The Trump Administration Pitched Coal at a Climate Change Conference

But then Michael Cohen comes into the picture.

According to Roston, it was Cohen who engineered Falwell’s critical endorsement of Trump in January 2016. Now, Cohen has a profile in the New York City real estate world. He’s kind of connected in the New York City media world. And he’s had business interests in South Florida. But how he connects up with the Falwell family or evangelical politics is really not at all clear, to put it mildly.

Here are some more paragraphs …

Trump’s fixer Michael Cohen, who is now facing a federal criminal investigation, helped arrange Falwell Jr.’s endorsement of Trump in January 2016, BuzzFeed News has learned.

The relationship between Cohen and Falwell Jr. has not been previously reported, but the two have been acquainted since 2012, according to a source with direct knowledge of Falwell’s decision to endorse Trump. The source, a high-ranking official at Liberty University, said that Falwell Jr. occasionally visited Cohen’s office in New York City but that there was no business relationship between the two men.

According to a separate source with knowledge of Trump’s campaign, Cohen was so confident in Falwell Jr.’s support that he and Trump assured others, even before Trump announced his candidacy, that Falwell Jr. would issue an endorsement.

…

It was Michael Cohen who reached out to Falwell Jr. to urge him to actually endorse Trump during that visit, according to the source familiar with Falwell’s decision. He reached out to Falwell Jr. again after the visit to remind him he had agreed to endorse Trump, the source wrote in an email to BuzzFeed News.

Remember that Michael Cohen swooped in when Elliott Broidy, the top Trump supporter and money man, suddenly had a former mistress threatening to go public with the fact that she was pregnant with his child.

Asked if he had any concerns that Trump was implicated, Hatch told CNN: “The Democrats will do anything to hurt this president.” Informed it was alleged by federal prosecutors in New York, Hatch said: “OK, but I don’t care, all I can say is he’s doing a good job as president.” […]

“I don’t think he was involved in crimes but even then, you know, you can make anything a crime under the current laws if you want to, you can blow it way out of proportion, you can do a lot of things.”

pacino wrote:

Asked if he had any concerns that Trump was implicated, Hatch told CNN: “The Democrats will do anything to hurt this president.” Informed it was alleged by federal prosecutors in New York, Hatch said: “OK, but I don’t care, all I can say is he’s doing a good job as president.” […]

“I don’t think he was involved in crimes but even then, you know, you can make anything a crime under the current laws if you want to, you can blow it way out of proportion, you can do a lot of things.”

Monkeyboy wrote:This scandal runs deeper than Trump and his family. There's a rot in the GOP and this Butina thing and the Trump stuff threatens to expose it all. It seems like they are scared shitless and think the only way they can survive is by changing what is perceived as illegal. They'll keep moving the goalposts until Trump really can shoot someone on 5th Ave without anyone blinking.

Fortunately, so far, law enforcement and the courts are doing their jobs, but that's not guaranteed. The constitutional crisis will be upon us soon enough. I thnk Mueller is running the watergate playbook, but the criminals will try to adjust.

TenuredVulture wrote:

Monkeyboy wrote:This scandal runs deeper than Trump and his family. There's a rot in the GOP and this Butina thing and the Trump stuff threatens to expose it all. It seems like they are scared shitless and think the only way they can survive is by changing what is perceived as illegal. They'll keep moving the goalposts until Trump really can shoot someone on 5th Ave without anyone blinking.

Fortunately, so far, law enforcement and the courts are doing their jobs, but that's not guaranteed. The constitutional crisis will be upon us soon enough. I thnk Mueller is running the watergate playbook, but the criminals will try to adjust.

Trump is a symptom, not a cause of the rot. There are no prominent Republicans doing anything about Trump, other than offering their loyalty and support, because he's really no different from them.

More broadly, there have been two interesting trends on the right. The first is the shift from Reagan's optimistic conservative to a deeply dark and pessimistic, near apocalyptic one. (Ironically, this shift corresponds with the victory in the cold war--perhaps conservatism does need enemies.)

Somewhat related though is the pretty strong repudiation of neo-conservatism. The Weekly Standard looks to be shutting down, and thus the factional fight on the right has been won. This is probably a good thing--I find it persuasive that Bush's invasion of Iraq is still worse than anything Trump has done.

CFP wrote:I think Pelosi basically saved him any further on-camera embarrassment. Meanwhile the best thing Chuck Schumer has done in the past few months is get out of the way and let Trump give that soundbite.

CalvinBall wrote:Can't believe the WH thought it would be a good idea to broadcast that.

jerseyhoya wrote:

CalvinBall wrote:Can't believe the WH thought it would be a good idea to broadcast that.

You say the WH as if there's some sort of organized decision making structure staffed with political professionals in place making these decisions as opposed to it being televised because Trump wanted it to be televised.