mid-90s you probably remember the name Betsy McCaughey. She is, in a novelistic way, a fascinating figure: on the one hand a thoroughly ridiculous figure, inventing clownish, error-filled distortions or downright fabrications about public policy for years. And yet, in purely historical terms she’s had a big impact on the direction of health-care policy over the last generation. She played a very real role in killing Clinton’s effort at health-care reform in 1994 (just how much is debated but it was real); and she gave it her best shot with Obamacare. Now, perhaps obviously, she’s been named to Trump’s economic policy team. Here’s the story.
In August 1991, Mauricio Macri, the current president of Argentina, was thrown into a coffin and hauled off to a hideout by unknown assailants. For at least some of Macri’s 12 days in captivity, his father suspected that Donald Trump was behind the disappearance.
That’s according to a new book out in Argentina this week, “El secuestro,” by the journalist Natasha Niebieskikwiat. Now, to be clear, there’s no evidence whatsoever that Trump directed or was involved in Mauricio Macri’s kidnapping. And apparently Macri’s father, Franco, only briefly entertained this “Trump theory.” But clearly, the elder Macri’s dealings with Trump in the arena of New York real estate left him with the impression that Trump could be treacherous enough to have ordered his son’s kidnapping years after their business relationship ended.
Trump campaign aide, who allegedly pulled a gun on staffer, resigns.
Dems looking to pick off weak GOP Senators in the year of Trump are looking for slips like this, looking to force slips like this. Pat Toomey, a hard-right senator from a blue/purple state, is running in about the middle of the pack. Not as bad as a sure goner like Ron Johnson in Wisconsin but not doing nearly as well as Rob Portman in Ohio. He just said that Hillary Clinton poses a greater danger to the country than Donald Trump.
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Quite a lot of stuff happening this morning. So just briefly, Bob Woodward says the excessive rhetoric isn’t just a Trump thing. “I think it’s got to be said this is not just about Trump. A lot of the people who really are opposed to Trump, I think, are engaged in some excessive rhetoric also.” I say Trump has brought the white nationalist incarnation of the GOP into its own and it’s not going back. Trump goes Full Constanza and asks “Is there something wrong” with saying Obama founded Isis? NBC reporter Katy Tur reveals that back in December the Secret Service had to take the extraordinary step of protecting her as she left a Trump rally in South Carolina after Trump singled her out by name to the crowd for retribution. A former Trump staffer is suing the Trump campaign claiming that the former state director in North Carolina pulled a gun on him. Meanwhile Trump says he liked how he ran in the primaries better.
We’re just learning now that back in December the Secret Service had to take the extraordinary step of protecting a reporter, NBC’s Katy Tur, after Trump had singled her out for retribution at a rally in South Carolina.
In turbulent and interesting times such as these, as Donald Trump rumbles on from outrage to outrage, we’re all on the look out for people who take some courageous or moral stand. Is this or that Republican taking a stand against Trump and saying they can’t support him? This is natural. Because we look for inspiration, validation or moral example. But what makes these stories compelling is precisely because they break with the fabric of political interest. We assume it’s not the safe or self-interested thing to do. And in that way, focusing on the hold outs, few as they are, obscures the much more significant reality.
It’s a logical development based on what happened yesterday. But when the Secret Service has to talk to one presidential candidate about hinting at the assassination of the other candidate … folks, we’ve gone seriously off the rails as a country.