Courage And Mercy, Trump Stumbles Out Of The Box, Pulling The Curtain Back From The Wizard

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Good morning all. If you haven’t yet watched Mariann Edge Bishop Budde’s courageous, beautiful plea for Presidential mercy for “the people in the country who are scared” now would be a good time to watch it. It is an extraordinary, and important moment in this early new era of Trump the sequel. An antidote perhaps to the Nazi salute seen around the world.

Note that the version of the video I shared last night has ugly reaction shots from the Trump family and entourage, something that was not captured in other version of the Bishop’s remarks. This version makes the moment even that more compelling, and her courage that much more inspiring.

Our new President has shown a form of mercy in these early days - mercy for insurrectionists, domestic terrorists, international drug dealers and those who viciously assaulted Capitol and DC police officers. After beginning his Presidency by pardoning and releasing over 1,600 criminals, last night the President pardoned another serious criminal, Ross Ulbricht, the founder of an online illicit drug marketplace called Silk Road. Ulbricht was serving a two life sentences for his crimes.

As a serial criminal and 34 times felon himself, Trump appears to delight in letting criminals out of jail:

The felon-in-chief early lawlessness is not going over well in parts of the party of “law and order.” From the right-leaning The Hill this morning:

President Trump’s sweeping pardons of more than 1,500 people charged with crimes related to the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021, including individuals who assaulted police officers, stunned Republican lawmakers who witnessed firsthand the chaos on Capitol Hill four years ago.

Trump’s action, which defied assurances from his allies that he would examine convictions on a case-by-case basis and not grant clemency to people who committed violence, divided GOP senators and overshadowed talk about his first-100-days agenda.

GOP lawmakers are largely willing to overlook the hundreds of people who entered the Capitol illegally four years ago, which disrupted the certification of former President Biden’s victory by several hours, but pardoning people who assaulted Capitol Police, causing dozens of injuries, was hard to swallow.

“It is wrong to pardon individuals convicted of violent crime, especially when many of the victims of their violence were law enforcement officers,” Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) said in a statement.

Moran was expressing a view shared by many of his Senate GOP colleagues even though many of them are reluctant to criticize Trump publicly.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who’s up for reelection this election cycle, said people who assaulted police should serve out their sentences, breaking with other Republican senators who tried to avoid talking about the issue.

“It’s not right. People who assault police officers, if they do the crime, they should do the time,” he said.

Cassidy described himself as a “big ‘back the blue’ guy,” referring to his record of supporting law enforcement.

“Whether you’re in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Shreveport, Monroe, Lafayette, Alexandria, Lake Charles or Washington, D.C., it’s wrong to assault anybody,” he said.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said the blanket pardon of people convicted of Jan. 6-related crimes sends the wrong message to the police officers who protect lawmakers on a daily basis.

“I don’t think that the approach of a blanket pardon that includes those who caused harm, physical harm to our police officers, to others, that resulted in violence — I’m disappointed to see that. And I do fear the message that is sent to these great men and women who stood by us,” she said.

A new Reuters poll has the new President’s job approval at there-is-no-Honeymoon 47%, lower than his vote share in the November election. Reuters writes:

the poll also showed that Americans were already sour on some of his first moves. Some 58% of respondents said that Trump should not pardon all people convicted of crimes during the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.

3 of Trump’s unacceptable nominees - more big, early mistakes by Trump - have run into new, serious turbulance in the last few days:

Kennedy - In a new, damning reporting we learned that Kennedy actually fought to have COVID vaccines revoked in May of 2021, long after they were saving lives and helping get the country back to normal. It’s disqualifying lunacy and extremism. His nomination hearing has not been scheduled yet.

Gabbard - New info is emerging on this outrageous nominee daily. From a new Washington Post story:

Staffers for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard were wrestling with a question: Had she really met with the authoritarian leader of Syria for almost three hours?

It was Feb. 5, 2017, and the Hawaii Democrat — fresh from a trip to the pariah state that left Washington stunned — had circulated a timeline of her activities to help her staff prepare a report for the House Ethics Committee, according to a trove of documents from her office reviewed by The Washington Post. The committee requires detailed post-trip accounts of official travel, and Gabbard’s was due the next day.

The timeline, which has not been previously reported, said that Gabbard and Bashar al-Assad met at 12:15 p.m. on Jan. 16, 2017, and that her next appointment was with Assad’s wife at 3 p.m.

Gabbard’s deputy chief of staff replied that the Assad meeting seemed “rather long” and asked if any “formalities” could be broken out to “cut down on the time that it appears you two sat and talked.” Her press secretary asked if the Assad meeting could be grouped with encounters with other dignitaries so it would “appear more like” one in a series of “protocol meetings.” The report Gabbard eventually submitted to Congress said that the meeting with Assad lasted 90 minutes, and that the meeting with his wife began at 2 p.m. The actual duration is unclear.

The exchanges were part of a days-long scramble by Gabbard’s team to account for her time in Syria and limit the political fallout of the trip, which has drawn renewed scrutiny in the weeks since Donald Trump picked her to be the next director of national intelligence, overseeing all U.S. spy agencies. The 2017 trip is expected to be a focus of questioning from senators at her confirmation hearings this month, particularly from Democrats who have said it served to legitimize the dictator.

Emails, text messages, Google Doc edit logs and other records reviewed by The Post show that Gabbard’s team had been left largely in the dark about her schedule in Damascus. Her itinerary had changed drastically from a version approved by the Ethics Committee before she left, which listed no meetings with Syrian politicians or officials.

Gabbard’s nomination hearing has not been scheduled yet.

Hegseth - Loads of new, bad news for this unqualified extremist this morning. From a new WSJ report:

Pete Hegseth, President Trump’s pick to run the Pentagon, regularly abused alcohol to the point that he passed out at family gatherings, and once needed to be dragged out of a strip club while in uniform, according to an ex-relative’s account of his behavior that was given to U.S. lawmakers and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The sworn statement, submitted in response to a request from Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Service Committee, was signed by Hegseth’s former sister-in-law, Danielle Hegseth.

The sworn statement also charged that Hegseth’s now former second wife feared for her safety:

Senators received an affidavit Tuesday from the former sister-in-law of defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth in which she says his behavior caused his second wife to fear for her safety. The receipt of the affidavit comes after Senate Armed Services Committee staffers were in contact with Hegseth's former sister-in-law for several days.

The former sister-in-law, Danielle Hegseth, submitted the affidavit in response to a Jan. 18 letter from Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., seeking “a statement attesting to your personal knowledge about Mr. Hegseth’s fitness to occupy this important position.”

Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, asked Danielle Hegseth to detail what she knew of “instances of abuse, or threats of abuse, perpetrated against any other person” and “mistreatment of a spouse, former spouse, or other members of his family,” among other requests.

Reed said in a statement Tuesday, “As I have said for months, the reports of Mr. Hegseth’s history of alleged sexual assault, alcohol abuse, and public misconduct necessitate an exhaustive background investigation. I have been concerned that the background check process has been inadequate, and this sworn affidavit confirms that fact."

Friends, we need to keep working it. Make your calls to the Senate and House. Insist your representatives do everything they can to defeat this unqualifed, dangerous extremists.

Donald Trump has already made a series of deeply consequential early mistakes in his Presidency. He is not infallible. The pardons and these unacceptable nominees were mistakes. They are hurting him with his Congressional allies whom he needs to advance his agenda and maintain the fiction of his strength and power. These moments when he stumbles are a test for us to practice something we must do daily - pulling the curtain back from the Wizard. For he is that old man behind the curtain not that great Wizard outside. For all the fear and worry we have, we must keep this core truth in mind, everyday, and keep pulling back the curtain, not allowing the Wizard to be strong and powerful, but weak, old and pathetic:

Trump 2.0 is a profound, ongoing betrayal of America, and everything that has made this remarkable nation the most powerful and prosperous in the world. It is why we must fight. As dark as all this is, we cannot for one moment forget that what Trump is doing is wrong; he and his project remain deeply unstable; he is embracing deeply unpopular actions; he is old, impulsive, reckless and clearly in decline; and extremists and ideologues are often far better at bread and circuses than governing.

We also cannot for one moment forget what a small, insecure, blubbery baby man Trump is:

A few more things:

Paul Krugman has another good essay on the dangers of Trump’s tariffs, Voodoo Trade Policy Comes To America.

Elon crapped on Trump this morning:

We’ve endorsed Abigail Spanberger for Governor of Virginia. Watch my recent interview with her, learn more, volunteer and consider donating to her campaign. Our goal is to raise $100,000 for her by March 31st. We’ve already raised $17,000 - thank you all.

Catch my interviews with the 3 leading candidates for DNC Chair - Ken Martin, Martin O’Malley and Ben Wikler. Note that Ken Martin has announced that he now has 200 commitments towards the 225 he needs to win on the first ballot.

Be sure to review my current working 7 takeways and recommendations about the path forward (video and post), and my new essay on how "betrayal” is the word that I think best captures these early days of Trump 2.0.

I’m speaking to a major political gathering in person at the University of Southern California on Thursday, January 30th. My panel starts at 215pm PT. Hope to be able to see some members of the Hopium community there!

For those coming up for renewal for your paid Hopium subscription please make sure your payment info is current. Paid subscribers keep this place going and the Hopium flowing!

Our first live Hopium paid subscriber get together of the new Trump era is tonight, Wednesday, January 22nd at 7pm ET.

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Keep working hard all, and keep practicing pulling that curtain back on our ridiculous President - Simon