Trump Is F*cking Crazy (This Is Not a Joke)

by Keith Olbermann

  We know that Trump ultimately fired Comey, and then tweeted about him in such a way that led some to think he may have broken a federal law against witness intimidation.

  We know that former director of national intelligence James Clapper said the Russians should consider the firing of Comey another triumph for them. We know that Trump claimed Clapper had cleared him of any collusion with Russia, while Clapper said he never said any such thing.

  We know that the White House seems to be trying to throw General Flynn under the bus and portray him as the man who gave the appearance of Russian influence on Trump’s administration even while Trump himself is somehow still claiming Flynn is the victim of Democratic McCarthyism. We know that not only has Flynn offered to testify, possibly against Trump, in exchange for immunity, but that he has hired a lawyer trained in Russian history, who is also an expert in the various laws for foreign agents and lobbyists, and who was one of the last Republican Never-Trumpers still standing. We know that to date, nobody has taken Flynn up on his offer, and in the view of the best analyst you could have on presidential scandals and cover-ups, John Dean, that could only mean prosecutors don’t need Flynn’s testimony, not even if it will nail Trump. We know from CNN and NBC reports that President Obama personally warned Trump not to make Flynn his national security adviser. We know from a Daily Beast report that even after Flynn’s ouster, Trump repeatedly asked White House lawyers whether it was okay for him to again contact Flynn anyway.

  We know that the Senate Intelligence Committee has asked for four Trump associates to turn over all of their emails and documents about Russia voluntarily or it will subpoena them, and that Carter Page and Roger Stone have confirmed they’ve been asked, and The New York Times has reported that so, too, have Flynn and Paul Manafort. We know that Manafort’s bank records have reportedly been sought by the Justice Department and that, as reported by NBC, the “Senate Intelligence Committee has requested documents on Trump from Treasury’s money laundering unit.”

  We know that Carter Page wrote a nine-page letter to the Senate committee, angrily denying any wrongdoing while noting that the guy U.S. officials believe is a Russian spy, Victor Podobnyy—Page admits to meeting with him in 2013.

  We know that the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee had to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after putting on this bizarre Kabuki theater thing involving trying to ride to Trump’s rescue with evidence it sure looks like the Trump administration provided to him, and then virtually disappearing from public view. We know that the attorney general had to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation because he stepped in his own borscht by not telling the truth about meeting the Russian ambassador.

  We know that the White House initially identified the opinion of the attorney general as one of its reasons for firing FBI Director Comey—and thus the attorney general may have violated his own recusal from all investigations of Trump and Russia. We know that the Trump campaign denied there had been any meetings between campaign officials and Russian ambassador Kislyak—which Kislyak denied, too. And then CNN turned up evidence of him meeting with the attorney general, and with General Flynn and Trump aide J. D. Gordon . . . at the Republican convention.

  We know that Trump produced a “certified letter” from a lawyer claiming he’d had no business dealings with Russia in the past decade—oh, wait, that says, “with a few exceptions,” meaning he’s had some business dealings with Russia in the past decade, worth more than a hundred million dollars. We know that the lawyer was the same one from the January news conference with all the folders supposedly full of documents, and that last year her company’s Moscow office actually won an award as Russia’s top law firm.

  We know that a prominent golf writer now says that in 2014, Trump boasted of having access to a hundred million dollars in funding for golf courses, and that his son Eric—though he now denies saying this—explained: “We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia . . . We just go there all the time.”

  We know . . . that one of the men reputed in the Steele dossier to be a key figure in Trump-Russia, an obscure Russian diplomat named Kalugin, was confirmed to be a key figure by U.S. intelligence, according to the BBC. We know that the preelection hacking attempts of voting registration rolls in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, and maybe other states was done allegedly by Russians, and was no dry run, but could have been efforts to procure the email addresses of voters so they could be microtargeted by specific campaign advertising—this also according to the BBC.

  We know that last month, the British newspaper The Guardian concluded a forty-three-paragraph summary of the Trump-Russia saga with this stunner: “One source suggested the official investigation was making progress. ‘They now have specific concrete and corroborative evidence of collusion,’ the source said. ‘This is between people in the Trump campaign and agents of [Russian] influence relating to the use of hacked material.’”

  In short, we know a helluva lot about Trump and Russia. And no matter what they all say, the only person who could look at this 10 percent of the iceberg and say, “There’s nothing there,” and really believe it is Trump himself, and he’s nuts. I don’t know when there are indictments or somebody cracks or somebody cuts a deal, or all three. Could be six hours from now, could be six months; there could be sealed indictments now. But if the Trump-Russia scandal is an iceberg, and the ratio of 10 percent to 90 percent holds, Trump-Russia is an iceberg big enough to sink about two hundred Titanics—and nearly as many Trumps.

  THE ARREST OF JARED KUSHNER

  Post date • TUESDAY, MAY 30

  I call for the immediate arrest of Jared Kushner.

  If he should not be suspected of money laundering, racketeering, and influence peddling, then he should be suspected of obstruction of justice and espionage and possibly worse.

  There is no other option that can be reasonably entertained.

  18 U.S. Code 794. Gathering or delivering defense information to aid foreign government, section A: Whoever, with intent or reason to believe that it is to be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation, communicates, delivers, or transmits, or attempts to communicate, deliver, or transmit, to any foreign government, or to any faction or party or military or naval force within a foreign country . . . either directly or indirectly . . . information relating to the national defense, shall be punished by death or by imprisonment for any term of years or for life . . .

  That is from the Espionage Act.

  Arrest. Kushner. Now.

  The rest of that statute limits use of the death penalty to the exposure of the identities of American agents or defense plans or communications intelligence.

  The Russian ambassador to the United States reportedly told his superiors that on December 1 or 2 of last year, in the building on Fifth Avenue in New York City called Trump Tower, Jared Kushner proposed using Russian communications facilities in a Russian embassy or a Russian consulate to contact the Kremlin directly, to make certain the lawful government of the United States could not prevent, interfere with, or know of those communications.

  Arrest. Kushner. Now.

  The proposal was so startling, so unprecedented, that even the ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, “reportedly was taken aback,” according to The Washington Post. The New York Times printed the Kushner side’s cover story. This was a means by which Kushner could get information from the Russians about Syria. The cover story given to the Associated Press was that this was so that General Michael Flynn could talk directly to Russian military leaders about Syria. Having already twice chosen not to mention his meetings with Russians on the SF 86 forms he swore under oath in order to gain security clearance, Kushner was reportedly himself willing to enter, or willing to have other Trump transition officials enter, diplomatic facilities—which have privileged legal status within the United States—and talk direct
ly to officials of the Russian government.

  Even if this Syria Excuse is somehow true, Kushner was still intending to communicate with a foreign nation—a foreign enemy nation—about a second foreign nation: a second foreign enemy nation. And he would not have been asking about the Russians’ assessment of the weather in Syria. This would have pertained to Russian military involvement there and could likely have delivered “either directly or indirectly . . . information relating to the national defense.” The Syria Excuse could still be espionage.

  Arrest. Kushner. Now.

  If the Syria Excuse is not true, the banking story may be. The Reuters News Agency, quoting “seven current and former U.S. officials,” reported that Kushner had a minimum of three previously undisclosed contacts with Ambassador Kislyak during and after the presidential campaign. It cited one current U.S. law enforcement official in reporting that “FBI investigators are examining whether Russians suggested to Kushner or other Trump aides that relaxing economic sanctions would allow Russian banks to offer financing to people with ties to Trump.” NBC and The New York Times are reporting that Kushner met last December with a Russian banker named Sergey Gorkov, and Gorkov’s bank is the Russian government’s national development bank, and Gorkov graduated from the academy that trains Russian intelligence personnel, and that our intelligence personnel consider Gorkov a “Putin crony.” CNN is reporting that Russian government officials even claimed to have “derogatory” financial information to use against Trump and his staff during the election campaign.

  The Banking Story could be money laundering or racketeering and/or influence peddling. It ties together all too cynically with the renewal of EB-5 visas, a renewal stuffed into page 734 of House Resolution 244, signed by Trump on the fifth of May, offering permanent residence in this country to rich foreign investors who put money into things like American real estate projects. It ties together all too cynically with the impression Kushner’s family company left with Chinese investors just two weeks later, that if they bought in to Kushner real estate deals in New Jersey, their immigration process could be expedited. And it further ties together all too cynically with the CBS report that when word spread that the FBI investigation of Trump had expanded from potential electoral collusion to finances and investments, Kushner became a “prominent voice advocating Comey’s firing,” and when it is all tied together, what that “prominent voice” was advocating might reasonably be considered obstruction of justice.

  Arrest. Kushner. Now.

  And if the Syria Excuse, which could still be espionage, is not true, and if the Banking Story, which could be money laundering or racketeering or influence peddling and obstruction of justice, is not true, what is left? For what other evil purpose did Jared Kushner want a covert, secure means of direct spy-tested communication to the Kremlin? After a presidential campaign in which his father-in-law encouraged Russians to hack into the computers of his electoral opponent, why would Jared Kushner want to go inside the Russian embassy or consulate—the centers of Russian espionage in this country? After an election about which the Russians would boast of their influence, why would Jared Kushner need means to avoid the detection of the government of the United States? After the direct evidence of contact between his father-in-law’s campaign and Ambassador Kislyak throughout 2016, why would Jared Kushner want to keep his contact with the Kremlin secret from the intelligence services of the United States? After the mounting circumstantial evidence of collusion between his father-in-law’s campaign and the government of Russia, what would make Jared Kushner willing to tempt prosecution under the Espionage Act to avoid his contact with Russia becoming known to the president of the United States?

  Arrest. Kushner. Now.

  Jared Kushner brings us not just into the White House; he brings us both figuratively and literally to the door of the Oval Office. Inside that door, there are people who appear not to understand why they are not permitted to break the law when they think it’s a good idea. Inside that door, there are people for whom running this nation is not a solemn and nearly religious responsibility, but an opportunity for wins and power and financial corruption. Inside that door, there is a man in charge who has never been stopped by rules and never been held accountable when he breaks them.

  These people do not believe in the law. These people do not believe in patriotism. These people do not believe in the United States of America. These people—Kushner, his wife, Trump, General Allen, General McMaster, General Flynn, the others—are in their souls, if not under the law, traitors to this country, and no matter which excuse Jared Kushner has for proposing to talk to Russia using secret Russian communications surrounded by Russian spies inside Russian territory, there is but one answer:

  Arrest. Kushner. Now.

  Chapter 11

  JUNE 2017

  THERE ARE BUT TWO PARTIES NOW

  Post date • THURSDAY, JUNE 1

  Today—every day—the presidential administration of Donald John Trump looks, a little bit more than it did the day before, like a bomb disposal operation.

  And the Republican Party owns the bomb.

  Our alliances are in tatters, the president gives away intel to whomever he wants, his budget proposal has a $2 trillion math error, the Germans say Europe must go on without us, Trump wanders off a stage in Israel, shoves aside one European leader and all but arm-wrestles another, starts spontaneously boasting about the Montana congressional outcome in Sicily, offers to trade personal cell phone numbers with the new French president, is believed to be angry at the EU because it was so difficult to build golf courses there, the Russians reportedly boast of having had financial leverage against Trump during the campaign, words like “collusion” and “corruption” and “emoluments” and “espionage” and “treason” echo across the country, and Trump identifies the true enemy: the news media, and on and on and on.

  And nearly all the Republicans say nothing, as if they cannot hear the ticking of the bomb. The few who speak nearly all buck-pass back, with a tepid “You’ll have to ask the White House,” or offer transparently asinine rationalizations for a growingly unfit president who threatens the freedom and the safety of every American, and indeed of every living thing on the planet. As if letting the bomb go off is just one of a series of political options.

  I warn the leaders of the Republican Party: Donald Trump’s candidacy was his fault. Donald Trump’s election, no matter how much the Russians aided it, was this broken society’s fault. Donald Trump’s supporters are everybody’s fault. But Republicans: Donald Trump’s continued presidency is entirely your fault. And unless this man actually manages to literally destroy this country or this world, this simultaneous nightmare, shared by hundreds of millions here and abroad, will forever damn you in history—just as the Democrats who were willing to sell out our freedoms during the Civil War are damned in history, just as the southerners of all parties who sanctioned Jim Crow are damned in history, just as the traitors in law or in deed throughout our national life are damned in history.

  Donald Trump might as well be a Russian spy, or clinically diagnosed with any of a thousand psychological illnesses, or diseased, or in an altered state of consciousness, or . . . the specifics almost no longer matter. In just over four months in power, he has virtually erased historical comparison. He’s beyond Nixon, he’s beyond Woodrow Wilson after his paralyzing stroke, he’s beyond the afflicted King George—if there’s anybody to whom he can now be compared, perhaps it is the disastrous first-century Roman emperor Nero.

  An alt-right Trump supporter echoes the campaign and hurls abuse at two teenaged girls, one wearing a hijab, on a commuter train, and two American heroes—one from the political right and one from the political left—intervene to save them and are killed for doing so, and Trump ignores it for more than three days but finds time to tweet about the news media being the enemy. Paul Ryan—you don’t hear the bomb ticking? To hell with you. Now you own th
e bomb, Ryan.

  The Republican chair of Multnomah County, Oregon, says that to protect his Republican staffers in public, maybe he should hire right-wing militia like the Oath Keepers or the Three Percenters as “security.” Orrin Hatch—you don’t hear the bomb ticking? To hell with you. Now you own the bomb, Hatch.

  Trump tells the butcher of the Philippines about our nuclear subs near North Korea, blows the cover of Israel’s vital ISIS lead to the Russians, and somebody gives away the details of the Manchester terrorist attack to the newspapers. John McCain—you don’t hear the bomb ticking? To hell with you. Now you own the bomb, McCain.

  The Kushner family all but offers to sell green cards to rich Chinese who’ll invest in their private real estate deals, the Russians reportedly say Kushner wanted to use their spy communications systems to talk directly to the Kremlin, and he reportedly meets with a banker who is tied to Russian espionage. George W. Bush—you don’t hear the bomb ticking? To hell with you. Now you own the bomb, Bush.

  Trump attacks a late-night television host. The windows of a newspaper office are shot out in Kentucky. A reporter is arrested after asking a question of the secretary of Health and Human Services. Another is body-slammed by a congressman-to-be the night before the election. The president meets with Russians in the Oval Office and no American media is admitted. A protester is convicted of laughing at the testimony of the attorney general. The president tweets about news: the enemy. Hugh Hewitt—you don’t hear the bomb ticking? To hell with you. Now you own the bomb, Hewitt.

  Long ago, Trump lost any hope of controlling himself. The Republicans, who could get him out of office with the Twenty-fifth Amendment before sunrise, do nothing. As Churchill once said: They “go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.” Republicans—you don’t hear the bomb ticking? To hell with you. Now you own the bomb, Republicans.