DC in Shock: Senate GOP Produces a Bill; Bolton Revelations Rattle White House

Capital observers went sent into shock yesterday-- when the Sentate GOP actually introduced a bill instead of trying to pack the Judiciary with minimally-qualified conservative hacks.  Even more shocking was the fact that Moscow Mitch said that he would actually allow a vote on the bill.

Unfortunately, the bill doesn't really do much in comparison with the Democratic version.  The Democrats proposed ending the qualified immunity given to law enforcement personnel that shields them from full accountability--the GOP does not. 

The Democrats want to ban choke holds-- but the GOP does not.  The Democratic version of the bill would eliminate no-knock warrants.  Moscow Mitch's bill would keep those in place. 

Over on the other side of town, the White House is under fire after shocking revelations from John Bolton's upcoming book appeared in the press.   The book paints a withering portrait of a president ignorant of even basic facts about the world, susceptible to transparent flattery by authoritarian leaders manipulating him and prone to false statements, foul-mouthed eruptions and snap decisions that aides try to manage or reverse.

Trump did not seem to know, for example, that Britain was a nuclear power and asked if Finland was a part of Russia.  He also once said it would be “cool” to invade Venezuela.  Bolton writes that during the president’s 2018 meeting with North Korea’s leader, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slipped Mr. Bolton a note disparaging the president, saying, “He is so full of shit.”

Trump channeled the authoritarian tendencies of leaders he clearly admired-- once saying about journalists, “These people should be executed.  They are scumbags.” When China's President Xi explained why he was building concentration camps in China, Trump apparently said that "Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which he thought was exactly the right thing to do.”
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Bolton describes several episodes where the president expressed a willingness to halt criminal investigations “to, in effect, give personal favors to dictators he liked,” citing cases involving major firms in China and Turkey. “The pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life, which we couldn’t accept,” Mr. Bolton writes, saying that he reported his concerns to Attorney General William P. Barr.

Bolton also adds a striking new accusation by describing how Mr. Trump overtly linked tariff talks with China to his own political fortunes by asking President Xi Jinping to buy American agricultural products to help him win farm states in this year’s election. Mr. Trump, he writes, was “pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win.”