MONDAY 6/12/23
‘Witch Hunt’ Defense, Again – Donald J. Trump’s reaction to his federal grand jury indictment last week over confidential/top secret government documents he (allegedly) took to Mar-a-Lago from the White House in January 2021 was right out of the ex-prez’s standard playbook, and it was good enough for his rabid supporters.
“In the end, they’re not coming after me,” he said, speaking at both the Georgia state GOP convention and the North Carolina state GOP convention. “And I’m just … standing in the way.”
Beside potentially unleashing violent supporters, if history is any guide, Trump’s boilerplate is likely to seriously hike donations to his campaign.
Potential danger: Resulting “calls to action and threats have been amplified on right-wing media sites and have been met by supportive responses from social media users and cheers from crowds,” The New York Times reports. Secret Service and local police have intensified security at the Miami courthouse where Trump will be formally indicted.
But at the Georgia GOP convention, Trump’s fellow failed election denier, Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake issued this warning, per NYT: “I have a message tonight for Merrick Garland and Jack Smith and Joe Biden – and the guys back there in the fake news media, you should listen up as well, this one is for you. If you want to get to President Trump, you are going to have to go through me, and you are going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me. And I’m going to tell you, most of us are card-carrying members of the NRA. … That’s not a threat, that’s a public service announcement.”
Bill Barr on Trump: The ex-president’s former secretary of state told Fox News of the indictment of his former boss: “If even half of it is true, he’s toast.” (Per Semafor.)
John Bolton on Trump: The ex-president’s national security advisor from 2018 to 2019 told NPR’s Morning Edition; “I think this is a potentially catastrophic turn of events for him. It should be. … It should put Trump in jail for a long time.”
Bolton says if Trump wanted the confidential material to write a book, there are federal government protocols for that. “It really is a national security issue.”
The former national security advisor (and UN ambassador under President George W. Bush) added, “The government has to prove it, and I hope they do it soon.” Bolton conceded that Trump will try to delay the trial until after the 2024 presidential election under the prospect he could win and pardon himself.
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NATO Chief at White House – President Biden welcomes North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary Gen. Jens Stoltenberg Monday to discuss the war in Ukraine and next month’s NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. Stoltenberg’s term is up, and NATO leaders will vote on his replacement at the summit. At their meeting in Washington last week, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak lobbied for his defense minister, Ben Wallace, to replace Stoltenberg.
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This Week – The Labor Department releases the May Consumer Price Index Tuesday. While “headline” inflation has come down from last year’s record highs, core inflation remains “in a narrow range,” Forbes previews.
Up on The Hill: The House of Representatives and Senate are in session Monday through Thursday. The Senate only is in session Friday.
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Brief Obit: Berlusconi – Media mogul and “proto-populist” Silvio Berlusconi, who served as Italy’s prime minister on-and-off between 1994 through 2001, and again from 2008 to 2011, has died, age 86. He was on one hand, a preternatural Trump-like politician with his own sex scandal and well-publicized “bunga bunga” parties, who spoke of the “upside” of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. On the other hand, Berlusconi was not a sore loser the three times he was voted out, Corriere della Seraeditor and editorial writer Beppe Severghini wrote in a November 10, 2020, NYT guest editorial.
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa